'Why do you look for the living among the dead?. He has risen!' Luke 24:5
Friends, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but texting on our phones is changing the English language. Have you picked up on this? If you spend anytime with kids you will! "LOL" (laugh out loud), ”BRB” (be right back), ”TTYL" (talk to you later) these abbreviations are no longer just on phones you hear kids and even adults say them. Texting is changing the way we speak. One of the changes you might notice is to the word etcetera . When I was taught to write essays if you were giving a list of examples and the list was too long you might shorten it with ‘etcetera’. For example, there are lots of delicious easter eggs in the world Mars, Twix, Whisper etcetera. In other words there is more to say. The list of delicious easter eggs is not: Mars, Twix, Whisper Full-stop. The list is not done there is more to say. Now-a-days however ‘etcetera’—which is a bit tricky to say but is very tricky to write—has kinda been dumped for ‘…’. It’s called an ellipsis, and if you’ve not finished your text, not finished your thought, you type dot, dot, dot. So, there are lots of delicious easter eggs in the world Mars, Twix, Whisper dot, dot, dot. Ok, you get it. Didn’t think we’d have a grammar lesson, or a lesson on texting in an Easter sermon but there we go, dot, dot, dot there’s more to come.
Well let’s turn to Easter shall well! If you were with us on Friday—at our Good Friday service—the refrain we were left with was ‘It’s Friday, it’s only Friday, Sunday is coming.’ As the sun dawned on the very first Easter Sunday there was a question lingering in the air: what do we do now? Mary Magdalene is up, she got up before the sun and the question she is asking, and has, perhaps, been asking since Friday is spinning in her mind; Jesus is dead so what do we do now? Let me generalise for moment: I have observed that ladies are often very good at doing the next practical thing in caring for those they love. Mary is asking this big question: ‘What do we do now?’ and so she goes to do the next thing she can do for the One she loves; she goes to anoint Jesus’ body. Jesus is dead full-stop, so the only thing left she can do for Him is anoint His body. So: ‘On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.’ Where are Peter and John? Well, they didn’t go! Why? Cause dead things stay dead full-stop. And the other apostles? Well they are nowhere to be seen! Why, because while this whole Jesus thing was going on it was fun, but now it’s done, it’s over full-stop. It’s just one full-stop after another. He’s dead full-stop. It’s done full-stop. It’s over full-stop. I wonder if you have ever felt like that? When you’ve come to a time in your life when you’re thinking it’s just a lot of full-stops. I’ve tried full-stop, I failed full-stop, and now I’m done full-stop.
We know what ‘full-stop’ means, right? Back to our Easter grammar lesson for a sec. ‘Full-stop’ means the end full-stop. ‘Full-stop’ means no more full-stop. ‘Full-stop’ means game over full-stop. However, what does it mean when you see more than one full-stop? What does it mean when you don’t just see one full-stop but you see full-stop, full-stop, full-stop? Jesus died on the cross full-stop. They took Him down from the cross full-stop. And they laid Him in the tomb full-stop. When you see that full-stop, full-stop, full-stop that is dot, dot, dot, it’s called an ellipsis and that means it’s not done! It means this is not over! When you see full-stop, full-stop, full-stop, when you see dot, dot, dot, when you see an ellipsis, you know more is coming. And that’s today, that’s Easter Sunday, the most important dot, dot, dot: The stone is rolled back full-stop. The tomb is empty full-stop. And Jesus is risen full-stop. And when the disciples see Jesus, they come to know that this is not just a belief, it’s not just a hope, it’s not just a wish, this is a reality. Which means: He is alive full-stop, and He will stay alive full-stop, and Resurrection Morning is just the beginning full-stop. Full-stop is the end, but full-stop, full-stop, full-stop (dot, dot, dot), is just the beginning. So, on this Easter morning we ask the question, the same question the disciples have been asking: What do we do now? What did Mary do, she: 'told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.’ What did she tell them? Have hope full-stop. Have courage full-stop. And do not be afraid full-stop. The resurrection is the ellipsis. The resurrection is the promise that there is more, because the resurrection shows us, it proves to us, that everything that Jesus said is true. Shame is not the end full-stop. Sin is not the end full-stop. Death is not the end full-stop.
So, what do we do now? We rejoice. We live without fear. And we receive the life Jesus has won for us. The resurrection proves Jesus is who He says He is and so the resurrection gives us the power to have courage in the face of death full-stop. The resurrection gives us the power to have faith in the midst of hardship full-stop. The resurrection gives us power to have hope in the midst of broken world full-stop. The ellipsis means this is just the beginning, that more is coming. Christ is risen dot, dot, dot, He is risen indeed, Alleluia. (from Fr Mike).