My wife Susan and I have a cousin who recently retired from the Army having put in his twenty years, the last two of which were in Iraq.  Since his retirement he’s been going to the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, DC to visit some his soldiers and friends injured in the war.  One of most surprising and amazing and uplifting things he found in his visits was calendars.  Many of the men being treated at the hospital have a calendar hanging above their bed and on it, marked with a big colorful circle, is the date they were injured.  Inside the circle, written in that same colorful pen, are the words, “Alive Day!” 

Today is Jesus’ “Alive Day!”

On that first Easter morning the two Mary’s were going to the tomb when suddenly  – rumble, rumble, rumble  – there was a tremendous earthquake, and the stone in front of the tomb was rolled away.  An angel, whose appearance was as lightning and clothes as white as snow, sat on the stone and do you remember what he said?  “Do not be afraid.”  Angels always start off by saying, “do not be afraid” which is probably a good thing because let’s face it, if any of us saw an angel we’d probably all be pretty scared - just like the guards stationed at the tomb; they were so scared they pretended to be dead.  “Jesus is not here,” the angel told the women.  “He has been raised from the dead and is going ahead of you to Galilee.”  Still shaking out of fear and joy and confusion, with all sorts of who knows what kind of thoughts swirling around in their heads, the women ran off when suddenly, there he was, standing right in front of them.  Jesus was alive!  And do you remember what he said?  “Do not be afraid,” which is probably a good thing because a little while ago he was dead and now he’s alive and that would scare the dickens out of anyone.  “Do not be afraid,” he told the women, “but go and tell my brothers they will see me in Galilee.” 

The women told the disciples what they saw and heard, and the disciples went ahead to Galilee.  There on a mountain they saw him.  Jesus was alive!  But more than that, they discovered they were alive!  Today is the disciples’ Alive Day! because in the risen Christ they experienced unbounded love and forgiveness.  Remember only a few days earlier, they had all abandoned Jesus.  On the night he was arrested the disciples had all run off to who knows where.  They left Jesus to face his Passion and death alone.  How guilty they must have felt?  They abandoned their friend and Lord just when he needed them the most.  Then he was dead, and there was nothing the disciples could do or say to take back what they had done.  They would never have a chance to say, “I’m sorry.”  But now Jesus was alive.  He was alive and was standing right there in front of them.  He was with them, loving them and forgiving them.  The disciples were given a whole new life.

We have also been given new life.  Today is our Alive Day!  By raising Christ from the dead, God has rolled away the barriers that separate us from him.  Sin and death no longer have dominion over us.  No matter what we do or say, God loves us and wants to be with us.  St Paul, writing not long after the resurrection, wrote this: what will separate us from the love of Christ?  Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Today we have been given new life.  Today is our Alive Day!  So when all of you go home, I want you to take out your calendars; get a bright colored pen, draw  a big circle around Sunday, March 23 and write those words inside. 

Happy Alive Day! 

Happy Easter.