A Sunday school teacher asked her kindergarten class, “Do you know who Matthew was?” There was no response, so she asked, “Do you know who Mark was?” Still no answer, so she said, “I'm sure someone knows who Peter was.” A little boy raised his hand and shouted, “I think he was a wabbit!”

One of the more progressive denominations has an ad running in some magazines this year that pictures an Easter bunny with the caption, “Has the meaning of Easter gotten a little fuzzy?” The fine print says, “Give your kids more than bunnies and baskets this Easter. Give them a miracle!” But what is the miracle? Is it only for kids?”

I have a reminder note stuck to this pulpit, adapted from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It says, “Preach as a dying mortal to dying mortals.” I'm acutely reminded of that as I think of Easter a year ago, remembering that seated in the wheelchair space were three great members of this congregation who within the month were dead. That on that Sunday I took another member a tape of the service because he was in a hospital bed and wanted so much to be part of this day. He too was quickly gone. One of the persons the breakfast the Deacons served today recognized was he. We are all dying mortals looking for a miracle, but where is it?

According to Matthew, the resurrection is God's way of grabbing our attention. It's God's way of saying “Listen up! Stop what you're doing and start to live!” Right now!

Much like Hollywood, God begins with an earthquake! An angel comes down, moves a rock big enough it took a platoon of soldiers to put into place, which then sits down with arms folded as if to say, “So there!” God seems to know how to get people's attention. Like the big bang that brought the universe into being, the women who went to the tomb are audience to the birthing of a new age!

There they were lost in thought, grief, and personal agendas. They were doing what they had to do, but worrying about the ham in the oven and the guests coming for dinner. They were lost in their memories, fears, hopes that had been abandoned and then God interrupted.

You have to admit that an earthquake is a pretty impressive way to get a person's attention. But as impressive as nature can be, it can be fickle and this is not about nature. That earthquake was like the Easter snow of 07, it was a memory marker. What really provoked the confrontation according to Matthew, was that gutsy, arrogant angel. Sent by God to deliver a personal message to good-hearted but thickheaded people just like us and the message? “He is not here!” That's all.

Which is the only message Easter has for the world. That a man named Jesus of Nazareth isn't where he is supposed to be found. Instead he is somewhere out ahead of those who look for him. And by the way, it is the job of anyone looking for him to tell that news to the rest of the world. A strange assignment for a bunch of humans with more questions than we have answers.

Here's the way it works. Life begins when God gets a person's attention. Trouble is, it takes an earthquake or two to get most of us to listen. Or sometimes it takes a tragedy to make us realize how vulnerable, how mortal we are. Then suddenly, in that instant an epiphany comes and we say, “Ha ha.”

But we need to be clear, God doesn't cause the tragedy, that is just life. God simply uses those moments, when we are stopped in our tracks, dead in the water. It is at those times when we start asking the important questions. It is then we suddenly realize we are on the edge.

Daniel Hans writes, when faced with the nagging “what-abouts” of life and the haunting “whys” of faith, what he wanted most was not what he needed most. “I looked for answers to why my little girl had cancer. That is what I wanted! Answers! But what I needed was a presence in the middle of my pain and confusion. I was not in control. My nature is to be a manager, to 'sweat' things out. Her cancer taught me how truly helpless I really am. So, I learned to 'wait on the Lord.' But waiting doesn't mean sitting on my hands.” Hans continues, “We are not passive pawns! Waiting for God is not losing heart, it is finding a new heart! Waiting for God is not hibernating in hopelessness, it's germinating into a stronger, wiser person.” It is only then we begin to discover that the whole purpose of life is to grow spiritually!

What we ask from God often reveals what we think about God. When God falls short of our expectations, we find ourselves full of pain and frustration. But look closely, you might just discover that your assumptions about God are wrong and it's only then new growth can begin. George Buttrick was fond of telling how his Harvard students would come into his office declaring, “I don't believe in God!” To which he would reply, “Tell me about the God you don't believe in and I'll bet I don't believe in that God either.”

Jesus Christ is who I want God to look like and look what happened to him! He got himself killed for doing all the right things, for loving and giving everything. But that wasn't the last word. That wasn't the end of it. Which means that isn't the last word for your life or mine or all those whom we love, no matter what we may think.

The women were at the tomb, lost in daily struggles, as real as any we face. It is not a romance novel, it's not a fairy tale. We need to get that straight. The scene is as real as life because it is life! They were lost in their grief, their anger, and their feelings. They were so wrapped up in themselves they didn't hear the message even after the earthquake. New life only began when they acted.

Just like way back at Christmas time when the angels went to the shepherds and said, “Don't be afraid.” That ought to be familiar to us given nature's gift this weekend. This angel said to the women, “Don't be afraid.” But they were, and they did what frightened people do, they ran. They fled from their encounter with death. So Jesus appears right in the middle of their path and says it again, “Don't be afraid, go and tell.” Do something with that faith of yours.

Life starts when fear and joy, that odd couple of human existence, turn us around, despite the one, and because of the other. Life starts when that odd couple begins to push us toward “getting on” with the serious business of living and loving, as the people of faith we claim to be. Life begins when we discover we don't have to die to live. Life begins when we start running the race with what we have, not what we wish we had.

Those women didn't know how long they had to live. They didn't know what tomorrow would bring. But they started, fear-filled and trembling, to run and tell what they had discovered. And suddenly they had a power and newness about them they couldn't explain. That's the way life begins for any of us. When we stop seeing it like a bankrupt savings account and start discovering that we have to get rid of that massive stone called fear. Only then do we have the chance to take possession of what God has spread before us. Trouble is, even as we walk out of here today we will all too often remain grounded in our tombs, comfortable with our surroundings.

Fear is what keeps much of our world employed. And I don't mean just the police and the pentagon. Fear keeps lawyers in business, insurance agents, most advertisers, the fear someone will have something you don't. Fear keeps a lot of churches running full-throttle. People are afraid of death but even more they're afraid of living.

• It's fear that holds the world together and fear that keeps the world from being whole.
• It's fear, not sin, that is the curse of humankind.
• It's the fear that I'll be recognized for the imposter that I am.
• It's the fear that I'll fail to do what I set out to do.
• It's the fear that I'll hurt or be hurt.
• It's that fear that I won't have enough time.
• It's fear that those things I believe in most are all wrong.

We are held hostage by our fear. The miracle is, Jesus Christ comes right to where we are and says, "Stop being afraid!" That is what this day is all about. It's not about a free pass around death, it's about no longer being afraid of anything, including death. "If God be for us what or who can be against us?" I am absolutely convinced that there is nothing to fear. It takes that confidence to say, "Oh death, where is thy sting? Grave, where is your victory?"

Every year thousands of pilgrims climb a mountain in the Alps to visit the Stations of the Cross. At the end, they arrive at an outdoor crucifix. One tourist noticed a little used path that seemed to go further. He ventured through the dense underbrush and to his surprise, he found another station. It was the station of the empty tomb, noticeably neglected. Everyone got as far as the cross and never went any further, which is the tendency of our world.

But the "good news" says, "God, in Jesus Christ, not only conquered death he redeemed life!" Which means, we are free from all the fears of our past. We are free from all the fears of our present. And we can be un-afraid as we look to our future, even to life's end. "He goes before you!" says Matthew, "blazing the path."

God uses an earthquake to get our attention, to shake us out of our daily routines. But God's word to us from the beginning of time can only be heard when we are no longer afraid to live. And that's a lot more than an earthquake and a lot more than a snowstorm and certainly a lot more than a fuzzy Easter rabbit.

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