April 5, 2026 (Easter Sunday)

My friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We’ve just heard the most important story of our faith.  The story of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.  We’ve heard how Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and found it empty.  How she brought Peter and the disciple Jesus loved to see it.  How they struggled to understand the meaning of the empty tomb.  And finally, how the Risen Jesus appeared to Mary and sent her to tell the disciples about his resurrection.

While it’s an amazing story, we might wonder what it means for us and our lives today.  So this morning I want to tell you about the hope that the message of the resurrection brings.  How does this give us hope?

All of us need hope.  Hope is vital to our health and well-being.  Living without hope – hopelessness – is no life at all.  Hopelessness travels with the black clouds of emptiness, void, or constant tearfulness.  Hopelessness comes when the future feels bleak, and we can’t think of anything that might change it.  For many of us, these feelings of numbness and despair are familiar.  Maybe some of us need hope today.  Maybe that someone is you.

So take a moment and join Mary Magdalene in her hopelessness.  There’s grass under her feet and a morning sun that’s just starting to feel warm.  There’s the fresh smell that comes with a new day.  But she’s not noticing any of it under that black cloud of emptiness.  Just a few days ago, the Romans had brutally executed her friend and teacher.  Her hopes – that a triumphant Jesus would restore the Kingdom of Israel through earthly power and force – had been shattered.  The future she hoped for is gone forever.

Mary’s hope is the sort of hope the world lures us with.  A “hope” rooted in the myth of progress and the belief that humans are essentially good.  This hope whispers that we can save ourselves – that we can overcome our problems and create the ideal world – through education and hard work.  Through advances in science and technology.  That someone (maybe a Messiah?) will come along and fix everything.

Now, medical discoveries might offer a cure for what ails us.  Science might solve some of the world’s problems.  Through hard work, we might make ourselves into slightly better people.  But while those are nice things, they don’t have anything to do with Hope.  They’re simply optimism.  Optimism that through our own efforts, we can overcome the very human experiences of pain and suffering and misery. 

And sometimes we can.  But ultimately, the false hope the world lures us with is always limited by the rules God has set for the Creation.  Optimism will fail us because it has everything to do with our desires and our limited ability to change the world, and nothing to do with new creation or God’s grace.

So imagine yourself there in the garden with Mary.  Weeping bitterly because your hope has been nothing more than misplaced optimism.  Things are not getting better.  There is no way that you, or anyone, can fix the pain and the grief of Jesus’ death.  There is no way to save this lost future.

And then, like Mary Magdalene, you hear your name.  And you suddenly realize who it is that’s speaking to you.  It’s Jesus.  And it’s the Jesus you remember.  The Jesus you love.  But this Jesus is both the same and something completely new.  And that changes everything – for Mary Magdalene, and for us.

Jesus’ resurrection is not just some bizarre event that defies the rules of this world.  It’s the foundation of Real Hope.  And Real Hope is nothing like wishful thinking that science will improve our lives.  Or an optimism that the weather might be sunny and warm this week.  Because we can imagine those things happening.  And Real Hope is rooted in the truth that, through God, the impossible and the unbelievable can burst forth right in the middle of the awful ugliness of the world.  That the unimaginable can burst forth from even death itself.

Nothing about the world has changed as Mary Magdalene runs off to witness Jesus’ resurrection.  The Romans are still in charge.  There’s still poverty and oppression and death.  Yes, the world is the same.  And yet, it’s completely different. Because in the resurrection Mary has discovered what Real Hope is.  She’s discovered that Resurrection Hope isn’t just simple blind optimism or thin wishful thinking for a vague and unseeable future.  It’s not even about getting the things we desire.  She’s discovered that Resurrection Hope offers a different way to see our world.  And in this worldview, the ones who put Jesus to death – the rich, the powerful, and the unscrupulous – do not have the last word.  Mary Magdalene has discovered the truth – that God has the last word.  Resurrection Hope does not deny that suffering and pain and death are real.  And they hurt.  But Resurrection Hope assures us that in the midst of this broken world, God is creating new things – with new possibilities and real, abundant life that extends beyond the grave for us to have right here, right now.

So, my friends, if you need hope today – real hope – grab onto Resurrection Hope.  Cling to this hope that is wild and fierce and will not take “no” for an answer – even when “no” is all around you.  When everything feels lost, live with the outrageous and unbelievable and impossible Resurrection Hope that new creation is bursting forth from the old.  Because things beyond our understanding are not only possible.  God is creating them right now –even in the midst of our messy lives. 

And Jesus – that Jesus who has been created anew – is calling your name.  Calling you into abundant life.

Alleluia, Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed, alleluia!