We celebrated Christmas Eve, remembering Christ's birth as though it had just happened.

Wise men in cardboard crowns walked up the aisles of the Saint James Center. More than five hundred of us sang carols, took communion and watched our sons and daughters act out the story of the Nativity. Then the wise men went home, put on their pajamas, and waited for Christmas morning.

Not long after, Epiphany came. We put a big glitter-covered star up above the altar.

Under the invisible starlight we told the tales of Jesus' work in the world. We listened to the readers Sunday after Sunday telling us how God showed forth in the things that Jesus said and did. We heard about healing, and teaching, and miracles big and small.

Soon the season after the day of the Epiphany ended.
So I stood on the altar in my stocking feet and wrestled the star to the ground.
Then we burned palms, put on purple, and knelt down for Ash Wednesday.
We were told "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return," and Lent began.
It was a time for reflection, quiet, contemplation.
A time to remember who we are, what life means, and where God is in all of that.
Jesus was in the desert. We were giving up dessert.
There were temptations to be faced and righteousness to be sought as we moved, with Jesus, toward Jerusalem.
At the narrow end of Lent the pressure builds. Holy Week.

We start with the Passion. We pass through Good Friday. In between is confusion, betrayal, abandonment and all those things at which we would rather not look ­ for they deliver us to the cross.

And who among us would chose to be broken, or to die?

But then again, who among us can avoid it?

Between the action of others beyond our control,
simple accidents, and our own willfulness,
most of us will experience some kind of brokeness in this life.
Some of us more than once.
And all of us will, eventually, die.

But that does not have to be the end of the story.

Jesus, like us, was born. And Jesus, like us, experienced death.

But this day is Easter.
This is the day of Resurrection.
This is the zenith of the brightest outward sign of Godıs assurance to us.
Jesus who had died and been buried, rose to a new kind of life on this day.

We can participate in this part of the story also.
Nothing in this life is beyond redemption.
There is nothing you or I can do or leave undone
that can thwart Godıs desire that we find new life.

We have only to earnestly seek after it.
We can start at the manger.
We can start at the Cross.
What matters is that we start.
We begin to move out of the woods when we move in the footsteps of Jesus.

For Jesus has blazed a trail to the kingdom of God that can lead us even through the valley of the shadow of death.

Salome and the two Marys walked toward a tomb wondering, "who will roll away the stone?" And when they arrived at the place of death, death was no longer there. A stone they could not move had been pushed to the side for them and new life had burst out of cold darkness into the bright warmth of a new day.

God still moves stones.

God still gives new life in the very face of darkness and death.

Listen to the story and let your life be changed.
Let your heart move at the impulse of God's love.
What can stand between you and the new life God wants for you?

Are you afraid to risk letting go of the world view to which you now hold because you fear you will be left with nothing at all?

God can roll away that stone!

Does the imperfection of the church or of its members give you pause.

God can roll away that stone!

Are there obstacles in your way of life that keep you separated from a life in Christ?

God can roll away that stone!

Do you feel that your knowledge of Scripture is too meager?

God can roll away that stone!

We have nothing to lose by looking into the empty tomb.

We have everything to gain by embracing the gift of new life which God offers.

We have heard the author of the letter to the Colossians state:

"When Christ who is your life is revealed,
then you also will be revealed with him in glory."
We have been telling stories since Advent to reveal Christ ­ who He is and what He promised.

We believe that Christ is the way, the truth and the life. We tell the stories to bolster our own courage and to encourage others so that, together, we might seek to be revealed in Christ.

If we are in Christ, we will share in His work.
If we are in Christ, we will share in His life.
If we are in Christ, we will share in his resurrection.

Today is Easter, a day of new beginnings

Surely a God who can raise the dead has the power to deal with our difficulties.
Surely a God who cared enough to suffer death on our behalf is willing to be in our life.
Even now the stone is being rolled away!
Step into the tomb and see the glory that has been revealed.
Step into the life God offers and discover who you really are.