Bible Text: 1 Peter 1:3-9 | Preacher: Pastor Dorry Newcomer | Series: 1 Peter | Happy Easter!  My name is Dorry Newcomer, and I am the lead pastor of Lima United Methodist Church.  This is my second year serving Lima Church, and this Easter is nothing like last Easter!  Last year, we made bookmarks and put them in our Easter bulletins with the slogan, “It’s always sunrise somewhere!” at the top, and several scripture verses below and on the back.  Last spring, I hung the bookmark on the bulletin board in my office.  It’s one of my favorite mementos from working here so far, because that theme, “It’s always sunrise somewhere” came out of a very happy worship committee meeting.  We were wrestling with the question, maybe we should offer a sunrise service this year.  That was the custom at Lima many years ago, and we were talking about whether we should do that again, when one of our leaders said, “You know, it’s always sunrise somewhere!”  We decided, we don’t have to get overly technical about it.  We can gather for worship at 8:30, 9:45, and 11—our normal times on Sunday mornings–knowing somewhere in the world, in Colorado or California or Hawaii, it’s sunrise.  We breathed a huge sigh of relief!  None of us wanted to get up to lead a sunrise service at 6 am.

That was last year.  The date for Easter was April 21st.  This year Easter is on April 12th.  Interesting how this year’s date for Easter is the inversion of last year’s.  And it’s not just the date that’s inverted.  Everything about this Easter feels the opposite of last Easter.  What we wouldn’t give to be able to gather for worship together, I don’t care if it’s 6 o’clock in the morning or even 5 o’clock!  I think just about every one of us would get up at whatever time is necessary if that meant we could come and worship with each other.

But we’re worshipping at home today, and by doing that, we are witnessing to our love of God and our love of neighbor.  We are right where we are supposed to be!  And so in that sense, this Easter is no different than any other.  Keep calm and carry on.  Like every other year, we are doing our best to do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God.

But staying in love with God requires different strategies during hard times than it does during good times.  Most years on Easter Sunday, we fuel our faith with trumpets and lilies and a ham supper.  Most years, Easter is a bright and glorious day after a long and dark Lent.  We look around, and it’s spring outside; we come to church and the mood is so joyous, it feels like spring inside ourselves, too.  This year, though, is different. Even though it is definitely spring outside—I cut these daffodils from our prayer garden today–it doesn’t feel like spring inside. Our world is hurting.  We are hurting. The calendar says it is Easter Sunday, but it feels like we are trapped in a forever Lent.

One piece of good news is, we are not the first generation of Christians to celebrate Easter during a difficult time.  In fact, there is at least one book of the Bible written specifically to help Christians celebrate the resurrection during times of suffering and hardship, Peter’s first letter to the early Church.  We decided back in early February to use the book of First Peter for the Easter season and focus on the topic of hope.

That was before the corona virus.  If hope was important before, it is even more important now!  Will this be the last Easter we ever have to celebrate without being together in person?  I hope so!  Will the Easter bunny be able to bring my favorite candy?  I hope so.  Will the Phillies have a winning season?  I hope so!  Will the Phillies even have a season?  I hope so!  Even if you don’t like baseball, we’ve all got high hopes these days.

But the hope we celebrate today is not a hope so.  It’s a hope in.  It’s a hope in Jesus Christ, and because Jesus was raised from the dead, Peter says we have a “living hope”.  And this hope makes all the difference!  It is hope that motivates us to do the right things—if we don’t have any hope that our efforts will make a difference, why bother?  And it is hope that sustains us in those situations where our efforts will make no difference, and only God’s grace can make a difference.  Peter wants his readers to have hope so they can live with integrity–so they can do their best, and trust God with the rest.

Peter wrote about a living hope so powerful, it made it possible for people to rejoice and praise God even during times of suffering and distress.  He knew it was possible to do more than just survive hard times.  The hard times can make our faith–which is worth more than gold—even more valuable.  Peter knew from personal experience that the birthplace and incubator of our living hope is not sunshine, but darkness.

In our call to worship, we pointed out that, early in the morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been rolled away.  Peter and John soon followed.  Last Easter, we gave ourselves a pass on hosting a sunrise service, because we realized, it’s always sunrise somewhere.  But this year I noticed for the first time that, more important than having a sunrise service might be having a service while it’s still dark!  The first people to witness Easter joy witnessed it not at sunrise but while they waited for the sun to come up.  Their joy began in the very early morning, while it was still dark as night. Their hope was ignited while they were still watching for dawn.

Which makes me think, that is just like us!  Not because we are worshipping so early that it’s still dark out—I’m assuming you’re watching this video in the daytime around when you’d normally come to Sunday morning worship.  But because our world is, metaphorically, stuck in the middle of a long, dark night.  Experts estimate the height of the corona virus pandemic in Pennsylvania won’t be until the middle of this week.  We are still very much in the dark in that sense.  We are still waiting for the day to dawn when there are fewer cases of COVID-19 than the day before.  We are still waiting for the day to dawn when we can go about daily life without worrying about corona virus.  It could be quite a while before the sun rises for that.

How comforting to discover that the first very first celebration of Easter began before sunrise!  Friends, whatever time you’re tuning in, I’m glad you’re here, because we are right where we need to be.  Even though we are suffering grief in all kinds of trials—isolation, illness, fear, income loss, bereavement, confinement, disappointment, scarcity, and the like—we can greatly rejoice even on this Easter Sunday, because Christ is risen.  His resurrection gives us new birth into a living hope that is not dependent upon our current circumstances.  It is a hope whose authority comes from the power of God.

This week I was really taken by the Super Moon on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.  Did you see it?  It’s called a Super Moon because, not only was it a full moon, it was also the closest the moon ever gets to the Earth in its orbit.  Both nights I stood in the field between the parsonage and the church and watched the moon come up over the Acme.  I was amazed at its size, and its color, and its brightness.  And it made me think about hope.  As much as we love sunrise, God has provided for us another light to guide us.  Moonlight.  It’s the light we hold on to while we wait for the sun to shine again.  Growing up I watched a lot of episodes of The Love Boat on Saturday nights, and because of that, I always associated moonlight with romance.  But now I know that moonlight is a catalyst for much more than romance.  Moonlight is the light of hope.

Many years ago I was introduced to the book, “Strength to Love” by Martin Luther King, Jr.  In it, he wrote of a time he and his wife were visiting India, and they travelled all the way down to its very southern tip, a place called Lands End.  They sat out on a point where the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea, and the Bay of Bengal all come together, and watched the sunset over the water.  But just as the sun disappeared over the western horizon, they turned toward the east and could see the moon rising.  King wrote about how this is just like life.  There are moments when life is so grim, we feel like there is no light anywhere.  “But ever and again,” he wrote, “we look toward the east and discover that there is another light which shines even in the darkness,” which transforms “the spear of frustration into a shaft of light.”

I don’t know about you, but I sure could use something to that transforms all my spears of frustration into shafts of light!  And that something is hope.  So for Easter this year, I made myself a new bookmark.  On the top I wrote, “It’s always moonrise somewhere!”  And for the scripture below, I put Psalm 139:7-12, which reads:

 

Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?  If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.  If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.  If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.

 

Moonlight is the light we hang on to while we wait for sunrise.  It is the light of hope.  So I am going to issue a moonlight, moonrise, moonshine challenge this Easter season.  Not everyone can get out at night to see the moon, and sometimes it’s cloudy, or the moon is just a sliver and hard to see.  We don’t want anyone’s hope waning, especially not this year.  So how about if we all make a moon to remind us of living hope?  Draw one, paint one, cut one out of construction paper, and hang it somewhere you’ll see it frequently.  You could even make a moonrise bookmark.  Whatever you want.  Use it to remind yourself of the living hope that is ours through Jesus Christ.

In the past we may have celebrated Easter for the joy of sunrise.  But this year, we are might be in need of some new strategies to help us stay in love with God.  Good thing we are learning we can also celebrate Easter in the joy of the moonrise.  We are never without the light of God’s love.  Friends, this is not a hope so.  This is not a fantasy or wish.  This is a hope in.  Hope in Christ Jesus, who was raised from the dead and lives even now.  So “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”  Happy Easter!  Amen.