EASTER SUNDAY 2020.

Opening Greeting

Pastor: Christ is risen!

Congregation: Indeed, He is risen!

Pastor: Hallelujah!

Congregation: Indeed, He is risen! Hallelujah!

Responsive Easter Litany:

Pastor: We gather for worship this morning, physically and socially distant from each other but spiritually and socially connected, through words, faith and spirit. As we cannot reach out our hands to each other, we will reach out with our hearts and our faith.

All: We gather for our Easter Service because we believe that faith, hope and love abide.

Pastor: We gather to celebrate that no darkness can extinguish light. We gather to remember that love will always be more powerful than death.

All: We gather as people of faith in the light of God’s Word.

Pastor: Today we believe that Love is stronger than death, and one word says it all:

All: Christ is risen! Indeed, He is risen! Hallelujah!

Gospel: Matthew 28.1-10

28 After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he[a] lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, [b] and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” 8 So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

SERMON: “UNUSUAL”

It is Easter Sunday. It is Easter Sunday. And we are celebrating Easter with the same beloved hymns, the same message of hope, faith and love.

It is Easter as it has been celebrated since that first Easter Morning.

And yet, this Easter is different. The message is the same, the hymns are the same, the pastors robe is the same, and yet it is not Easter as usual.

It is indeed an unusual Easter.

Just for a moment remember where you were last year at Easter. Whom you were with? What you did do? What you ate? Who you shared time and joy with? How many Easter Eggs you found?

It is indeed an unusual Easter during unusual times.

We are confined in our private homes, and able to not gather in our beautiful churches.

We are maybe seated in our living room together with our closest family or maybe even alone, - and not here in our beautiful church with happy congregants and happy children eager for Egg Hunt.

We are dressed more casually, maybe in pajamas with coffee within reach – not in our Easter dresses of sparkling colors or eagerly awaiting our Easter Champagne Brunch.

We are in front of our computer or phone, socially distant and yet spiritually connected, and not in the packed pews here in the church, exchanging handshakes or warm hugs and enjoying the load singing of a happy Danish Church on an Easter morning.

And it is raining! Even if the song tells us that it never rains in Southern California and even if my sisters teasingly call med Grethe 30 as I always tell them how sunny and warm – 30 degrees - it is in California, - it is indeed an unusual Easter.

But let us get the best of it!

As it indeed an unusual day in our Christian Church! Easter is underlying song of Christianity. An unusual strong song of faith hope and love.

An unusual strong song about a hope that transcends reality and common sense.

An unusual strong song about a faith that looks beyond the words, the visible, the credible and the scientific.

An unusual strong song about a love that builds a bridge from the life to that place of somewhere, somehow, sometime, when we will see and be seen completely. As St. Paul so beautifully, and hopefully wrote:

12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.

Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

It is unusual times and an unusual way of celebrating Easter, and yet it might make us focus on the fact that Easter is indeed an unusual message.

We just heard the Easter Gospel from Matthew. About that first miraculous unusual first Easter Sunday, when the mourning sad and searching women came to the tomb. And suddenly everything changed: an unusual earthquake shook the grounds and shook the souls of the mourners. An angel appeared before them, almost to bright to look at. And to the women, the angel said the words of any angel: “Do not be afraid…. I know you are looking for Jesus, but he is not here. Seek the things that are above, where Christ is. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth….”

It is indeed an unusual story. A story of great faith and groundbreaking hope. A story that was believed and was the beginning of the Christians Faith and the Christian Church, as we know it today. This unusual strory sends ripples through the humans, the world, the history, from that grave to Rome, to Wittenberg, to Denmark and to US.

These days of solitude and social distancing, I being an avid reader off course has found solace, strength and comfort in reading. One book was indeed unusual. And was indeed a fine Easter Sermon in disguise.

The book is by the Danish author Anne Catherine Riebnitzsky and is called “Smaragdsliberen” The Emerald Polisher.

It is indeed a wonderful unusual book about faith, tolerance, friendship, death, beauty, and hope. It is a very timely story about big ethical dilemmas, faith and religion.

The Jewish Emerald Polisher Pierre Levy is an acclaimed and respected man in his profession. One day he falls to the floor at work and dies, he has 3 heart attacks, but miraculously he returns to life. But nothing is as it was. He has changed. He was transformed in his faith and in his fears.

He does continue to play chess with his best friend the Muslim Jeweler Youssuf, who he grew up with in Nazareth in another time and under more peaceful circumstances. Where a neighbor and a human being was more than the religion you believed in.

Pierre Levy is offered his life’s masterwork: to polish an unusual big Emerald. His quite days cutting, preparing and polishing is in stack contrast to the life of his daughter. Zara is an Art Historian and travels the world to visit and document ancient places of art and religion. As she is working in some old remote caverns in the region between Georgia and Azerbaijan, between Christianity and Islam, - she is violently kidnapped.

Pierre Levy experienced something, when he died, a light, a presence, a beauty, a love that changes his life and removes his fear of death. Zara Levy, being a modern sceptic atheist but cultural Jew, experiences too: something violent as she is kidnapped, and is rightfully afraid to die, - but as she managed to escape, and hides near a river, she too has an unusual encounter and experience of strength, comfort and love, - even if she declares to be non-religious. A voice of calm tells her “Not be too afraid”, just like the soothing angels voice at the Easter morning tomb. As she escapes her kidnappers, she wonders: Could it have been God’s voice, she heard? Could she hear God’s voice, she who is an atheist?

Pierre Levy finds beauty in the beautiful Emerald. He finds beauty in friendship, life and love too. And he found beauty when he died.

It is a beautiful Reflection on the Easter story about the beauty of life and the meaningful death.

12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.

Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Easter was an unusual day.

Easter was an unusual lifechanging experience for the women.

Easter was an earthquake and it was thunder and lightning.

Easter was as unusual then, as it should be today. Unusual in a good sense. Mysterious. Miraculous. Beautiful. Hopeful. Loving.

For now, we only see a reflection as in a mirror, we only see glimpses of what we believe is true.

When the Emerald Polisher investigated the beautiful green Emerald, he also saw deeper and more than just the mere crystal …. Beautiful green colors. With an inclusion like a blue heart with explosion of golden ingtions about it.

Green like creation. Green like the hope. It is like looking back in time and history. Small wonderful threads of gas or liquid that is frozen in time in the middle of the hard crystal.

A glimpse of small golden ignitions, like a green meadow or a deep green sea. The inclusion that an emerald often has are in French called Jardin, the garden. The Garden of Eden. Paradise.

Perry Levy tries to explain to his daughter about his experience when he died. That it was like a light, a transfiguration, an epiphany. Suddenly he saw clearly and fully. All was good. Evil did not mean much. He felt love and loved. He could see and was seen.

Easter is also our stories of faith and hope. What we believe in, what we hope for and what we love. Today is a day of proclamation of faith. We believe, we hope and we love.

That is why we gather today. That is why you found your way to this Virtual Service that breaks down the barriers of social distancing and lets us spsirutally connect and wordship.

We are here to listen to the story that reassures us that light is always stronger than darkness, that life is always stronger than death. That hope transform our lives, hopes and days.

Easter is not just a Sunday to remember; what happened that glroius mysterious first Eater morning when the women came to the tomb; it is even more a time to live and breath. Easter is something we live and breathe.

Take a deep breath. Take one more. And take one third deep breath. Father, Son and Holy Spririt.

Easster is not just something that happened once a long time ago, it is something that happens now. Among us. Within us. For is. Easter is a song of faith for today and tomrroow.

Easter is a song we sing today. Because we believe, we hope and we love. We are Eatser People. And we gladly proclaim today: Christ is risen. Amen.