"Joy in Creation"

So, 

Did you have a wonderful Easter? 

Did you get to celebrate the resurrection with loved ones and even enjoy as we did a really nice steak cooked on the grill, garlic mashed potatoes, and a nice big salad! Followed by the biggest cookie ever sliced into chunks with vanilla ice cream?

Easter for the Farley family can be a mix of wonderful and stressful. 

Wonderful that the whole family was able to get together including the dogs; stressful in that Brian, Rachel, and Emma had all recently gotten over a battle with Covid.

But also, stressful because it turns out I have some pretty important responsibilities on Easter morning that of course spill over to the family!

I was up at five getting a shower and getting dressed so that at least I was ready for the Sunrise service. And I got all the pieces together for the gathering, bulletins, sermon, and gifts for all who came.

And then ready to jump in the car and dive to the hill, Katie informed me she was driving and I was riding along. Kids these days!

I love it, the celebration of the resurrection, but keeping the details straight can be so overwhelming sometimes I can be really stressed.

But it is all good, when you look and see all the folks that have gotten up and come for the service, and then see the full moon behind everyone and the sun rising just over the horizon in front of them just as the service really gets underway. Oh wow!

God is there! You feel it, see it, hear it, smell it, and even sense it! 

He is risen. He is risen indeed!

We know God is there, not exactly in the same way as Jacob did as he dreamed of a ladder or a stairway reaching up to heaven and angels climbing up and down. He even saw God himself standing beside it,  telling Jacob that he was on holy ground and making promises to Jacob.

It is amazing how often we like Jacob seem to realize that God is in the place where we are and marvel and are filled with holy awe and joy. 

Last week we were reminded that the women who had been with Jesus went to the tomb and were met there by an angel. The angel told them essentially that they were standing on holy ground, a place where Jesus had arisen from the dead.

And there, they were filled with holy awe and joy, much like Jacob.

Jacob was so overwhelmed that he decided to take the rock upon which his head had been resting (what a weird pillow) while he slept and made an altar of it, a spot to commemorate the location, and gave it a new name, Bethel, God’s house. 

Jacob was excited and pleased and full of joy as he thought about God being right where he was. He wanted to shout “God you live here”!

Of course, we realize that God not only lived there, but that God lives everywhere!

God lives in the mighty waters crashing over Niagara Falls, and in the wonder of the Grand Canyon. God lives in the sweeping prairies full of amber grain, and in the forests so tall and green and majestic they seem to go on forever.

God is in the mountains full of wonderful minerals, and in the streams running down their sides, and in the flocks and herds, and even in the clouds in the skies whether they be soft and puffy or full of rain or even snow.

Noah was out in his backyard in Carlisle this week with nine inches of the cold wet stuff. But isn’t that the miracle and reason we rejoice in creation: God is in that snow too!

God is here, right in the sanctuary and God is there, right where you are!

It might be in your living room in your pajamas, your dining room with a nice mug of coffee, your kitchen with dishes to wash, out in the chaise lounge by the pool, or even, as Briana was with Lucien last week, in the car just outside the church building as he slept and she watched and listened.

God is not just here, but everywhere! 

And as Jesus tells the women e meets running from the empty tomb, “Rejoice”! 

Take a look and see what God has done and hear what God has promised you. 
He has promised you a land, a place; a place where God will be and already is now and forever.

Not a place far away!

Not a place later in your life! 

Not a place that is perfect!

Not a place that is someone else’s!

But a place for you right now! Here! Because God is here with you, now!

Do you see what God has done! Then rejoice! For the Lord who loves you is with you!

The Apostle Paul says to the Philippians in Philippians 4:8 “rejoice and again I say, rejoice”! 

Why? Because God is with us! The risen Lord is here!

We are to be a jubilant people, for our God is not dead and not far away!

God is here, now, in this sanctuary…

and with the people hiding in the steel mill in Mariupol, Ukraine.

And every time we see God at work in creation, we need to raise a song, words of praise God!

For the Lord of all is risen! Hallelujah and Amen!
 Amen.