Easter Sunday Sermon Text

The Winter Solstice this year will begin at 8:30 AM on December 21st. It is on this date that daylight is the shortest and nighttime is the longest; a time when the sun is at its highest elevation in the sky.

It is also called “midwinter”, a time especially here in New England when things are not only dark, but cold and lifeless; plants, trees, bushes, and grass, have ceased to grow, and the winds howl.

English poet Christina Rossetti wrote of this in a poem, this verse of which was used in a now famous hymn: “In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan; earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone, snow had fallen, snow on snow on snow, in the bleak midwinter long ago.”

In June of 1940, Prime Minister of England, Winston Churchill, referred to the period in WWII between the fall of France and the Axis invasion of Russia as “the darkest hour”; dark not only for France and all the other counties invaded and defeated by the German Nazi juggernaut, but particularly dark for England who basically stood alone against the Axis powers and saw its cities like London, bombed incessantly by the Luftwaffe, causing terrible losses.

For Jesus and his disciples, the days that followed his final entry into Jerusalem turned out to be the darkest day’s of their lives. The shouts of acclamation Jesus basked in from his followers as he road on his donkey into the Holy City soon faded away, drowned out by the cries “ Crucify him, crucify him.”

In a short period of time that the Church condenses into a week, Jesus was betrayed by one of his disciples named Judas, arrested by Roman soldiers at the request of religious authorities which saw Jesus as a threat, and put of trial. Days into the trial another one of Jesus’ disciples named Peter, denied knowing Jesus three time into to save himself from the same fate as his masters.

Found guilty, Jesus was turned over to Roman soldiers who scourged him, and made him carry a cross to a place on which he was crucified, in what were his darkest hours. All these events were commemorated last week by the Church in services that are part of what it calls Holy Week, something we Christians were not able to celebrate this year because of the Coronavirus Pandemic.

While we feel Jesus’ crucifixion was the darkest hour in the history of the world, we all have our own darkest hours, in our personal and national lives. We too have our loved ones die, and are left to mourn their loss.

Our nation was formed after a revolution and war which allowed us to win our freedom from Great Britain .

Over a century later a civil war was waged to preserve the Union and end the evil of slavery.

The First World War was then fought, followed a decade later by The Great Depression, followed a decade later by The Second World War, and it’s Holocaust, and then the wars in Korea and Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, and the terrorist attack on 9/11; all dark days in our nations and world history.

Toward the end of WWI, an influenza which became known as The Spanish flu after the country that first reported it, swept across the countries of the world, including our own, infecting over half of the worlds population and killing tens of millions of people.

Decades later a disease that came to be known as AIDS, brought on the HIV virus, again infected millions, leaving well over a million of them dead.

Then there was the so called Swine Flu of 2008/2009 which infected half a million world wide and left an estimated 18,000 dead.

Now we are living with the Coronavirus that has become our present days darkest hour infecting scores worldwide and leaving many dead. We live in fear, wondering if we, or our loved ones will be the next victims, huddled in isolation in our homes, and practicing safe hygiene and distancing to hopefully keep us safe and prevent the further spread of the virus.

These are the darkest days many of us have ever, or will ever, know.

But friends, take heart, for this is Easter Sunday, a day when with the writer of John’s Gospel we celebrate the belief that “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

It is day when we affirm that it is always the darkest just before the dawn; that winter turns to spring, that peace comes after war, that health comes after sickness, that recovery comes after grief, that healing comes after brokenness, and most powerful of all, that life comes after death.

This is the day of resurrection, a day when in celebrating Gods resurrection of Jesus from the dead, we celebrate the hope of our own.

After the darkest day of the year in December 21st, daylight become longer each day and midwinter turns into spring. Trees bud, flowers bloom, the earth thaws, and birds return north to sing.

Leo Tolstoy began his book “Resurrection”, with his own description of spring arriving in St Petersburg Russia, after its typically long and harsh winter: “The sun shone warm, the air was balmy, the grass where it did not get scraped away, revived and sprung up everywhere : between the paving-stones as well as the narrow strips of lawn on the boulevards. The birches, the poplars, and the wild cherry trees were unfolding their gummy and fragrant leaves, the bursting buds were swelling on the lime trees ; crows , sparrows, and pigeons, filled with the joy of spring, were getting their nests ready ; the flies were buzzing along the walls warmed by the sunshine. All were glad: the plants, the birds, the insects, she the children.”

England was able to survive its darkest hour . It endured the incessant and crippling bombing of London. Hitler became mired down in Russia with his armies being staled there by its harsh winter. Night turned into day and, with the support of its allies like America, the tide of the war turned and eventually was won.

On the Sunday morning after Jesus’ crucifixion and burial, the darkness of grief descended over his followers, especially Mary Magdalene who stood by the tomb grieving.

Her darkness was lifted when the lightness of the risen Christ appeared to her and called her by name. This past Friday we wept with Mary and Jesus’ first followers over his crucifixion.

Then today he has to us as he came to Mary, and said, “Why are you weeping? I am no longer dead, but alive in a resurrected body.” Our darkness has turned into dawn and winter into spring.

The same thing can happen to us in the darkness we experience as individuals and as a country. In his book “A Grief Observed”, C.S. Lewis recorded the grief he felt over the death of his wife Joy, in journals. In the first journals, Lewis was immersed in the darkness of acute grief. But in his later journals, that darkness was lifted by the passage of time and the hope of resurrection.

The darkness of our revolution and war was overcome by the light of our countries formation.

The darkness of our civil war and slavery was lifted by the light of the preservation of our union; and the Emancipation Proclamation.

The darkness of all our other wars have been overcome by the liberation of people and the humanity we fought for; and the peace that followed.

The world and our country survived the darkness of the Spanish Flu, AIDS, and SARS when the light of treatments and preventions were found…and the same will eventually be true of the Coronavirus.

To many of us it seems as if we are in our darkest hour.

But remember, the darkest hour is just before the dawn.

And, with the dawn comes not just light, but new life and resurrection.

So, on this Easter Sunday we don’t give up hope, remembering the Apostle Paul’s instruction “not to grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.”

We believe that the early morning darkness of Mary’s weeping in grief at the tomb was lifted by presence of the resurrected Christ calling her by name.

Therefore, we can believe that the presence of this same resurrected Christ will be present to us, addressing us by name, lifting us out of the darkness of our despair into the light of hope.

The darkest hour is just before the dawn and with it resurrection!

Thanks be to God!