No Idle Tale: Jesus is Alive!!

Jesus is alive!!!
That is no idle tale.
It is the truth and the story that we proclaim this morning.
It is the why we celebrate, why we sing alleluia.
The story we tell means as much today as it did those many years ago when the women heard it from the angels.
But it does to us at times seem like an idle tale.
How can someone really raise from the dead?
We like the apostles are sometimes confused by the story and the announcement.

Jesus is alive!!!

Unless like the women we “remember his words”.
Remember the words that Jesus speaks to us.
They are words that tells us that death will not defeat life, that hatred and evil will not defeat love, that despair will not win over hope.
The words of Jesus are the words that generations of Christians have passed on to the next.
Mothers and fathers, grandparents sharing with their children the eternal message of Easter.

Jesus is alive!!!

What does this mean for us today?
It means that we too can share our stories of being alive, of coming out of despair into hope, of knowing the eternal truth of Jesus promise to life everlasting.
This is why we pass on to others the story that

Jesus is alive!!!

We mean that we have experienced in our own lives the power and glory of the Easter story.
That it is not an idle tale to us, but a very real tale of what it means to be a human being and experience God in our lives.
Just this week I have heard and experienced many stories of resurrection.
That help me to tell you this morning that

Jesus is alive!!!

The first story I read in the Boston Globe.
It was about Bernie Carbo.
For those of you who are not baseball fans, or worse those of you who are Yankee fans let me remind you of who Bernie Carbo is.
Bernie Carbo was the pitch hitter who hit the game tying 3 run home run in the eighth inning of game 6 of the 1975 world series.
The famous game when Carlton Fisk won the game in the 11th inning with a dramatic home run just fair.
The story was about how Bernie Carbo was a drug addict.
In fact, when he hit that home run he was on a lot of drugs.
But now Bernie Carbo is a Christian.
He is a man who knows the power of the risen Christ.
Bernie said, “I threw away my career, If I knew Jesus Christ was my savior at 17, I would have been one heck of a ballplayer, a near Hall of Famer. Instead, I wanted to die.”

Because Bernie Carbo knows Jesus as his savior he chose life.
Today he runs baseball camps that teach kids about baseball and faith.
“To watch people come back to the Lord, it’s better than hitting that World Series home run in 1975. Guaranteed. Ten times. Hundreds of times better,’’ Carbo said.
Bernie Carbo knows that the story of the resurrection is no idle tale, and he knows for sure that

Jesus is alive!!!!

This week I went to visit one of our members Maude-Esther Hibbard.
Not too long ago she was diagnosed with cancer.
It was in most of her body.
Last week she went for her test, and today she is living almost cancer free.
Maude told me “I did not do this alone. God was with me.”
Through the prayers of people at our church, and her family Maude Esther felt the strength that comes with knowing Jesus.
The story of the resurrection is no idle tale to Maude Esther she knows that

Jesus is alive!!!

This year I have sat with members of our congregation who were dying.
They knew they were dying.
And in each case they witnessed to us about resurrection faith.
In each case they told me they were not afraid to die that they knew that Jesus words were true and that they were going to be with their savior.
They knew that the story of the resurrection was no idle tale.
They knew that

Jesus is alive!!!

Finally, yesterday our Sunday School went to two nursing homes to sing Easter songs and bring joy to others.
In each case we saw the joy in the eyes of people as the children sang songs about Jesus and rejoiced in the resurrection.
Yesterday, in places were people are living closer to death there was life and it was in abundance.
The residence brought just as much joy to us as we did to them.
When we help one another and love one another we feel the presence of the risen Christ.
To us who were there yesterday the resurrection is no idle tale.
We know that

Jesus is alive!!!

Indeed Jesus is alive!!!
The angels proclaim it, the women tell the story, and we repeat over and over.
We should no longer look for him in the places of death, but we should see Jesus in the stories that we tell about how we live.
We should see Jesus in our second chances, in the power to endure, in the promise of eternal life, and in the way we care and love for one another.

This story is important and we must continue to share it.
Even if people think we are telling idle tales, because someday they may need it.
They may need to know when they are going through a hard time that Jesus is alive.
And when they remember that story their hope, love, and faith will be restored just as ours is every time we tell the story and proclaim with a loud and clear voice that

Jesus is alive!!!!

Amen