Used tombstone for sale. That’s what the ad said in the Milwaukee newspaper.  A real bargain for someone named Dingo, for information call. It seems obvious to me that Dingo must have been a Christian because who else wouldn’t need a tombstone. Tombstones indicate the end and you invested yourself in this life and now it’s over.

 

But the church simply isn’t tombstone territory. We are Easter people and Easter people believe death is not the end.

 

Now the gospels were created by four different writers in different places but they all agree on the same basic things. There is no dispute when early in the morning on a Sunday. Who, women go to the tomb. What, the stone is gone. How, angels or there’s some kind of supernatural encounter they discover that the tomb is empty. The result, fear and confusion. Fact, Jesus isn’t there.

 

All four gospels share these same basic seven things. It’s pretty remarkable don’t you think four documents nearly two thousand years old all share the same basic eyewitness testimony that is the bedrock foundation of the Christian faith. We are Easter people. That means our lives are filled with holy moments. Easter people know that faith conquers fear.

 

A good friend of mine learned that a few years ago. Holy Week was very special to him, it always has been for him. He had certain expectations how he wanted the week to unfold, how he hoped to encounter God, he yearned for Good Friday and then Easter, this is the main event.

 

But a few years ago, God had special plans for him. He got a stomach virus on Monday and he no longer had a colon so that can mean trouble. He knew that he had to pay attention to how his body responds and every few years he has to go to the hospital for dehydration, usually meant two IV bags for 12 hours and then he is back home. But this time he waited too long thinking that it would pass and because he didn’t want to disrupt his Holy Week.

 

His wife said go to the hospital, but he said no. Typical male, I’m smarter than you are, I’ll just wait it out. Until on Tuesday he got so weak that she won and they went to the hospital. They were in the ER and he explained his situation. The doctor came in with a file and it said in red letters, renal failure. The doctor looked at his wife and said, you waited too long. Your husband is completely dehydrated, his kidneys are shutting down, his pulse rate is twice what it’s supposed to be so we got to act now and it may take awhile. So he got to spend Holy Week in the hospital. That was one of the worst punishments you could give him.

 

But two things happened to remind him that he is an Easter person. First a very powerful and unique holy moment having his wife kneeling next to him as he lay on that gurney praying and the nurse began treatment. The situation was worse than expected but instead of fear that prayer as they held hands they both had a deep supernatural peace, a true holy moment where they realized faith conquers fear.

 

And then with time and the remarkable simplifying that happens to your life when you are in the hospital, he also had some time with God where he could reveal to him some of the resentments and the hurts that he had carried toward a number of people in his life and he wrote them all down and it was a pretty long list unfortunately. And then he prayed and he released that baggage and all the toxic wastes that he was carrying and what was inside of him became alive, again another holy moment.

 

What looked like a miserable Holy Week became a grace encounter with the Risen Lord because faith conquers fear.

Easter people know where they are going. I remember one man told me that God is not in the business of granting wishes He’s in the business of raising the dead. Easter means we know where we are going.

 

Imagine, an unborn infant in the womb is able to speak.

Suppose someone says to her soon you must leave this place to be born, you are going to enter a different realm. The infant might protest and say no. I like it here. I’m fed, it’s warm I feel loved, I don’t want to leave this place to be born, but nature takes it course and the baby is born after she endures a slap on the bottom and a good cry. She looks up into a loving face and she’s cuddled into loving arms and soon she discovers she can get anything she wants if she just coos and cries. So ,the infant says to herself this is nicer than I thought it would be.

 

Childhood passes, she becomes a teenager, then an adult and then she grows old, her bodily parts begin to age and wear out and one day the thought of death worries her. She says to herself I like this place I don’t want to leave death scares me. Nature again takes its course, she dies. What happens then.

 

Jesus promises that his children will be purified and born once more, She will look into a face more beautiful than her mother’s, loving eyes look down on her and beneath her are Everlasting Arms, She will be born again into a heavenly realm, where there is no pain, there is no death, there is no sin. She will be home at last. In other words, we don’t need tombstones. We are Easter people.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends and especially the Anglo and Mexican families at Divine Mercy parish in Las Vegas. You have been reborn, not evicted from your house of worship. For you are Easter people.