How might we connect with the Easter message this year? As we hear the ancient stories of new life coming forth in times of deep challenges, what is ours to learn together this year? All are invited our Easter service led by Rev. Sue Browning. The choir will sing.
Board Announcements – Doug Jurrius
“Spirit of Life” #123
Welcome – Rev. Sue Browning
Prelude “Roll Down, Justice!” Mark A. Miller
Chalice Lighting
Hymn “Lo, the Earth Awakes Again” #61
Covenant of Our Fellowship (in unison)
“At the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at Easton, we seek to nurture spiritual and intellectual growth for all ages, and to be actively involved in community outreach and service. Cherishing diversity, and celebrating our oneness with all humanity, we covenant to support each other in the spirit of compassion, respect, and love.”
Thoughts for All Ages – Excerpts from “Jesus the Carpenter’s
Son” by Sophia Lyons Fah
Time for Centering
Joys and Sorrows
Offertory
Reading Luke 24, 1-12
Anthem “Look to the Day” John Rutter
Sermon – “When Sun Breaks Through” – Rev. Browning
Hymn “Morning Has Broken” #38
Closing Words and Extinguishing Our Chalice
Postlude “Hope Will Not Fail” Mark A. Miller Click here for insert
PLEASE JOIN US AFTER THE SERVICE FOR COFFEE AND CONVERSATION
Headphones are available for persons with hearing impairments. Large print hymnals are also available. Please ask the usher for assistance. Note: Please silence your cell phone for the service.
Music: Ellen Barry Grunden and Choir
Sound: Don Barker Usher: Joy Gaddy
Greeter: Jean Kader
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Lessons and the Sermon – Rev. Sue Browning – April 20, 2025
Thoughts for All Ages
We shared excerpts from ““Jesus the Carpenter’s Son” by Sophia Lyons Fahs (1945). We considered the experiences of Jesus and his friends around age 12 who knew of harm to communities by the Romans, and how Jesus worked through how it the kingdom of god (a fair world) would come. Would it be through violence, or seeds planted for good that would have ripple effects?
Reading
Today our reading is one of the versions of the Easter story from the gospels. The passage follow a full week. Jesus, who has grounded his teaching in new ways of acting, and who had by challenging powers and systems of abuse, had entered Jerusalem for Passover. There had been a grand entrance, riding a donkey, palms laid before the procession. And once in Jerusalem, overthrowing the tables of the money changers, a meal with his disciples – a last meal, and his crucifixion on a Friday.
This story follows a week of disruption. Jesus and followers repeatedly challenged those in power who had no intent of being challenged. After his death, Jesus’s body had been brought to the tomb, and a stone sealed the tomb. We enter the story of the Sunday morning.
Luke – Chapter 24, verses 1-12
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body.
While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.
The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.
Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.
Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.
Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles.
But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.
Sermon “When Sun Breaks Through”
The morning scene at the tomb follows a week of disruption. Jesus had been challenging power in the years leading to this showdown.
Jesus was from Galilee, a region north of Jerusalem. The rich and powerful – including Romans, certain priests of the temple, and landowners – oppressed the poor, constantly demanding more in taxes and in crop share. Jesus with his disciples had spent the last years teaching there should be an egalitarian community for all. His followers lived these values, sharing whatever resources they possessed, challenging the social norms. However seemingly insignificant the small movement may have been, it posed a threat to the establishment. Jesus and followers were being noticed. (Drawn from source: https://progressivechristianity.org/resource/understanding-easter/ (Dr. Krieg)
Jesus knew of the risks. It’s hard to stand up to power, having no idea if it will be effective, and yet clear that the principles they stood for were worthy of the risk. Those in power had no intent of being challenged. Jesus was crucified and the disciples were persecuted. Resistance had had a steep price.
We come to our story from Luke and the images of the tomb at dawn. With death, came practical realities. The women had come prepared with spices are to carry out the community rituals around death. Grieving, and yet persevering.
And then the twist. The stone had been rolled away. The barrier was gone. And we have angels explaining, ‘He has risen.’
This was not expected. This is not what followed a typical crucifixion. The Romans had crucified thousands over 500 years. Virtually always tormented bodies were left to scavenging animals or thrown into mass graves. Denial of proper burial was part of the punishment, and Pontius Pilate (the Roman who had ordered the crucifixion), “was not the type of person to have pity and do things any differently.” (Source: Dr. Krieg)
The story of Easter morning captures a breakthrough moment; a moment of fundamental change.
“He is risen” – marks something new. A moment which holds space for new direction. As the disciples in all their uncertainty figured out their next step, something was different.
A mysterious moment for some. A sense of mythical story for some. The fog…images … attempts at connecting dots.
As we reflect on the Easter Story, what do we hear in our context of 2025? Reminders…
We are not the first to experience power, exercised with little regard for humanity; power acquired and abused for power’s sake crosses generations;
We are not the first to see the need to fight for principles of fairness and equality;
We are not the first to witness cruelty – leaders acting absent of empathy; and
We are not the first to be called to have the courage to resist; to know the stakes are high, the actions risky, and the need great.
We are far, far from the first.
In these ancient accounts, we hear of a community figuring out a path to forward – a way to carry forward a message of love.
As we walk through the deep challenges of our times, there are lessons.
We’re reminded resistance needs to be grounded in core values. We need values that we lean into – values centered around a bold vision of love. To resist well (and there are many techniques – none perfect), we need clarity on what is right.
The empty tomb initiated a fresh outlook, initially for the disciples.
The disciples had been forming a vision of what could be as they went community to community. It was a vision that was still being shaped…and it would still ground them. What had been clear to Jesus all along – that the kingdom of God – heaven on earth – would be a world where goodness did grow like seeds, quietly and slowly- was sinking in for them. The word was being spread.
In this moment, they knew Jesus would continue with them – somehow. Even after his death, he would fuel the courage they needed to stay together. He would guide them as they worked through conflict and struggle.
Yet, Easter is more than a battered group dusting off for the next leg of their journey. Easter, as it comes to us as a pivotal celebration on the Christian calendar, is less known for the next steps on a foggy, uncertain morning, and more know for joy. Easter focuses on the joy of the morning, or maybe better said the joy that would follow that morning.
We celebrate Easter.
How do we connect the sadness, uncertainty and tentative steps of that morning to the ‘joy’… to the Alleluia part? How did Easter morning come to be known for joy, rather than for struggle? How is it a day – especially combined with other spring holiday traditions of eggs, and flowers, bright colors and hats – of celebration where we soak in hope, and love, and possibility?
Questions worthy of reflection.
For some, the joy at Easter comes from a sense of Christ emerging as a living God – a sense of God touching the world. Easter amplifies the work of Jesus – the values and the inspiration – and declares a profound connection of Jesus and God. It’s not something that happened with that clarity the first morning, but as the stories passed forward in early generations, the opportunities to connect with Jesus – to learn right and wrong – to live in goodness in a new way would continue. For some, ‘he is risen’ is literal. For many of us this is allegory.
Easter is a time to hold this story of Jesus’s values of love carrying forward in deep reverence. As UUs we come to Easter with many personal experiences, and make space for this breadth.
Easter also holds joy in the impact of Jesus’s ministry. Change is possible in staring down power. New paths opened; space was made for new guiding principles. Easter sets out high standards of equality and compassion. It had been a week of disruption.
Easter too holds joy as a story rudimentary survival of a community, even after loss.
Joy is not one dimensional. It comes as a source of renewal; a grounding of power used to good.
Writer Cole Arthur Riley, the author of ‘This Here Flesh and Black Liturgies,” offers this insight on joy,
“We must reclaim joy outside of the artificial “cheer” it is often reduced to. There is a joy that is defiant. A portal to survival for our ancestors. A way to say, we will not be captive to despair nor abandon our belief in beauty. Joy with teeth.”
Riley names a defiant joy.
Her words, ‘A portal to survival for our ancestors’ remind us in time others will look to our stories, to our matters of resistance and survival. She reminds us through joy we have a chance to stand up for what is good and to pass it forward. We are part of the chain.
Flipping it around, we have given stories of survival through joy from those who have come before. Cole’s image of defiant joy helps us connect with the disciples on that first Easter morning.
They would need joy to survive – to collectively survive. Likely not joy right away, but soon. They were to carry on. They needed to be amazed together – in awe together – to find hope together.
Easter is among the stories that we are given. It feels especially important to receive this gift this year; to feel this sense of joy coming through from our ancestors today. Such grounded joy is fundamental to our living.
Last Easter, my colleague and friend Rev. Gretchen Weis preached at UUFE on the evolution of Easter and included a reading from Richard Gilbert, “A Tomb is No Place to Stay.’ In part it reminds us,
“A tomb is no place to stay
When each morning announces our reprieve,
And we know we are granted yet another day of living.”
So many before us have found ways to resist. They have named ideals for society on equality and compassion and summoned the courage to stand up to power in the name of these values. They resisted AND continued living in joy all at once. A defiant joy.
Easter is a story of resistance and renewal. For renewal we need something to break open. To have space, the stone needs to move. It is in that release – the opening, we find joy. Yes, a joy “with teeth.” A joy we can celebrate.
Easter offers us the model of Jesus who bends the arc towards what is good; a leader who kept love at the center. Easter offers new ways to see good in creation – images we need this year.
The stone moves and the light shines in.
May It Be So