Alleluia, He Is Risen!
Preaching
The Life Of Christ And The Death Of A Loved One
Crafting The Funeral Homily
A Funeral Homily For The Great 50 Days Of Easter
Canticle: Christ Is Risen or Pascha Nostrum
Music: He Is Risen, He Is Risen
The liturgy for the dead, the Burial Office, for which we have come here today, is an Easter liturgy. And since we are in the midst of the Great Fifty Days of the Easter season, it is doubly an Easter liturgy.
Therefore, we call today a celebration: a celebration of Jesus' resurrection, and the celebration of the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life for those who trust in him.
Early in the nineteenth century, this joy of the resurrection captured Cecil Frances Alexander, a young poet and verse writer. He wrote an Easter poem for children, in simple words so that even children might understand. The first stanza of his poem is now the opening verse of a familiar Easter hymn:
He is risen, he is risen,
Tell it out with joyful voice,
He has burst his three days' prison,
Let the whole wide earth rejoice:
death is conquered, we are free,
Christ has won the victory.
(''He Is Risen, He Is Risen,'' The Hymnal 1982, 180).
These simple yet powerful words frame my message this day.
He Is Risen, He Is Risen
''He is risen, he is risen.'' Some years ago there was a large gathering in what was then known as the Soviet Union. A brilliant man spoke for 90 minutes on behalf of atheism, attempting to persuade the crowd to give up religion. When he was finished, a young Russian Orthodox priest approached the platform and asked if he could speak. The atheist speaker said, ''Yes, but only for five minutes.'' The priest replied, ''I won't need that much time.''
The priest mounted the stage, stood before the microphone, and cried out in a clear voice, ''Alleluia, Christ is risen!''
The response came back from the crowd: ''The Lord is risen, indeed! Alleluia!''
The young priest turned to the atheist and said, ''That is my speech. I need no more time.''
Alleluia, Christ is Risen! The Lord is risen indeed, alleluia! That says it all, doesn't it? For here is the very center and meaning of our faith: Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. What difference does it make to us today?
It means that Jesus Christ destroyed death. The Book of Common Prayer says he ''trampled down death by death'' (BCP p. 500). Good Friday was not the last word. God raised Jesus up, and this is good news for us.
Paul says, ''If we have died with him, we will be raised with him.'' Christ is risen - these three words change everything. This is what we gather here to celebrate: he is risen, he is risen.
Tell It Out With Joyful Voice
''Tell it out with joyful voice.'' Now, today a joyful voice seems far from us. Sorrow, sadness, and grief are close to our hearts. No doubt we can say with the author of Psalm 42:
Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul,
and why are you so disquieted within me?
To grieve is not unchristian. Grieving is a natural expression of the care and love we have for one another, and of the sorrow we feel when parted by death.
But as Christians we are an Easter people. We believe that sorrow is not as strong as joy; death is not as strong as life; grief is not as strong as hope. And therefore we can shout out with joyful voice. And our shout is this:
He is risen, he is risen, tell it out with joyful voice.
He Has Burst His Three Days' Prison
''He has burst his three days' prison.'' The grave couldn't hold Christ.
He broke the bonds of death so that we might break forth from the prisons that hold us: prisons of fear, prisons of hatred, prisons of sin, prisons of sickness and death.
The power of Jesus' resurrection is stronger than any earthly prison that binds us, even death. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus said to Lazarus' sister Martha, ''I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?''
Do you believe it? The invitation of Christ to Martha, and to us, is to believe it, to follow the one who in his person experienced resurrection, who is resurrection itself.
Martha responded, ''Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God.'' Those who believe in and follow the resurrected one will also burst the prison of death. The grave can't hold them either.
Let The Whole Wide World Rejoice
Therefore, let the whole wide earth rejoice. Our faith allows us, encourages us; yes, even compels us to shout out with hope the words of Easter joy: Alleluia! In the words of the commendation, ''All of us go down to the dust, yet even at the grave we make our song, alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!''
Job, in the midst of the worst suffering known to human beings, broke forth with joyful song when he wrote:
As for me, I know that my redeemer lives,
and that at the last
My redeemer will stand upon the earth.
After my awakening, God will raise me up,
and in my body I shall see God.
I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold God,
who is my friend, and not a stranger.
We are a people who grieve, but we are also a people who know hope and believe that God is with us; the same God who raised Jesus from the dead will also redeem us and bring us with joy into God's eternal presence.
Death Is Conquered, We Are Free, Christ Has Won The Victory
Finally, ''Death is conquered, we are free, Christ has won the victory.'' When a Christian dies, the task of the church is nothing other than to affirm the resurrection. We are here today to remind each other and to tell those who do not know: In Jesus Christ, death is conquered. We are free. We are here to remember that Easter is not a day, one day that falls each spring. It is a season, it is the great time of celebration, the 50 days from Easter Day to Pentecost Day. And even more, Easter is an eternal truth, and a way of life.
We are meant by God to live every day with the joy and power of Easter Day: living out of love, not fear; living in joy, not sorrow. Because we are an Easter people; our grief is not forever, our sadness can not last.
Death is conquered, we are free, Christ has won the victory. That is our song today.
Therefore, in sure and certain hope of the resurrection, we proclaim the joyful verse:
He is risen, he is risen, tell it out with joyful voice.
He has burst his three days' prison; Let the whole wide earth rejoice.
Death is conquered, we are free, Christ has won the victory.
(The Hymnal 1982, 180)
Amen.
Canticle: Christ Is Risen or Pascha Nostrum
Music: He Is Risen, He Is Risen
The liturgy for the dead, the Burial Office, for which we have come here today, is an Easter liturgy. And since we are in the midst of the Great Fifty Days of the Easter season, it is doubly an Easter liturgy.
Therefore, we call today a celebration: a celebration of Jesus' resurrection, and the celebration of the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life for those who trust in him.
Early in the nineteenth century, this joy of the resurrection captured Cecil Frances Alexander, a young poet and verse writer. He wrote an Easter poem for children, in simple words so that even children might understand. The first stanza of his poem is now the opening verse of a familiar Easter hymn:
He is risen, he is risen,
Tell it out with joyful voice,
He has burst his three days' prison,
Let the whole wide earth rejoice:
death is conquered, we are free,
Christ has won the victory.
(''He Is Risen, He Is Risen,'' The Hymnal 1982, 180).
These simple yet powerful words frame my message this day.
He Is Risen, He Is Risen
''He is risen, he is risen.'' Some years ago there was a large gathering in what was then known as the Soviet Union. A brilliant man spoke for 90 minutes on behalf of atheism, attempting to persuade the crowd to give up religion. When he was finished, a young Russian Orthodox priest approached the platform and asked if he could speak. The atheist speaker said, ''Yes, but only for five minutes.'' The priest replied, ''I won't need that much time.''
The priest mounted the stage, stood before the microphone, and cried out in a clear voice, ''Alleluia, Christ is risen!''
The response came back from the crowd: ''The Lord is risen, indeed! Alleluia!''
The young priest turned to the atheist and said, ''That is my speech. I need no more time.''
Alleluia, Christ is Risen! The Lord is risen indeed, alleluia! That says it all, doesn't it? For here is the very center and meaning of our faith: Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. What difference does it make to us today?
It means that Jesus Christ destroyed death. The Book of Common Prayer says he ''trampled down death by death'' (BCP p. 500). Good Friday was not the last word. God raised Jesus up, and this is good news for us.
Paul says, ''If we have died with him, we will be raised with him.'' Christ is risen - these three words change everything. This is what we gather here to celebrate: he is risen, he is risen.
Tell It Out With Joyful Voice
''Tell it out with joyful voice.'' Now, today a joyful voice seems far from us. Sorrow, sadness, and grief are close to our hearts. No doubt we can say with the author of Psalm 42:
Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul,
and why are you so disquieted within me?
To grieve is not unchristian. Grieving is a natural expression of the care and love we have for one another, and of the sorrow we feel when parted by death.
But as Christians we are an Easter people. We believe that sorrow is not as strong as joy; death is not as strong as life; grief is not as strong as hope. And therefore we can shout out with joyful voice. And our shout is this:
He is risen, he is risen, tell it out with joyful voice.
He Has Burst His Three Days' Prison
''He has burst his three days' prison.'' The grave couldn't hold Christ.
He broke the bonds of death so that we might break forth from the prisons that hold us: prisons of fear, prisons of hatred, prisons of sin, prisons of sickness and death.
The power of Jesus' resurrection is stronger than any earthly prison that binds us, even death. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus said to Lazarus' sister Martha, ''I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?''
Do you believe it? The invitation of Christ to Martha, and to us, is to believe it, to follow the one who in his person experienced resurrection, who is resurrection itself.
Martha responded, ''Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God.'' Those who believe in and follow the resurrected one will also burst the prison of death. The grave can't hold them either.
Let The Whole Wide World Rejoice
Therefore, let the whole wide earth rejoice. Our faith allows us, encourages us; yes, even compels us to shout out with hope the words of Easter joy: Alleluia! In the words of the commendation, ''All of us go down to the dust, yet even at the grave we make our song, alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!''
Job, in the midst of the worst suffering known to human beings, broke forth with joyful song when he wrote:
As for me, I know that my redeemer lives,
and that at the last
My redeemer will stand upon the earth.
After my awakening, God will raise me up,
and in my body I shall see God.
I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold God,
who is my friend, and not a stranger.
We are a people who grieve, but we are also a people who know hope and believe that God is with us; the same God who raised Jesus from the dead will also redeem us and bring us with joy into God's eternal presence.
Death Is Conquered, We Are Free, Christ Has Won The Victory
Finally, ''Death is conquered, we are free, Christ has won the victory.'' When a Christian dies, the task of the church is nothing other than to affirm the resurrection. We are here today to remind each other and to tell those who do not know: In Jesus Christ, death is conquered. We are free. We are here to remember that Easter is not a day, one day that falls each spring. It is a season, it is the great time of celebration, the 50 days from Easter Day to Pentecost Day. And even more, Easter is an eternal truth, and a way of life.
We are meant by God to live every day with the joy and power of Easter Day: living out of love, not fear; living in joy, not sorrow. Because we are an Easter people; our grief is not forever, our sadness can not last.
Death is conquered, we are free, Christ has won the victory. That is our song today.
Therefore, in sure and certain hope of the resurrection, we proclaim the joyful verse:
He is risen, he is risen, tell it out with joyful voice.
He has burst his three days' prison; Let the whole wide earth rejoice.
Death is conquered, we are free, Christ has won the victory.
(The Hymnal 1982, 180)
Amen.
