Gem of God’s Grace

He is not here. He has risen from the dead.

The women go to the tomb

not expecting him to be raised from dead.

They are expecting him to be there

and to be anointed with the oils,

carrying perfume and spices.

They were surprised that in the midst of their suffering,

something magnificent has happened.

They were terrified by what has happened.

So they run to the disciples

and they share what they see, an empty tomb.

He is raised from the dead.

That is the cornerstone, my friends, of our faith,

the absolute defining moment of our faith

that the resurrection is real, not just for Christ,

but for you and me.

That moment defines the entirety of our faith,

the entirety of our year and the entirety of our lives,

if we allow it.

But we need to allow it.

We need to enter into it.

Every year we journey for 40 days in the desert

and we emulate that as the darkness.

We emulate that tonight in a very powerful way

by staying in the darkness

while the story of history of our faith is shared.

As we share that story, we remember the darkness

our brothers and sisters of our faith from years past,

but also of ours, the times when we were not expecting God,

that the surprise moments of our lives

where God shows up when we were in pain and suffering.

Then something happens and

we realize that God is real, God is alive, my friends.

We do that because it is powerful.

We remember when we were going outside

with all the light and that there was nothing

but the Easter candle lit from the flame.

And as each one of us took the light,

we glowed across the church

and we sat with lights glowing around us.

You see my friends,

that is the powerful symbol of the light of Christ

within each one of us.

This is more than just a ritual, my friends.

It is more than a reenactment of some sort.

We are called to remember

that we are the light of Christ.

That the light we have,

that we are holding actually burns within us.

It actually is within us,

but we have to allow it to burn brightly.

We have to grab a hold of our faith

and let that light shine.

Sometimes I fear that the darkness of the world

creeps in on us,

and then we believe that the light is no longer there.

That is the danger of our world,

is that we allow the darkness to seep into us.

But all we have to do is remember

to turn on the light of Christ within us,

that light of God's love.

He did not settle for being a distant God,

but became one of us and died upon a cross

so that we would know that

we have somebody in the midst of our suffering.

That light, even in the darkest moments of our lives,

God is there now.

I know that we say it so often and it is so incredulous.

But this is the core of the message

that God did not remain distant from us,

but became one of us

and was willing to suffer with us

and to show us the way through the suffering into eternal life.

Now, I know this hard truth, so let me share with this a metaphor.

Rocks are sometimes are just rocks, right?

They are little rocks.

Let me show you this picture.

Here is a picture of rocks.

Those are just rocks, right?

But under the right light,

those rocks become something different.

With ultraviolet light,

they have luminous minerals inside of them.

They are the same rocks.

So I put them side by side just in case

you do not believe me,

side by side, they are the exact same rock.

But with the ray of ultraviolet light,

they become magnificent colors.

That light that is a great metaphor

for us tonight to hold on to.

We are like those rocks,

but we are not just rocks, my friends,

we have the luminous grace of God that holds within us.

We are children of God.

We are children of God,

and there is no one who can tell us otherwise.

Now, I get it, that life sometimes turns off the light on us

and we feel like just rocks.

And sometimes we even get ground down.

But let me tell you, nothing can grind out

that bright light of who we really are.

We are children of God.

We are the beloved children of God.

Now, these candidates,

the elect have been on a journey for their whole life.

But in these last few weeks,

they have taken this journey seriously.

They have stepped into the light of faith

and they want to remember and

know that they are children of God,

beloved children of God.

It is a reminder not just for them,

but in fact for all of us, that we are children of God.

The world is going to tell you something different.

The world wants you to think you are just rocks,

just an amalgamation of atoms and clay,

nothing particularly significant about you.

And they are wrong, completely wrong!

They are deeply wrong

because we believe we are children of the light.

We believe we are children of God.

And there is nothing that can take that away from us.

So what are we called to do?

We are called to let the light of Christ

shine not only on us and within us,

but from us, so that others can see

that they have the grace, the gem of grace within them.

These luminous minerals that we have in rocks

are like the luminous grace of God within us.

We are called to shine the light of Christ on others.

It is not enough that we just celebrate

here together with all of us who believe,

we have to become the light in the world.

We have to be the kindness.

We have to be the patience.

We have to be the gentleness.

We have to be everything.

And we claim that God is.

We have to be children of the light

so that the world can look at us

and wonder what is about those people?

What is it about those odd people over at St. Simon?

They are always so joyful.

They are always light, always smiling.

They are always full of light.

What is it? What do they have?

We show them the ultraviolet light of God's love

and shine the light on them

so they too can look in the mirror

and see that they are the light too.

That they have the word of God within them,

that they have the luminous light of the Christ within them.

Now look, we all know there are times

that we do not even believe that for ourselves

because we get wounded,

we get broken,

or we get sick,

or something happens to a friend or a family

where we get wounded and broken or sick.

But that is why we need each other.

Because in those dark days,

somebody else comes along and

shines a light of Christ in us and

illumines the gem of God's grace within us.

And then we believe to begin again,

that we are a gem of God's grace.

That we are a beloved son and daughter of God, tonight.

What we do for the candidates and elect

we do for ourselves, we remind us

that we the beloved children of God,

we are not just rocks.

We are rocks with a gem of God's grace within us.

The luminous light of God,

the light of Christ.

So let it shine.