1 Peter 1:3-8 NRSV Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy.

Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove; descend on us, reveal your love. Word of God and inward light, wake our spirits; clear our sight. Surround us now with all your glory; speak through me that sacred story. Take my lips and make them bold. Take hearts and minds and make them whole. Stir in us that sacred flame; then send us forth to spread your name. Amen.

After the betrayal in the garden and the mockery of a trial, after the timidity of his disciples and the agony of the cross, after the pain of the Passion and the silence of the tomb, there came forth this great shout of Easter that shook the earth and changed the world, “He is not here! He is Risen!”

Alan Watts, Zen Buddhist, once said that Christians are far too reticent in their proclamation and much too restrained in their celebration. He said, “If I were a Christian and believed my Savior had been raised from the dead, I would shout it from the rooftop!” So, I invite you this morning to affirm that great truth: Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen indeed!

So, today we gather in this room and pack the pews; we lose some of our reserve; we pull out the stops and sing at the top of our lungs. Why? Because indeed, Christ is Risen! Somehow we know Easter changes everything! It changes what we believe is possible; it gives us hope in the face of death and it shows us how to live with hope and joy in the midst of our lives.

I love the language of 1^st Peter when he says we are “born anew into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ….” Then, he goes on to call this resurrection nothing less than “an inheritance”…an inheritance that is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.”

An inheritance! Just think of it! You and I are in the will! That’s why you came today. Because you knew I was going to read the will! You came in hopes that you would be reminded of your inheritance. And some of you also came in hopes that all the relatives…those who feel themselves favored and those who feel themselves forgotten…will hear their names in the reading of the will.

So, to all of you who are here today, I would want to say this: you have an inheritance! It is assured; it is yours for the trusting; yours for the claiming; yours for the living.

Your Easter inheritance is first about the past; it is about a hope that is based in history.

The story is familiar to most of us who gather in this room. On Friday, Jesus was killed by the Roman authorities and placed in a borrowed tomb. It was sealed by a stone and in one report, guarded by soldiers. But on Sunday, women came to the tomb and found it empty.

Over the next six weeks, He appeared to believers and skeptics alike. He showed up at dinner, came to a despondent Simon Peter, met two dejected followers on the road to Emmaus, and had breakfast with some fishermen. In all, Jesus appeared to more than 500 persons. They say these weren’t spiritual apparitions, but real-life, flesh-and-blood encounters. Then, those who saw Him went forth announcing that He’d risen from the dead.

The first Christians staked everything on that affirmation. It was an event in history so awesome, so filled with power and wonder, that it transformed a cowering band of disappointed followers into a community that would defy social convention, stand firm in the face of persecution, sing hymns in the face of prison and death, and along the way, change the shape of the world.

N.T. Wright, a New Testament scholar, says of the resurrection: it “isn’t a take it or leave it thing. It’s not optional equipment for a Christian.” Without it, Christianity is mere wishful thinking. Take it away and Christianity is a religion for wimps. But put it back and “you have a faith that can take on the world.” So, we gather to say: “Hallelujah, Christ is Risen!”

But Easter is not just about an event in the past. Easter is about a promise for the future…part of the inheritance is eternal life.

Some of you have heard me say how, when I lived in Paducah, Kentucky, there was a most unique street sign. It was at the end of Fountain Avenue where Fountain Avenue met Park Avenue. There was this stone wall and beyond the stone wall were all of these grave stones marking the graves of hundreds and hundreds of people. You would drive down Fountain Avenue, see the stone wall, see the grave markers, and there would be a sign that read, “Dead End.” And that’s what we fear. We fear that what waits us at the end of life is simply a “dead end.”

A minister friend tells of taking his two elementary aged boys to a funeral. As was the custom in that part of the country, the coffin was lowered into the ground and one by one, relatives came by and dropped a handful of dirt into the grave. The boys watched this and on the way home, the younger boy asked, “Daddy, is that what happens when you die? They just put you in a hole in the ground and cover you with dirt?” Before the pastor-father could reply, the older brother jumped in and said, “Yeah, that’s what happens. But don’t worry little brother. Jesus is strong enough to get you out of that hole!”

That’s the Good News!

Easter reminds us that there’s no grave so deep, no seal so imposing, no stone so heavy, no evil so strong as to keep Christ and those He loves in the grave.

And it gets even better than that! At the end of it all is a great party God has in store for those who love him.

One of Jesus’ favorite Biblical images of heaven was the PARTY! Not just the kind of party where folks stand around in formal clothes sipping punch from crystal cups. No! Heaven is the kind of party where you move furniture and roll up the rug to make room for feasting and dancing. It is the celebration of the ages. The Saints will be swinging from the chandeliers. There will be glad reunions with those who’ve gone before us. Each of us will realize the fullest flowering of our potential. And our joy…our joy will be like none we’ve ever known. And our experience of God will not be temporary and fleeting; it will be full and forever. This is our inheritance. (Vic Pentz)

Our Easter inheritance is about the past and about the future. But if Easter is only believing that Jesus was raised from the tomb 2000 years ago, it can become nothing more than sweet memories and veneration of a past event. If Easter is only believing that there’s an afterlife for us when we die, then Christianity can become detached from the reality of this world and become little more than “pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by.” But Easter is more! It is much more!

Greg Jones, dean of Duke Divinity School, says it like this: “If the resurrection is true, its significance (is) not limited to the past and to the future; it must be experienced today. …If Jesus is Good News…we are empowered to be Easter people today.”

And across this room I can see people who would bear that testimony.

· People who are addicted, but who would say: “I have met Him and He gave me power.”

· People who are alone, but who now say, “I met Him and I’m not alone anymore.”

· People who were hopeless, but who say, “I met Him and now I have hope.”

· People who were bitter, but who say, “Bitterness was destroying me, but then I learned to forgive.”

· People who had no purpose or no passion in life, but who say, “I met Him and now my life has meaning.”

· Hundreds of people in this room…and I am one.

Across this room are countless people who’ve discovered that our Easter hope has profound implications about how we live today. It is a truth that if embraced, changes us. If it's true, we don't have to be afraid! If it's true, we can live as children of hope. If it's true, we can throw ourselves into the things of God, knowing we are giving ourselves to things eternal.

“We are born anew into a living hope.”

Easter was and is about God getting God’s way with the world; it’s about God getting the last word in the story, and that word is always life, not death; it is always hope, not despair.

Ken Ulmer is the pastor of a mostly African-American congregation in Los Angeles. He tells the fanciful tale about two men in an art museum who came upon a painting of a chess game. One character in the painting looked like an ordinary man, but the other character looked a little like the Devil. The man is down to his last two pieces on the chessboard. The title of the painting is “Checkmate.” The impression is that for the man in the picture, all is lost; the situation is hopeless.

In the story that Ken tells, one of the two men looking at this painting is a chess champion, and something about the painting troubled him. He begins to study it. He becomes so engrossed in it. His buddy gets impatient and asks what he’s doing. The chess guy says, “There’s something about this painting that bothers me. You go ahead.” So, he stood there studying the painting.

When his friend came back, the chess-master said, “I need to locate the artist and tell him that either he has to change the picture or he has to change the title. There’s something wrong with this painting.”

His friend asked him what was wrong with the painting. The chess champion said: “Well, it’s titled ‘Checkmate,’ but the title is wrong. The painter either has to change the painting or change the title, because the king still has another move. If he makes that move he will win; the king has one more move.”

Now, in that African-American church, when Ken Ulmer said: The King still has one more move…that’s when the congregation started to get noisy. When Ken said “The King has one more move,” the people got excited. When they heard that it wasn't checkmate because the King of kings still had another move, they started communicating agreement. They knew that the message of Easter is clear: the King of Kings always has another move and it’s a winning move.

That was the case when a man named Moses convinced a nation of oppressed slaves to run away from the most powerful man on earth. At last they’re standing on the shore, with the Red Sea in front of them and Pharaoh’s army behind them. The Egyptians are shouting, “Checkmate!” And the people said to Moses, “What were you thinking?” Moses says to God, “God, what were you thinking, but then Moses begins to understand…

The King still had another move.

And then there was the Good News of a teenager by the name of David who went out into the battlefield. He heard about a giant named Goliath who was challenging the people of God. David spoke out against him and before he knew it, he was face-to-face with a giant. David tries to put on Saul’s armor, but Saul is a 52-long and David is a 36-short, and nothing fits! He can’t even handle a grown-up sword. Goliath and his Philistine cronies are shouting, “Checkmate!” but David knows something they don’t know…

The King still had another move.

Then there was a man named Daniel, who was thrown into the lion’s den because he refused to stop praying to the true and living God. The lions were hungry and Daniel was defenseless. The Emperor Darius says: “Checkmate!” It looked like the end. But when Darius checked to find out how quickly the lions devoured Daniel, he discovered that the lions had a case of lion lock jaw…and Daniel is fine. Why?

Because the King had one more move!

And on Good Friday, they tried Jesus and judged him. They whipped him and beat him; they mocked and scorned him; they hung him up on a cross and they laid him in a tomb. And everybody said: It’s over. It’s done. It’s time to go home! Checkmate!

But they were wrong.

Why?

Because the King still had another move.

And when God makes that move, love wins; hope wins; light overcomes darkness; courage overcomes fear; faith overcomes despair.

And you and I are born anew to a living hope.

The promise to you and me is that no matter what we face, whether it is pain from the past, or fear about the future, or struggles with the reality of your life today, whether it’s physical pain, or a troubled relationship, or a trying circumstance, you and I can remember our inheritance and claim the promise.

You are “born into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

By the way, the next time life seems to say, “checkmate,” don’t forget! The King, the King of Kings, always has another move.

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Endnotes: This sermon is based, in part, upon material from the following sources:

1. John E. Harnish, “Welcome Home” and “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time”

2. L. Gregory Jones, “Easter People,” Christian Century, July 1-8, 1992

3. John Ortberg, “Ultimate Hope,” February 27, 2005

4. Kenneth Swanson, “Where is the Risen Lord?” April 11, 2005

5. William Willimon, “Easter is Large,” Duke Chapel

6. N. T. Wright, “Why Easter Matters,” Good News Magazine, March 2003