`Who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist’ Romans 4:17

A dead Jesus. This is where I must begin my Easter Message, sounding the ending note of human existence. For the ending of human existence is the starting point for God. Every funeral we dreadfully attend, every obituary we read, is a testimony to the limits of human capacity. Whatever age or race from which the dead one hails, to whatever extent the cadaver in the coffin has reached notoriety, the funeral marks the end of that particular life. So, I press the reality before us: a dead Jesus. Death -- we can do nothing about it or, in the Latin, `nihil.’ This is where God comes into the picture.

In the first instance, Christian teaching manufactured a phrase to speak, in shorthand, about `nothingness, nihil’ and then applied that phrase to the creation of the world. We call it, `creation, ex nihilo,’ that is, creation out of nothing. We claim that God, from the very beginning, performed a deed that only God could perform: the creation of the universe. Whether or not, as the ancients maintain, there was `primeval darkness’ or a `watery abyss, with which to work, is quite beside the point. And whether or not, as some moderns insist, a seven-day creation extravaganza is too unsophisticated a way to understand how creation came into being, likewise detracts from the point:. `Creation ex nihilo’ contends that a conscious, purposeful power willed something from nothing, a magnificent `something’ at that. And if you think that creating the universe out of nothing is a splendid achievement, consider now the resurrection from the dead.

Redemption, ex nihilo, as an applied phrase, stakes a claim that, in some ways, is even more preposterous than the first claim about creation. For here, a created being, dead and buried, is actually proceeding against the path of life. With the naturalizing forces of disintegration and decay already in force, there is unequivocally installed the impossibility of anything remotely similar to created life emerging henceforth. Death has escorted the human creature into the zone of `nihilism.’

Therefore, if the proclamation we call `Easter’ carries any weight in reality, we are constrained to say, `The bold truth about Easter is that something happens in the life of a dead man which is impossible to happen!’ In direct defiance to the natural process of decay (a process verifiable by laboratory research everywhere), God speaks a word of redemption to an otherwise disintegrating corpse, a word which interrupts the human-ending rush unto nothingness -- by salvaging that human dying for godly living. After all, do you not think that the One who forms humankind from the mere dust of the earth cannot breathe into those same dead ones redemption, `ex nihilo?’ And how can this be? Through human effort or strength, goodness or inherent worth? Rather, through a sheer and immutable will that prevails over every other semblance of reality, including the reality of death. We call that will, `God,’ and since it is the dead Jesus who is resurrected, we call that God, `the Father of Jesus.’

One move remains: the sheer and immutable will of the Father of Jesus is also and fundamentally a gracious will. It is a will, after all, which creates and redeems life, `ex nihilo.’ Therefore, through the sheer grace of God, the Easter message extends also to us who believe: Not only is Christ risen – we shall live also!

The Resurrection of Our Lord is celebrated on Easter Morning, March 27th. Worship begins at 8:00am with Holy Communion and culminates in the Festival Service at 11:00am. Worship the Living God who redeems human life from the grave, `ex nihilo!’

Pastor Kopp

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Members, guests and visitors, all are welcome!

Rev. Rodney S. Kopp, Pastor
Wayne Lutz, Church Administrator
Karl Schneider, Shut-InMinistry
Sheila D. Booker, Director of Music
Rebecca Ehrlich, Parish Associate

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