“Easter’s Grace Notes”

We have a special “worship adventures” on this special day – another Easter surprise. We invite children to come forward to sit up front together. Everyone will share in the Easter message today.

First – a little Easter practice. It is finally Easter and we can once again shout Alleluia. Remember back in February when we put then away? Well, it’s Easter so we opened the box and the alleluias are back. So let’s practice: when I say, Alleluia! Christ is risen! You say,

Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia!

When I was young I took music lessons and I had to practice …

Not piano – we didn’t have one – French horn lessons.

teacher scolding me for not practicing enough,

my mother crying because it sounded so awful

Somewhere in the midst of those years I discovered “grace notes.”

You know what grace notes are, right? The music dictionary calls them ornaments or embellishments of the melody. I think it’s easier if we hear them. Mr. French Horn player in the choir loft, please help us out.

First, a phrase without grace notes…. [please play a phrase plainly]

Now, if you please, add a bit of grace… [please play with embellishment]

It was fun to add in those tiny little notes to make an ordinary bit of music just a bit extraordinary. It helped make practicing a bit more interesting, at least for me.

Easter is about grace notes. Not the musical kind, although they can give us a glimpse of Easter’s joy. Easter is about God’s gracious gift of resurrection life – glimpses of resurrection surprise.

Easter reminds us that the extraordinary gift of God’s grace and love appears all over the place in our everyday ordinary lives.

Easter’s grace note is about angels at the tomb announcing amazing news: the Master Jesus is not here, but is alive again!

It’s about women in a time when men were in charge – about women being trusted to share that Good News.

It’s about men deciding the women are making up the stories about Jesus being alive again -- only to discover for themselves that, hey, they might be right. [Their tale might not be such an idle one after all.]

It’s about words of care and respect spoken to honor the life of someone even though the pain of a bitter divorce is still very real. It’s about everyone who knew her remembering that person with laughter and with tears. And it’s about folks leaving that memorial service two weeks ago saying, “Wow, that was more like an Easter service than a funeral!”

It’s about finding balance in chaos, having hope and a prayer to steady us as we navigate the trials of children going their separate ways while illness takes parents away mentally before they are physically gone, all the while our own bodies are facing the onslaught of aging.

It’s about finding meaning and purpose in life in places we’d never expect – finding energy and joy during drills on the soccer, baseball or marching band field; finding peace in the call to be activist or soldier; finding life at the bedside of a dying friend.

Remember what those angels, God’s messengers, asked the women that first Easter morning? “Why are you looking for the Living One in a cemetery?” Christ is alive and God’s surprises happen in all sorts of places in our lives: like when people who are fighting shake hands, and when people who have plenty of food share with those who are hungry, and when people who have a home share their time and skills helping build one for a family that doesn’t have a home. God’s grace doesn’t happen just on Easter Sunday – it happens in surprising ways every day, every time we hear forgiveness, or love, or hope.

So, listen for the grace notes …. [please play an embellished line]

Well, yes those grace notes. And also for Easter’s grace notes: listen for the ways God is surprising you with Good News every day. Listen for the Good News at home or school or work. Listen for it on the playing field and in the car. Listen for it. Enjoy it. And shout the good news so all the world can hear:

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia! Amen.