A Sermon for the Feast of the Resurrection: Easter Day
April 20, 2025
Texts: John 20:1-18 and 1 Corinthians 15:19-26
Now, O Lord, take my lips, and speak through them. Take our minds, and think through them. Take our hearts, and set them on fire. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Episcopal Church, we have lots of beautiful and uplifting hymns we love to sing during the season of Easter as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord.
One of my favorites has a refrain that goes like this:
“This is the feast of victory for our God. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!”
I love that word—Victory!
I think it perfectly sums up what Easter is really all about.
We celebrate this day because Christ is risen!
We celebrate this day because Christ endured the worst humanity could inflict upon him, and God glorified him and raised him up on the third day.
We celebrate this day because we who share in our Lord’s death and resurrection, through the waters of Baptism, have been made a new creation.
Death has been put to flight, and the death of our Savior has set us free.
Not long ago, I came across a story I wanted to share with you this morning.
I think you’ll appreciate it.
It was written by an Episcopal priest who used to love to share it on Easter morning.
The title of the story was, “The Shortest Easter Sermon Ever Preached.”
That sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
It was about a bishop in the Church who used to visit the same parish every year on Easter Sunday.
I don’t know who the bishop was or the church he used to visit.
All I know is that it was somewhere in Pennsylvania.
One year, during the bishop’s visit, the time came for him to preach his Easter sermon.
So, he got up and walked over to the pulpit.
What he didn’t realize at the time was that, since his last visit, a sounding board had been installed above the pulpit.
Now, for those of you who don’t know, a sounding board is an ornate, wooden covering, that’s sometimes hung over a pulpit to project the preacher’s voice outward toward the congregation.
It’s kind of like a fancy roof over the pulpit. A lot of times you’ll find them in old, historic churches.
Well, the bishop went into the pulpit without realizing the new sounding board was there.
And, the worst part is that no one bothered to tell him, even though he stood well over six feet tall.
He stood in the pulpit and was ready to preach.
And the very first thing he did was thrust his hand into the air with his pointer finger extended and shouted, “Victory!”
Well, you can probably guess what happened next.
The bishop broke his finger on the sounding board.
Then, he fainted, and had to be carried out of the church.
And, that’s the story of the shortest Easter sermon ever preached.
It was one word.
“Victory!”
It’s a funny story.
But, I think it’s also kind of perfect.
Because, when you think about it, what else really needs to be said?
We’ve walked with Jesus over the past week through his suffering and death.
We’ve experienced the excitement of Palm Sunday—how Jesus entered the holy city of Jerusalem riding on the back of a donkey with crowds of people shouting “Hosanna” and laying their cloaks on the ground to make a way for Jesus.
We’ve experienced the last supper Jesus shared with his disciples—how he humbled himself and washed his disciples’ feet as a lowly servant, giving them an example of how they should love one another.
We’ve experienced the pain and agony of the cross—how Jesus was betrayed and deserted by his friends and how he willingly offered himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.
And, last night, during the Great Vigil of Easter, we celebrated the Passover of our Lord—how Jesus passed over from death into new life, opening up for all of us the way to eternal life with God.
So, I can think of no better word for us to use today—on this day of the Lord’s resurrection—than “victory.”
You and I are here today because of Christ’s victory.
We are reconciled with God and promised eternal life because of Christ’s victory.
We are bound together as one Body because of Christ’s victory.
In all that we say and do—in every word and action—we are called to live as a sign to the world of Christ’s victory.
Because we are Easter people.
We proclaim it every Sunday in the words of the Nicene Creed:
“For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”
And because we are Easter people—because of our Lord’s death on the cross and his glorious resurrection, we have no reason to ever live in fear again.
Because of Christ’s victory, death no longer has any dominion over us.
There is nothing—no power in heaven or on earth—that can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
The Lord has taken us by the hand and will never let us go.
We are his forever.
And yet—
Far too often, it’s so easy for us to fall into a lack of faith, even though we know what happens on the third day.
It’s the same story we hear every year on Easter Sunday.
We know that Christ Jesus rose victorious from the grave.
We know that sin and death have been defeated.
And yet, we spend so much of our time acting as though death has the final word.
We turn on the news, and all we hear are stories of doom and gloom.
The world is coming to an end, and there’s no hope for any of us.
We hear stories of wars and famine and people starving around the world, and we think to ourselves, “What hope do we possibly have?”
We hear stories of people in positions of power who use their influence and wealth—not for the good and welfare of others—but for their own, personal gain, and we wonder, “Where is the love?”
We hear stories of violence and oppression and people committing terrible acts of hatred against one another, and we ask ourselves, “Where is God?”
Well, I’ll tell you where God is.
He is here.
He is in the midst of his people.
He is with those who suffer.
He is with the hopeless and those who live in fear and uncertainty.
He is in the hearts of the faithful—with you, and me, and all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And, he’s called us to live—not for this present age—but for the life of the world to come.
To work—not for the kingdom of this world—but for the Kingdom of God, that God’s will may be done on earth at it is in heaven.
The apostle Paul said it this way in his first letter to the Corinthians:
“If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.
For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.”
My brothers and sisters, this is the feast of victory for our God.
It’s a day worth celebrating—a day that fills the hearts of those who believe with great joy and gladness.
But, it’s more than just a celebration.
It’s also a declaration to the world that the powers of sin and death have been defeated, once and for all.
Christ is risen, and love lives again.
Christ is risen, and we are redeemed.
In the end, it’s God who has the final word, and the final word is this—
Say it with me.
Victory!
Amen.
The Rev. Eric Mancil 