An Easter Sermon: Possibility and Love

Easter Sermon 2025
Rev. Abigail A. Henrich
@abbyhenrich

There is an old story in Christianity. 
It goes like this:
Eve ate the apple. We are all sinners. All broken. All terrible. Humanity is a disaster. Individuals are really rotten at the core. It’s called original sin.

There is another story in our faith tradition. It is scriptural, but let me be clear it is not the only explanation in the Newer Testament. Instead it is one of many interpretations of the holy week story, specifically the cross. Augustine made it really famous in the 4th century and it is THE prevalent story of the modern Christian church. 
It goes like this:
We are so terrible that God needs to sacrifice something on our behalf to forgive us. It’s called substitutionary atonement. You know, Jesus died on the cross for YOUR sins.

As a kid I wondered why if God loved me so much God couldn’t just forgive me instead of deciding killing Jesus was a good idea…..

Finally there is another story that is circulating in our country and in most American Christian churches. Let me be very very clear this story is not found in the Bible.
It goes like this:
Things are changing at a rapid pace. We live in a global, multicultural, multi racial, inner religious country. The only response is FEAR. We should close our hearts. Close our homes. Close our schools and libraries. And we should without question close our borders and harbors. The world is a terribly fearful place. And the only people to trust are people who look like you, worship like you, and were born in this country. It’s called white christian nationalism. 

I want to tell you a different story. I want to tell you the story of a prophet named Jesus. I want to tell you the story of a man who lived in Nazareth and traveled all over the Galilean countryside teaching and healing and preaching good news to the outcast, the forgotten, the least. And then this man, this prophet, this teacher, this political-social radical, this community organizer entered Jerusalem during the week of Passover. 

This is the story of Holy Week. 
It is a story of a final meal with friends, a cup and loaf of bread shared.
It is a story of a leader washing his followers feet and commanding them to love one another.
It is a story of a man alone, praying, afraid of what is to come.
It is a story of a betrayal.
And it is a story of a violent empire, an unjust trial, and a state sponsored execution on the cross.
It is a story of a community devastated by the death of their beloved friend and leader.
It is a story of one who petitions for Jesus’s body and has it laid in a tomb.
And it is a story of women eager to prepare his body for burial, but who must wait on account of the sabbath.
Finally it is a story of the unexpected. 
It is a story of a stone rolled back and an empty tomb.
It is a story of New Possibilities. 

This story is called EASTER.

This is WHY we remember the person of Jesus and his life and ministry. This is why all over the globe people gather this day to sing Alleluia! This is why a small band of misfits-- tax collectors, fishermen, lepers, hemorrhaging women-- transformed into a movement.

I think original sin and substitutionary atonement are pretty terrible sales pitches. I mean really, who wants to hear that stuff? And what Christian marketing executive approved of this? These stories did not propel the gospel of Jesus onto the international stage. Instead, they were most likely employed for empire, so that once again the powerful could control the least.

The story of Easter propelled the small group from the Galilean countryside following a socio-political reformer into a world religion. Without the resurrection there would be no Christianity. 

And the Easter story is NOT about the depravity of humankind or violence. The Easter story is a story of possibility and love.

I want to say this again: Possibility and Love. Not depravity or violence. Possibility and Love. 

So why should we bother? Why should we embrace this story opposed to the others I have told you? Because maybe like me you need some more love, some more belief in the possibility of what can happen, what can be.

When Jesus died everyone thought it was over. No one believed there was anything more. The word possibility wasn’t in their vocabulary. And yet here we are.

So what possibility do you need to see, embrace, hope for, pray for, work for?

Is it the possibility of sobriety?
Is it the possibility of mending a broken relationship?
Is it the possibility of finally loving yourself as God loves you?
Is it the possibility of a community bound together in love instead of division?
Is it the possibility of defeating fear and hate and replacing it with a love so wide, so big that there is no turning back?
What is the possibility before you this morning? This day? This week? This month? This year? This lifetime? For if we are an Easter people, if we are people of the Easter Story and not people of depravity and fear and violence, what possibilities shall we seek?

I want to leave you with a final story. It is a story of a minority neighborhood in North Charleston. This neighborhood was dominated by a narrative they did not write or speak, but still this narrative--this story-- was told to everyone else. And the narrative was one that I am sure is familiar to all of us. Poor neighborhoods have no potential. They are filled with listless people who do not care. They are violent and dangerous and why bother investing? 

But my friends, with the backing of the Baptist Cooperative, began an afterschool program there…. And well with that one step everything changed. 

• Homeownership
• Literacy Classes
• Freedom Summer Camp
• A board of directors filled with leaders from the neighborhood
• Small businesses
• Graduates from the after school program leading the after school program

Here is the choice. Do you want to remain stuck in a hopeless narrative? A narrative that roots itself in violence and fear. Do you want to just hunker down and hold on?

Or do you want to EMBRACE the possibility of what may be because LOVE does and will always change everything? EVERYTHING. Make that choice here and right now. 

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