Sermon at Easter 2018 in Tao Fong Shan by rev. Ole Skjerbæk Madsen

“The highest skies are in love with you.

The great Earth opens its palms.”

This is the opening of praise of God from the Jesus-sutras, written by the Nestorian Christians in China around 800 AD, and these worlds might just as well have been the Universe’s reaction to Christ’s resurrection.

Heaven and earth unites in joy. Creation is restored through Christ’s death and resurrection. Through the cross Jesus descended into the depths of the earth, as well as into the realm of our dead ancestors. He is with the words of the Jesus-Sutra “the Saviour of the countless suffering beings”. And the Sutra goes on praising him:

“Compassionate joyous Lamb

Loving all who suffer

Fearless as you strive for us

You have freed us from the karma of our lives,

Brought us back to our original nature.”

Nothing binds us any longer to a meaningless life or to a destiny formed by our ancestors or our own actions. Jesus Christ frees us from karma, from original sin, and from that pattern of abuse which has bound us to death.

Our original nature that he restores to us is the freedom belonging to God’s children. It’s a reflection in our hearts and in our lives of God’s loving presence to us in Christ Jesus. He sets us free to once more knowing God and to sharing life with God. He sets us free to care for nature an all our fellow-created beings. He sets us free to serve each other in love and with the gifts of the Spirit.

He is risen, he lives, and he is at once with God and with us. Jesus’ resurrection is a factual happening 2000 years ago, and it’s an experiential fact to all who believe in him. That’s why we pray and call upon him. Would it be meaningful to call upon him, if his lfe, death and resurrection were fiction, or if he had remained in his tomb?

We pray to him, and today he says to us:

I Am the resurrection and the life. Who so ever believe in me shall inherit life everlasting with me. Not even suffering and death will separate us from each other. I give my Spirit to you, so that I may live in you and guide you as you listen to my silent voice in your heart and conscience. I give unto you my Spirit, so that my word in the Bible becomes life to you. I give unto you my Spirit, so that you may serve each other and the earth in the power of my Kingdom.

“The highest skies are in love with you.

The great Earth opens its palms.”

Christ is risen! Truly risen!