Resurrection Life | Father Shawn McCain Tirres

Show Notes

Father Shawn McCain Tirres on Easter Sunday April 9, 2023 Today's Readings: Acts 10:34-43 • Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 • Colossians 3:1-4 • Matthew 28:1-10 We’re so glad you’re here! This is a community for everyone and all of life’s questions. This is a place where Jesus welcomes, shapes, and sends disciples for the good of our neighborhood. No matter where you are in life, this is a place for you. If you would like to connect click here: bit.ly/3RiftL1

What is Resurrection South Austin?

Rez is a community where Jesus welcomes, shapes, and sends disciples for the good of our neighborhood. No matter where you are in life, this is a place for you.

Life Together In The Goodness Of God

Welcome. Happy Easter. I'm so glad that you're here. If this is your first time, I'm Father Sean McAteeris and I'm so glad to welcome you on such a great occasion. What a beautiful day. We began this journey 40 days ago. You remember this? The beginning of Lent, uncluttering our lives, moving things out of the way, preparing our souls for this feast day. This is why we got rid of everything else, those things we gave up so that we could see this, so that we could cherish this, this morning. Earlier this week, we welcomed our King with palm branches. Do you remember this? Jesus on a donkey riding into Jerusalem and we said, Hosanna in the highest, welcoming our King. On Thursday, our Lord washed our feet as we washed one another's feet and he gave us this sacred meal and all of it was an expression of his great and enduring love for us. That self-sacrificing, self-giving, perfect love. That's what we saw on Thursday. And on Friday, oh, this was heavy. Do you remember Friday? Today only makes sense because we have Friday. On Friday, he suffered. He was beaten. He wore a crown of thorns and hung on a cross as an outcast outside the city gates, betrayed and alone and abandoned, so abandoned that Jesus himself felt forsaken by God. Let that sink in. God felt forsaken by God on the cross. And why? For us, for all those who are on the outside of the city gates, for all those who are forsaken, for all those burdened with sin, for all those living in the edges of darkness. He was forsaken. Then that silence of Saturday, just yesterday, feels like so long ago. That silence of Saturday. Don't mistake that silence for inactivity because he was at work. He was at work in the depths of sin in the tomb, giving a warning to sin and death and to all who stood in his way. That a new world was coming, a new life was coming, and he was leading the way. God was not at rest, but was working, paving a return route from hell itself, from the belly of hell itself, back to the Father in communion with him. And then, hallelujah, Sunday comes. By the way, if you hear something during this sermon, this isn't an interruption, all right? You can interrupt me. That's how we do it here. But then that Sunday comes. And what God is doing on that Sunday caused the earth to quake. It caused grown men who were trained killers to play dead in fear of what God was doing that morning. That's what happened when Sunday comes. It tears the curtain in the temple in two and shook all the powers to their core. On this day, on this Sunday, Christ is risen from the dead, y'all. Come on. And not just in spirit and not just as a metaphor and not as just some sort of mere spiritual thing inside of our soul. Not as just a metaphor, no. Not as just some sort of symbol. But on this day, Christ is really risen. Amen? The impossible has happened. Dead people stay dead. We all know that. But on this day, Jesus is raised for our sake. That might be hard to believe, but you're going to need to deal with it because this is what we're all trying to wrap our head around. How can one be raised from the dead by the power of God? Because God the Father says so. That's what's going on this morning. Jesus is raised. Amen. And he's not just raised. I don't know if y'all know this, but when Jesus was raised, he spent some time on the earth wandering around for like 40 days talking to people, appearing to hundreds of people. He had work to do. The resurrection was just sort of the inauguration of that part of his mission for you and I to come in contact with the living Jesus even today. Now Sundays have all a whole new meaning for us. We have a new hope. There's a new threat to everything that opposes God's rescue of those he loves now on Sundays. Now the disciples in this morning on Sunday morning were still reeling from Friday, I'm sure. And they were, scripture says, hiding from the Jews, but not the women. You notice this? Come on ladies. They had come to the place. All right, that's how I get an amen. Represent ladies, not the women. They had come to the place where they had laid his dead body not too long ago and were first to hear the angels speak those words that all of the disciples of Jesus needed to hear. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. When Sunday comes, they were sent to find their Lord not among the dead but among the living. Amen. Maybe you can relate. Maybe you can relate to some of these disciples. They had come to the place of despair and in fear and yet they were sent away to announce a great hope that they had witnessed. They had come to mourn and are sent away with great reverence and with great joy. This is what happens when we come in contact with the living Jesus on Sunday morning. A new future breaks in where those looking for the risen one follow him into that future that he is setting up in this world. Listen to this. This is what the Lord says. This is exactly what he's always promised he would do. I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again I will build you and you shall be built oh virgin Israel. Again you shall take your tambourines or cowbells and go forth in the dance of the merrymakers. Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria. The planters shall plant and shall enjoy the fruit. Beloved, when Sunday comes the liberation that God has always promised follows. When Sunday comes, can I say this again, the liberation that God has always promised us follows. It comes with him. And if you're new to this and you're like liberation of God, what is Father Sean talking about? Look at the person of Jesus and you will see everything that God has promised to accomplish, fully accomplished, fully fulfilled in the risen Jesus of Nazareth. His death for us, his descent to hell for us, his resurrection now sets us free. And all that matters now when Sunday comes is that sin no longer binds you. Death, death no longer holds us and all because of the one who was raised. Amen. Come on, I'll let you, I'll give you a moment, take that in. Amen. Look, let's be real, let's be real for a second. Evil still parades around in this world, unchecked, am I right? Shame and guilt, it still burdens us. We still have our troubles, don't we? We still have those lives. We still carry around these things. Death still plagues us in some way, I'm sure. And I know that you know what I'm talking about. It's different for everybody, but I know you know it's still there. But now that Sunday comes, none of that is the final word. Now that Sunday comes and Christ is really alive, we have a different story to tell now. We have a new hope, we have a new identity, we have a new mission in our lives. Now that Sunday has come, the church stands and looks at all that trouble and all of that death and all of that sin and defiantly shouts, what do you got now? Where oh death is your victory? Where oh sin is your sting? You got nothing on us because we follow him, the risen Jesus of Nazareth. Amen. Come on, ring a bell for this. Get me preaching up here for a second. And his resurrection keeps coming y'all, his resurrection keeps coming in our lives. And he keeps leading those who are willing to repent and leave behind sin and death, be done with it once for all. He leads those who are willing to repent, those willing to follow his lead, those willing to make good trouble in a world that would rather keep us quiet and have us settle down about all this resurrection business. The resurrection keeps coming and we follow. For those being baptized this morning, you're going to see it front row, front and center. And for those of you who have been baptized witnessing this, you're going to see it too. And by the way, if you have not been baptized, you should be baptized. And I'm going to ask you, anybody else who want to be baptized, you can raise your hand, walk up and I will ask you some questions about following Jesus and we'll put you in the water this morning. So keep that in mind. We all have a share in this risen life of Jesus and we all have an invitation to share in the new future that God is setting up, not only in our lives but in this real world. And don't you notice that Jesus wasn't just raised in spirit or in sentiment? You notice that he's raised in his real body? Why? Because it really matters. These bodies that God has created, this world that God has created, the whole thing is his and it matters. And he's raising the dead and he's setting things right and he's making all things new. So, amen, right? So when you care for your friend in need, when you welcome a stranger, when you forgive an enemy, you are announcing this resurrection life in this world. When sinners repent, when peacemakers get to work, when the faithful hold out for hope, you announce the resurrection life breaking into you and to this world. When you love one another, just as the Lord taught us, when you support each other, when you reconcile with one another, you announce this resurrection life that is breaking in in our lives and in this world. And when you break decorum to protest gun violence, come on, when you defy the status quo of evil and white supremacy and racism and oppression and everything that excludes and separates and does violence to the people of God, when you stand in the way and say not today, you announce the resurrection life that is breaking into you and into this world. Come on now. You know why this is, y'all? You know why this is? Because the kingdom of heaven is come in Jesus Christ. The kingdom has come. And so things are going to look different. They got to look different in us and in this world. The resurrection changes every inch of this. When you make beautiful things, when you live a beautiful life, when you do beautiful work in this world, you announce this kingdom, this resurrection life breaking in you and into this world. You could fill in the blanks. You know what it looks like in your life. Allow the kingdom, this resurrection, to break through in you. Don't hold out anymore. Those cold hearts that you have, the sort of indifference that you might have, the doubts, that's all okay. You can still welcome this resurrection life, welcome this kingdom and participate it in the world. Participate in it with the world. That's how Sunday comes, y'all. This isn't just some sort of nice liturgy and song and dance and symbols and that we go on in our lives. No, this marks a new future for us. This marks what is now true and what is settled once and for all. And so with boldness, the church, without doubt, without question, even though we may have them, we can follow our Messiah who has defeated every obstacle that might get in our way. He is already defeated. This is how Sunday comes. This is how it touches every part of our real lives. And that's why the church, y'all, that's why you guys say hallelujah, right? That's why we say hallelujah. That's why we ring these obnoxious bells and say Christ is risen in a world of darkness and death. We say Christ is risen. This is the day that the Lord has made church. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. Amen. Amen.