Easter Sunday, Year A | Matthew 28:1-10
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
April 9, 2023
the Rev. Jonathan Hanneman
To watch the full service, please visit this page.
“…the angel told the women, ‘You need not be afraid!’” – Matthew 28:5b[1]
Good morning and welcome to you all! Thank you for joining us in our Easter celebration. Whether you worship with us every week or walked in the door for the first time today, again, welcome! God’s house is open to all; God’s table is prepared for all—because God’s love is upon us all.
From childhood, many of us learn to be afraid of God. We imagine this unseen Scorekeeper watching our every move and weighing the minutia of every single thought and motive. Despite recognizing the futility, we try to hide ourselves. We pretend that God won’t see our negative choices or bad moments and hope that they’re only keeping track of what’s good. God is our Cosmic Judge. God is the strictest parent in the universe. We think, in our heart of hearts, that God is out to get us, just waiting for us to make a wrong move so they can pour out their wrath with abandonment and glee.
But none of that is true.
The whole of the Easter message—the entirety of the Bible, really—can be summed up in five simple words: “you need not be afraid.” Throughout the Hebrew Bible, at Gabriel’s annunciation to Mary of Jesus’ miraculous birth, all the way to the proclamation of our unnamed angel at today’s empty tomb, we hear the same message: “you need not be afraid.”
No matter what we may think or feel, no matter what we’ve been taught, no matter what we may have done, God is with us. God is watching out for us. God is on our side. In good times and bad, in joy or sorrow, in life and in death, God is with us: we need not be afraid.
God is Love, let heaven adore him;
God is Love, let earth rejoice;
Let creation sing before him
And exalt him with one voice.
God who laid the earth’s foundation,
God who spread the heavens above,
God who breathes through all creation:
God is Love, eternal Love.[2]
“[We] need not be afraid.”
[1] My translation
[2] Text in the public domain (Timothy Rees, 1874-1939)