In the Des Moines Register was a story titled, “Man, Believed Killed by Log, Sits on It.” “It happened in Hamburg, Wisconsin. William Bartelt, 71, of Hamburg, was recovering in a Wausau hospital Saturday after friends gave him up for dead after a log struck him on the head. Bartelt was hit by a limb cut down by his hired hand at his central Wisconsin farm, officials said. The limb knocked him out and the hired hand, Gerhardt Stueber, determined that Bartelt was not breathing and called relatives to the scene, authorities said. Coroner Mary Nelles was alerted, and a funeral home dispatched a vehicle to recover the body. Nelles found the elderly man sitting on the log that struck him, sheriff’s officers said.”

I bet that was a jolt for good old Nelles who had called the funeral home. Can’t you see the face of the funeral director as he pulled up the coach and found the deceased sitting on that log?

We don’t know what Nelles and the other farmers said or even what the deceased man come back to life said. We do know what a young man said when they came for the same purpose to claim Jesus’ body: “Don’t be alarmed!” Wow! Bad enough that William Bartelt of Hamburg got knocked out by a log, and then they found him alive! Imagine those women who saw Jesus killed on a cross and buried in a tomb with a rock in the door. Now the tomb was empty and he was gone.

There had not been time to render the last service to the body of Jesus. The Sabbath had intervened and the women who wished to anoint the body had not been able to do so. Now the Sabbath had passed and, as early as possible, they set out on their sad task. They were worried about one thing: how to get the large round stone rolled away so that they could get into the rock cave. But, when they reached the tomb, the stone was rolled away, and in it there was a messenger who gave them the unbelievable news that Jesus had risen from the dead!

“As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, this is the place they laid him (Mark 16:5, 6a).”

One thing is certain. If Jesus had not risen from the dead, we would never have heard of him!

The attitude of the women was that they had come to pay their last tribute to a dead body. The attitude of the disciples was that everything had finished in tragedy. (Sometimes it appears that way.)

By far, the best proof of the resurrection is the existence of the Christian Church. Nothing else could have changed sad and despairing men and women into people radiant with joy and flaming with courage. I’ll bet you’ve seen, as I’ve seen, the same thing at the funeral home, in the hospital corridor, at the courtroom. The resurrection is a central fact of the whole Christian faith. It is the great amen for us. It is the vital sign that God was in Jesus Christ and is with us now.

One of Ernest Poole’s characters in one of his poetic novels says: “History is just news from the graveyard.” Well, I’ll agree that all of history is shaped by the news from one graveyard, a garden outside Jerusalem, about the year A.D. 30. The best news of all the world and of all the years is from that graveyard outside of Jerusalem with a tomb that was empty, and one who had laid there standing before all humanity for all time with the assurance: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die (John 11:25-26).”

Easter is the good news about the universe and about Almighty God and about myself. It proclaims that the world is not some kind of an orphan asylum. It is not a mammoth machine shop. It is not a whirling ball hurtling through endless space. It is a home, and its heart is not something the scientists are always looking for -- the source of life -- the heart of it is someone. It is the breathtaking news that the risen and living Lord is here and alive.

Here are our life and faith as his disciples. We don’t gather today to gaze into an empty tomb. We don’t pass by a casket to view the remains. Rather, we gather to hear again that messenger say to our lives -- don’t be alarmed; he is risen. He has risen -- not to heaven but to be with us. Some things can scare the pants off of you. Nuclear fallout, weapons, wars, inflation, depression, running out of energy, can all be very terrifying in our day. That’s why we need not to live lives of alarm but, rather, peace.

Don’t be alarmed. You now see that he is alive today. Don’t let the death of a loved one alarm you. Don’t let illness and threats of your own death scare you. Don’t allow alarm about being alone here. Don’t let guilt you know haunt your life. Don’t be afraid -- remove the fear. Because he is risen, God has won -- he is with us here and we need not be alarmed. We are not a cult of people remembering a dead martyr. For that reason, I’m always a little uneasy about all the lilies around the chancel area at Easter time. Our leader is not dead; this is not a funeral; we are not here to grieve or mourn. We are a group of disciples celebrating his life with us in this place and throughout all of our daily routine.

At an Easter Family Service when I asked the kids what happened to Jesus that we celebrate on that day, one little boy popped up loudly enough for the entire congregation to hear: “He riz!” I am surely certain that that was more acceptable to God than the response of the disciples when the women told them that they had found the tomb empty. They called it, properly translated, gibberish.

When a doctor wants to know the condition of a patient, he asks for the vital signs. Pulse, heartbeat, respiration, and the patient’s response to stimuli are recorded. We are that once dead body now alive. It looked as though Jesus, God’s Son, was killed forever on Good Friday. But now we know differently. He is alive today -- we have moved from dark Lent to a bright and alive Easter.

Back then, the body came to life after the ugly of the day had murdered it. It came alive and walked out of the tomb in which it had been placed.

Today, the body comes alive again. The vital signs prove its life: there is a heart beating here for all who need its love and comfort. There is breath here for all who thirst for something more significant in their lives. There is a response here to those who have needs the body can supply. There is a response here that says this body is no longer dead and stiff but, rather, alive and vital.

We are not alarmed about what those soldiers did on Calvary. Instead, we are jubilant today that he lived again back then and he lives again in and through us.

That’s why you look different today. That’s why there is a radiance in your faces and a ring of joy in your voices. It’s more than the good music and large attendance, too. It’s more than spring’s arrival. He is risen, he is alive in us and all the vital signs are here to prove it. No longer need we be alarmed.

Because we believe in the resurrection, certain things follow. They are the vital signs of his aliveness now in our congregation and in our lives.

Jesus is not a figure in a book; he is a living presence. It’s not enough to study the story of Jesus as we study the life of any other great historical figure. It may be that we begin that way, but we must end by meeting him. Jesus is not a memory; he is a presence. The Greeks had a word by which they described time which means: “time which wipes all things out.”

Long since, time would have wiped out the meaning of Jesus unless he had been a living presence forever with us. That means that the Christian life is not the life of a person who knows about Jesus, but of the person who knows Jesus. We know about Winston Churchill and about the Ayotollah Khomeini and about President Reagan, but we don’t know them.

Isaiah says, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation (Isaiah 25:9).”

Probably the greatest tragedy of the first Easter day was the fact that everyone to whom our Lord had given reason for waiting and trusting in him had forgotten his words. And now, on Easter day, we have the assurance that it is as he said on that day.

A time-study expert indicates that if a man lives with the same woman for 50 years, he will spend at least a month and a half of that 50 years just waiting for her someplace, whether it’s for her to get her makeup on, or to find her purse, or whatever. The expert didn’t say anything about how long a wife would have to wait for a husband while she’s keeping dinner warm and he’s late from work. Or how long we have to wait for one of our teenagers to get off the telephone. That’s another story. No human being can escape it. It’s part and parcel of our human experience to be waiting and hoping. The Jews were waiting since Isaiah and now no longer -- he is here.

Today he comes out of the grave to be alive and with us here. We can take him by the hand and he’ll go home with us. And when we grieve and when we celebrate and rejoice, he is with us.

There is a story of two garment workers in New York City. One was a cutter and one was a stitcher. They were working side by side. They got to talking about vacations. One said he was looking forward to his vacation and the other said he was not going on a vacation this year. The question was asked, “Why?” “I went to Africa last year. I went elephant hunting.” “Did you get any elephants?” “No, I found an elephant. He charged me, but my gun was jammed, and I was killed.” “What are you talking about, you was killed? You aren’t dead. You’re sitting here living.” And the other replied: “You call this living?” And that’s what many of us ask. Do you call this living? Easter sounds a resounding yes. Here is resurrection and the life. As his family -- as the saved, as the people who gather here and worship him. This is indeed living! We are the resurrection people and we live on this side of Easter.

When we baptize and commune, when we gather for worship and study, he is alive in us and with us. We become the full person he intends us to be. So no longer need we be alarmed.

The most precious thing in this passage is in two words which are in no other gospel: “Go” said the messenger, “give the message to his disciples, including Peter (v. 7).”

How that message must have cheered Peter’s heart when he got it! He must have been tortured with the memory of his disloyalty, and suddenly there comes a message, a special message for him! He, of all the disciples, is specifically picked out. It is characteristic of Jesus that he thought, not at all of the wrong Peter had done him, but altogether of the remorse that Peter was undergoing. Take heart in that! Jesus was far more eager to comfort the penitential sinner than to punish the sin. Think what that means to us as his family. We need not be alarmed about our past. Rather, Jesus as an alive presence assures us of his complete forgiveness and his desire that we start again with him today. Go -- tell the disciples, including Peter -- and including us.

James Russell Lowell said: “I take great comfort in God. I think he is considerably amused at us many times, but he loves us, and he would not let us get at the matchbox as carelessly as he does, unless he knew the framework of his universe is fireproof.”

Easter means… the vindication, the triumph, of Jesus and all he stands for. Easter invites us to forget ourselves and all of our worries or doubts or speculations over personal survival, and to think of him. If Jesus, and what he stands for, is the thing that must survive and triumph; if your world is to be rational and your life to be livable in it -- then you already have the beginning of a faith in the resurrection, and the most important element in that faith. For, from first to last, the New Testament faith is an assurance, a conviction of the ultimate triumph, not merely of us, in our own tiny private lives, but of God himself and of Christ and all that Christ stands for in this world.

I know that my Redeemer lives!What comfort this sweet sentence gives!He lives, he lives, who once was dead;He lives, my everliving head!

He lives to silence all my fears;He lives to wipe away my tears;He lives to calm my troubled heart;He lives all blessings to impart.-- Samuel Medley 1738-1799

If this worship experience feels good to you and you’re a visitor, be assured this is the way it is with Christians every Sunday and throughout the week. If you’ve tried it going alone long enough, try it with us and the living presence of Christ. If you will allow Christ to come out of the place you have buried him -- he’ll be alive with you also.

How nice that he told them to be sure Peter got the message! Here is hope for those who deny or forget or become apathetic; his message is, He is risen and be sure to tell them. Thank God for Peter in this Easter story! If the disciples had been perfect, I couldn’t bear it today. But they weren’t. God didn’t want to punish. He wanted to forgive and to be with even Peter!

When the great battle of Waterloo in 1812 pitted the nations of Europe against the growing might of Napoleon’s dictatorship, upon its outcome hung the destiny of millions. With binoculars focused on European soil across the channel waters, anxious watchers awaited the signal flags which would spell out the message of victory or defeat. It was a dark day with mist restricting visibility, but hearts sank as the first words flashed: “Wellington defeated…” This was the end, they said, who stood on the white cliffs of Dover. But when the fog lifted it was the final word that brought renewed vision. The full message was “Wellington defeated Napoleon.” Until the morning light was breaking, until God opened their blinded eyes to spiritual reality, the sad truth appeared to be “Christ defeated.”

Pilate and Annas and Caiaphas could rub their hands in glee and satisfaction and say, “Well, we have heard the last of him. That’s the end of the King of the Jews.” But when the sun has risen, we know the full truth. “Christ defeated his enemies. Christ defeated sin. Christ defeated death itself.”

Good news for bad times we have here:

Be not alarmed,As we bury and wonder.As the world seems out of control,As we seem to be defeated,As we diminish our natural resources.

Don’t be alarmed -- God is still in control and is with us.

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said, “I know you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is not here -- he has been raised.” Amen.