We have a crowd here today on this Easter Sunday. Churches are always crowded on Easter. As the prophet Isaiah would say, the multitudes literally trample the courts of God. And we are glad you all have come.

A lot of different reasons have led us here, of course. For those of us who worship regularly in this church, Easter Sunday is the crown and climax of the Christian year. For others, who do not come so often, Easter Sunday always brings with it special music, and some of you are music lovers. Others of you just like to witness the pageantry of the church on two Sundays in the year, on Easter and on Christmas. Those seem like special times. And then certainly there are a few here because they want to show off their new Easter clothes, joining the fashionable Easter parade. But maybe,…