Sermon for the 31st of March - Easter Day

Where in the Bible do we hear about milk and honey?

Slavery in Egypt - Exodus – Sinai desert for 40 years, with the promise of a place of safety…. a promise a place of abundance.

And for Christians today, that sweetness of milk and honey symbolises the taste of heaven. It’s the taste the resurrection…. Our celebration today is that death has ultimately been defeated.

The early church baptised at Easter. And the theology here is that, with Jesus, in the waters of baptism, we have passed from death to life. The newly baptised given milk and honey. A foretaste of the heavenly banquet. That’s the sweetness of this joyous day. That death is not the end.

Nervous about saying this – because some Christians give the impression that this world isn’t worth caring for. That it’s all about pie in the sky when you die. That couldn’t be further from the truth. That’s really bad theology. Good Christian theology is expressed in the brilliant Christian Aid slogan, ‘we believe in life before death’.

We want to wholeheartedly affirm this.

And… we want to affirm the promise that pops up throughout the whole of the Bible. The heavenly banquet. It’s a party!

Let’s me read to you how the Hebrew prophet Isaiah describes it. He says it’s like a family reunion:

“On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine” (Isaiah 25:6).

Who is this great feast for? It’s for all people. All are welcome. You don’t need particular qualities or qualifications; you don’t actually need to be religious or good.

All are welcome because someone has opened the door for us – today we celebrate because Jesus Christ has passed through death and is risen victorious! This is worth ringing bells and shouting about. And having well-aged wine with our lunch!

Jesus has once and for all destroyed the “covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations” (Isaiah 25:7). Jesus has swallowed up and conquered death forever by rising from the dead!

Of course, or course, there is so much more to say…. We know that we still live with the frailties of age, illness, and death. We live with broken and strained relationships. We worry about family, work and so on. Today we also grieve the loss of loved ones. We continue to pray for peace in Israel and Gaza – that it might be a place of flourishing, of milk and honey for Palestinians and Jews. We continue to hope and pray.

But on Easter Day we join with two billion Christians around the world, celebrating the sweetness of God’s milk and honey – of God’s promise.

As Desmond Tutu put it:

Goodness is stronger than evil
love is stronger than hate
Light is stronger than darkness.
Life is stronger than death.
Victory is ours through Him who loved us.