Easter Day - 2025
Sermon for Easter Day, Year C
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
The Rev. Andrew McLarty
"Why Do You Look for the Living Among the Dead?"
Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Good morning, St. Paul’s! To all of you—our beloved parish family, our visitors, those exploring faith, those simply curious, or those simply here out of family obligation—welcome! This is the day the Lord has made, and we rejoice and are glad in it!
On this glorious Easter morning, we gather—some of us with hearts full of joy, some with quiet wonder, and perhaps some with lingering questions. But all of us are here because, in some way, the story of this day has called to us. The stone is rolled away. The tomb is empty. And the question rings out across the centuries: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
My friends, that question is not just for the women at the tomb. It is for us. For this world that so often looks for life in places where life cannot be found—in wealth that cannot satisfy, in power that cannot heal, in trends that cannot last. The wider world may dismiss the Church as vestigial, irrelevant, or even hypocritical, but this week—this Holy Week—we have seen something different. We have witnessed faith alive, vibrant, and pulsing with beauty and truth.
This is no museum of relics or gathering of perfect people. This is a community where tears are wiped away, where modern problems are addressed, where ancient prayers and hymns still stir the soul, where bread and wine become grace through our Lord Jesus Christ.
I was so taken with the reactions of many during our Holy week observances- the pagentry of Tenebrae in Wendesday, the mood that was sed after the tender stripping of the altar on Maundy Thursday… in the solemn silence of Good Friday... and now, in the radiant joy of this Easter morning, we have encountered something the world cannot explain away: the living Christ.
The World Offers Tombs; Christ Offers Life
The world offers tombs—places where hope is buried, where dreams are sealed away, and where deeper meaning is unteathereed. We see it in the over-extended pursuit of weekly schedules, wealth, power, and pleasure, only to find them hollow and fleeting. We see it in the way society glorifies self-sufficiency, yet leaves so many isolated and empty. Even our best efforts to fix broken systems, heal divisions, or outrun suffering often lead us back to the same truth: the world cannot give us lasting life. It offers temporary fixes, shallow comforts, and, ultimately, graves—both literal and spiritual. But Easter shatters that cycle. The empty tomb proclaims that what the world cannot do, God has already done. Christ steps into our darkness and declares, "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25).
Where the world says "This is the end," Christ says "This is the beginning." Where the world deals in death—of relationships, of joy, of purpose—Christ breathes resurrection. He does not merely improve our old life; He gives us a new one. The same power that rolled the stone away breaks the chains of sin, fear, and despair in us. The world’s tombs are places of abandonment, but the risen Jesus meets us there—not to mourn, but to call us out of death and into His unshakable life. So why linger among the dead? The grave is empty. The Savior lives. And in Him, so do we.
A Message for Seekers and Saints Alike
If you’re here today questioning, wrestling, or just exploring if faith has anything to offer—you are not an outsider. You are exactly who God invites to this feast. The women at the tomb didn’t have it all figured out. Peter ran to the grave full of doubt. Yet the Risen Christ met them—and He meets you—right where you are.
And to those of you who call St. Paul’s home: this is why we sing, why we pray, why we break bread together. Not because we have all the answers, but because we have encountered the Living Christ—in Scripture, in sacrament, in the faces of our neighbors. The world is hungry for hope. Let us be the people who proclaim, with our lives and our love: “He is risen indeed!”
So go today—not as people who mourn among the dead, but as people who walk with the Living God. Carry His light into the shadows. Forgive as you’ve been forgiven. Love as you’ve been loved. And when doubt or fear creeps in, remember: the stone is rolled away. The grave is empty. And Christ goes before you—always.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Amen.
