Greetings in the Name of Our Lord,

This Sunday is Easter and as Christians, we will gather to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior and Lord. But even as we celebrate, our hearts are heavy with the realization that much is wrong with our
world. Unrelenting hatred seems to rule supreme in the hearts and lives of so many and the fruits of terror are all too evident.

It was 22 years ago, on February 27, 1991, at the height of Desert Storm, that Ruth Dillow received a very sad message from the Pentagon. It stated that her son, Clayton Carpenter, Private 1st Class, had stepped on a mine in Kuwait and was dead. Ruth Dillow later wrote, “I can’t begin to describe my grief & shock. It was almost more than I could bear. For 3 days I wept. For 3 days I expressed
anger and loss. For 3 days people tried to comfort me, to no avail because the loss was too great.” But 3 days after she received that message, the telephone rang. The voice on the other end said,
“Mom, it’s me. I’m alive.” Ruth Dillow said, “I couldn’t believe it at first. But then I recognized his voice, and he really was alive.” The message she had received was all a mistake! She said, “I laughed, I cried, I felt like turning cartwheels, because my son whom I had thought was
dead, was really alive. I’m sure none of you can even begin to understand how I felt.”

Perhaps not, but some who walked the pages of the New Testament would have understood how she felt because they experienced the same emotions themselves. One day they watched their best friend
and teacher being nailed to a cross. They witnessed His pain as He cried out, “I thirst!” and “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” They listened as finally He bowed His head and said, “It is finished!” and “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.” They watched as His body was taken from the cross and buried.

All their hopes and dreams were buried with Him. Friday and all day Saturday they mourned, until finally, on “the first day of the week, early in the morning,” the scripture says, some women made their way along the path that led to His tomb, wondering who would roll away the stone for them. But when they arrived, they found that the stone had already been rolled away. And an angel there told them, “You’re looking in the wrong place. You’re looking for Jesus among the dead. He is not dead. He is alive. He is risen, even as He said!”

“He is risen!” That is what we celebrate this Easter morning. When all the evidence is in we’re convinced that Jesus is alive. He is risen from the dead, and what a difference His resurrection has made!