Service Sunday April 5, 2026
HIGHLAND HILLS UNITED CHURCH
Minden, Ontario
All are Welcome!
Worship Leaders: Rev. Max Ward
Watch a video recording of the whole service using YouTube below
Music Director: Melissa Stephens
Message: “What To Do With Easter?”
Listen to an audio recording of the message below or read it at the bottom of this page.
Due to illness, the remainder of the webpage will be left undone at this time.
Sermon 2026 04 05
“What To Do With Easter”
John 20:1-18
Gracious God, be with us today in this place, in the Scriptures and in our words.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts praise your Holy name. Amen.
Easter is wonderful!
With all the flowers and new seedlings.
The new clothes and the new growth in the world around us.
I always enjoyed dressing my little daughters up in their Easter dresses – when they would let me.
And then there is the story of Easter.
Oh yes, we don’t want to forget the story!
The disciples had watched Jesus die on the cross just the Friday before.
They were all shocked and were mourning the loss of their close personal friend and the man they thought would save them from oppression.
Jesus the one who the stories say raised others from the dead had been nailed to a cross and died.
He had fed multitudes, walked on water and calmed the sea but he did not calm the crowd or walk away from their anger and hatred.
Jesus was dead and his body was in a tomb.
But early in the morning, while it was still dark John tells us, one of the women came to the tomb.
Of course it was the women.
They had not fled but were at the foot of the cross.
Mary Magdalene, came to the tomb to mourn Jesus’ death.
But when she arrived, to her horror, the stone was rolled away.
The tomb was empty.
What could have happened?
Obviously just killing Jesus was not enough.
They had to dig up his body and further desecrate it!
So Mary ran to tell the disciples.
Peter and John ran to check out the story and found things just as Mary had reported.
Believing his body to be stolen, the men walked away.
But Mary stayed there weeping.
Suddenly there were two men in dazzling white robes.
Perhaps they saw something.
“Please help me, they have taken my Lord’s body and I don’t know where they have put it.”
Then she turned and there was Jesus.
She didn’t recognize him, but then he called her name and she knew he was alive!
And Mary ran to tell the others: Jesus is Alive!
OK, we did the Easter dresses, we had the egg hunt this morning and now we have told the story.
Is that all?
I guess we can all take our Easter lilies home and put the Easter stuff away until next year.
Or is there still more?
What do we do with Easter after Easter Sunday is over?
Let me give you some suggestions:
#1 - Believe it!
Easter is not just a pretty story about something that is not real.
I know we modern people are often skeptical about stories of extraordinary events.
And a man rising form the dead is an extraordinary thing.
And we should be skeptical about most incredible stories because they are simply not credible.
This story, as incredible as it sounds, is actually very credible.
If it were just the empty tomb we could conclude as Mary and the disciples did at first, that Jesus’ body was stolen.
But it was more than that.
There are many eyewitnesses who saw him.
And it wasn’t just some ghostly apportion seen by isolated individuals.
We could easily write that off to grief induced hallucinations.
But groups of people saw Jesus at the same time and even touched him and ate with him.
You can’t just explain that away.
Yes Jesus died but people continued to experience his presence with them after Easter.
What else should we do with Easter?
#2 - We should live it!
No, that doesn’t mean you should wear your Easter dress every day.
And No, it doesn’t mean that you have to be a live actor in the whole Good Friday/Easter story.
It means we should take the truth of that story and put it to work in our lives.
This story is about more than one man 2,000 years ago sharing new life with the disciples.
It’s about the new life that we have through Jesus Christ.
Because of the resurrection we have the promise of our own resurrection.
Just as Jesus rose, we too will rise to new life through him.
That is an incredible hope!
We know that this life is not the end for us or for our loved ones that have died in Christ.
We have the hope of new life.
As important as new life after death is, the more immediate hope that we have is new life for today.
The new life Jesus shows us can be lived out in this life too.
We can choose to die to old, unhealthy ways of living and rise anew to new or renewed, healthy habits of living.
Remember all those things that you gave up for Lent?
Easter doesn’t mean that it is time to go back to those old habits.
Easter means that you did it!
Easter means that you died to the old ways and are now free to live a renewed life today.
What do we do with Easter?
We live it!
We should believe Easter.
We should live Easter and
#3 - we should Share it!
No, I am not saying you should give your Easter lily to a friend.
Although that is not a bad idea, but it is more than that.
Easter is about new life.
It is about joy and hope and the promise of Jesus living in us and giving us new life.
We should share that new life with others.
We should allow rays of light to emanate from us.
If we know joy because of Easter then we should share joy.
If we know hope because of Easter we should bring hope to others.
If we know forgiveness and love then we should forgive and love others.
But most of all we should share Jesus.
He is the reason we are celebrating in the first place.
That is what Mary did.
When she came to believe that Jesus was alive she ran to tell others.
In the same way we should run from here today to tell the world, “Jesus is alive!” and he lives in us.
What are we going to do with Easter?
Believe it!
Live it!
Share it!
Thanks be to God. Amen.
