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This evening we have heard stories of old and how the Lord God throughout the ages has watched over His people and provided for them. From the waters that flooded the whole world to the resurrection of His own dear Son, the Lord God provided a way of salvation. Even the poor and the outcasts have been placed under His loving care.
When the Lord God sent the flood upon the earth to destroy all living creatures, because of the evilness of humanity; He provided a way to protect a remnant of humanity and all living creatures. Of all the humans on earth, only Noah and his family were chosen to carry on the human race. The scripture reads, “Then the Lord God said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation.” Because of Noah’s obedience to the Lord, his family, and a remnant of all the living creatures were spared the waters of destruction that flooded the whole earth. Inside the ark, the Lord God protected them from the raging waters. After the flood was over and the land was dry, the Lord God made a covenant of protection with Noah and all living creatures to never again destroy the world with water.
In the story of Abraham and Isaac, the Lord God provided a ram for the sacrifice and spared Isaac when Abraham proved to the Lord his love for Him. God’s test of Abraham’s faith set the precedence for the Lord God to provide a sacrifice for all of humanity. Because Abraham was willing to give up his beloved son, Isaac, to the Lord; then the Lord God chose to give us His only Son, Jesus the Christ, through the lineage of Abraham. Because of Abraham’s faith that the Lord God would bring his son back to life for he told the servants, “we will worship, then we will come back to you”, salvation was provided for all who accept God’s gift through Jesus Christ. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he writes, “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise”. Now instead of sacrificial animals, we have been provided salvation through the sacrifice of God’s only Son.
This salvation is open to all who will receive this gift of God’s love. The prophet Isaiah tells us, “everyone who thirsts, come to the waters”. It is an invitation to the Living Waters of salvation. In the gospel of John, Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that He was the source of the waters that bring salvation. “Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life’”. Through Jesus, Isaiah’s prophecy of life giving waters has been fulfilled. The provision of salvation is offered to all.
The prophet Zephaniah tells us that the Lord God rejoices over those who come to Him. He writes, “He will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival”. It is a good thing to trust in the Lord for He alone provides restoration to the remnant who seek Him. No one is turned away who seeks the Lord God, for there are no outcasts in God’s Holy Family. All who seek the Lord are renewed through the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
Through the waters of baptism we are restored into the family of God. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he writes, “Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life”. In our baptism we become Resurrection People. The waters of baptism cleanse us from all of our sins and resurrect us into new creatures through Jesus Christ our Lord. As new creatures in Christ, we are given power to overcome the temptations of this world in order to live lives that will glorify God our Father. We are no longer held in bondage, but have been set free in Christ. Sin is no longer our master, because we now serve the living God. For it is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ that sin and death were conquered once and for all.
The provision of the Lord is overwhelming. His love for us knows no bounds. The Lord God loved us so much that He willingly sent us His only Son, Jesus the Christ to die for us. Yet, the plan of salvation did not end there. Just as Abraham told his servants we will come back to you, Jesus told his disciples that He would return to them. Jesus kept that promise when God the Father raised Him from the dead. When the women went to Jesus’ tomb, first they were greeted by an angel, and then the Lord Jesus appeared to them not as a ghost, but in His resurrected body.
That same Jesus remains alive even today. We do not worship a dead man, but a living Lord. Jesus is alive! This is the Easter message. It is the message that brings hope and salvation to all who will believe. Just as Jesus told the women at the tomb to go and tell the disciples the good news, so we have been given the same message to Go and Tell. We need to shout it from the roof tops and proclaim it in the streets. There is hope for all in this world and that hope rests in Jesus the Christ, the Living Son of God.
Alleluia. Christ is risen!
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