Easter Sunday Sermon 2026

A Sermon for Easter Day

‘Go and take word to my brothers
that they are to leave for Galilee.
They will see me there.’
-Matthew 28:10 (REB)

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Ever since childhood I have loved maps, always keen to know just where I am in the world. One evening during sabbatical time in 2024, Shelby and I were exploring tidepools at a place called Featherbed Rocks, on the edge of the North Sea, and later that evening I  looked on Google Maps and thought how amazing it was that if we could have stowed away on an eastbound vessel we would have landed in Denmark.

So, it kind of makes sense that in the midst of all that St. Matthew tells us - a violent earthquake, an angel with a face like lightning, clothed in dazzling white, who rolls away the gravestone and sits upon it, causing the Roman soldiers posted to guard the site to faint with fear, and then the risen Jesus standing in the path of the two Marys, greeting them, telling them not to fear, what jumps out at me are his instructions, “Go and take word to my brothers that they are to leave for Galilee. They will see me there.’

I figure when Jesus says Galilee he means Capernaum. That was home base during his earthly ministry. Now, Capernaum is on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. Back to Google Maps I go. How far is it to walk from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to the synagogue at Capernaum, where Jesus would have prayed and taught? It turns out to be 162 kilometers, or just shy of 101 miles. You can walk it in 37 hours straight, says Google Maps, but there’s also a warning - ‘Use caution–walking directions may not always reflect real-world conditions.’

‘Go and tell my brothers to leave for Galilee.’ In other words, lace up your hiking boots, or your sturdiest sandals, for a 100 mile trek through whatever real-world conditions you may encounter.

All of a sudden these instructions don’t seem that simple, but if we were to read on in the final chapter of Matthew, we would find that the disciples made the journey, and I think it has something to do with the message from Jesus that Mary and Mary passed on to them. “The master said, “Go and tell my brothers to leave for Galilee.”

“Go and tell my brothers.”

“My brothers.”

But, wait, these are the guys who are hiding out in fear that the authorities are looking for them so they can do to them what they did to Jesus. These are the guys who mostly cut and run when trouble appeared. One of them even denied knowing Jesus, denied knowing him three times in one night. And one of them, who’s no longer in the picture, got paid thirty pieces of silver for setting Jesus up to be taken into custody. These guys are brothers?

As we go through our life in the Church, it sometimes happens that we hold certain clergy members in high regard and with fond affection. One of those for me is someone I still think of as Fr. Ed, even though he has since become Bishop Ed. His name is Edward Stuart Little, yes Stuart Little, if you remember E.B. White’s book that later was made into a movie starring the voice of Michael J. Fox. I got to know Fr. Ed when he was the Rector of my first Episcopal parish, St. Joseph’s in Buena Park, California. He and Fr. Rob, the Associate Rector, were both hugely important in my life at that time. When Fr. Ed went to All Saints Church in Bakersfield, I sometimes would make the 150 mile drive to Bakersfield to go to church with him. From there Fr. Ed went to serve as Bishop of Northern Indiana, which was one of those God sense of humor choices, because the cathedral and bishop’s office are in South Bend, the home of the University of Notre Dame, and Bishop Ed holds multiple degrees from the University of Southern California. Listening to the constant blare of the Notre Dame Victory March must have been quite an adjustment for him. Anyway, one of the things I remember Fr. Ed saying regularly was, “We serve a God of Second Chances.”

“Go and tell my brothers to leave for Galilee.” That was Jesus’ way of telling the disciples, “We serve a God of Second Chances.” Such a message prompted me to drive 150 miles one way to go to church, and it moved the disciples to take a 100 mile hike together as a band of brothers, who, when they arrived at Capernaum, were greeted, not with scolding for fear, not with rejection for denial, but with acceptance, forgiveness, a fresh start, a Second Chance.

On this Easter Day the risen Lord invites us on a journey. He calls us, his band of brothers and sisters, to a Galilee kind of place where he has gone ahead to await our arrival and greet us eagerly with acceptance, forgiveness, a fresh start, a Second Chance.