Ring in Jesus!

Easter 2026

Fr. Tim Nunez

May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen

One hundred years ago yesterday, the weather was balmy; lows in the mid-60s and highs in the mid-80s. Lake Wales was at the peak of the Florida Land Boom, with lots of people moving into the area. Traffic was terrible. Bok Tower was a set of blueprints. (They would begin construction on it the following year.)

It was an exciting day. The missionary community formed under the name Church of the Good Shepherd gathered to celebrate Easter Sunday. It was their very first service in their brand-new church building, their own worship space, which elevated them from “mission” to “parish” status. They had worked very hard for months to raise the funds and build that wooden church on this very spot.

If you can believe it, more than 50 people crammed into the little church. They used the 1892 Book of Common Prayer. They heard almost the same readings from chapter three of Colossians and the 20th chapter of John’s Gospel, give or take a few verses, that we heard just now. And here we are.

Although the buildings and grounds have changed and we have grown, much remains the same. Good Shepherd is our extended family and a place to gather that family. We raise our children here and grow as adults with a moral compass, balancing behavior and grace. Those are all good, and we could add other goods to the list. We offer repentance and continuously reform. We see to the welfare of our community. All of that was true in 1926 and it is today.

But those are all side-effects of our real purpose, our true purpose, the sole reason that we exist, and the central focus of that faithful group who gathered here 100 years ago. We are a community, a family, a body formed by the Apostle’s witness to Jesus Christ, raised from the dead.

I don’t know how many churches have established themselves on Easter; it is the very best day to launch a church.

When did the Church, with a capital “C” begin? Was it at Jesus’s birth, when shepherds and angels and magi all began to worship him? Was it when he called his disciples, and crowds began to literally follow him? Was it when the Holy Spirit descended up the gathering at Pentecost (which we commonly call the church’s birthday)?

I suggest the Church truly begins early on Easter morning, with Mary Magdalene. All of it launches from the moment when Mary Magdalene becomes the first witness to see Jesus Christ risen from the dead.

John wrote at the beginning of his gospel, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:4-5)

Now, “Early on the morning of the first day of the week,” Mary Magdalene has come “while it was still dark,” so that she could use the earliest light of dawn to attend to Jesus’s dead body. She was terribly distressed to find the tomb empty. She ran for help. “Where is my Lord?”, she asked the angels. She even asked Jesus, not recognizing him through her tears.

The universe shifts when he spoke her name. His sheep know their Good Shepherd’s voice! Upon hearing him, the shocking reality that Jesus is risen from the dead comes clear to Mary. Then she can see him! She tells the other disciples and eventually they also see him. Jesus risen from the dead is the Good News the Apostles shared orally, decades before the written gospels, with the power of the Holy Spirit, in their original mission. It changes everything.

For example, a baby born in a manger is a nice story. The baby born in a manger who will be raised from the dead to overcome sin and death is the best news the world has ever heard. The resurrection cements the authority of his teaching, guides the interpretation of his miracles and frames the reliable perfection of his example. The resurrection shapes how we understand every word in the Old and New Testaments as leading to him or flowing from him.

As we grow to know and love him, it shapes how we interpret our lives, our memories of the past, our shared histories, our present circumstances and our hope for the future – literally forever, and ever (in case forever isn’t long enough).

We tend to look at life from our perspective, using our best judgment as we are wired and trained to do. Easter reminds us to not merely set our perspective aside for a day or a season, but to subject it to the truth and the power of the resurrection, to be transformed by the resurrection. Alfred Lord Tennyson beautifully calls us to our risen life in Christ:

Ring out wild bells to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Every memory from our past, every hope we hold, everything we are and everything we hope to be, all center on this astounding fact that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. Let this Good News ring out your darkness and ring in the light of Christ. Alleluia, Christ is Risen!

This is the light that shines in the darkness. This is the Good News that formed the early Church and continues to make all Christians one in Christ. This is the Good News that formed the Church of the Good Shepherd and has guided our life together these past 100 years – and a day. This is the Good News that brings life to every name on the bronze plaques of those interred in our memorial garden. They are not dead ashes in the ground, they are alive in Christ! We are alive in Christ and always will be! Alleluia, Christ is Risen!

This is the Good News that brings new life to each of our hearts day by day, and all the more as we give it our attention. This is the Good News that brings light as we grieve those we have lost, as we seek healing and deliverance from our pain. Let our sorrows come to mind. See them now and forever in the light of Jesus, who gives life to the dead, heals every hurt and wipes away every tear.

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!

AMEN!