We are Easter people
27th March 2016
“We are an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song.” Those words of St Augustine ring true for us this morning as we join with countless Christians around the world in joyfully exclaiming, “Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!” The word Alleluia comes from the Hebrew, and it means “Praise the Lord”. It is indeed right that we should praise the Lord for raising his Son from the dead.
The Christian faith hangs on the resurrection. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then Christians, as the apostle Paul wrote, “are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19), because we have built our lives on a non-existent foundation. “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead”, he goes on. So we can be sure that Jesus really is Lord and God, that our sins really will be forgiven when we turn to him, and that we really will rise from the dead ourselves when he comes again.
Let us hear again from Augustine: “Now therefore, brethren, we urge you to praise God. That is what we are all telling each other when we say Alleluia. You say to your neighbour, “Praise the Lord!” and he says the same to you. We are all urging one another to praise the Lord … But see that your praise comes from your whole being; in other words, see that you praise God not with your lips and voices alone, but with your minds, your lives and all your actions.”