My Easter sermon was just about finished late Saturday afternoon when my husband came home with some news that caused me to scrap what I had written and to start all over again. The news he came home with was that the wife of Y’Luong, one of the Montagnards that you have met, had gone missing. Word had leaked out from Vietnam that a large group of Montagnards, most of whom are Christian, had planned a prayer demonstration on Good Friday. The prayer demonstration was to be in protest of the Vietnamese government’s denial of religious freedom in that country and also of the government’s displacement of the Montagnards’ ancestral lands in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.

The news since Good Friday is not good. Despite tight government controls, reports and photographs are getting out that many of the demonstrators have been jailed, beaten, and raped. Some have disappeared. Is Y’Luong’s wife and young daughter among the missing? We don’t know at this point – Y’Luong is unable to reach his family. All I could think of, as Art shared this horrible news with me, was of the Montagnard men worshipping with us this past summer and surprising us in the parish hall by singing, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” in their native tongue.

The Internet search for news of the Christian Montagnards led me to more web sites. Christian children in Burma are being forcibly taken from their parents and placed in Buddhist monasteries. Christians in Iraq are being stalked, threatened and killed. In Kosovo, 117 Christian churches have been burned in recent months. Some 500 Christians in Kosovo have been killed or wounded and had their homes and businesses destroyed by rioters. In Nigeria, religious violence has claimed the lives of 1500 Christians and the destruction of 173 churches. Palestinian Christians are increasingly threatened and vulnerable in the volatile mix of the Middle East.

As we absorb the horror of religious persecution in other countries, let us also remember to be thankful that we live in the United States – a country with a remarkable measure of religious freedom. We aren’t meeting in secret today, as thousands of Christians around the world must. Our beautiful church building is safe. We have the luxury of deciding between hundreds of different Christian denominations in which we can live out our faith. We won’t be arrested for being Christians today.

While we squabble and fight over numerous religious issues in this country, we might also thank God we have the freedom to do so. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus all free to worship as they wish in the United States. What a remarkable freedom that is, and how much we take that freedom for granted.

All this is not to say that we in the United States are not immune to religious persecution. Christians in this country have done their share of persecuting those of different faiths. American Jews and American Muslims have their own terrible tales to relate of unjust and unfair, hateful and hurtful treatment at the hands of American Christians.

So where do we go with all of this on this Sunday of all Sundays, the Sunday of the Resurrection? This is a joyful day – one that changed the course of life and history forever. It was Bob Hamilton who led me to the hinge – the hinge between the good news of the Resurrection and the bad news coming from around the world. In a brief conversation we had before the Easter Vigil last night, Bob said, “Resurrection happens always in the face and presence of evil.”

That certainly was the way it happened almost two thousand years ago. In the midst of human hatred and misunderstanding, in the midst of political and religious differences, and in the midst of the worst of religious wrongdoing, God resurrected Jesus. In the midst of madness, God began re-creating the world. Re-creation began with the incarnation – with God coming to us in the form of a human being named Jesus. The re-creation continued as Jesus taught and told about the Kingdom of God – God’s dream of how humanity was to be related to him and to each other. The re-creation continued even after human beings, unable to risk and trust, killed Jesus. The resurrection re-created the course of life itself – not just the life of Jesus – but our lives as well; for in the resurrection death itself was defeated. Through our relationship with the Risen Christ, we too will be resurrected.

Paul Tillich, the 20th century German theologian, and one fully aware of the evil powers of this world, wrote, “A New Creation has occurred, a New Being has appeared; and we are all asked to participate in it… We want only to show you something we have seen and to tell you something we have heard… that here and there in the world and now and then in ourselves is a New Creation, usually hidden, but sometimes manifest, and certainly manifest in Jesus who is called the Christ.”

That’s certainly an echo of what Paul says in his Letter to the Colossians, “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Here and there in the world and now and then in our selves is a New Creation, usually hidden, but sometimes manifest. But how and when? How is God’s re-creation of the world made manifest? The Church believes that God’s re-creation of the world is made manifest in all the ways we do what we’ve promised to do:

- When we continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread and in the prayers

- When we persevere in resisting evil and whenever we fall into sin, to repent and return to the Lord

- When we proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ

- When we seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves

- When we strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being.

That is kingdom work. That is our charge and our ministry as members of the Church – the very Body of Christ alive in the world. That is the value system, which has been entrusted to us – the followers of Jesus. That is the role and responsibility of resurrected people like you and like me. You see, the power of our Easter faith is unleashed as it challenges and stands against the powers of this world. It is a power that faces down evil by placing giving above getting, serving above ruling, and forgiveness above avenging.

Desmond Tutu, the ardent archbishop who has stood so firmly against apartheid in South Africa, said about the meaning of Easter, “Easter means hope prevails over despair. Jesus reigns as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Easter says to us that despite everything to the contrary, his will for us will prevail, love will prevail over hate, justice over injustice and oppression, peace over exploitation and bitterness.”

Oh let us do our part in God’s re-creation of the world. As the inheritors of the new life given through Jesus, let us do our part. Let us follow our Risen Lord here and there, wherever he may lead, so that now and then God’s perfect world might be glimpsed through us.

Amen.