The resurrection changed our appointed time for worship to Sunday, the first day of the week. Sunday then became the High Holy Day for Christian worship. Now, every Sunday is a little Easter day. Get the point?

Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost (which we will celebrate 50 days after Easter) testifies to the perpetual effectiveness of the resurrection. For hundreds of years this text was the basis of the church’s claim that the Jews were responsible for the crucifixion. As a result it has caused much persecution of Jews around the world. Only in recent years has the Catholic Church revisited this claim, understanding that our sin, in

complicity with the pagan and religious authorities, could be held responsible for Jesus’ death.

The Second Vatican Council, that great reforming council of the Roman Church, headed by Good Pope John XXIII, had introduced language clearing Jews of deicide and reaffirming Judaism’s integrity. And that notion was lived out in the papacy of the recently deceased pope, John Paul II. In a dramatic move on his visit to Jerusalem "he slipped a note into the Western Wall affirming that God ‘chose’ the Jews and asked for forgiveness for their long suffering." "In 1998 John Paul released a papal announcement, "We Remember," a much anticipated penance for the Holocaust." (Time 165:15, p.41f)

Mark you, however, placing blame is not the primary purpose of Peter’s message. Complicity is a minor point. The main point is that "God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him [Jesus] to be held by it. (Acts 2:24) This is not a case of who’s to blame for the crucifixion, but a case of the power of God over sin and death. This Jesus is attested to them by God, this Jesus of Nazareth, attested with "mighty works and wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know, this same Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God." (Acts 2:22-23 passim) God knew what God was doing and through this great tragedy of history (note that I did not say: "accident of history."), through this great tragedy, God worked it for our good, for our salvation, in fact. Get the point? We should go away today not asking ourselves: "Who done it?" but with praise on our lips, saying:

"Thanks be to God who gives us the

And a song in our heart singing:

The strife is over

Friends, this is a cosmic battle between good and evil. And evil is defeated; death is swallowed up in victory. Thanks be to God! And every Sunday is Easter Sunday. The empty cross is a reminder to us of this victory. It is appropriate that we display the cross in our worship as a reminder to us that the empty cross is a visible symbol to us not only of the crucifixion but of the resurrection. "The cross was (and is) a window in time allowing us to see the suffering which is eternally in the heart of God." (Barclay, Acts p. 27)

Friends are always kidding me about forever asking (in the pulpit and out): Get the point?

First, let me say, it is an old habit, learned from Dr. Joe Gluck, a Baptist minister, who was Dean of Men at West Virginia University and the pastor of the Forks of Cheat Baptist church near the university. Joe was a talker, smoked a crook necked pipe, and was always punctuating his impromptu remarks with the question: Get the point? He was a talker and always had something significant to say. He never talked just to hear himself talk but he wanted to share the wisdom that the Lord and the University had taught him about life and about living.

Second, I too, am anxious for you to get the main gist of what the Scripture lesson each Sunday has to say. I don’t much care if you remember any pearls of wisdom I may happen upon from time to time, but I am serious for you to know what the word of God has to say. I would like to overemphasize that fact, for your lives depend on that. And the Scripture is very clear about my task of rightly dividing the word of truth. It says: Woe unto you, Tom Miller, if you preach not the gospel! (I Cor 9:16).

The point, my friends, today and every Sabbath Sunday, is that without the resurrection of Jesus, there is no message. There is no good news and we are without hope in the world, and we of all people are to be pitied. Get the point?

In the Orthodox Christian Church, a church in which Yvonne’s father grew up in Greece, they celebrated Easter last week. In that tradition and as an affirmation of our Easter faith on this Third Sunday of Easter, let us stand and greet each other in the Lord with the Orthodox Christian greeting. They say it is Greek, but we can use English: One says: Christ is risen! And the one greeted answers: Christ is risen indeed! Exchange that greeting among yourselves enough until you think you, and they, have gotten the point! Christ is risen!

A Sermon preached at the Georgetown Presbyterian Church, Georgetown, SC, on the Third Sunday of Easter, April 10, 2005, by the Rev. Dr. E. Thomas Miller, Interim Pastor.