There are two lessons from the New Testament leading up to the account of the Resurrection of Jesus we have just heard. The first line of the lesson from the Acts of the Apostles is, to me, an odd and somewhat disconnected introduction to the preaching of the resurrection.

It starts Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.”

He then goes on to relate in some detail the events around Jesus’ resurrection. What does the resurrection have to do with God not showing favoritism? Peter’s statement about God not showing favoritism follows immediately on the story of the conversion of Cornelius, the Roman Centurion, in the first verses of Chapter 10. That God could pour out his Spirit on a Gentile, and a soldier at that, I think was equally as astounding to Peter as Jesus resurrection! Remember that it was forbidden for a Jew to converse with a Gentile, and he certainly could not have come into his house. There were God’s chosen people – and then there was everyone else, the hoi polis, the common people. (I encourage you to take out your bible at home and read the whole chapter.)

Cornelius’s sincere conversion was earth shaking, earth moving for Peter and the earliest Christians: If Cornelius had received forgiveness of sins and was a follower of Jesus, then – in effect—everyone was free to follow Jesus, not just law abiding Jews. Emphasis on the word “free.”

You see, freedom is the meaning of the Resurrection, my friends.

There is a wonderful painting of the Resurrection by Piero della Francesca. He was born fifty miles east of Florence in San Sepolcro, and in the 1450’s he painted on the wall of the old town hall a remarkable fresco. Here is an art historian’s description of the painting: …….

Jesus’s freedom from the grave sets off a shock wave of possibility for each of us, and for the world. Peter’s astonished insight that God does not show favoritism, and accepts from every nation the one who fears him” was his lead into preaching the resurrection. It was in a special way his share in the resurrection, because resurrection is freedom. Peter’s world was turned upside down! Resurrection can turn our world upside down. Resurrection is a chance, given over and over again endlessly, to breath a sigh of relief, so to speak, relief that we are no longer bound to endless repetition of days without meaning, to the bondage of our past, to a pervasive sadness and anxiety that comes from disillusionment and disappointment, disappointment with ourselves and our prospects for the future, and prospects of the future of our country and the world around us.

Christ’s bursting the bonds of death catches us up in possibility, in community, in love, and in a show of energy we didn’t know, perhaps, still lies within us.

Friends, I think we can’t leave this celebration of Easter this morning without trying to imagine this parish also coming into new life: When we make ourselves available to God, when we are nourished in the Sacrament of the Altar, In the Word of God, and take time to be with God in prayer, then we can be assured that good things will happen: we will notice an opportunity to say a kind and encouraging word, bring joy to someone’s day with a smile and an act of charity, and through these kinds of attention to God’s presence in and around us, things will begin to happen: someone new, or some parishioner who has been here 50 years, and people in between, will come up with an idea, will reach out to do something new for them, will risk reaching out for a new flexibility, and this energy, sent from God through his Holy Spirit, will become contagious. I can’t wait to see what might happen in this coming year at St. Andrew’s.

If we were to look at della Francesco’s painting again we would notice the figures that are anything but energetic – those guards sleeping, unaware of what’s taking place right next to them. We are not dulled like them: we are here, awake and alert to the possibilities God offers through our share in Christ’s resurrection.