CORINTH

-Sermon Notes-

 

“Rolling-Out the Red Carpet” (Easter Sunday!)

(Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29/Luke 24:1-12)

      Rolling-out the red carpet is most often associated with Hollywood celebrities attending events like the Oscars, or welcoming foreign dignitaries to our country.   Yet there are references to rolling-out red carpets from centuries ago. More recently, a train manufacturer made the act and expression popular as a means of welcoming people on board their train cars around 1902.  Do we sense a rolling-out of red carpets in our readings today?

     We don’t know who wrote today’s psalm; historians believe the psalm recounts the experience of one who has been delivered from a grave danger or crisis.   With the intent of praising God, the celebrant gathers at the gates of the temple (see v. 20) while expressing praise, then invites others to enter the temple grounds to join him/her in celebrating and praising.  Over the years, this psalm became a liturgy faithful Jews would memorize and share together.  Jesus likely sang this psalm during occasions as a faithful Jew while being raised.  In fact, Jesus quotes from this psalm as he delivers a parable (Matthew 21:42.)  When we consider this psalm, we don’t visualize a red carpet being rolled-out from the temple to the celebrant.  Instead, we might see the celebrant rolling the red carpet toward the temple, inviting God into their midst so they might honor and offer praise for the faithfulness which delivered the person from their crisis.

     Our Luke passage reminds us of the incredible events of the first Easter morning.  As the women go to Jesus’ tomb to anoint a corpse, they find news of a resurrection.  After receiving this startling message, the women told of their experience to the apostles; Peter reacts by making a b-line to the tomb, discovering only discarded linen cloths.  As the days, come, they find themselves reunited with the resurrected Jesus.

     In the Easter story we find an image of a rolled-out a red carpet; through the incarnation, through the birth, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus, we find ourselves rolling-out a red carpet toward Jesus, inviting him into our lives.  But could it be we have it backwards?  Today I invite you to embrace another image: a red carpet rolled toward you.  At the heart of Holy Week and Easter is an invitation to you.  The scriptures describe you, us, as beloved children of God; we are described as heirs of Christ, loved by God.  At the heart of the message of Holy Week is God reaching-out to humanity in a new way; through the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  In the events of Holy Week, in the miracle of Easter, God calls to us, inviting us in, rolling-out the red carpet toward us while inviting us into this experience of knowing God in Christ. 

 

Thankful to be sharing this invitation together on Easter Sunday!