Unbelief Turns to Joy

Easter Sunrise Service
“Unbelief Turns to Joy”
Matthew 28:1-10
April 12, 2009 7:15 a.m.

For nine whole years, Diana Wiggins who lived just
up the hill, passed by this church, but she never
stopped. She never stopped to say hello, she
never came to worship. …She just went sailing
by in her car.

Today, she is on staff here. She works with our youth,
she visits our sick and shut-ins, she welcomes new members,
she helps develop new ministries, she is a certified
lay speaker, and she has a key to every door. She just about
lives here. The first Sunday she came here was on Easter
Sunday and that’s how it all began. That was a turning point.
(Thanks Diana for our Witness this morning).

If you don’t believe in Easter,
You came to the right place.
If you believe in Easter,
You came to the right place.
If you are still wondering about Easter,
You came to the right place.

When Dr. Lincoln Ralphs was a very young child, he thought the
world was flat. When he went to school, he was told
that the world was round. Later in school, he was told
that it was spherical. In the upper grades, he was told it
was an oblate spheroid. When he got to the university, he
got closer to the truth. He learned it was a geoid. He looked
up the word in the Greek dictionary and found it means
“earth shaped.”

So here is the truth.
The earth is not flat. It is round, well, not exactly.
It’s a geiod. It’s shape is more like a pumpkin than a basketball.
For hundreds of years people believed that the world was
flat and travelers thought, if they got to the edge of
the world, they would fall off.
Doubters, eat your heart out!

Remember the disciples, Jesus asked them to stay awake and
they fellow asleep. And there was Peter. He denied Jesus
not once, not twice, but three times.
When the disciples gathered together, Jesus appeared
to them, but Thomas was not there. Thomas said, “Unless 2
I put my finger in his hands and in his side, I will not
believe.” Hello! Good morning.
It’s Easter!

When Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb,
they were totally surprised. Suddenly there was an
earthquake, the ground shook. (Drums) An angel descended
and rolled the rock away. Then there was lightening. The
guards were so scared, they became like dead men. Then
the angel spoke to the women, “Do not be afraid.” “He is
not here, for he has been raised.” So the women hurried
away to tell the others and on the way they met Jesus.
“Greetings!” he said and they fell to his feet to worship him.

Hello! Good morning! It’s Easter!

I have here an egg. This egg is the symbol of new life. When
a mother hen takes care of an egg, eventually the egg will
crack open. But before the baby chick can come out,
it has to work, It has to break the shell by itself. By
doing this the chick gains strength and it becomes strong.
If someone helps the chick to break the shell, it will die.
The struggle and the hard work, make life possible.

The same it is with all of us.
In difficulty,
In pain,
In suffering,
We are made strong.
This is Good News!

When Margaret Fishback was young, the man she dearly loved
left her. She was broken hearted. Then she became
seriously ill with meningitis. She was bedridden for
months. She felt she had fallen into the lowest pit in life.
One day her brother introduced her to a charming man
named Paul Powers . He treated her with kindness and
she almost forgot the hurt she was carrying for a long time.
Paul Powers asked her to marry him. She said no. She
still wasn’t ready to trust anyone. She had a pain that
would not go away.




3
That night Margaret Fishback prayed that God would take
away her pain and her confusion. She wrote down her thoughts
in her diary and the words just started to flow. Something had
had changed. Finally, she told Paul Powers, “I accept.” …And
they were married. Margaret Fishback is the author of “Footprints
in the Sand.” From her dream she wrote these thoughts,
“I noticed two footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and
One to the Lord.”
She noticed, however, in the saddest moments
In her life, there was only one set of footprints. She
felt in those times God abandoned her.
Then the words flowed. The Lord whispered,
“My precious child,
I love you and will never leave,
Never, never, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then I carried you.” We never walk alone.

Every Easter it is the old story, it is the same story.
But every Easter it is a new story. Peter Marshall says it
the best:

“….Suddenly, at a given time between sunset and dawn…
there is rustling as of the breath of God moving
through the garden.
A man rises from the cold stone slab where he had been
laid. We must see Him as He walks to the threshold
of the tomb, stands swaying for a moment of wounded
feet and walks out into the dewy garden, alive
forevermore.
We must be able to see in mind’s eye the discarded grave clothes
Lying there, like a glove from which the hand has
been removed, the fingers of which still retain the
shape of the hand—lying there,
collapsed a little, slightly deflated, because
there was between the rolls of bandages a considerable
weight of spices…
We must be able to hear it—catch a whiff of the strange scents
that must have drifted back to the Man from the tomb
of linen and bandages, of spices—myrrh and aloes—
And close air and blood.

Good morning! It is Easter! The Lord is risen! Let us share joy.