He is risen!  Listen to Pastor Carl's sermon from our Easter service of 2022, wherein we wrap up our series, Seeking God's Ways.

In John's telling, Mary Magdalene is the one who discovers that the tomb is open.  After the two male disciples see the empty tomb and leave, she is the one who meets Jesus.  Her sorrowful certainty that Jesus' dead body has been taken away is transformed when Jesus speakers her name and opens her to the unimaginable truth of his resurrection.  Mary gets to announce this good news to the disciples, inviting them to let go of their certainty that they knew the ending, and to be opens to God's unexpected triumph over death.  We are invited to surrender to our certainties that falsely place limitations on God and to join the psalmist in praise: What God is doing is marvelous in our eyes!  Recall Isaiah's words from the third week of Lent: "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than you ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:9)