I was compelled. As assistant minister at the 10:30 Easter Eucharist at Salem Lutheran in Sycamore I felt mightily compelled to go against proper protocol and make a personal witness before reading the first and second lessons.
Perhaps some of you may have attended Easter Sunrise Worship earlier this morning. I must bear witness to my own experience at my own. At the first, slightest show of the morning light the Cardinals and Robins were singing their Alleluias. As I approached the barn they were soon joined by a chorus of boisterous soprano bleatings of three dozen lambs and the altos and baritones of their mothers and a couple of rams. The lambs even performed an exuberant liturgical dance. Finally it was the turn of a worship team of brassy sheepdogs barking out their Hosannas and even a Gloria in Excelsis.
So I bear testimony. God’s resurrection power to renew the face of the earth and to renew us, is marvelous in our eyes and ears. The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed!