Is it Easter already? It seems as though it was just Christmas two weeks ago. Easter has a way of sneaking up on you. With Christmas, we at least have the countdowns that the stores issue warning of how many shopping days we have left. But there isn’t that same sense of cultural frenzy with Easter. Sure there are Easter egg hunts and trips to get your picture taken with the Easter bunny at the mall but the frenzy isn’t quite as high. People aren’t concerned with finding the perfect gift for each person of their list. No Easter just kind of sneaks up on you. All of a sudden on a crisp early spring morning, dawn breaks and we proclaim, "He is risen!"

For the two Marys who went to the tomb early in the morning to see the place where Jesus had been buried, Easter came as a surprise, too. They went to the tomb, knowing what they would see. After all, they had been there for the crucifixion. They had watched as Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus’ body and laid it in the stone tomb. They had seen him roll the stone in front of the tomb. These two women decided to go back to the tomb in order to sit beside the resting place of the one they had followed from Galilee and supported throughout his ministry. They came seeking a quiet place in which to mourn their loss and grieve for the one they had loved.

But a quiet place wasn’t what they got. Much to their surprise, the ground beneath their feet shook and an angel appeared in front of them. This was not the first earthquake these women had felt. When Jesus had breathed his last from the cross, the earth shook beneath the people and the curtain in the Temple that separated the courts of the people from the holy of holies where God was believed to reside, was torn in two. In that earthquake at Jesus’ crucifixion it must have seemed as though the very ground was sobbing at the death of God’s Son.

But this second earthquake on that crisp early morning when an angel came to roll away the stone to reveal the empty tomb must have felt as though the earth was splitting at the seams and turning itself upside down. The ground was shaking with the very joy of the event. The women went to the tomb expecting to find death and instead found life. They had their world shaken and discovered that the world they went to sleep in was not the world they woke up in. They had gone to sleep in a world in which death was final, power came from oppression, and good guys finish last. But the world in which they woke up is characterized by death no longer being final and power is found in weakness. The world as they knew it had become unhinged. Things didn’t work out the way they thought they would…and they greeted this new world with fear and great joy.

All of a sudden those taunts the people hurled at Jesus as he hung on the cross, "If you are the Son of God, then come down from the cross." "If he trusts in God, let God deliver him." The questions that were asked of Jesus at the trials, "Are you the Messiah?" Even Jesus’ dying words from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" have been answered as the earth shook on that first Easter morning. God has answered all of these questions in the resurrection.

God never seems to work in the ways we expect. God doesn’t usually answer prayers in exactly the way we ask them to be answered. God did not answer the people who taunted Jesus in the way that we might have expected. God didn’t take Jesus down from the cross.

With the darkness that covered the land on the day that Jesus died, it must have seemed that God’s answer was, "No, this man is not the Messiah." With the death of Jesus, it must have seemed that God’s answer was, "No, this man is not the Messiah." In those three days when it seemed as though God was silent as the grave, the people must have thought that God’s answer was, "No, this man is not the Messiah." But in a mighty earthquake on a Sunday morning, God answered in a surprising and unexpected way, "Yes, this man was, is, and always will be my Son, the Messiah, the one you have been looking for."

The women came to the tomb knowing what they were going to see: a grave. Instead they were surprised and met with the greatest answer to their prayers. Prayers they hadn’t even dared to hope would be answered. Jesus wasn’t lying when he talked about what was going to happen. It was all true; everything he had said. What an amazing thing! What a scary thing! The women left the empty tomb bringing a message of truly good news of greatest joy and along the road they met Jesus in person.

What do we come seeking? What do we think we will find here? Do we already know what to expect when we walk through these doors? What if we, in fact, have our world shaken? What if we find that the world we thought we lived in: the world characterized by power over the poor and the weak, the world characterized by oppression of two-thirds of the world being "ok," the world characterized by discrimination based on race, nationality, religion, or any other division we create. What if that world were to be shaken and we found out that we did not find what we thought we would find? Instead God has answered and shown us the Way, the Truth, and the Life?

What if we walked out of these doors and began to live in a world and work to create a world where oppression is not accepted, poverty is not "ok," and break down the barriers that divide all of God’s children?

What if as we walked out of these doors we were to meet Jesus along the road? He might not look like we expect. But what if instead of looking the other direction, we were to share the good news we have. Indeed there would be a whole lotta shakin’ going on here.

The world we fell asleep in is not the world we woke up in. Here, we gather around this table not looking to recreate that last meal Jesus shared with his disciples. Here, we gather around this table celebrating the joyful feast of the people of God. Here, we gather around a table where it doesn’t matter if you’re family, friend, or stranger, you are welcomed here. Here, we gather around this table and it doesn’t matter what gender, nationality, ethnicity, or race you are. It doesn’t matter where you come from or where you are going, you are welcome here.

On the road from the tomb, Jesus met the women. He greeted them, assuaged their fears, and prompted them on their way to deliver their message: go and tell. As we walk out of this church we are also called to go and tell and to live our lives in a world that has been shaken by God’s love.

We are to live in a world where the divisions between God and us are ripped apart. We are to live in a world where the one who was dead, now lives. We are to live in a world shaken and transformed by God’s love. God has answered with a mighty "YES!" He is risen! He is risen, indeed!"