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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Victor over death, your Victor and mine. Amen.

When the children of Israel were being led out of Egypt, out of slavery, out of death, without any hope, they were brought by a great mountain, Mount Sinai, a mountain that they could not touch nor any animal placed its foot on. For, if they were to place their foot upon, they would die. But you, the new Israel, the church, you have not been brought to a mountain were you to touch you would die. You have been brought to the mountain that brings life just as Isaiah prophesied. He will swallow up death on this mountain and dispense the same victor resurrection to you on this mountain, here in your home where you were born, where you were brought up, where you were nourished, nurtured, and given all that God can give. This is the place where God called you by your name and made you His child. Whether it was in this building or not, it was among other people who heard the pastor ask your parents, “How is this child to be named?” And your mom and your dad, they gave the pastor the name and spoke it, and the pastors recited that same name, the name you go by, and baptized you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit into the life and death of Christ that you would be victor and not victim.

Here is the feast of the finest of wines. Here is the place where our Lord gives you His victory in a very tangible way, not in a feeling and not in a reminder of our mind, but in a very corporal taste bud associated way where He gives you Himself and His victorious Resurrection. But it all began when the pastor, really Christ, called you by name and you were made alive. You thought the same thing when you brought your little one to the same font possibly and were asked the same question: “How is this child to be named?” And you and your beloved spoke the name to the pastor and the pastor baptized your baby. And you heard God speak that child’s name and make that child His own.

Let me tell you a really cool story about exactly what Paul wrote in the Corinthian lesson this morning about God’s grace working mightily. My first tour to Iraq on Easter, I baptized a soldier who had no church background whatsoever. He was curious about the church, Christianity. He had his own preconceived ideas, but he had no idea about the depth of God’s great grace. And in our conversations from the October when I arrived till the following late March when Easter fell that year, we talked often about what God had done. Now, if I wanted to talk to him, I had to go outside with him where he smoked his cigarettes one after the other. So I would light up a cigar and sit down and smoke for a while with him and talk about these things. And he had been baptized on that Easter morning out in the middle of a field on that great base in Northern Iraq. And I just got an email from him this week. He’s finishing his studies at Concordia-Seward. He’s retiring from the Army after twenty years. He and his wife and his two children are traveling to St. Louis to go to the seminary this fall. You, through you and your commitment to God’s grace did God do something in that young man’s life.

Now, God doesn’t always give us these really cool stories or these really cool examples, but never let what this world can do drag those thoughts of God’s joy and triumph this day away from you. Let not this world’s cynicism and negativism draw you away from what God has done in you and what God has done through ugly people like you and me whom God has redeemed, whom God has called from death to life and has placed in this world to be salt in this world, to be the leaven of this world, to be the light in this world of such hope and of such victory and of such peace.

Earlier this morning you heard the rain as it fell, and Satan’s torment in this world’s negative, against God’s great Gospel and strength, erodes away joy from you and me. Let it not steal it from you. Be joyful for what God has done in and through God’s great grace. Just like Paul rejoiced in what God had done. No, your and my life, just like that young man’s life is not a poster child of wonderful, pious behavior. We know that. Let not Satan rob you of your victory over death. You’re bound to your loved ones who have preceded you whom you have grieved and cried tears over. You are bound to them and they to you and you all to Christ because He spoke your name at your baptism.

Mary was overwhelmed with emotion. Her head must have been bouncing like a ping pong ball all over the place as she walked to the tomb bright and early on this day of the week, of all days, which is why we gather here. It’s our day of victory. And when she came to that tomb and looked upon her Lord, she did not recognize Him. Was it because she was overwhelmed? I know I have been overwhelmed with emotion when I didn’t feel as if Christ was right there with me, or even carrying me, which I know he did. I know you have gone through such things where you’re wondering, Is God here?

“Mary,” He spoke, and her eyes were opened and she recognized Him. Just like you became alive when God spoke your name at your baptism and at your babies’ baptisms. You have been made alive and you have heard such a call, or you would not be gathered here this morning. You would not be here to feast upon the mountain that brings life as it prepares us for the unending feast in Heaven where all who believe as we will be gathered and no one, no one will tear you away.

Mary had to return to her life. After this great event, she had to get back into the swing of day-in-and-day-outness and so do you. But that’s why we gather every week on this day of our victory. Come home again. Hear your name again spoken by your Lord’s lips. Eat the feast that He has prepared for you again and know your victory is sure and certain. Your hope has been restored. Your peace is locked.

Christ is risen!

[Congregation]: He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!

Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting.

Amen.