Easter Dawn Service Reflection, Sunday April 1, 2018 

Isaiah 65: 17-25

17 ‘See, I will create  new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
    nor will they come to mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice for ever in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.
19 I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.

20 ‘Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days,
    or an old man who does not live out his years;
the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child;
the one who fails to reach[a] a hundred will be considered accursed.
21 They will build houses and dwell in them;
    they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
    or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy  the work of their hands.
23 They will not labour in vain,
    nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the Lord,
    they and their descendants with them.
24 Before they call I will answer;
    while they are still speaking I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy  on all my holy mountain,’
says the Lord.

Friends, like this dark morning needs the sun to rise, this dark world needs this Easter good news.

We long for the dawn. We need the light. We need his light. If only more people would face the dawn and receive his light!

He is our only hope for things to be like the Aldi add says, “Good Different”! He is the only way this old broken heaven and earth are renewed in teeming life and joy.

Our city, our town needs his light to make this place eve more a delight to live in – where there is genuine reconciliation between people, husbands, wives, families, indigenous and non-indigenous, gender groups, church groups, parents and kids, friends and strangers.

If Easter Dawn says anything, it says there is a new dawn possible. New light is possible. New hope for today is possible for any issue, any problem, any conflict, and need.

The empty tomb and its good news yells out, “He is our life – our forever life”, from infancy to old age and in the glory that awaits the baptised faithful.

So, darkness and death are not to be dismissed or even avoided for us in the light. We don’t have to forever be trying to keep people endlessly more and more safe all the time. He is our safety. He is the world’s safety in darkness and facing death.

No. Because of Jesus’ resurrection all of life counts, all suffering has an end point, and even a new possibility when the pain subsides.

Jesus says, when we call he will answer in this, his new day.

So, call to him this Easter Day. Receive your answers from the King of love, your Shepherd.

Sit freely in the presence of your enemies who will no longer have power over you. That giant lion with all its fear is a mere pussy cat munching on grass, like a very content and fat cow, now.

Isaiah says that even the evil one will be nothing to you as he eats your dust!

He lights us up!