A few weeks ago someone asked me how do you come up with something to preach on Easter? The implication of the question was, it's not like
there's anything new to say. I'm not sure that having something new to say about Easter is the point. Part of what draws us here is the hope
and the life embedded in this day. But the question got me thinking. It is said that preachers preach what they most need to hear. So I thought, what do I need to hear this Easter? Not what do I want to hear, but what do I need to hear? And then pray, that it is at least what some of you also need to hear. We often get caught up in what we want, but God is in the business of giving us what we need. Easter is a reminder of that. This past Tuesday, the clergy of our diocese gathered with our new bishop at Grace Cathedral
for the annual renewal of ordination vows and the blessing and distribution of the oils we use for anointing of people at baptism and when they are sick or dying. During the reception after the service, we were invited to pick up
a portrait of the new bishop. It's sort of like a celebrity headshot for the bishop. So I decided to have a bit of fun and asked the bishop to
autograph his portrait for St. John's. The bishop asked me what he should say. I thought for a moment and then said, Dear St. John's, keep the
faith and rock on. And as soon as I said it, I knew that was what I needed to hear this Easter. Keep the faith and rock on. Now I picked that phrase for some simple reasons, but then realized it had a deeper meaning. Keep the faith. I picked this because of a celebrity encounter. When I was newly ordained and working at a church in Southern California, I was a big fan of the TV show Friends. And like many guys, and probably women too, I had a huge crush on Jennifer Aniston. With the understanding of my amazingly patient wife. The husband of one of the people on the church staff that I worked with was one of the camera operators for friends. And he arranged
for us to be part of the live audience during the filming of an episode. Unbeknownst to me, my wife had given one of my clerical callers to the cameramen. So that he could have Jennifer Aniston autograph it Without any prompting she wrote to Chris keep the faith love Jennifer That's what I was thinking of when I asked the bishop to write keep the faith But Jennifer Aniston didn't invent that phrase Indeed, Saint Paul, anticipating that he would soon be executed by Roman authorities, wrote, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. To keep the faith is to trust in and serve Christ, even when times are hard. It is turned to God instead of away from God when bad things happen. It is to be grateful for God's presence in all things. The Christian spiritual writer Henry Nowan wrote, to be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy.
But to be grateful for all of our lives, the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes
as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections, that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we are only truly grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings. In the midst of uncertainty, and the changes and chances of this mortal life. To follow Christ, to love our neighbors as ourselves is to keep the faith. To acknowledge that none of us is truly self -made is to keep the faith. To proclaim Christ's victory over death is to keep the faith. Rock on. I go to a lot of rock concerts. I love it. And in that moment with the bishop, I thought if someone from a band I loved was autographing something for me, I'd want them to write rock on. But what does rock on really mean? Maybe you've seen this hand gesture. It's a gesture often used by the crowd or bands at rock shows. It is not a sign for the devil. That is a common misconception. Rather, it is a gesture found in Italy and Tibetan Buddhism
among others to ward off evil. The singer Ronnie James Dio borrowed the gesture from his Italian grandmother and started using it to connect with
the audience. Because he was in Black Sabbath, everyone thought it was for Satan. But he has said that that wasn't what it was about. Ozzy Osbourne had always done peace signs, so Ronnie James Dio needed something else to do. So he borrowed his grandmother's gesture. Instead and that gesture spread and grew in popularity and now it is associated with the phrase rock on Rock on is about connection community a shared experience When you are packed in a crowd of people throwing up rock on at a concert it is cathartic joyful no matter how angry sad or lonely you feel you are not alone in that moment now worship at an Episcopal church is very different
than a rock concert and honestly thank God for that I don't need church to be a bad version of a rock concert. But to rock on captures what church is for. Because church is about keeping the faith in community. That's what church is, keeping the faith in community. We need each other in sorrow and in joy for consolation and for strength. and together we ward off evil.
Christ's victory over death has been celebrated in the church for over 2 ,000 years. A lot has gone on in the world during that time, both wonderful
and horrible. And some of the horrible has been when the church marries itself to the powers of the world, instead of proclaiming God's message
of radical love in a new heaven and a new earth, where the wolf shall eat with the lamb and the lion with the ox. But through it all, people have gathered together on Easter to proclaim the empty tomb And to say with Mary, I have seen the Lord. We join in that witness and chorus
of joy and rejoicing today. Happy Easter, St. John's. Keep the faith and rock on.