For at least two hundred years, and probably much longer, there have been some people who are convinced the Church is dead or at least dying. Disappointed in the frailty and sin of some church members, discouraged by the failures and unfaithfulness of some church organizations and congregations, these people move through life declaring-sometimes with anger, sometimes through tears-that the Church, the Body of Christ is dead.

These people have a lot in common with the very religious people Matthew described in chapter 28 who could not believe the Easter message. They have seen the grace of God crucified by religious people and religious institutions, and they are convinced the Church is dead and buried. For them the resurrection of the Body of Christ seems to be more than they can believe. Quoting a poll or two and then a lot of statistics they issue a death certificate for the Body of Christ, the Church.

I suppose there are some congregations that are closer to death than life. And I suspect within every congregation there are some persons whose faithfulness is either dead or in a coma.

All this makes the Easter story as told in Matthew 28 a very contemporary story. Mary Magdelene and the other Mary went to the tomb early in the morning, discouraged because their Christ was dead. There a special messenger from God said to them: "I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified, dead and buried; but he is not here. He has been raised from the dead. Come and see where he lay, and go and tell the disciples he is raised and will meet them in Galilee."

"There is no death here," the angel said. "Come and see. Go and tell." And that is my response to those who in our day repeat the latest version of the death announcement for the Church. Come and see.

Look at what has been happening in the life of just this congregation. Did you hear Diana Henry's testimony last week? Did you hear what Lew Little said the week before? Did you pay attention to the creed we just read that the children in the confirmation class wrote? Have you not seen the classrooms full of a adults, children and youth studying the Bible, discussing issues of faithful living, learning to serve Christ more effectively? And not just on Sunday, but throughout the week. Have you been reading the Chimes? Have you looked at the bulletin boards showing only a tiny, tiny part of our ministries? Have you not heard the advice Dan Waddle gave his son broadcast on TV around the world? Fatherly advice that is a witness to the faith, hope and love the Gospel proclaims. Have you not seen how this congregation has reached out to refugees in the past and continues to reach out to them in the present? Don't you know about the ministries to people who are in prison? Or the tender ministries to families in which a death has occurred? Have you not seen members of our congregation involved with families struggling to get out of poverty? Have you not seen volunteer mentors from our congregation working with individual students who have few positive role models? Have you not seen our youth working on the home of an elderly widow whose home needs repair, but who cannot afford it? Have you not seen these youth reach out, without thinking, to include those who are left out of some circles? The list of ministries in just this one congregation goes on and on.

Do you think the Church is dead or dying? Come and see.

But "come and see" is only part of the message both the angel and the risen Christ gave to the women that first Easter. The other part of the message was: "Go and tell."

And it was not just the women who heard this. It is the primary message the disciples received. To them the risen Christ said: "All the authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go into all the world and make disciples." Christ was saying to them and to us: "Do not merely receive and enjoy Easter for yourselves. Go and tell. Go into all the world."

Certainly this means we are to go into the world of West Austin where materialism seduces the innocent and substitutes an ethic of enjoyment for an ethic of love and service. Of course, we are to go into the world of West Austin where broken hearts and fears of failure hide behind facades of success. But we are not to limit our ministry to our home territory. Just as the disciples were to take the Gospel beyond Galilee, we are to go into the world that is beyond our comfortable West Austin ghetto.

"Go into all the world," Jesus told us. We are to go into the world of East Austin, where poverty is obvious and the racism of our day is more clearly seen. We are to go into the world of undereducated adults made bitter and suspicious, frustrated and angry by middle class regulations and red tape. We are to go into the world of children who have never had someone read them a bedtime story or express any real concern about whether they pass or fail. We are to go into the complex world of business where the bottom line is all too often the only line that counts, and where the only "real" people are the ones in the board meetings, not the ones whose lives are impacted by the business decisions being made there. We are to go into the world of places like Honduras, or the Middle East, or the strife torn countries of Africa. We are to go into the world of the peasants making a living by raising the only crop that will support their family, and selling that crop to others who love money much more than people and who take the crops and turn them into drugs that addict and distort the lives of fellow human beings. "Go into all the world," Jesus told us.

But what in the world are we to do? In the passage that was read, Jesus says we are to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What was Jesus talking about? Whatever he was talking about, it has to do with a whole lot more than religious ritual. Jesus was talking about the reality our ritual tries to embrace. He was talking about people being transformed, transformed by the presence and power of God.

It is by the transforming power of God's grace that disciples are made. We are merely the instruments, the voice and hands God can use, when we do not get in the way-and sometimes God uses even though we do get in the way.

So, what are we to do? What is our assignment? How can we be used by God in the transformation of human lives?

Jesus said: "Teach them to obey all I have commanded you." When any of us gathered here stop to think, we know what he has commanded. We are to love God with all that we are and have, and we are to love others the way we love ourselves. When Jesus told us to teach everyone in the world what he had commanded, he was telling us to teach people to love. This is what Jesus did; this is the business of the Body of Christ. This is what church work is really all about. To be the church is to be the people who strive to teach people to have faith in God, to place their hope in God, to love God and to love others the way they love themselves.

This is a tall order. How can any of us teach faith, hope and love to anyone in any of the worlds such as those described? It is an almost impossible assignment. It would be impossible if it were not for the rest of what Jesus said. "Remember, I am going to be with you to the very end. You are not going to be alone. You do not have to do it alone. I am with you," Jesus said. He was telling us that the very essence of the grace of God is available to us. This is a large part of what the resurrection means. The grace of God, incarnate in Jesus, is available and will be at work in us and through us. This is what it is to be the Body of Christ-to be people who know that God's love is not defeated but is at work among us. The people who are the Church know they are not alone in their ministries of faith, hope and love.

So, what are we celebrating today? If you think we are merely celebrating that we are off to a good start raising a lot of money, you have missed the point. Not just the point of this sermon, but the point of it all. If you think we are merely celebrating the expansion of our facilities and the addition of long needed space, you have missed the point. Not just the point of this sermon, but the point of it all.

What this campaign is all about, what our expansion is all about, what this celebration is all about, is what the 28th chapter of Matthew is all about. The Easter mystery is the reality we celebrate. We are celebrating the victory of God over what the Bible calls sin and death-God's victory over what we experience as distorted lives, injustice, hopelessness despair and even death itself. We are celebrating that the Body of Christ, the Church, is not destroyed by human sin. We are celebrating the amazing mystery of God's grace that is not defeated by the worst we can do and refuses to give up on us. Far from it. We are celebrating the amazing mystery of God's grace that gives birth to faith. offers hope. and enables love. This is what we are celebrating today-the mystery of God's grace that transforms the lives of human beings and in the process makes ministries of faith, hope and love possible.

God, the extent of your love for us is truly amazing. Even when we have failed in our faithfulness to you, you have remained faithful to us. We do not understand it, but for this gift of amazing grace, we are grateful. Amen.