April 20, 2025

Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus

“Still, I Rise"

by Rev. Trip Porch

April 20, 2025                                                                                                                                                                Based on Luke 24:1–12

 

If I’m being honest, It doesn’t quite feel like Easter morning, to me. Easter to me, is vivid pastels, fragrant flowers, and fatty abundant meals;  Jelly beans and chocolate, and so much joy that feels absolute, and bold, and confident.

Maybe that’s where you are this easter morning. But this year… I don’t quite feel like I’m there yet.
Not with everything going on in the world. 


And maybe I’m not alone. Maybe some of you came to church today feeling more like it’s still Good Friday.

Where: We’re still sitting in the dark. We’re still feeling the weight of grief. We’re still mourning losses—of dreams, of justice, of human rights, of freedom, of loved ones.

 

On Easter, We are told that the stone is rolled away. That hope breaks through the dawn. That death has been defeated and lost its sting. But it’s hard to feel victorious and triumphant when the world is groaning under the weight of so corruption and violence. When systems are rigged. When the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
When honesty is punished, and cruelty is rewarded. When war is never ceasing, when bodies are politicized,
when the truth is twisted, and people are trampled. This doesn’t feel like resurrection. It feels like we are still staring at a sealed tomb. And so, we come to this Easter morning not feeling like the trumpets are ready to blare to declare victory, but with heads bowed, like the women in Luke’s Gospel.


The women came to the tomb with spices and sorrow. They came to do the final act of love. Their posture tells us everything: “they bowed their faces to the ground.”

They came expecting death. And we get that. We know that posture well. Head down. Eyes lowered. Shoulders heavy.


Like the poet Maya Angelou once wrote:

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?

We know what it’s like to walk around like that. To be worn down by news cycles. To be tired of fighting the same injustices. To be weary from prayers that feel unanswered and hopes deferred.

 

So when we read that the women were terrified, confused, disoriented—we understand. When they encounter the empty tomb and the dazzling messengers, they don’t break into song. They bow low. They look away. Because when you’ve experienced grief deeply, it’s hard to trust good news.

 

But something happens in that moment. The messengers say, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
They say, “Remember what he told you.” And that word—remember—is what starts to shift everything.

They remember the promises. They remember his words. They remember that death was never the end of the story.

And little by little, they lift their heads. They stand up. They straight their backs They run back to tell the others.

Resurrection doesn’t always come in an instant. Sometimes it starts with just lifting your head. Just enough courage to face another day. Just enough faith to whisper, “Maybe this isn’t the end.”

 

Maya Angelou’s poem which is of course titled Still I Rise is not just a piece of literature—it’s an Easter proclamation.

It’s what resurrection sounds like when it's been through pain, through trauma, through centuries of oppression and still chooses to sing.

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise

Resurrection isn’t clean. It isn’t easy. It isn’t always bright, bold, and shiny. Sometimes it’s gritty. Sometimes it’s slow, sometimes it’s underground and quiet. Sometimes it’s the audacity to believe in life while you’re still standing among the tombs. To be Easter people in times like these doesn’t mean ignoring the pain of the world.
It means seeing it and rising anyway. It means telling the truth about what’s broken—and still believing it can be healed. It means acknowledging the death—and still holding space for the possibility of life.

 

Angelou writes:

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

 

That’s what resurrection today sounds like… resistance and persistence. That’s what it means to follow a Savior who was executed by the empire and still walks out of the tomb. Easter is not polite. It is not sentimental. It is defiant. It is bold. It is the radical claim that love wins—even when hate seems louder. That life triumphs—even when death appears final. That we rise—even when the world expects us to stay down.

 

Beloved, maybe today your face is still bowed low. Maybe you’re still carrying the spices of grief and disbelief. That’s okay. Resurrection doesn’t demand a fake smile. But hear this:
The stone is rolled away.
The tomb is empty.
And there is a voice—both ancient and urgent—that says:

Lift up your head.
We are not alone.
We are not forgotten.
And yes, still… we'll rise.

Amen.

WE GATHER IN AWE AND PRAISE

PRELUDE                                                                                 “Morning Dance”                                       arr. Cathy Mokelbust

                                                                                                        The Sanctuary Bells

                                                                   “Prelude on ‘Jesus Christ is Risen Today’”         arr. Phil  Lehenbauer 

                                                                                                                                                                          arr. Alfred V. Fedak

WELCOME                                                                    Rev. Trip Porch

One: Christ has risen!

All: Christ has risen indeed!

*CALL TO WORSHIP

One:  Early in the morning light, 

Many: the women went to Jesus’ tomb, expecting nothing but grief and loss

One:  But, the tomb was empty, the stone rolled away, 

Many:  for God’s love is always at work in the darkness 

One:  Let us join our voices with Mary Magdalene, proclaiming: 

All:  “We have seen the Lord!” 

One:  Easter people, Christ is risen! 

All:  Christ is risen indeed!

*HYMN 232                                          “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today”                                       EASTER HYMN 

*PRAYER OF CONFESSION    written by Greg Scheer                                       Caroline Fortman

Living Lord, when we stand before the empty tomb

we don’t always feel the joy of resurrection.

Our heads lower and we feel fear, doubt, and distrust.

We feel empty. Meet us in the depths of our confession, O God…

Time of Silent Confession…

Risen Lord,
Forgive the fear that paralyzes us at the brink of new life.

Forgive our doubt of your love.

Forgive our distrust of your surprising, joyous plan.

Fill our emptiness with your glorious light.

Lift up our heads, and Raise us, with you, to abundant new life.  Amen.

*ASSURANCE OF PARDON 

*RESPONSE OF PARDON 587              “Alleluia”                                              CELTIC ALLELUIA

*PASSING OF THE PEACE                                       

     One:   The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,

     All:      And also with you. 

WE LISTEN FOR GOD’S WORD

ANTHEM                            “Rejoice in the Risen Christ” Allen Pote

CHILFREN’S MESSAGE                                                                    Dorothy Kyle

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

SCRIPTURE   Luke 24:1-12    The Voice

Early on Sunday morning, even before the sun had fully risen, a group of women  including Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James made their way back to the tomb with embalming spices and ointments they had prepared.  When they arrived, they found the stone was rolled away from the tomb entrance, and when they looked inside, the body of the Lord Jesus was nowhere to be seen. They didn’t know what to think. As they stood there in confusion, two men suddenly appeared standing beside them. These men seemed to glow with light. The women were so terrified that they fell to the ground facedown.

They said: “Why are you seeking the living One in the place of the dead? He is not here. He has risen from the dead. Don’t you remember what He told you way back in Galilee? He told you that the Son of Man must be handed over to wicked men, He must be crucified, and then on the third day He must rise.” The women did remember Jesus’ words about this! They returned from the tomb to find the eleven and recounted for them—and others with them—everything they had experienced. 

The Lord’s disciples heard their stories as fiction, a lie; they didn’t believe a word of it. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. When he reached the opening, he bent down, looked inside, and saw the linen burial cloths lying there. But the body was gone. He walked away, full of wonder about what had happened.

Holy Wisdom, Holy Word

Thanks be to God

SERMON Rev. Trip Porch

WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WORD

*HYMN 241                     “Women Weeping in the Garden”                                      KINGDOM

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE  

TIME OF OFFERING   online giving is available at  www. indianolapres.org/give

OFFERTORY                              “This Joyful Eastertide”                                     arr. Charles Evans

                                                                                                               The IPC Brass

*OFFERTORY RESPONSE “Praise God from  Whom All Blessings Flow”   LASST UNS ERFREUEN

*PRAYER OF DEDICATION

God of rising hope, bless these gifts as signs of our trust in you. Use them to build your kingdom of justice and joy. To lift up the lowly, and to bring hope and new life where there is need. With grateful hearts, we offer what we have. Amen.

*HYMN 248                            “Christ Is Risen!  Shout Hosanna!”                                HYMN TO JOY

TIME OF COMMUNITY SHARING

CHARGE & BENEDICTION

CHORAL RESPONSE             “Alleluia, Alleluia! Give Thanks”                       Donald Fishel

POSTLUDE                      Ronde from “Three Dances”              Tielmann Susato (c. 1500-1564)

                                                                            The IPC Brass                                             arr. Michel Rondeau

Acknowledgments: Unless otherwise indicated, all texts and music are printed and broadcast under OneLicense.net license #A-702452        

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