April 8, 2007
The Sunday of the Resurrection (Year C)
Easter Day
Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; 1 Corinthians 15:19-26; John 20:1-18
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
Alleluia! It feels so good to say that word. For six weeks we have been containing it, saying it in our minds at the end of the service and at other points when we ”normally” rejoice, but today we can say it with gusto! Alleluia!
And we say it not because we are solely focused on
proper liturgical practice, but because today we remember that Jesus was resurrected. He was not resuscitated. He was not saved by CPR. He was resurrected, a new being, alive, never to die again.
We know that he was a new being because his friends didn’t recognize him until he did what he had always done in their company. And the first to see him – in all four gospels actually – was Mary, Mary who loved him, followed him, likely provided the money to finance his ministry, Mary who watched him die on the cross, Mary who helped prepare his body for burial, Mary who laid him in the tomb.
And on that morning, bright and early, after the Sabbath was over, Mary returned to the garden and she found something that she could not expect.
I have tried to think about what it must have been like for her. Her only and rightful conclusion was that someone had taken the body. Dead bodies do not walk away. Dead bodies do not return to life. So it had to be that someone had taken him.
All of us know certain things are true. Rain falls. Trees change color in fall. Flowers bloom in the spring. The sun sets in the West. There are certain things that cannot be changed – well, flowers can be forced all winter and trees can be tricked into loosing their leaves early, but they follow the same principles that apply to these plants in their natural course.
There are other things; for instance, when you open a car door, you expect to find a seat and a steering wheel at the very least. When you crack an egg, you expect to find a white and a yolk, sometimes doubles if you are lucky; and sometimes they are hard boiled so there is a different color and consistency. But still it is an egg.
So imagine what Mary must have felt like when she found that tomb empty. It was not what she expected, but it could only be seen as a disaster. She could not comprehend at that moment that it might be something good. Indeed, the best possible news that could ever be.
When Jesus addressed her, she didn’t recognize him. No small wonder! Jesus was dead. She had watched him die painfully on the cross, seen his body, cried tears. So, of course, she didn’t recognize him – for her at that moment he was dead. And the man she encountered, this man was alive. So, of course, she assumed he was the gardener.
But the very nature of resurrection is that it is about the eternal life of the soul, and Christ’s soul was alive and well. Christ’s soul was continuous with the soul Jesus bore on earth and so the things of the resurrected soul were the things by which the disciples would recognize Jesus.
And Mary was the first. She recognized him when he spoke and called her by name. It was probably the same way he had always called her by name. Her soul recognized his, not because his body was the same, clearly it was not, but because of who and what he was, still alive, still completely himself. The body he wore was a resurrected body, not one resuscitated from the rigors of crucifixion.
So imagine Mary’s surprise! Imagine it! It is like opening an egg and finding an elephant; or watching a sunset in the East instead of the West. It simply cannot happen. And yet it did!
And that is the reality of God’s grace. Just when we think it simply cannot happen because of the things we know to be true, a person dead does not rise from it, any more than the sun sets in the East. God’s grace is the impossible, the unexpected, the most wonderful thing we can imagine when we least expect it, and likely do not deserve it, and have done not nothing to earn it.
Resurrection is God’s intention for all of creation, eternal life in the company of angels and archangels, and most importantly, God.
I wonder how many of us would have reacted much differently from Mary? I wonder how many times in our lives resurrection stares us right in the face, and like Mary, we don’t even see it? How many times has grace after grace been held out for us, and we are unable to trust it. Or how many times do we cling desperately to what we “know” because the reality of God’s grace cannot be comprehended.
How often is God’s intention for us to have life, and have it abundantly, missed because we have boxed ourselves out of the possibility of seeing that intention?
Mary woke up on Easter Morning and expected to finish the burial process of her beloved Jesus. And instead, she encountered him face to face. And little did she know that she would never be without him again. She didn’t expect it. It was a surprise. Grace is always a surprise.
This morning I have a little surprise for you, to remind you to keep looking for God’s grace where you least expect it, to accept the impossible as possible, the deep desire of God that you have abundant life, always.
This morning I have an egg for each of you. It looks like an ordinary plastic Easter egg; but if you look through the hole in the end, you will see that inside it too is empty. But it allows you to look out the other side to see a kaleidoscope of colors, not what you expect from an egg, of course. But it is representative of the life that God intends for us, representative of the grace that await us all – if we have the courage to see it. And then to accept it!
Mary did! She ran to tell the others! She was empowered by Grace and so can we be empowered by grace. Take the time, risk, trusting God’s intention for you to have abundant life, here and now. That is how Easter People live, believing the impossible and accepting the unthinkable reality of God’s abundant love.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! Imagine that!
And continue to notice the Grace of it every day!
Amen.
Church of the Good Shepherd