"It Ain't Over Till It's Over" - Christ Episcopal Church

April 5, 2026 – Easter Sunday: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen.

Well, I had hoped it would be a bit more Springy today. Still, even if the weather isn’t sunny and bright, Spring truly is here – flowers are blooming, birds are singing, everyone is sneezing, and move aside basketball on TV – baseball is back!

And Lordy, do we need all of that now, don’t we?

It’s been a tough winter, and an exhausting year.

Weather wise, this winter has chilled us to the bone, and drenched our spirits in the snow and icy rain. And the gloomy clouds matched a lot of our spirits with all that we were experiencing in the world around us.

On Good Friday, we remembered when empire crucified Jesus. And this year, it seems we have been in a perpetual Good Friday. Day after day after day, we see Jesus being crucified. For we know, as this Gospel of Matthew tells us, Jesus taught his disciples where to find him. As I noted at the beginning of this Holy Week on Palm Sunday, and again on Good Friday, Jesus, using the setting of a final judgement, said about those who will be declared righteous, “…for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger (immigrant in today’s terms) and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” When perplexed as to how they had done that, the answer came, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

So, the part of the story of Holy Week, the shallow praise of the people as he entered Jerusalem, his prayer of grief in the garden of Gethsemane, and his execution on the cross by the Roman Empire – it feels very familiar now. It is a darkness that we have been experiencing for so very long as we watch our own empire grab people of color out of their homes, places of work, or even children in school and disappear them. As we see empire shoot and sometimes kill people outright in the streets. We feel betrayed.

We grieve as we hear of the oppression of already marginalized people, our nation bombing a school for girls, and service men and women returning home in flag draped coffins.

Our country has been in a very, very, long Holy Week.

It seems that might has shoved right into a tomb and rolled over the stone. It sure must have felt that way to the first followers of Jesus too.

And yet, that isn’t the end of the story.

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary… Honestly, can we just stop right there…what is up with that? I mean couldn’t the author of Matthew give that other Mary a surname too? It’s a little like on that old Bob Newhart Show – My brother Darryl, and my other brother Darryl. I know – showing my age here. But, really?

Anyway, those two Marys went to the tomb expecting to care for the body of Jesus, their friend and their rabbi. Instead, their world was turned upside down – literally. There was a great earthquake – just like what happened according to this gospel account when he died on the cross, and the same effect was felt too as he entered the city of Jerusalem. God sure knows how to get our attention. And the only thing the women found that was dead were the soldiers – or at least they “became like dead men” according to the text. That was because just as they arrived, a messenger of God appears looking like lightening, who rolled away the stone and sat on it, you know – like you do if you are a messenger of God, I guess.

Then the women were told that the tomb was empty, Jesus had been raised from the dead, and they were to go tell all the other disciples. They did, but before they could get very far, Jesus appears before them on the road. And if that wasn’t crazy, it gets even stranger – he says “Greetings!”

Seriously? It’s like he’s messin’ with them. There they were, having experienced an earthquake, a lightening bolt angel, nearly dead soldiers, and a missing Rabbi, whom they were told has somehow been brought back from the dead… I mean – that’s already a LOT to deal with, right? And then Jesus drops down on them and says “Hey you’all!! What up?” I don’t know about you, but you could hardly blame her if Mary Magdalene said “It’s five o’clock somewhere, I need a drink.”

Instead, she and Mary the sequel grabbed his feet and kissed them. Note that they didn’t need anything more, as the ones in Galilee would ask for – just him being in front of them was all that was needed. And, not for nothing, but as is needed to be pointed out every year – Jesus came to see the women disciples before Peter, James, John, or any of the other men. Jesus, in every gospel account, always appears to Mary Magdalene first (and any other woman who happens to be with her in the synoptics of Matthew, Mark, and Luke – in John, she comes alone). She, and if there are other women with her, are sent to tell the rest of the disciples. The women were the apostles to the apostles. The first ones sent to proclaim the good news.

And what was that good news?

That the cross, erected by empire to destroy love, to extinguish hope – it wasn’t the last word.

Or, to put it another way, since it is the early days of baseball season, in the immortal words of the great Yogi Berra, – “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.” Now, Yogi said that about the 1973 pennant race when the former Yankee was the manager of my hapless Mets. They were 13 games back, in other words, a usual season. The manager wrote a 1998 astutely named book: The Yogi Book: I Really Didn’t Say Everything I Said. In it he said, “That was my answer to a reporter when I was managing the New York Mets in July 1973.”

Of course, he also said other, what some call Yogi-isms: There’s “It’s like déjà vu all over again.” And of course, this classic: “Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t go to yours.” But, “It’s not over till it’s over,” still has a way of inspiring us. It sure did the Mets. They went on the win the pennant and got into the World Series! In true Mets fashion though, they lost.

Well, here’s the thing. Easter is when God offers the same message, “It ain’t over till it’s over,” but adds this note of hope: “And I am telling you – it ain’t over.”2

It ain’t over.

Nope – God isn’t dead or defeated, so neither are we.

That is the first lesson of Easter – hope.

But another is this. That is in these Good Friday moments, when the tomb looms large and empire seems to have their boots on our neck, God will always meet us there, in our darkest hour – when it seems that all hope has been lost. God will meet us on that difficult road and instill new life into us to send us on our mission in the world. God will do that, because God loves us – just as we are, unconditionally, and for all time.

That is the second lesson of Easter – Love.

God.Loves.Us.

God.Loves.You!

For Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, for the rest of the disciples in Galilee, and for each of you – God meets us where we are and calls us to new life, because of that great love.

And God is with us now!

That, my friends, is good news for us all!

But sometimes we don’t see it. Sometimes we don’t lift our eyes to see Jesus on the road, we don’t go to the tomb to encounter an angel waiting for us.

When life throws so much at us in these difficult times of our lives, one of the things that can happen is that we, intentionally or not, turn away from the pain and chaos around us. We dismiss the pain in our body out of fear of a difficult diagnosis. We turn off the TV so we don’t have to see people being hurt or killed by federal agents. We keep our heads down looking at our social media feeds of cat videos. We watch Hallmark movies (or, maybe that’s just me). We turn to the things that comfort us, even sometimes self-medicate to ease the anxiety and the pain.

Now, don’t get me wrong – comfort is important. We all need it. We all need rest from what wears us down emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually. That is a healthy thing to do. But there is a difference between seeking temporary respite, and deliberately putting ourselves in the tomb and rolling over the stone.

I am reminded of something I read once about lost sheep. “When someone asked a wise old shepherd how sheep manage to get lost and separate themselves from the flock, the shepherd said, “Sheep don’t just get lost. They nibble themselves lost.” The sheep, in other words, never look up to see where they’re going, or how far they’ve wandered from the flock. All they can see is the next succulent patch of grass: and the next, and the next. The grass is a good thing, and essential to life: but they follow it so single-mindedly, it leads them ultimately in the direction of death.”[1]

A good patch of comfort to nibble on for a time is a good thing, but we must keep our eyes focused on what will really sustain us, so that we never get ourselves lost – so that we see God sending a messenger to give us hope, so that we see Jesus standing in front of us to offer us new life.

Even in Holy Week, if we focus only on the betrayal, denial, anguish in the garden, the arrest, and the crucifixion, we will miss something else. There was also his great love in washing the feet of his disciples – even the ones who would deny and betray him. There are always the helpers, the ones who offer great love in all of the darkest moments of humanity’s history. We just need to watch for them.

And, if we really think about it, in these dark times we face, the comfort we truly need isn’t to be found in self-medicating, isolating, or ignoring the world anyway. We shouldn’t throw the blanket over our head on Sundays and attend the church of the Holy Comforter. No, it is here, at this table, where we are brought back from the dead by him whose resurrection restores our souls and reminds us that there is nothing in the world to be afraid of when we stay close to Christ Jesus.

For by his death and resurrection we know that life is stronger than death, light overcomes darkness in the end, and love will always defeat hate. Every single time.

By his death and resurrection, we know that the powers of this world are weak, and there is nothing to fear.

By his death and resurrection, we know that the earthly powers of this world do not have the last say – God does. It was true of Rome so long ago, and it is true today.

So, let us rise up from our despair, grief, and isolation.

Let us step away from the tombs in which the powerful of the world have tried to bury the love of Christ.

Let us lift our heads from the comfortable, to return to the true comfort of our shepherd – here at this table.

Because make no mistake about it – God is telling us: “It ain’t over till I say it is over, and folks, I am telling you it ain’t over!

It ain’t over because Christ Is Risen!

He Is Risen Indeed!

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

And that, my friends, changes everything.

Happy Easter Everyone!

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