Easter Sunday – March 27, 2016: May God’s words alone be spoken, may God’s words alone be heard. Amen.

There was an article published on Good Friday that started like this…“When was the last time you felt stressed out by Easter? So much Easter shopping to do, so many Easter cards to write, so many Easter gatherings to attend. Not to mention the endless stream of Easter commercials on television and online, the nearly unavoidable Easter-themed movies and all those tacky Easter sweaters that you’re forced to wear every spring. And don’t forget the travails of setting up the annual Easter tree and stringing Easter lights on your house. Every year you lament how overly commercialized Easter has become. Can the holiday get any more money-oriented? You feel that way every year, don’t you? Of course you don’t.”[1]

No…we don’t – of course we also don’t generally look to the Wall Street Journal for insightful religious commentary either; which, believe it not, was where this article was published (and it was actually quite good). But this article does bring to mind what has unfortunately become of Christmas, and there is a question I asked on Christmas Eve that, in light of all that the author mentioned that does not happen at Easter – no lights, presents, and trees – in the absence of all of that – why are you here?

Why are you here?

I mean, it’s one thing to say someone was born – we can all get our heads around that – celebrate that, right? While every baby is miracle – a gift from God – it is something that happens every day, right? But this…this resurrection thing…that’s just a whole different story. I mean, as Anna Carter Florence, a noted professor at Columbia Theological Seminary once said, “If the dead don’t stay dead, what can you count on? Resurrection breaks all the rules, and while most of us might admit that the old rules aren’t perfect, at least we know them….”

She’s got a point. It is a bit of a shock to the system this resurrection – it is not warm and cozy like a sweet nativity scene – but radical and challenging. And we see that in the reaction of the disciples to the women, who, by the way, are – in every gospel account of the resurrection – the ones who are the first to whom the good news is given. Not the good old boys hiding back at the disciple’s Motel 6. The women. They stood there at the cross when the others fled, they supported Jesus in his ministry, and they were the first to receive the news of the resurrection – the ones chosen to be the apostles to the apostles! The bible may be patriarchal in all sorts of other ways, but not here, which is why this particular detail, being in every one of the accounts, is even more profound. But, back to what happened when they went to the tomb.

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

That’s is what the women heard the angel say at the empty tomb – and it wasn’t what they were expecting either.

And then, they went to tell the others the crazy good news.

The author of Luke writes that the woman are greeted with a whole lot of skepticism – the guys think it’s “an idle tale.” One commentator broke it down this way: “Actually, the word Luke uses — leros — is a little saltier. It’s the root of our word, “delirious,” and it was used to describe something utterly unbelievable, even a little mad. If we were to be a bit more colloquial, but perhaps more faithful to the earthy speech of fishermen, we might describe leros as the stuff farmers use to fertilize their fields. That’s right, the first disciples thought the Easter proclamation was [well…you know] b*&l sh$#.”[2] Which probably had Jesus doing a face palm and thinking “I should have called 12 women!”

So given the profound audacity of the resurrection proclamation, again…why are you here?

I think it is because you are making a choice.

You see, Jesus made a lot of choices, choices we explored this past week, for those who were here for Holy Week. He made choices of violence over peace, healing over pain, love over hate, service over power, even a choice to willingly give himself over to death on the cross.

Jesus himself also was a choice.

A choice of God to dwell among us, to live, and to die, as one of us. And that choice thankfully lingers with us to this very day. See, I think we all are here today because we have made a choice too, whether or not we are fully aware of it – A choice to look for the living among the dead.

All around the world there are the walking dead. No, not zombies (although if you are raising teenagers and you tried to wake them up this morning, you might wonder if zombies are just a thing of fiction). No, I am talking about all of those who are emotionally and spiritually dead – the ones we push to the margins, the ones we do not see, the ones living in fear, poverty, war, oppression, grief, disease, depression, or addiction – the ones we call the lost, the lonely, the least, and the last – the ones living in the tombs. Perhaps some of you are among them.

There was a friend, Christian Paolino, a tireless advocate for justice, who came to our Stations of the Cross in Community, and in addition to writing a beautiful blog about the experience (which you can find on our website of Facebook page) he sent me a link to an article in which the author said, “I ponder on the poignant time between Good Friday and Easter, which is where I see most of us human beings.  
As Jesus is believed to have been in the tomb for three days, most of us humans spend our lives in the metaphorical tomb of existence.  We stand between a womb and a tomb.    
Most of us are in this in-between stage, the cosmic “three days” that all of us find ourselves in: not dead, and not yet resurrected. There is something Divine in us, though it has not Risen yet. That Divine Spark in us, the Jesus of our soul, remains Unresurrected.[…]As seekers of God, sought by the One we seek, we want that Rising, that Resurrection, that “Easter”, here and now.”[3] The author of that article was Omid Safi – a Muslim, and a Professor of Islamic Studies at University of North Carolina.

I think what he is saying is part of that looking for the living among the dead we do. We are trying to seek the living in a world caught between womb and tomb.

So now that we are here – now what?

It’s funny, but when I was writing this sermon, out of nowhere the 80’s song “Don’t You Forget About Me” kept playing around in my head. I couldn’t figure out why – I mean, it isn’t even a favorite song of mine from that era. It’s by Simple Minds (well, maybe that explains it), and it wasn’t until I finally figured – what the heck, let’s look up they lyrics (because I am one of those who gets things like “There’s a bad moon rising” twisted into “There’s a bathroom on the right.”). Anyway, part of it goes like this: “Don’t you, forget about me. As you walk on by, will you call my name?” I think the Holy Spirit was at work in my simple mind.

Christ is risen, and in a world filled with tombs, he is calling us out of the ones we carve in the stone of our indifference – imploring us not to forget about him, not to walk on by, but to call out to him wherever we see him.

And where can Jesus be found today?

In the homeless on the streets, in the refugee, in the imprisoned, in the immigrant, in the marginalized, in the poor, in the grieving, in the sick, in the lonely, and the voiceless. And, Jesus can be found in you and me.

In a world where people explode bombs killing hundreds and people call for the oppression of immigrants in response, in a world where legislators pass laws to deny LGBT people the right to love and live as God made them, where we ignore the abuse of animals and creation for our own gain, where gun violence claims thousands of lives with little or no response from our leaders, where candidates running for the highest office in our country hurl insults at one another and incite violence, in this world we are called to different life, a life we start in baptism.

Today [we celebrate the baptism of Amy Waldron – her entrance into the household of God. And] we all renew our baptismal vows – vows which make all of us part of the body of Christ. Vows in which we claim we will seek and serve Christ in all persons, respecting the dignity of every human being. Vows we renew because we need renewal ourselves – we need to be resurrected again – which is what baptism is – death and resurrection.

The radical truth of the Easter proclamation is that Jesus didn’t just get raised from the dead a few centuries ago, but is getting resurrected every day, all around us, and most especially in us!

And as Christ alive in the world today it is now up to us to ensure that everyone knows that there is nothing that can ever separate them from the love of God, not because of the cross, but because Jesus’ execution on it reminds the world that God will do everything God can to be in relationship with us – even becoming one of us – even to the point of death. God’s all inclusive and never ending love is for us, for them, for all of creation.

We must choose to roll away the stones, and see the Jesus in all people, most especially those who think, look, act, speak, and love differently than us. It is not enough for us to come here on Sundays, enjoy the Eucharist, sing a few good hymns, and leave here, thinking our work as a Christian is over. It is not enough if only because it is the church itself that has done so much of the damage that keeps people in these tombs in the first place. And so we, as God did through Jesus, must boldly proclaim that we have been resurrected too – brought to new life from the death of our valuing dogma over compassion, doctrine over justice, tradition over love.

We have a new banner out on our side lawn, alongside of Bloomfield Avenue. In words of many colors, the banner says: “You are welcome here if you are gay, straight, imperfect, lonely, young, not so young, trans, male, female, spiritual but not religious, seeking, physically challenged, a refugee, black, white, brown, purple, green, blue, (well, you get it), Muslim, conservative, liberal, Jewish, can sing, can’t hold a note in a bucket, poor, rich, Hindu, Buddhist, wouldn’t be caught dead in a church, spiritually dead, monastic, a student on campus or a student of life, a thinker, a dreamer, an artist, a scientist, a teacher, an immigrant (recent or not), a native, sees the glass half full, sees the glass half empty, what glass?…in other words – YOU!!”

We are making an Easter proclamation about who we are, and what a life in Christ is all about. And while it is a start, it is only a banner. The rest is up to us – all of us – to ensure that this new life that we experience and celebrate here today – is lived out once we exit these doors. Because if this resurrection is to have any meaning at all, we must remember why it happened in the first place – that the world would know God’s love through us.

Jesus didn’t willingly choose the cross so that he could rise from the dead, come back all around town, and say “Look who’s BACK!” (although THAT would have been awesome!). None of his life, nor any part of his death & resurrection was about that at all…it was about preparing us to live as he lived – to continue his work.

It is like the old story of the great opera-writer, Puccini, who died suddenly before he had a chance to finish his opera, Turandot. One of his fellow-composers, Franco Alfano, wrote two final scenes that completed the story. When the opera premiered at Milan’s La Scala opera house in 1926, the famous Arturo Toscanini was the conductor. Toscanini got to the place where Puccini had left off, and then he stopped the performance. With tears in his eyes, he turned to the audience and announced: “This is where the master ends.” Then he raised his baton once again and declared, “This is where his friends continue.” And he concluded with the rest of the opera.

We are to continue the work our Master started too.

So, don’t go in search of the living among the dead – Jesus made that unnecessary. Christ is alive!

Christ is alive – in you and in me!

Go instead in search of the dead among the living – seek them out – and in your love and service to the Jesus in them, the Jesus calling out to us not to forget him – join God in the resurrection work She is already doing in the world!

Some may think you’re delirious too, but that’s okay, because in your life you will see, and they will discover, that crazy is contagious! And that’s a good thing, because, as our Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Michael Curry once said, “We need some crazy Christians!”

So go on now! Go be crazy!

Proclaim the good news that everyone is a beloved child of God! Live that gospel out!

Because the Lord is Risen!

And THAT radical news changes everything!

Thanks be to God!

Amen.

For the audio from the 10:30am service, click below:

[1]Fr. James Martin. http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-challenge-of-easter-1458916153

[2] David Lose. WorkingPreacher.org

[3] – See more at: http://omidsafi.religionnews.com/2013/03/30/between-good-friday-and-easter/#sthash.p9ESpk1V.4voEgOr5.dpuf

The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
March 27, 2016
Easter Sunday – Year C
1st Reading – Isaiah 65:17-25
Psalm 116:1, 10-17
2nd Reading – Acts 10:34-43
Gospel – Luke 24:1-12