Easter Sunday 2018: May God’s words alone be spoken, may God’s words alone be heard. Amen.
Alleluia, Christ is Risen! [He is risen indeed, Alleluia!]
I remember sitting in a class in seminary as we neared Holy Week, when one of the students quipped “They canceled Easter!” We all turned and looked, and he continued “They found the body!” Of course, we should have seen it coming – it was, after all April 1st.
If one were to go by this Gospel account we heard today, it seems like the authors were pulling an April Fool’s joke on us too.
The gospel ends in this way “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” Say what? That is no way to run a resurrection folks! How the heck did we end up here on this Easter Sunday celebrating it, if they told nobody about it?
I half expect the author to add…April Fools! Seriously, they did actually go and spread the good news – just kidding. Got ya, didn’t I!
For those of you who have bibles at home, you might notice that there are more verses that follow this – they are what scholars will tell you are the other endings of Mark, added by well meaning monks and scribes. I can’t blame them. I can’t tell you how often I see a movie or read a book and think – really? I spent all this time in this story and THAT is how you end it? Aaaarrrggghhh! Have you ever wanted to do a re-write? I think we often do. We want neat and tidy endings to our books, movies, and TV series. Fans of the TV series “Lost” or “How I Met Your Mother” could write volumes on this subject.
But, maybe this isn’t such a bad way to end this gospel. Maybe the author of these verses had it right all along. If we only step back for a moment to really hear the message those women heard. “Sorry, you missed it,” said the stranger hanging out in the tomb (which, not for nothing, would have had me jumping out of my sandals). “He’s already come and gone. If you start right now for Galilee, you just might catch up with him!”
Or, as we heard today, “He is going ahead of you…, and there you will see him.”
What terrified and amazed these women? Was it the messenger or the message?” I think we can assume that it may have been a little of both – the surprise of the empty tomb and a fellow sitting in it other than Jesus, and most especially what that stranger then said to them. “He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” And here’s the thing about that statement too…it is as true today as it was that first Easter morning.
The reason this weird gospel ending is perfect is because of this very message. Because the good news – the gospel of Jesus Christ – isn’t about neat and tidy endings, but ground shaking beginnings! This isn’t a several centuries old story wrapped up in 16 chapters. This is a never-ending story. Right from the start of this gospel, the author titles it “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ…” That wasn’t the first verse – it was the title of this oldest of the gospels – first to be written. And in this last chapter the author wrote, we come to understand what this resurrection means for us, and for the world.
Easter is both proclamation and invitation!
Christ is risen! Come and join him where he is!
These women were being invited into life changing work, and that is enough to terrify and amaze anyone. “When Mother Teresa went into the dark slums of Calcutta she was afraid. But in the face of the starving poor she saw Jesus. He was there already waiting for her.”[1] She was terrified, and then amazed. In later years, she would struggle with her faith – don’t we all? Faith and doubt are essential partners, in as much as light and darkness, life and death.
That is why today is not a service on its own, but the next part of a three-day service – the Paschal Triduum. If you have come only for this morning, you have entered into the middle of the story, which is why this service began halfway through the bulletin. For those who made it to Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, this is part of a journey they have already started before anyone showed up here today – a journey so vital to who we are. I have repeated this throughout – we need the fullness of the Triduum experience, because to stand in darkness without the knowledge of light will kill us of hope. And to stand in light without the knowledge of darkness will blind us to suffering. Our faith demands both cross and empty tomb – they can never be separated.
And if Easter is ever to mean more to us than chocolate bunnies and egg hunts, we have to be part of this story – the full story. It doesn’t take much for us to imagine the cross – that dark grief in which these women walked that morning to the tomb, for we have borne witness to Christ’s crucifixion in our lives today. We need only turn on the nightly news to see Jesus crucified each and every day – in the bigotry, violence and hate we witness. Or perhaps it is your own personal Good Friday that allows you to feel deeply the shadow of the cross – the loss of a loved one, the pain of disease, the darkness of despair.
The journey to the tomb is one we all have experienced in one way or another. It is the journey from the tomb – that is what makes all the difference. That is what the Easter story is all about.
That is when hear the proclamation and receive the invitation!
Christ is risen! Come and join him where he is!
Easter is proclamation about Jesus, yes, but it is also about an invitation to every single one of you. If you came here expecting to find Jesus – you will! Despite the beautiful stonework, this is not the tomb. Jesus is here! You will find him when gathered in community and experience him in the Eucharist (this invitation isn’t BYOB folks, Jesus is the wine). But if you expect to leave him here when you head out the door – you will have missed the entire point. Jesus can’t be contained to a tomb or a church – Jesus is on the loose! He has gone ahead of you.
What will you do about it?
You are being invited into something. And it will sometimes terrify you, but will always amaze you too, if you allow it. Jesus is out in the world – will we meet him there? Will we continue the story? Or will we upload our Easter brunch pics to Facebook, clean up after the egg hunt candy extravaganza left by the kids, and put this invitation in a drawer until next Easter.
I’d like to tell you that it matters – that your participation is critical to the story continuing. But the truth is – it doesn’t. Because it isn’t about needing you to continue the story. That’s the point of this weird ending. It isn’t about what these women may have done or not done next. And, it isn’t about you either, not exactly anyway! It’s about Jesus – and the story continues whether you choose to be a part of it. But it should matter to you, and it does matter to God, because this is why you are here. This is what you were born to do. This is who you are, and why Jesus came in the first place!
So many people wander through life searching for meaning – and yet right here is an invitation to discover and experience the very thing for which we search! All we have to do is say YES!
YES – to seeing Jesus in the eyes of the poor man on the street, the marginalized transgendered woman, the sick addicted to opioids, the killed or imprisoned for the crime of being black, the oppressed woman, the stranger ripped from the arms of their crying children as ICE deports them. In the least of these, we will have met the Jesus in the world.
YES – to joining him in his work – speaking for the voiceless, standing against injustice, caring for the earth and all the creatures that in habit it, tearing down walls that divide and building bridges instead. Then we will BE Jesus in the world.
YES – to the Jesus walking with us, to experiencing him leading us from our own personal tombs of deep grief and pain, being given strength for the journey in him whenever we gather here in community at his table. There Jesus will be resurrected in our hearts.
You can try to put Jesus in a box – do the church thing at Christmas and Easter – he’s born, he’s resurrected – done until next year. You can certainly do that, but God hopes deeply that you realize that there is no putting Jesus in the corner. The only thing you will be boxing up is yourself, and all the potential you have for a life of meaning.
For the whole point of the story was never really a Galilean named Jesus. The whole point of the story was you. God wanted so much to be in relationship with you, to let you know that you are deeply loved, to empower you to change the world through that love, that She became incarnate in Jesus – even knowing the cost. It was that important – to be with us, to die for us – just that we might say YES to being alive – really alive!
We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus today, but it is your resurrection that God hoped for in choosing to dwell among us. God hoped to raise us from death into life.
From the death of despair into a life of hope.
From the death of hate into a life of love.
From the death of indifference into a life of consequence.
We come here today to bear witness to the empty tomb, and we are told that “He is going ahead of you…there you will see him, just as he told you.”
Will you go?
Will you accept that outrageous invitation of an empowered life? Will you say YES to being a part of the story – to meeting him in the world, to encountering him here at the table, to being him – the body of Christ for a world in need?
Alleluia, Christ is Risen! [He is risen indeed, Alleluia!]
The story isn’t over, it is just the beginning.
Let us say YES to the resurrection – his – and ours.
Let us say YES to the invitation to be the story now, that our lives, and the world in which we live, may be changed forever.
Amen.
For the audio from the 10:30am service, subscribe to our iTunes sermon podcast, or click here:
[1] Bob Eldan, preachingtip.com
The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
April 1, 2018
Easter Sunday
1st Reading – Acts 10:34-43
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
2nd Reading – 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Gospel – Mark 16:1-8
