The Feast of the Resurrection B April 5, 2015
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie G. Hutson
Isaiah 25: 6-9 + I Cor: 15: 1-11 + Mark 16: 1-8 + John 20: 1-18
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen, Indeed! Alleluia!
As these things go, preaching on Easter Sunday is right up there in the world of high pressure preaching dates. After all, EVERYBODY is in church on Easter Sunday. Some of us are here because our parents or grandparents expected us to be here. Some of us are here because we have great memories of being in worship on Easter Sunday – with lilies and flowered crosses. And some of us are here for the pancakes.
Yet, I believe that all of us are here because on this day we hear again the news that Christ is risen. What that means for us and why it matters in our lives and in the world….well, that’s what we work to figure out in all of the ordinary days of the year.
Today we heard two versions of the story of the resurrection. As our worship began we read the version from the first Gospel that was written – Mark’s Gospel. This is the shortest of all of the resurrection accounts and it has arguably the strangest ending. When the women found that Jesus wasn’t in the tomb, they ran off, scared to death, and didn’t tell anyone. I mean, c’mon, that’s no way to run a resurrection!
But what draws me in this version of the Easter story is the conversation of the women as they are making their way to the tomb. They were headed there with a specific task in mind….to anoint Jesus’ body with burial spices. He had been buried so quickly that this had likely not happened. You can almost imagine the conversation:
Do you have all of the spices? Yes.
Did you bring the burial linens? Yes, I’ve got them.
And then we hear the question that remained foremost in their minds, as reported in Mark’s account: “Who will roll the stone away for us?”
Of all of the things they needed to worry about….this was the one thing that had already been taken care of. And none of the Gospels actually offer a lot of clarity around this but what we know is that in fact, the stone WAS rolled away. Jesus was no longer in the tomb. Resurrection had happened.
Now I mentioned at the beginning of this sermon that Easter is one of those BIG days for preachers. We know that there will be a BIG crowd. And we know that this text is a BIG deal. Because this is the deal breaker text for most Christians. After all, other historical sources document the life, ministry, and death by crucifixion of Jesus. We know, that historically, this all actually happened. But it is the resurrection that is this BIG thing. It is the resurrection that makes the task of the preacher and your task, as the hearers of this sermon, so critically important.
Which brings us right back to the nagging question of why resurrection matters to us today, in 2015, and in this corner of creation. The truth is, we need the resurrection to make sense of the rest of the days. Because at least some of the rest of our days are filled with hard things. Challenges and disappointments and from time to time even tragedies. And for every hard place, for every disturbing moment, if we are willing to look hard enough, and listen closely enough, there is resurrection. It may just be something we glimpse or that crosses our path when we least expect it. But it’s there. Resurrection.
We see it here, in this place all the time. We see it in the excitement generated by the immigrant parents who come here to learn to speak English and advocate for their children at school. We see it in the young daughter who so gleefully chose what color gloves and hat she got to keep – hand knitted by a fellow believer in the resurrection, from all the way across the country, in North Carolina, and sent to us for just this purpose. We see resurrection in the faces of our elders, who have passed on the stories of their faith and who continue to give of themselves in ways that make a difference.
But there is, in this community, in these days, a loss that weighs heavily on us, partly because it is so fresh and partly because Robbie was just something so special. Robbie was a member here for about the past 4 years. He lived on the streets of this neighborhood and occasionally in someone’s garage. He was well known in these parts. The day after we received news of his death I walked to the places he frequented – the bus stop and the library and the community center and the 7-11, to share the news of his death. And without fail, every time I shared this hard news, it was met with a story about Robbie. Each story was a glimpse of resurrection. There were people he had touched and people he had made laugh or smile. And so in the midst of death, there was life – resurrection.
And this is the unique thing about the resurrection. THE resurrection was a one time miracle that happened in the garden, with an empty tomb and a stone that was rolled away. But the resurrections we experience day to day happen in much smaller ways. Easter is not always a gigantic bell ringing Alleluia. Oh, it is today. Today we relish those Alleluias that we sing and ring and cry out. Today the resurrection calls for a trumpet and an organ pulling out all the stops.
But tomorrow and in all the ordinary days that will come before we gather for this day again, Easter will make itself known in resurrection that happens in bits and pieces and in ways that are surprising because of the very ordinary ways they come into our ordinary lives.
Because Jesus and what he stood for aren’t just for days filled with Alleluia. Jesus is for the hard stuff. For the stuff that can best be described with words I can’t repeat from the pulpit because my parents are here this morning.
On the easy days, the resurrection is beautiful and wonderful and inspiring. It lets us get dressed up with it and admire it in the mirror and sing about it and smell it. It smells like lilies.
But on the hard days… on the hard days the resurrection is what we cling to. Even if a part of what makes our days hard are our doubts, the resurrection is the hope that peace is possible in the face of violence; that love will conquer hate; that justice will win out over oppression; and that death does not have the final word.
Resurrection shows up in ways that surprise us….in ways that sometimes mean we mistake it for something else like good luck or our turn at last. Like Mary Magdalene in John’s Gospel, resurrection shows up and we think it’s the gardener. But it’s not. It’s Jesus. Walking beside us in whatever we are walking through. It’s Jesus saying to us “Why are you weeping? Or despairing? Or mourning? Or feeling so filled with despair? Or giving up?” And then we know. When he calls us by name, this resurrected one. We know why it matters that Jesus rose from the dead. It matters because it is a reminder of the truest thing out there: that love wins. Because this is what Jesus stood for, what he spent his life teaching and what he died for. Love. Jesus said that all that mattered in life was that we love God, ourselves and each other. The greatest commandments he called them. And so it is love that lives. It is love that rose from the tomb with Jesus. It is love that walked with Mary in the garden. It is love that walks with us. And it is that love that will sustain us….love that was crucified and now is risen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!
Thanks be to God! Amen.