Monday, April 1, 2013

Risen Indeed

I'm getting out of order, but I wanted to go ahead and post my Easter sermon.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Spoilers have been a topic of conversation lately. Do you know what I mean by spoilers? When someone gives away the end or some plot twist in a book, movie or TV show. Last week, Savannah Guthrie of the Today Show caught some flak for commenting about the end of Downton Abbey’s season finale. Apparently, lots of people who had recorded the show and not watched it yet were upset.
Do you like to have things spoiled, the ending of a movie or the plot of a TV show or the twist in a novel? I’ll be honest, sometimes when I’m reading a book, I’ll read the last page when I’m half-way through. But when I do I always feel a little guilty that I spoiled the surprise.
Some people get really upset about spoilers. This is bad because we have the unfortunate combination of DVRs and Twitter. Lots of people record shows to watch them later, and lots of people watch them as they happen and then Tweet about it – sometimes as they’re watching. Then the DVR crowd gets mad because the suspense is ruined. Or the surprise is ruined.
Jesus was a fan of spoilers, but like with so many other things, most of the time his followers didn’t get it. In his three years with his disciples, Jesus spoiled the end of his story a few times. In Mark 8:31 he tells the disciples that he will suffer, that he will die, and that he will rise from the dead. He told them several times about the resurrection, but still, as we saw in our scripture this morning, they were surprised by the empty tomb. They didn’t know what to think; they didn’t know how to feel.
I think that is the way a lot of us feel about the resurrection of Jesus. We hear the stories, we read the accounts, and we look at the page and think, “Yeah, but what does it mean?”
One of the most effective ways I’ve found to read scripture, to find the meaning of scripture, is to put myself in the story. Look at the events from the point of view of one of the participants. I want to do that for our scripture from this morning. Think about the story. Put yourself there as Mary or as Peter or as John.
It has been a troubling few days – days filled with sorrow, days filled with fear and weeping. We don’t know where Mary spent the Sabbath. She spent Friday at the foot of the cross watching her friend and teacher die. But we have no record of Saturday. Maybe she went to the Temple to pray, to ask God why Jesus was taken from them, to ask God if she’d been wrong to follow Jesus.
Peter, like most of the other disciples, spent Friday running and hiding. He’d tried to watch some of Jesus’ trial, but only ended up denying that he even knew Jesus. He probably spent Friday and Saturday hiding from his shame as much as hiding from those who had Jesus arrested. Like most of the disciples, he only heard about the horror of Jesus’ death from others because they were too afraid to show their faces in public – too afraid to see it for themselves. Or maybe he didn’t want to hear, didn’t want to see – couldn’t bear to think about it.
John had been there at the crucifixion. Maybe he told Peter about it or maybe it was too much to talk about. Peter and John probably stayed in hiding on the Sabbath, afraid that they would meet the same fate as their master if they entered the Temple to worship and pray. As the sun went down Saturday, marking the end of Sabbath, maybe they considered at least going to see the tomb.
Early Sunday morning – before dawn – we find Mary on her way to Jesus’ tomb. She waited as long as she could; left almost as early as she could without breaking Sabbath laws. As she approaches the tomb, she sees the stone has been removed from the entrance. Her grief immediately turns to panic. “Oh no! Someone stole the body!” She turns and sprints back into town. She finds Peter and John and tells them what she found. Now they are panicked and they figure they’d better do something about it.
The two of them run back to the tomb – excited, scared, confused – and they see just what Mary saw. The stone is moved, the tomb is empty. Peter gets there just after John, and he goes in to get a better look. He finds the wrappings lying there empty. John enters the tomb after Peter and sees the wrappings and the cloth that covered his head folded and laid aside. John sees and he believes. Maybe they finally get it. Jesus told them he would die and he died. He also told them that he would rise again. Did he rise?
Peter, in his confusion, must wonder what it means for him. Is he even more ashamed of denying he knew Jesus? Is he excited and looking forward to a chance to apologize, a chance to redeem himself? Is he ready to see Jesus again so he can apologize or does the empty tomb fill him with dread and embarrassment?
What about John, he watched Jesus die. Jesus spoke to him from the cross – asked him to take care of his mother, or asked his mother to take care of John. And now the tomb is empty. Maybe his thoughts are practical. Do I still need to take care of Mary? Maybe his thoughts were more spiritual. Jesus said he would go to prepare a place for us – told us that we would go where he goes. Will we rise also?
And then they went home. Their panic turned to belief turned to uncertainty about what to do. Maybe they don’t know what to make of this just yet.
Mary returns to the tomb, still grief stricken, still panicked over the missing body. And now Peter and John are gone, too. Her mind must be swirling. He died, but now he’s gone, stolen body, rise again. She looks into the tomb and sees angels, but still she doesn’t quite get it. She doesn’t seem to notice that they are angels. “Where is he?” Then she realizes she is not alone outside of the tomb. She asks again, “Where is he?” She just wanted to see him again. To know where he was. To be near him.
Finally he calls her name. “Mary.” And her panic melts away, and the trouble and the sorrow of the last few days are replaced with absolute joy! She is near him. Christ is risen! She is ecstatic and she can’t wait to tell someone, just as he told her to. So she runs to town to find the disciples again. This time to tell them, “I have seen the Lord!”
What does the resurrection mean?
For Mary, the resurrection means that she can spend more time with her Lord. She can be in the presence of Jesus again. For John, it means that what Jesus said is true. He is truly the Son of God. He is light in the darkness. He is Lord. For Peter the resurrection means a chance at redemption.  A chance to start anew.
What about for you? What does the resurrection mean to you? We don’t typically recite the Apostle’s Creed in this service, but a part of that statement of faith says that we believe that Jesus was crucified and died, was buried, and rose again on the third day. We believe it, but what does it mean to believe it?
We can start by looking to Mary and John and Peter. Resurrection means that we worship a living God. It means that we can spend time in the presence of Jesus. It tells us that Jesus is who Jesus claimed to be. The Son of God – Jesus is light in the darkness. John’s gospel is the only one that begins the resurrection story in darkness. I imagine the sun breaking over the horizon just as Jesus calls Mary by name. The light of Jesus breaking into the darkness. Just as the light of Jesus breaks through the darkness of our lives. Resurrection means that, just like Peter, we have a chance for redemption.
In the death and resurrection of Jesus, sin and death are defeated. The death and resurrection of Jesus delivers us from the consequences of sin. Paul wrote in his letter to the Roman church that the “wages of sin is death.” Jesus defeated death. In baptism, we are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus. As followers of Jesus, we share his baptism. In sharing his baptism, we share his death. In sharing his death, we share his resurrection. For the believer, sin and death have no power.
So for us, Jesus has spoiled the ending. We know how the end will go. Life wins over death. Light wins over dark. Christ is risen! No matter what tragedy we are dealt, life wins. No matter what disastrous or just disappointing circumstances we face, life wins. Alyce McKenzie said this, “Knowing that, in the end, life wins, takes the steam out of our suspense and strengthens us to face whatever life may hold.” As Fredrick Buechner wrote, for the believer “Resurrection means that the worst thing is never the last thing.”
Resurrection means life wins. No matter what, the love of Jesus wins. And that is news that is so good, it has to be told. It has to be shouted. Christ is risen! Or as Mary told the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!”
Amen.

No comments:

Post a Comment