The Finding, the Surprise, the Joy and the Sharing

April 8, 2007

Easter, Yr C, rcl

It is so good to have you all back from Spring Break and it’s good to be here today. Easter is such a joyful time of the year. I’ve always loved Easter because it is in the spring time (although you can’t tell from the weather this last week) and it is the time of year that is brimming with new life. Last year, my son was only a little over one year old - too young to really enjoy Easter. He was more perplexed as to why we wanted him to wear white bunny ears on his head and go pick up eggs that were brightly colored and placed in the grass in our backyard. However, this year as he is now over two, he got it. He had two Easter egg hunts – one with friends and one with family. He and his buddies loved the hunt – finding the eggs, filling the baskets and then sharing them after the hunt was over. It brought back so many memories for me and I’m sure that it all brings back memories for you. However, something caught my attention this year. After the hunt was over, after all the eggs had been found and they were all sitting around with their baskets in front of them, they began to open the eggs. Each time my son opened an egg, he would breathe in a short gasp [GASP] in excitement after seeing what was inside. For he and his friends, the fun was not over with finding the Easter eggs, the fun and the surprise and the joy continued each time they opened an egg to find what was inside. This caught my attention, because at the heart of it, this is the Easter story. The finding, the surprise, the joy and the sharing of what was found.

We hear from the Gospel of Luke this morning that Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and other women went to the tomb with the spices they had prepared. I can only assume that they were grief stricken having seen Jesus die and having loved him as much as they did. Out of that love, they go to his tomb after the Sabbath to show him one last act of love – to take care of his body and properly finish his burial. They were going about their business, going about their lives, following the same cultural commands as they had their whole lives when they find that the tomb is empty. As they are standing together, perplexed, two men in dazzling clothes appear to ask them, “Why do look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember what he told you.” Remember what he told you. As soon as these men say this, the women do remember what Jesus told them, they remember him and his amazing work and they realize in that moment, standing in the empty tomb that his words had become true – that he was handed over to sinners, crucified and now, on this third day, he has risen from the dead. Jesus is not in the tomb but has risen from the dead. Without missing a beat, these followers of Jesus, run to tell others of their discovery. They cannot keep this news to themselves.

However, as they tell the apostles, they do not believe them – thinking that they are telling a tale. Some commentaries wanted to brush this off as the apostles not believing because it was a group of women that told them, but that’s not it. The problem isn’t that they are women, but that they aren’t remembering what Jesus said and they are living as they did before his death. Peter, is the only one to even act on this news as he runs to the tomb, stoops down to look in and saw that it was empty. He is amazed at what he finds, and goes home.

The apostles only come to understand the significance of what is happening well after the actual event. We will see this piece of the story unfold over the next few Sundays. It takes them a while to come to believe that he has risen, that he is alive, that he is among them once again. But today, the women believe as soon as they remember what Jesus said to them while he was still alive.

Remembering is in important part of the biblical tradition. All through the Bible we hear about people remembering words and events from the past that now inform how they live their lives with God. The empty tomb means nothing unless the women remember what Jesus said to them before his death. The empty tomb means nothing to the apostles until they too can stop and remember what Jesus said to them before his death. The empty tomb is just an empty tomb unless you bring it together with Christ’s life.

It is so easy for us NOT to believe, to be skeptical, to keep doing what we are doing rather than believe something new, something out of the ordinary, something that will change our lives. If we aren’t skeptical, if we don’t question the things around us then we come to be known as gullible, naïve, or childish. In our society, it is best to know what you are doing, and if you don’t know what you are doing, you better act like it. However, Jesus is asking us to be gullible and childish. Jesus wants for us to have that childlike faith that will allow us to discover for ourselves that the tomb is empty and then run to share it with others. Jesus wants us to run and to see the truth rather than dismiss it before we even explore the possibility of what is happening. It takes more courage to be like the women who believed and whose faith brought them to share their discovery with others. It takes courage to have faith than to be a skeptic. It takes more courage for us to explore and find rather than sit and not believe in the risen Christ. The women acted out of faith and belief, Peter acted out of curiosity and amazement – they acted.

A friend of mine reminded me of a saying this week, “You have to act your way to right thinking rather than think your way to right actions.”

It is so easy for me, for us, to believe that if we think or read or study the right things that we will finally find what we have been looking for – that we will discover that thing that is missing. We are reminded today that it is the act of remembering where God has been and what God has done that informs our faith, that informs our lives and that changes who we are. “The empty tomb can be understood and interpreted only in light of what the message of Jesus had been throughout his life. The death and resurrection of Jesus are not isolated events. They are a part of the ongoing activity of God in history. Each new event in this story must be understood in the context of the earlier events and words.” (Jirair Tashjian, Christian Resource Institute, 2007)

God is doing a new thing today, and God will do a new thing tomorrow. It is how we respond to these things that will change or not change the world. If we act as if each event is an event unto itself, the movement of God in this world will not make much sense. However, if we remember where God has been and what God as taught us, these new things will inform our lives and allow us to have that childlike faith, to have the faith of the women, to have the courage to act on that faith and run to others to tell them to good news. The resurrection is not easily understood, not easily known as we are used to knowing if something is real or not. The resurrection is a mystery and it is a part of our story as people of God.

So, as we come together today to celebrate Easter, to celebrate new life, to celebrate that God cheated death and rose from the grave, I hope that we can remember that mystery and let it live and move and have it’s being within our souls that it might inform our faith and lead us to act in the world in the way that God is calling us to do.

I want to close with some words from Martin Smith who said, “Let us not be tempted to react to the immensity of it all, to shrink the resurrection to the proportions of our understanding – that would be a worldly and banal Easter. Rather let us ask the Spirit to help us believe that something happened on that resurrection day that was powerful enough to heal every wound, to break down every barrier, unlock every prison, forgive every transgression, unite everything at odds, love enough to flood the heart, to raise everyone and everything dead and lost.” My friends, let the resurrection grasp us, and cause us to run into the world sharing the news of the resurrection and of God’s love for us. May our childlike faith take us into the world to seek and find, to delight in the surprise and joy, and to share what we have found.

[GASP]

Jesus Christ is Risen Today. Alleluia. Amen.