Resurrection
03-23-08 Easter Sunday
Please join me in prayer: "God fill us this day with the hope, faith, love, and joy of resurrection and new life. May we hear a fresh new word in the familiar Easter Story. Let your spirit enliven us not just to hear about resurrection, but to live the promise of resurrection. In Christ’s name we pray, amen."
I would venture to say that most of us have walked "tomb-ward" like Mary, Peter, and the Beloved disciple in this morning’s Gospel Story. We have experienced dark mornings of defeat or despair or profound grief. Pick up the daily paper. Evidence and stories that death reigns, and violence threatens to undo us are splashed across the front page. It is not the newspaper’s fault. That is simply life. Defeat, despair, and grief are all around us and yes, within us.
The joy of Easter reminds us that death and destruction do not have the final say. We have a powerful God and each of us an opportunity to experience resurrection hope in our lives. Faith, hope, and love truly can overcome defeat, despair, and grief. As we look at our story from John this morning we see three followers of Christ, three people who have experienced the defeat of their leader’s death, the despair of an uncertain future, and the grief that comes with losing a loved one. Each follower has a different reaction to the resurrection. Each of the followers in this morning’s story model the classic virtues of faith, love, hope. And in today’s world were it is a struggle to live these virtues, we learn that each of these disciples are needed in the body of Christ.
Mary is the first to arrive at the empty tomb. Confused and frightened she runs to Peter and the beloved disciple. When they arrive at the tomb, the Beloved disciple pokes his head in the empty tomb and, as John says, "He saw and believed." His faith is confident and secure. He does not wait to analyze the evidence like Peter, or see the wounds like Thomas, or hear his name called like Mary. He has walked the obedient road of faith alongside his Christ and his faith is sufficient to believe. He sees and believes. The beloved disciples are the solid core of the church. They are the steady, faithful people who year after year, hold the body of Christ together through turmoil and trial. Our beloved disciples of faith, remind us of the deeper truths and promises of God. These are the saints who refuse to give up on church when they feel confused, or angry, or disappointed, but rather believe that God will work things out in the long run. They have been touched deep in their souls by the Gospel message. This morning we are thankful for the beloved disciples who help the resurrection story live in each generation. They remind us that new life is possible in faithful daily living.
Mary lingers at the tomb. She is the disciple of love. Courageous Mary stood at the foot of the suffering cross while the male disciples were hiding in fear. "She is the first to reach the tomb in the half-light of dawn, the first to weep over the body’s disappearance, and the first to proclaim the Risen Christ. Her grief is as intense as her love. Jesus gave her a place in community, valued her gifts and contributions, and showed her purpose. Her weeping comes from the place of shattered dreams and a bleeding heart. Then Jesus calls her by name, holds her in his arms and restores her to the newness of life."1
There are those disciples here today whose lives are in chaos. There are those of you who are grieving the loss of a loved one, the loss of a relationship, the loss of a way of life. We grieve so deeply only because we love so deeply. Sometimes we need Jesus to call us back to reality, back to possibility. Sometimes we simply need to hear our name lovingly spoken by the Divine. You see, not only did Jesus call Mary by name, resurrection called Mary by name and she understood for the first time that Jesus would always be there, that she was always going to be someone; Jesus Christ triumphed over the powers of death and brings light and hope. The cavernous, hopeless emptiness of that tomb, and the sweet voice of her teacher, meant that she did not need to be empty in her grief any longer.
Jesus calls us each by our name. Jesus goes before us, walks with us, waits for us, guides us, and invites us to live our lives as if we actually believe that his love is more powerful than death. His love is more powerful than physical death. His love is more powerful than the death caused by a harmful self-image. His love is more powerful than the death of a relationship. His love is more powerful than any violence we can imagine.
Mary knows this love and lives this love. The Mary’s are those loving disciples who bridge the gap between the skeptics and the saints. The Mary’s are the loving disciples that know from experience, what it means to be called by named, to be included, acknowledged, encouraged, loved, and respected. These are the disciples, that can model such a love even in and/or especially from those chaotic places in their lives. The Mary’s are disciples of love. This morning we are thankful for the Mary’s who reach out in love and remind us how important we each are to God.
Then there is good old Peter. Peter is a disciple of hope. Even if he didn’t always portray hopefulness, he gives the rest of us hope. Peter is the first of the three, in our story, to actually go in the tomb and look around. "He is evidence-driven: empty tomb, stone rolled aside, linen cloth, no body. Peter lives in a world of rationality, of cause and effect, with the laws of motion and mechanics soundly in place. Dead bodies do not disappear; somebody has to move them. Peter leaves the tomb unaware of the Lord’s resurrection. He doesn’t believe until much later when Mary tells him her story and convinces him that the good news is real.
Peter is the disciple of hope because he gives hope to the rest of us "Plain Jane" and "Plain Joe" disciples. Through all his smugness, his denials, his "just not getting it"; through his missteps and mistakes, and now through completely missing the central moment of our faith - he is still the one upon whom Jesus builds his church."2 Not everyone has the beloved disciple’s faith, or the depth of Mary’s love. But all of us sitting here today can find hope in Peter. This morning we are thankful for the Peter’s because they remind us that we don’t have to park our brains at the door to faithful Christians. Peter reminds us that questioning our faith experience engages us deeply not only with the Divine, but with the Divine’s interaction with the world.
Now some of you may relate to these three disciples. You may resonate with the faithfulness of the Beloved disciple, the deep love and acceptance of Mary, or the skeptical nature of Peter. Some of you may resonate with all three. In fact, I believe that each of us have the virtues of faith, love, and hope within ourselves, and each of these elements prepare us for the Christian journey, and for new life.
The Beloved Disciple, Mary, and Peter experienced Christ differently. They all needed different assurances, different signs, different words to help them understand the power of the Resurrection of Christ. Hear this Good News friends, despite their differences Easter resurrection comes to them all. They each are gifted with the transformative power to move on and share the Good news with others.
It takes faith, hope, and love to have resurrection power as a body of Christ. Some of us are better at faith than love, some have more hope than faith, some more loving than faithful, that is why we walk this journey together and walk away from the tomb united in a promise fulfilled; through Christ we can offer new life, we can share our experiences of grace and love, and we can offer a powerful space to encounter the Divine. United we can nurture each other, so that we may nurture the world. We can stand like the Beloved disciple unapologetically empowered by the power of Christ. We can be like Mary and reach out to those who need to belong, those who need to be loved, those who need to be called by name, those who need to be accepted for who they are. We can listen and investigate and question, and challenge each other, like Peter, who knows that we must think critically as our everyday culture and reality collides with a religion of generations. Together, and only together, are we able to relate the full story of resurrection. Together and only together can we tell a story of faith, of hope, of love, of God’s power to overcome the destruction in this world. Two of the disciples ran back to town with different conclusions, Mary stayed where she was until Jesus cleared her confusion. Will God do anything less for us? Christ died to show us how to live; not empty, but full. Full of the knowledge that each of us are loved, are of worth. Full of the knowledge that each of us truly has a voice and the power to use it. Full of the love and wisdom to tell the story to others. In his resurrection Christ gives us the power to live together. The tomb is empty. He is risen. Our Lord is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
1 Craig Kocher is associate dean of the chapel and director of religious life at Duke University.
2 ibid
Blessings,
Melissa