The Reverend Dr. Lillian Daniel
Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009
First Congregational Church,
www.firstconge.org
630-469-3096
1Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’ 3Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. 4The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples returned to their homes.
11But Mary stood weeping outside the
tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look
into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the
body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13They said to her, ‘Woman, why
are you weeping?’ She said to them,
‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid
him.’ 14When she had said
this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that
it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to
her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For
whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to
be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me
where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ 16Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew,
‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). 17Jesus
said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the
Father. But go to my brothers and say to
them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ’ 18Mary Magdalene went and
announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he
had said these things to her.
Sermon:
Could it be possible that you could be present at the resurrection and not know that it happened?
It’s difficult enough for us to believe it happened two thousand years later. And you’ve probably thought, as I have, that it would be so much easier if we had been there ourselves. If we could have been eye witnesses, then we’d just know, and we’d never ever have a doubt.
But if you really read the story, it didn’t happen that way, at least not for everyone. Take Mary Magdalene. She was there to witness the resurrection, but could not see it in front of her very eyes. She missed the signs.
So why did that happen to Jesus’ dear friend? Why couldn’t she of all people recognize a miracle when she was in the middle of it?
Well, remember the events of holy week, and what the disciples were going through. They were traumatized by Jesus’ death. In one week, they had watched the people go from cheering him on the streets on Palm Sunday, to demanding his death on Good Friday. And to add to the trauma, Judas, one of their own, had betrayed Jesus on Thursday at the last supper. Everything had been shaken up.
So Mary showed up at the tomb, Sunday morning, terrified that someone would have desecrated it. She found it empty. Seeing it empty, her worst fears were realized, and she sobbed.
When you put yourself in her shoes, this ordinary woman, of course, she didn’t think, “Oh, the tomb is empty, so Jesus must have been raised from the dead. Alleluia.”
No, she thought, “The tomb is empty because after allowing Jesus to die a painful and humiliating death, as if that weren’t enough, they have come and taken away his body and done who knows what with it. The ultimate disgrace.”
So Mary walked into a scene of triumph and new life, she even saw two angels for crying out loud, and then Jesus himself, raised from the dead. But what did she see? In the empty tomb, she saw death and disappointment. In the angels, she saw two strange men sitting where Jesus had been laid. And in Jesus, she saw a gardener. Mary was in the middle of a miracle, and she couldn’t see it.
And I think a lot of us walk through life like that.
Like Mary, after all we’ve been through, we’re just not predisposed to see signs of the resurrection. The hard knocks of life, our losses, and our defeats, affect our spiritual eyesight, and leaves us unable to see the signs of victory.
Consider the roller coaster of the last year. What a different place the world economy was in last Easter. And most of us did not see this coming. These days, we struggle not to let the Dow Jones be our emotional barometer, but the reality is that economic life has suddenly become very fragile for a lot of people. And for those who are not suffering as much economically, there’s almost a survivor’s guilt.
When I asked one person how his work was being affected by the economy, he whispered his response as if he should be ashamed of it, “I’m actually doing ok,” he said. “But don’t tell anyone.”
When people are in deep anxiety, as many Americans seem to be around money these days, it’s not just those who suffer who have trouble seeing signs of hope. Everybody gets caught up in seeing the loss, and being afraid to see the good.
But on Easter Sunday, we are called to resist that pull. Mary, standing in the middle of a miracle, could only see the loss, but that was about to change.
Jesus called out to her, “Mary,” and in hearing her name called, she suddenly knew that it was him. Suddenly, her spiritual eyesight adjusted to the miraculous scene.
These weren’t two strangers in the tomb, but angels. And the tomb wasn’t empty because it had been robbed. It was empty because God had robbed death of its sting. Suddenly, Mary saw the signs of resurrection all around her. She just needed to adjust that spiritual eyesight.
This Easter, I want to be like Mary. I want to be spiritually delivered from expecting to see signs of loss, and instead I want to expect to see the signs of resurrection.
For example, the news tells us that Americans are cutting back. If you view that as a sign of loss, then it’s all about what we used to do that we can’t do now.
But if instead of looking for signs of loss, you look for signs of resurrection, you see them everywhere.
We are spending more time at home. We are focusing more on people than on things. We are spending casual time with friends around our own dinner tables. We’re drinking the free coffee at the gym, and actually talking to each other, instead dropping five bucks at the drive thru lane for a solitary latte. Those are signs of the resurrection. By which I mean, we look at an empty tomb, and instead of expecting loss, we expect new life.
Jobs are changing. Folks who thought they knew what they would be doing for the next set of time are suddenly questioning it all. Suddenly, a workplace is turned upside down by forces from the outside. Looking for loss, it’s easy to find everywhere. But for those who are looking for new life, it’s a chance to be tested in new ways, a chance to grow.
One man was stressed and struggling with a whole new job description and his wife looked at him, admiringly, and said, “It’s good to see you break a sweat.” And he realized that it had not been since his early working years that he had been this challenged. And he claimed it as a sign of the resurrection.
In the pain of job loss, our own or those around us, we’re all realizing that we are much more than our careers. We wondered who we would be without the pressures of work and now many know. People who were set in a secure path are now reinventing themselves. If that’s not new life, I don’t know what is. New life does not mean easy. But it can mean miraculous.
If we look everywhere for signs of the resurrection, do we run the risk of trivializing it? We must be careful.
Let’s stop and remember right now on this holiest of days that the resurrection is ultimately about living forever, through the power of Christ. It’s God’s promise that the people we have lost to death are not lost to us forever. In raising Jesus, and allowing people to see him raised, we were given this gift of assurance.
But surely it’s not only about life after death. A message like that should actually make us live differently in the here and now.
I’m a practical person. I care about eternity, but where I live is right now. So how does the resurrection play out here on earth, here in the mean time?
Well, I believe we get these signs, all around us, that promise us new life, not just later, but now, when we need it.
So when the grieving person is able to get up out of bed the next day, that is a sign of the resurrection.
And when the whole office gets upended and the people keep on going, that is a sign of the resurrection.
And when the person who has lost a job steps up to volunteer, that is a sign of the resurrection.
And when a person who is sick, and whose body is tired, says, “I know that so much of my strength has come from the prayers of so many,” that’s a sign of the resurrection.
And when an earthquake happens in Italy, and a tornado hits Tennessee, when our prayers and our money go out to people whose problems are a lot bigger than ours; that’s a sign of the resurrection.
For when generosity is not sacrificed on the altar of fear, that’s a sign too.
Speaking of having a generous spirit – in the middle of holy week, when the state of Vermont joined Connecticut, Massachusetts and Iowa to be a place where everyone can marry – that was a sign of the resurrection, to me.
When our church stepped up in the last year to house the homeless all twelve months, and took some serious public heat for it, but remained unflinching, that was a sign of the resurrection.
▪ Senior highs preparing for a week of work at an Indian reservation;
▪ People who make meals for the sick;
▪ The courage of those who call us to account for our treatment of the environment, even when we don’t want to hear it; and
▪ The progressive and welcoming witness of this leadership church and the fact that we are this full on Easter morning.
These are all signs of the resurrection, because they are all about new life.
So the next time you encounter an empty tomb in your own life, remember: you could be standing in the middle of a miracle and not even know it.
For Christ has risen. He is risen indeed. Amen.