Oh to welcome back the Chocolate, caffeine, alcohol, biscuits – whatever it was that you had given up for the 40 day fast of Lent. Well done you. and So today you gratefully and joyfully sing Hallelujah!
- We start with a lot of panicky running – Mary has been to the tomb, she’s not alone, note ‘We’, does she alone do the running or They? Come running to Peter and John to say That someone, they, whoever they might be, have taken the body – Yesterday’s Despair is turning Desperate and hopeless
Peter and John run to the tomb – Peter is runs fastest, not sure what to make of that, Peter sees the cloth that would have been used to wrap Jesus’ head and its nicely folded and to one side and the other body wrappings are just there as if Jesus has passed through them or something.
Now, John gets there but he bows his head and goes straight into the tomb. And he sees and believes, even though he doesn’t understand.
John saw, believed, but that doesn’t mean it all makes sense. He doesn’t understand but for him pieces of what Jesus said about himself – I am the way the truth and the life, I am the resurrection and the life – things Jesus said are beginning to come together. But no, John doesn’t understand.
Later when Peter is preaching about this – in the first reading – you heard Peter saying ‘You know’, You know the message that Jesus preached, you know what happened – How Jesus did some amazing things, ‘healing people who were under the power of the devil’ – You know. You know lots of these things – what we’re not always good at is sitting down and piecing it together and allowing some sort of “Oh” and “Aha” moment.
For me that would be an Alpha course, come and join do one with us in September.
John is convinced by the Evidence. He understands that No one has stolen the body, you don’t nick a body and leave the cloths, you might nick the cloths and leave the body.
John believes, he doesn’t understand, but he is moving from Despair to Hope.
John is beginning to grasp that Jesus hasn’t died and come back – like Lazarus. Jesus has died and gone through death, Jesus has broken death, it has lost its sting, its grip of fear.
That makes no sense. But it’s a wonderful truth.
Jesus has not returned; he has been resurrected.
John is moving from Despair to Hope.
Oh we are now a long way away from the triteness of giving up chocolate or caffeine or wine – we’re into resetting what death does.
This moment is so changing John that when he writes his Gospel he won’t use his own name, John. Instead the most important, wonderful truth about John is that he is the Disciple whom Jesus loved. That’s now how John sees himself, as loved by Jesus.
And this is what Easter day can mean to you. You are the disciple whom Jesus loves.
- Mary comes back to the empty tomb and it makes no sense to her. She sees a couple of angels and they don’t seem to be of much help and in her grief, she is still struggling with the same question – they’ve taken my Lord away.
For Mary, the evidence hasn’t really helped her. It’s what comes next – an encounter – that’s what brings her healing and restoration. She won’t understand what happens next any more than John or Peter did at first.
I wonder how long Jesus had been there, no he’s not the gardener, but he has been trying to get Mary’s attention and finally he calls her name, “Mary” and she hears and sees, and finally sees Jesus.
She hugs him, so she knows he’s not a ghost and this isn’t her imagination, she hugs him – alas we have gotten out of the practice of hugging over these last couple of years – but there’s a lot of healing power in a hug – those of you who are not huggers, fear not – but the rest of us who like a hug, it’s been a tough time.
Mary has this encounter with Jesus. And Christians ever since then have had their own different ways of having some sort of encounter – Wesley’s heart was strangely warmed,
for some people this happens when they open their bibles and read these words of love and encouragement from God,
for others when you come forward for a Blessing or for the Sacrament – a moment when you consume something divine;
or when you sing your heart out and find yourself lost in wonder love and praise,
or when you just pop in here on a quiet day and light a candle and pour out to God your hopes and fears –
and in that moment where you feel heard.
Mary is hugging Jesus so much and in that hugging she is making the journey from Despair to Hope, from Grief to Joy. And this is a healing hug.
She calls him Rabboni which doesn’t quite mean Teacher – Rabbi, it’s a diminutive, a term of endearment, affection, it means My teacher.
Later when Peter is preaching, he will explain the importance of the Resurrection in terms of how it reshapes how we see the world and reshapes how we then receive forgiveness and in turn how we forgive others.
Look out for next week’s reading – John 20 from verse 19 – go home and read ahead – because the first sermon that Jesus preaches about the Resurrection is the call to forgive. You should have Derreck next week.
- John believes even though he doesn’t understand. Mary runs off and all she can do is tell her story – I have seen the Lord.
I was coming in to Church for Friday’s walk of witness and a Dad and a 7year old? Son – stop me and he says Why is it called Good, why isn’t it called Bad or Sad Friday? So I said Well yes it is Sad because Jesus dies, but its Good because through it Jesus reconnects us to God, and so we can again be friends with God.
We can only talk about what the Resurrection has meant for me, for you. How has it changed you? It changed those first disciples into a people who brought about a quiet revolution across the known world.
The resurrection for them did not mean – “oh that’s nice for Jesus” – it meant Hope, and Faith and Love – and that is being poured into our hearts.
It meant Vocation.
God in Jesus, because of His Resurrection, calling us to be part of the resetting of this world. Part of reimagining what life could be like – and so the Church set up hospices and hospitals and schools and ended the ancient practice of leaving babies out for wolves, putting an end to crucifixion, changing the values of the world when you used to be only valued for your economic contribution and when that’s finished then so are you. But the Church changed that and brought in values of love and forgiveness and hope.
Sure the Church has made mistakes and we still do – but where we have allowed the power and the implications of the Resurrection, where we have allowed the hope and faith and love to soak into our bones, that’s where we have made a difference.
We are living in the midst of some horrendously horrible parts of history; Not so far from here is an idiotic and senseless and sinful war, we have refugees from that war headed here but we also have other refugees desperately looking for somewhere that has hope and opportunity,
and we have our own growing economic worries and all the while our Climate is screaming out to us its need for us to listen well.
The resurrection is not something that’s just nice for Jesus. Ah that’s nice.
It’s not something that will cocoon you from this troublous life,
nor is it intended to merely be some final insurance policy – it is instead an invitation – as I said to the little boy – an invitation for us to be friends with God again –
In the Resurrection we see Jesus reconciling us to God – and with it comes the call that we too might get wrapped up in this work of reconciling all people, all things to God.
How will the Resurrection change you?
The Resurrection took John from Despair to Hope and it took Mary from Grief to Joy – one moved by the evidence, the other healed by an encounter, a hug.
They didn’t understand – but here we see the beginning of a journey – and this is what we’re called to – and it starts with allowing the Resurrection to change us, to infuse us with faith and hope and love.
Amen.