Easter Sunday Homily

Preached in the historic sanctuary of First Congregational Church of Tallmadge, UCC, at daybreak on Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012.

Scripture   Mark 16:1-8

When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Sermon

In Haiti, everyone knows how to carry things on their heads.  A jug full of water.  A large basket full of clothing, or groceries.  Most people walk wherever they have to go, and they have learned to carry things on their heads.  My nephew Rafe, all of twenty-two years old, was in Haiti for a week with a group from his church to lend their hands in building efforts: a school, damaged homes.  Rafe took pictures (and graciously allowed me to share some of them here with the sermon text) of the beautiful yet crumbling landscape: houses with giant holes in the roof and walls;  the old government palace - the dome of the roof tilted at a crazy angle, looking as if it will slide off the side of the damaged walls at any moment; and a cathedral that looks like the ruins of an old abbey in Europe, even though it was in use just over a year ago.  He took pictures of the pillars reaching up to a roof that isn’t there anymore, and of stone carved borders that used to hold stained glass, and of spray painted numbers on the remains of the outer wall.  The number was painted in the days after the earthquake, to tell how many people lay dead on the inside: a mark to say where the dead lay.

Palace Ruins

Cathedral Ruins

Number painted on the cathedral wall.

I wonder how Mary Magdalene Mary the mother of James, and Salome knew how to find the tomb where Jesus had been laid.  Was there a sign?  Had they followed Joseph of Arimathea, when he took the body to place in his own tomb?  Did they remember the way that the shrubs pushed against the left side of the entrance, or the irregular shape of the stone that was rolled into place to seal the body inside?  And did they make a mark of some kind: One lies dead here.  Jesus of Nazareth.

These women were disciples of Jesus.  I know they weren’t among the twelve disciples who are named so often, but there were other followers of Jesus, and, unlike the men, these women were willing to stay near Jesus when he was dying.  They learned from him, and they shared his compassion and his courage.  They saw how Jesus became a bright and shining hope to people, showing them a different way to live in this world.  He showed us a way of life that sought to bless people with open arms and minds, instead of first calculating our own benefit, or checking to see if they were worth the effort.  The way Jesus saw the world, the poor were treated like royalty, and people didn’t achieve greatness by winning a status or title, but found greatness in service to others.

He lived a life of blessing, but now he is dead, the women knew.  It couldn’t really last, could it?  He was a wild-eyed dreamer, and it was exciting to get caught up in it, but we really must face reality.  It isn’t realistic to forgive people when they deserve punishment: how will they learn to do what is right? It isn’t realistic to share our resources with those who have made mistakes; how will they learn to care for themselves?  Society needs to function smoothly; you can’t keep disrupting things, tying up streets with palms, protesting in the Temple so that no one can get anything done.  His life was an amazing ride, while it lasted, but it wasn’t very smart.  We live in the real world, and we’ve got to get on with things.

So let us go to anoint him for burial, let us honor him for his beautiful message, and then let’s get on with our lives safely.  And, although we wouldn’t admit it this morning, I think that we might feel the same way.  Let us honor the life that Jesus lived, that’s what this day is for, but then let us get on with the real demands of life.  We have to be realistic.

It would have been easier, I think, for these women disciples, if they had just been able to care for the body of their beloved rabbi.  Then they could have gone back to the familiar way of things.  Work a job, keep a house, talk with friends on the weekend and complain about the people who have it so easy, or the ones who don’t do their share.

They could have gone back to feeling sorry for people who got sick, for people who struggled with inner demons, for people who were judged and found unworthy.  Feel sorry for them, but nothing more.  “It’s too bad,” they would say, “but what can you do?  That’s life.  What can you do about Haiti?  A place of ruins and poverty, corruption and disease.  Too bad.”

All of that would have been easier, but it wouldn’t have been living, not life as God gave it.  Not the life of resurrection.

It would have been easier to anoint the body and be done with it.  But that’s not what happened.  As the angelic messenger said, they came looking for Jesus who was crucified, but he was not there.  No more going back to life as usual, it was on to Galilee, to follow the risen Christ, to see him, to take up once more his crazy impractical ideas that service is greatness, that the outcasts are family, that giving even just a bit more is worthwhile.

Crazy, impractical ideas, but this is a crazy, impractical morning.  Because on Easter morning, God takes all those ideas about what is realistic in life, the things that we accept as just the way things are, and showed us that things are actually not like that.

You think that hope is gone for a different way of life?  Think again.

You think that success and status are most important?  Not so.

You think that pain and judgment control our lives?  They don’t.

You think that the violence and injustice of this world are problems that are just too big to solve?  Not at all. 

Do you think that death is more powerful than God?  No, no, no.  The body isn’t in the tomb!  The tomb is empty!  Up is down.  Backwards is forwards.  Leaders are servants.  Mercy is power.  Easter changes everything!

My nephew Rafe awoke on his first morning in Haiti at six a.m. in order to attend worship in the compound where his group was staying in the city of Port-au-Prince.  It was Sunday, and the people were gathering for worship.

“The sanctuary was packed with close to 1,000 Haitians, dressed to the nines.”

When they saw that Rafe had brought his guitar, they brought him up on stage, and despite not knowing the songs, or the language, music was the universal language, and they played and sang spirituals and hymns and songs of faith.  When the preacher spoke, Rafe couldn’t understand the language, but he felt that the words were honest, because the congregation responded with laughter, empathy, and “Amens.”

Rafe's photo of the sanctuary, after worship.

My nephew Rafe and niece Carrie, in the blue shirts farthest right.

Rafe wrote that he “was moved close to tears by their passion for music, community, and faith.  …The joy and need for that time of song & worship in that place radiated from the congregation as the rising sun slowly brought much appreciated light through the windows.”

Resurrection is the gift of God’s new life, and it comes to us right in the midst of this life.  In the light of resurrection, we live differently.  We know that service to others will cost us something, but we no longer worry so much about the cost of doing good.  We know what most people think is realistic, or practical, but no longer need to be bound by these unquestioned assumptions.  We know that we will die someday, but fear of death does not rule our lives. 

Much of the world will still think that it is foolish to offer forgiveness, and hospitality, and service to others, and to think that these are marks of strength and greatness.  Much of the world will still think that it is foolish to worry about problems too big to be solved, or to concern ourselves with the wellbeing of strangers.  But no more foolish than 1,000 Haitians singing with Joyful hearts in the middle of a city of tombs.  No stranger than a messenger dressed in white who waits inside a tomb just to tell the first visitors that the body that should be there isn’t there any more. 

Christ is risen, and the shroud that was cast over all nations is no more.  We are freed from fear, and freed to live with joy.  Christ is risen.  Everything is changed.

Thanks be to God.