All Souls Episcopal Church

Easter Day, Year C

March 27, 2016

The Reverend Amelie Wilmer Minor

Early 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. So 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." Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and 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. They 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." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" 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." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus 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.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her. (John 20:1-18)

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Easter Morning, at last! For those of us who have journeyed through the ever-darkening days of Lent, Easter comes asa breath of fresh air, a burst of sunshine. Finally we can set aside the darkness of death and bask in the glory of resurrection!

And yet, that doesn’t seem to be the reaction of Jesus’ own disciples when they find his tomb empty. In today’s gospel, Mary Magdelene responds with panic and grief, Peter and the other disciple react withconfusion and indecision.

When I was growing up, I was always frustrated by how slowly they caught on to things. Didn’t they remember that Jesus told them this would happen? Wasn’t their faith strong enough to see the truth? Of course I knew the happy Easter ending, beforehand. So, even though I might have walked the Lenten path and mournfully observed Good Friday, my sense of tragedy was offset by my knowledge of what’s to come.

I’ve begun to understand that there are two ways to look at the mystery of Easter. One is to remember the resurrection as historical event, a moment in time that changed things forever to bring us freedom from death. From this perspective the work has been completed, leaving us withthe task of remembering it, celebrating it, and receiving its benefits in our own spiritual walk. Seen this way, our journeythrough Lent, and even through Holy Week, is more from the perspective of an observers, than a participant.

But another way to look at the mystery of Easter is to encounter resurrection as our own truth, an ongoing pattern that helps us understand the seasons of our lives. If we reflect on our spiritual journeys honestly, I’m pretty sure we all can identify seasons when the real darkness of Lent descended on our paths, I know I can.

There’s that feeling of panic as we begin to lose our way, despair as we’re led into a dead end, maybe anger in feeling that God has abandoned us.Like the disciples, we find ourselves emptied of our hopes, our expectations, perhaps even our faith. Everything we had trusted in seems to slip through our fingers the more we try to hold on.

These experiences are the kind we don’t share too often with others – and it makes sense that we don’t. These are tender places within us, not to be shared casually - rarely is it helpful to expose them to the advice of those who mean well but who really just want us to“feel better.” They need to be carefully guarded, held gently by hands both compassionate and wise, lifted up in silent prayer. Such crises of faith are usually too deep explain, often beyond our usual coping methods. Like Jesus and the disciples, we often have no other choice but to walk toward them and through them, facing the death of a life we once loved, and laying it in the tomb.

Of course, if asked, we would alwayssay that we would choose life over death; but when we are feeling really awful, the tomb can be quite an appealing place. Finally the suffering is over. We can be released from having to make more choices, from trying to remain hopeful or faithful. If you have been there, I know I have, you can’t underestimate the appeal of staying in this quiet, womb-like sanctuary. The temptation to over-stay in the tomb is very real.

And we keep ourselves in that tomb by holding on to the various reasons we should stay there. “I tried to be faithful,” we tell ourselves, “I had high hopes, but they ended in disappointment.” We list our limitations, our heartbreaks, our failed relationships, all telling us it is pointless for us to reenter the world with hope and energy. These “life lessons” have taught us that our best path is to just play it safe, not to dream too big or hope too much or love too deeply.

Could it be, this is what is going on with the disciples on their first Easter Morning? Many of them had expectations about what Jesus’ ministry would be – visions of a great Kingdom like that of David being reestablished. At the very least they imagined Jesus would be traveling with them for some time to come, healing people and sharing the Good News. But their expectations, their dreams, their very faithhas been ripped away from them. They not only suffer crippling grief and disappointment, but the trauma of seeing someone they loved humiliated and despised as a criminal. Naturally, their first response to an empty tomb is to refuse to accept it.

As today’s gospel story goes, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb – likely to minister to Jesus’ corpse, or maybe because she just wanted to be near where his body lay. When she discovers the tomb empty and alerts others; they come and go quickly, leaving her once again alone. She is weeping, has probably been weeping for the last few days. It is no wonder her eyes are too cloudy to focus on Jesus when he appears to her. It is only when he says her name that it suddenly comes clear – Jesus is alive!

In that moment of joyful recognition Mary reaches out to touch him, but he stops her. It’s a strange moment between them whichseems like a rejection; but it has a different purpose. Of course, Mary’s first instinct is to hold and touch Jesus as she has done before, restored to the person she once knew.

But the purpose of resurrection isn’t restoration of a former life; it is new life. We’re not moving backward to the “good old days”; we are doing something entirely new.Jesus won’t letMary hold him because he’s not coming back. She’s got to release that expectation in order to fully enter the life, and life’s work, that is ahead.

“God will build a new heaven and a new earth, and old things will be forgotten,” we are told in our today’s reading from Isaiah. Old thingsare forgotten because remembering them will either weigh us down with all our old experience of pain and failure; or they will slow us down because we remember how wonderful things were and long for them. In either case we are being pulled backward, focusing on a past which is dead and needs to beentombed. It is only when we allow it to remain there in the tomb – and then step away – that we can begin to find out just what God has in store for us.

And yet, it isn’t easy to come out of the tomb. Most of us know what it’s like to trap ourselves in old ideas, habits or beliefs; in confining or toxic relationships; in limiting identities and attitudes about ourselves because – even thoughbeing trapped creates some suffering – at least it is familiar. It takes courage to step out of our tombs, to reinvest ourselves once again intofaith and hope and loveknowing full well that, as the seasons come and go, we’re bound to head yet again, into another dying process.

When we can accept and embrace this kind of spiritual life cycle – birth with its blooming; middle age with its fruiting; aging with its diminishment; and death with its release, we discover this is the way of God. And that God’s life in us is made more abundant, more real and manifest, and more powerful each time we pass through. We learn not to hold on to what was, but to trust the mysterious power of resurrection to lead us on.

We spend a week each year at the beach, and at the place we stay, I love to go for long walks, hunting for shells. I find them almost irresistible; I just have to pick them up, rub my finger along their smooth and rough places, study their patterns and colors. They are like gemstones to me, something to keep and cherish forever.

But the tiny animal that made the shell had the sense to leaveitbehind when it became too cramped. The shell might have been extraordinarily lovely, or battered and broken.Either way, the animal released it so it could continue on its life’s journey in a more appropriate home.

Whatever you are carrying from yourold life – beautiful memories for which you grieve, or painful memories for which you bleed – none of it is attached to this new life, life on the other side of the tomb. The stone has been rolled away. Will we pull our shroud over our heads to block out the light, or unwind it from our bodies, leaving it in a glorious pile on the floor?

Will we remember the resurrection, or become the resurrection?

Alleluia. Christ is risen!

The Lord is Risen Indeed, Alleluia