Easter Sermon: Where is it True?

April 20, 2014 ~ Easter from John Knox Kirk on Vimeo.

A sermon preached at preached at John Knox Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on April 20, 2014.

John 20:1-18
and Matthew 28:1-10

I want to tell you,

there is rarely a time that I am more unsettled about the life of faith

than when someone asks me the question:

Come on, man! Do you really believe it?

Do you really think its true?

It doesn’t matter if this question is coming from someone I love

or from those who I think are out to test me, test my mettle.

The interrogation could come from someone

who is so FIRM in their conviction

         that they are trying to probe my doubt and prove my heresy,

or from someone who is searching for God

who is suspicious of all the hypocracy

and the judgement

and the rules and requirements…

and they might be looking AT ME

for some glimpse of something they themselves

might latch on to.

Or maybe its your average Joe,

who reads these beautiful resurrection stories with the eyes of faith

but who sometimes…. wonders….

Unsettling.

But I also gather, since we are not so different, you and I,

                  that you might also have this experience sometimes.

Where you are asked that question: do you really believe it?

Or, maybe, ask your self that question: Is it true?

And maybe you find yourself, on an Easter Sunday morning,

with flowers and bonnets and plans for Brunch whirling about

when you are struck by the profound questions of faith

and your heart races just a little bit more than what is comfortable.

///

We read two of the four Easter stories today.

Did you notice all the energy? Uncomfortable energy?

         Matthew’s hallmark Easter quality is the Earthquake and the Angel.

There’s not much more unsettling than an earthquake.

No, wait. Maybe the Angel would trump an earthquake.

But the Angel, like at the Birth, says: “Be Not Afraid!”

                           And off they went, running to tell the others.

And then there’s John.

Did you notice how John’s Easter account begins with a lot of running too?

The scene opens with Mary Magdeline

approaching the place where Jesus’ body was set

                           after he breathed his last on the cross.

You can sense from the passage Mary’s anxiety, her consternation.

She approaches the tomb early, perhaps for a time of private grieving,

         for beginning the slow, painful process of coming to grips

with the absence of someone that she deeply loves.

Her tears are right on the surface,

and a cemetery is an appropriate place to grieve.

But…

the missing stone, and the empty tomb

they DISRUPT what she is about

WHERE have THEY taken his body?

WHAT have they done with it?

WHO could have done such a thing?

and she BOLTS…

Mary’s confusion and incredulity prompts her to RUN

to go get some friends,

and to try to figure it out together.

She’s off to tell Simon Peter and the Beloved disciple.

And when THEY hear her report,

like the shot of the gun at the starting line,

the two of them are off running THEMSELVES to check it out.

And they arrive back at the scene, breathless, and unsettled…

Is it true? Is the body really not there?

As John paints the picture for us,

the three of them, Peter, the disciple that Jesus Loved,

and Mary Magdalene each approach the tomb

in a slightly different way:

The beloved disciple got there first, peeked around the corner

and when he saw some linen wrappings there on the ground,

he was caught up in the swirling emotions and

catches his breath.

The Beloved Disciple can’t go in. Its too much.

         Then comes Peter, who arrives shortly behind.

He goes right in to look.

                  He cannot wait. He must take it ALL in.

                           And the headcloth is neatly rolled up.

                           the wrappings folded separately.

                                    And it is clear that Jesus is gone.

                  The Beloved disciple comes in and surveys the tomb.

And he believed what Mary had said:

Namely: that “They have taken the Lord…”

                            Everything is so tidy. The cloths are there.

Jesus’ body is not.

And with that, these two erstwhile sprinters go… home….

all that they have witnessed

leading to more questions and pondering…

         They go Home to mull it all over.

They will have to wait to encounter the risen Jesus.

No evidence that they have seen has solved all the riddles for them.

But Mary, she sticks around.

 She stays there, tomb empty, tears flowing.

         Her emotions finally released and her grief taking on a new dimension:

not only is Jesus dead, but his body is missing, too…

And now She is the one who looks in,

and She is the one who takes in the tomb.

But for her, there is something new.

Now two angels are there,

asking her tenderly but directly “Why are you weeping?”

This must seem so strange to Mary.

The others didn’t see anyone inside.

And why shouldn’t she be weeping? Wouldn’t you be weeping?

So she is blunt:

“They have taken my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him!”

And then, to Mary, Jesus appears.

The RISEN Jesus. The one crucified. Dead. Dead dead Jesus.

         That Jesus appears.

And Mary….well she doesn’t know it at first.

He also asks her why she is weeping,

         and she mistakes him for the Gardener:

“Please, sir. Sir! Tell me where you have taken him…

I will take him away…”

///

This is such a touching, moving encounter,

this first appearance of the risen Jesus.

To this woman, who loves Jesus, who is hurt, and aching,

longing for understanding and meaning.

To her, Jesus clears away all of the confusion

by calling her name…

“MARY!”

“RABBOUNI!”

And with that intimate, personal, direct encounter,

her eyes are open

and she KNOWS that the one she loves,

the one who loves her, is ALIVE!

///

Henry Nouwen reflects on this encounter this way:[i]

This simple and deeply moving story

         brings me in touch with my fear, as well as my desire to be known.

…

Jesus KNOWS Mary of Magdala.

         He KNOWS her story:

         Her sin and her virtue,

         her fears and her love,

         her anguish and her hope.

         He knows every part of her heart.

         NOTHING in her is hidden from him.

He knows her even more deeply and profoundly than she knows herself.

Therefore, when he utters her name

         he brings about a profound event.

Mary suddenly realizes that the one who truly knows her, LOVES her…

I can see (Nouwen says)

what a healing moment this encounter must have been.

Mary feels at once fully known and fully loved.

The division between what she feels safe to show

                  and what she does not dare to reveal no longer exists.

She is fully seen and she knows that the eyes that see her

         are eyes of forgiveness,

                  mercy,

                  love,

                  and unconditional acceptance.”

///

And with this, Mary went running AGAIN, and announced to the disciples,

“I have SEEN the LORD!”

Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

If EASTER means anything,

its here: this love of Christ that is more POWERFUL than death.

That God calls those who love him by NAME.

Calls you, and me, by name.

What JOY! To be called by name.

To be known, and loved, and known, and accepted.

///

Mary’s nice, tidy, neat, logical world, and OURS

is broken open when Jesus calls her by name.

The One who was certifiably dead greets her.

The established ORDER: WHAT can happen, HOW things happen:

these are overthrown.

It is a new day.

///

I get unsettled when I talk about this story, I think,

because the resurrection stories in the Gospels are replete

with doubt.

With QUESTIONS. With CONFUSION.

Mary, Peter, the Beloved Disciple: each one of them

SEEKING, DOUBTING,

          WANDERING, FOGGY people

in the face of something truly mindblowing.

There’s doubting Thomas. There’s the encounter on the road to Emmaus.

And time and time again, THE WAY the Gospels ANSWER the doubt

of those seeking to understand is not through rational, logical answers.

The Gospels offer encounter, offer action,

offer love

offer an invitation to touch (but not hold)

offer the breaking of bread and the sharing of a meal

or, as in the Gospel of John,

to Mary, they offer the calling of a name that instantly

reveals the depth and breadth of God’s risen love.

Everytime we experience forgiveness

Everytime we hold the hand of a hurting friend

Everytime we look cancer or abuse

                  or hunger or homelessness or discrimination

         in the eye and say NO,

         THERE is God saying that Death SHALL NOT win.

I get unsettled because THAT is not something that can be plainly explained.

It is only something that can be shared through invitation

                  to experience THAT love

to witness THAT grace

to enact THAT mercy

whenever and wherever we find it

and to point to that and say

LOOK! THERE IS EASTER!

THERE IS THE RISEN CHRIST!

CHRIST IS RISEN! ALLELULIA!

///

So, we are called to say along with Mary: Christ is Risen!

I have seen the LORD!

We are invited to hear Christ calling to US

with OUR name on HIS lips,

pointing us to his everlasting, overflowing life…

We are asked to invite others into the incredible good news

that in God’s EASTER world:

Life is stronger than death

that Love wins.

///

I can share with you the time that I was the most unsettled.

It was 2009, and I was, of all places, at a Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The theologian and gadfly Peter Rollins was speaking.

And I knew that he was challenging and edgy and maybe even dangerous.

I wasn’t sure, really, what he felt about all ….this.

This time, It was me who asked in my heart whether he believed it or not…

And then he said this, and it unsettled me:[ii]

Last time I was in Grand Rapids,

I was speaking at Calvin College, Said Rollins…

and after about a five hour session,

near the end someone said to me,

“You know Pete, all of this theology,

you don’t say much about this Resurrection.

Do you DENY the Resurrection.

And I said, Ok, this is time to fess up.

Yes, I do. Of course I do.

Everyone who knows me knows I deny the resurrection.

I do deny the resurrection…

every time I do not serve my neighbor

         [I deny the resurrection….]

every time I walk away from people who are poor

I deny the resurrection…

every time I participate in an unjust system.

AND I affirm the resurrection, every now and again,

when I stand up for those who are on their knees.

I affirm the resurrection

when I cry out for those people

who have had their tongues torn out,

when I weep for those people

who have no more tears to shed….

///

I Deny the Resurrection from Peter Rollins on Vimeo.

So. Its Easter. What do you think? Is it true?

Here’s what I think:

Yes, it is true, every time we encounter the risen Lord among us,

         it is true.

Every time we are INSPIRED by Jesus

and stand up for the blessed,

stand with the meek,

those who hunger and thirst, the poor.

         those who society rejects or doubts or marginalizes.

Right THERE: the resurrection is TRUE.

There are so many opportunities for us to LIVE it.

Today. To love wantonly. To serve selflessly.

To stand up for justice fearlessly.

Where is your chance to SEE Easter?

Where might you look to see the Risen Lord in our midst?

Are you listening for Christ to call your name,

                           and to know, in your heart, that you, YOU are loved

                                    in ways you never fully understood?

And so, this Easter Sunday,

my prayer is that we might hear Jesus calling our name

                           and KNOWING that Christ loves us, knows us, frees us,

         may we be set free to tell the world that

WE HAVE SEEN THE LORD

and, doing so, let us AFFIRM

that “Death is not the last word.

         Violence is not the last word.

                  Hate is not the last word.

                  Money is not the last word.

                  Intimidation is not the last word.

                  Political Power is not the last word.

                  Condemnation is not the last word.

                  Betrayal and failure are not the last word.

         No: each of them are left like rags in a tomb,

                  and from that tomb,

                           Arises Christ, Alive

Let it be so. Amen.

———————–

[i] Henri Nouwen, The Road Daybreak: A Spiritual Journey (New York: Doubleday, 1988) 164-165.

[ii] Video of his talk (as of April 20, 2014) is at vimeo.com/19258866

[iii] From a prayer of Brian McClaren, http://brianmclaren.net/archives/blog/a-prayer-for-pastors-on-easter.html