In the name of the Risen Lord ☩ Amen.
What
a joy it is to be with you all on this most festive and holy morning! Every
Easter is special, but this one seems a bit more grand than usual. This past
Holy Week was a profound one and it really set the table for our celebration
this morning. Having the brass quintet and full choir are amazing.
The flowers are beautiful. And you all look absolutely fantastic in your Easter
best. Easter is the epitome of what it means to be the Church, and am I am so glad
that each and every one of you are here. Your presence makes our celebration
that much more joyous. And I know some of you have traveled a good distance to
be here this morning, I know some of you struggled to get your child to wear
that clip-on tie, I know some of you are here only to make a family member
happy. Thank you for the effort you put into being here, I pray that you are
richly blessed through your participation in this Easter celebration.
In
his letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul writes, “For since death came through a
human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being;
for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.” The key word
there is “all.” The message of Easter is for all of us. It’s for those of you
who are here every time the church is open and for those of you who have
less-than-perfect attendance. Easter is for those of us who have a lot of
doubts and for those of us who are as confident of the Resurrection as we are
the nose on our face. Easter is for those of us who are getting along pretty
well and for those of us whose lives are hanging by a thread. The message of
Easter is for all of us. And so the welcome of this church is for each and
every one of you.
What
I want to tell you about Easter this morning is rooted in John’s Gospel account
of Easter morning. For John, the Resurrection is all about New Creation. If you
want to know what the point of this sermon is, what message you should take
with you is, it is this – the Resurrection
is about New Creation.
Consider how John sets
the narrative: on the first day of the week, in the darkness just before dawn, in
a garden. You’ll remember that as John begins his Gospel, he wrote “In the
beginning was the Word, and Word was with God and the Word was God.” John is
clearly building on the imagery from the very beginning of the Bible, as
Genesis opens with “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth…
darkness covered the face of the deep.” Easter is as pivotal an event as
anything in Creation. If it all started with a Big Bang, Easter is the second
Big Bang – it’s that big of a deal.
What
this tells us is that the New Creation of Resurrected life is about all of us.
The Resurrection wasn’t something awesome that happened to Jesus because he is
the Son of God, but the Resurrection was the beginning of something brand new
for all of us. If you look at an icon of the Resurrection from the Eastern
Orthodox tradition, you’ll notice that Jesus doesn’t emerge from a tomb alone,
but he does so offering a hand to Adam and Eve, pulling them out of their
graves. Because the Resurrection is properly thought of in terms of Creation,
it means that it’s all around us, just like the created world is all around us.
Resurrection
life is a promise that you are given right now, it’s not only about life after
death. The message of Easter is that Death has been defeated and so we do not
need to live in fear of Death. I love what one poet said – “I will die, but
that is all I will do for death.” It is a sense of living in the New Creation
that enables such a bold stance. And it’s not only Death that is overcome by
the Resurrection, but also the Sin that was nailed to the Cross on Good Friday
has been overcome. In the New Creation, you are free. You know all those questions
you ask yourself – How am I doing? What awards have I received recently? How is
my portfolio performing? What grades am I getting in school? What do they think
of me? Those are questions that we ask out of the fear that we are not enough,
that we are lacking.
As
we sang in the Pascha nostrum and
heard in 1 Corinthians, we were all in Adam; meaning that we were stuck in the old
creation with problems that we could not solve ourselves. But out of abundant grace,
God has ushered in the New Creation where those sorts of questions no longer
hold us captive. The New Creation is about God’s gracious and loving freedom
for us all.
This
is a message that I hope you’re not hearing for the first time. But whether you’ve
heard this once or a thousand times, that doesn’t make it immediately obvious. On
that Easter morning, Mary Magdalene doesn’t recognize the Risen Jesus when she
first sees him. A quick side point – it’s worth noting that the first person to
witness and proclaim the Resurrection is a woman. We do well when we listen to
women’s voices and follow their leadership.
The
thing about New Creation though is that it happens in continuity with the first
Creation. It’s why John notes that this happens “on the first day of the week.”
For two thousand years, Christians have described the Resurrection as occurring
on the 8th day – it is the start of something new, but it is in
continuity with the week that preceded it. So while we live in the world that
is a product of the first Creation, we are, at the same time, citizens of the New
Creation. And that old way of thinking still gets in the way.
The
fact of the matter is that dead people stay dead. There is no way Mary could
have anticipated the Resurrection. Scientists tell us about things like confirmation
bias and optical illusions that demonstrate that our minds fill in the gaps
based on our assumptions and previous experiences; and in her previous
experience, Mary had never encountered someone who had risen from the dead.
Do you all remember “the
dress” from 2015? It was such a ubiquitous cultural phenomenon that if you
Google “the dress” that’s the first thing that shows up. It was a photo of a
dress that some people saw as white and gold and some people saw as blue and
black. For reasons that neuroscientists still cannot fully explain, some people’s
minds and eyes could not perceive the dress as anything but white and gold,
when it was actually blue and black.
The
Resurrection is something like this phenomena. If you live according to the
rules of the old Adam, rules like “winning is the name of the game” or “all’s
fair in love and war,” then you might not realize that you, like Adam, are
captive to Sin and are on a road that leads only to Death. Having an Easter
faith is about trusting that God’s love makes all things new, and so no matter
how dark the night, we trust that the sun will rise; no matter how painful the
betrayal, we trust that reconciliation is possible; no matter how all-consuming
the fear is, we can have courage; no matter now final death seems, there is
always hope for Resurrection. When it comes to the New Creation, it’s all
around us as certain as the air we breathe is, but whether or not an individual
will recognize it is all a matter of their perspective.
And
this is exactly what we see in Mary’s encounter with the Risen Lord. It is not
until Jesus calls her name that she realizes who it is that is standing before
her. And she responds by calling Jesus “Rabbouni,” which means “my teacher.” As
the prophet Jeremiah tells us, before you were even formed in the womb, God
knew you and loved you. Earlier in John, Jesus tells us that he is the Good
Shepherd and he knows us each by name. I really wish I had the time to call out
every single one of your names right now so, but know that the God of love which
created all things and Resurrected Jesus has called you by name. Yes, the
Resurrection is a communal event about the New Creation, but it’s also a deeply
personal reality. It’s not that that Resurrection is an abstract idea, it’s
about you in the midst of your chaotic and busy life. The power of the Resurrection
is yours to live in the New Creation that you might love fully, give generously,
and live fearlessly.
Mary
recognizes this power of the Resurrection because she recognizes Jesus as her
teacher. Where do you turn for wisdom and instruction? What is the story that
you live your life by? The call of Easter is to have Jesus at the heart of your
life. As we heard in 1 Corinthians, Jesus is the first fruit of the New
Creation, and as evidenced by his Resurrection, we know it’s going to be an
abundant harvest, more splendid than we could ever ask or imagine. If this idea
of living with less fear and more hope intrigues you, confuses you, inspires
you, comforts you, challenges you, come and learn more from Jesus. Devote yourself
to prayer, to generosity, to service, to worship. Easter is not something to
celebrate as much as it is something to participate in. So come and see more of
this New Creation by having Jesus teach you about this abundant harvest of
grace.
The
last point that I want to call your attention to is what Mary says in response
to this encounter with Jesus, she goes to the disciples and says, “I have seen
the Lord.” I don’t know why it is this way, but God has chosen to announce
Easter through you and me. When Jesus rose from the tomb, he could have marched
over to Pontus Pilate’s house, knocked on the door, and said “Remember me?” Can
you imagine Pilate’s face if that had happened? But Jesus chooses to make the
Resurrection present not by confrontation, but through his Body, through all of
us. You want proof of the Resurrection – look at people like Desmond Tutu,
Martin Luther King, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Mother Teresa, St. Francis, or St.
Mary. You want to see the Resurrection, go to an AA meeting sometime and see
that new life is possible after running into a dead end. You want to have an
Easter experience, visit someone in hospice and see that death, while still an
enemy, is fighting a losing battle against hope and love.
The
thing is, Truth is not a proposition, it is a person. Resurrection is not an
idea, it is a relationship with God in the New Creation in which Sin and Death
have been robbed of their power by the love of God. Notice that the
proclamation of Easter is not “the tomb is empty,” but rather “I have seen the
Lord.” I see the Lord every time we gather to celebrate the Eucharist. I see
the Lord every time I see how this congregation is a beloved community that
cares for one another. I see the Lord when I see your acts of service, generosity,
and faithfulness in worship. The Eucharist helps me to see the Resurrection.
You help me to see the Resurrection. The movement of the Holy Spirit in this
church helps me to see the Resurrection.
You probably see the
Resurrection in all sorts of amazing ways. In the Church, Easter isn’t just one
day, it’s a 50 day season. Whether or not you had a Lenten disciple, I hope you’ll
take up an Eastertide discipline. Be on the lookout for the Resurrection fruits
of the New Creation that are all around you. Give yourself the time to taste
the sweetness of those fruits. And share that holy food with those around you
by telling them “I have seen the Lord.”
And this isn’t just some quaint
advice at the end of a sermon, I mean it. I want to hear about the places that
you see the Risen Lord. I want you to pay attention to how the Risen Lord is
manifest in your life. I want you to tell each other about the places where you
see the Risen Lord. I want you to tell those in your life who need to hear a
message of hope that you have seen the Risen Lord. Christ has been raised from
the dead, the first fruits of the New Creation. Alleluia!
