It’s been a long, hard, dramatic week. We excitedly waved Jesus into Jerusalem Last Sunday with our palm branches, and we danced in procession to Tyler’s great, jazzy saxophone. But then the mood changed. We heard the passion story. We were reminded he had to die.
On Thursday, there it was again. We heard the passionate stories of the women who loved and followed him, “The Other 12 Apostles.” Then we heard about the foot washing and the meal…the last meal before Friday, the day he was brutally crucified. We participated with Christ Church-Trinity in getting ready for that Friday Story as we helped them strip the altar of its adornments.
And then Friday came with its cold, hard, awful story about the hard wood of the cross (unvarnished) and those seven words he spoke in agony.
It’s always hard for me to try to write the Easter morning sermon during Holy Week because I so like “walking through the drama.” To me it seems a bit schizophrenic to be writing about “the glorious resurrection” when we haven’t had the Supper or the Cross.
But of course living in the 21st century on this side of Easter, we really always know about the Cross and the Resurrection.
Well this year in the process of going through The Week and reading the prayers for Holy Saturday yesterday morning before daylight, it occurred to me how very important it is for us, right now at St. James, to remember the Resurrection. It’s important because there’s a sense in which as a parish, we’re sort of caught right now in Holy Saturday. What I mean by that is that we know only too well about Good Friday. It’s fresh in our minds. If we need a refresher, all we have to do is take a drive around the backside of the building at Main and Taconic.
But right now although it IS Easter morning, for us as a parish it’s still in a sense a time before the Resurrection. It’s that time between. That time when we, like the disciples, are a bit bewildered and tired, wondering what will happen to us. What will happen next? Maybe on that Saturday not only the disciples but also even Jesus himself was wondering exactly what was next. That’s why it’s so important for us to hear the God News today…
THE LORD IS RISEN! THE LORD IS RISEN INDEED!
One contemplative (Richard Rohr, Richard’s Daily Meditations)http://www.cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/subscribe.php) wrote about Holy Saturday, “Jesus trusted enough to outstare the darkness, to outstare the void, to wait upon the resurrection.” Now I think that’s what we at St. James are called to do right now: We’re called to outstare the darkness because we live in faith and hope. We can live in faith and hope because Jesus conquered all darkness…even death itself! We live on this side of Easter. WE KNOW!
In today’s Easter Gospel from John, after Mary tells them the stone is rolled away, Peter and the Beloved Disciple hot-foot-it to the tomb. John, the Beloved, looks in. Peter goes in, and John follows. The gospel tells us simply, “(John) saw and believed.” The empty tomb, the linen wrappings were signs enough for the Beloved Disciple.
I’m reminded of that enigmatic Holy Week story in Mark about the fig tree. It comes the day after Palm Sunday. “As they left Bethany the next day, Jesus was hungry. Off in the distance he saw a fig tree in full leaf. He came up to it expecting to find something for breakfast, but found nothing but fig leaves. (It wasn’t yet the season for figs.) He addressed (cursed?) the tree: ‘No one is going to eat fruit from you again—ever!’” (The Message, a paraphrase of the Bible by Eugene Peterson) This story has always puzzled me: Since it’s not the season for figs, why is Jesus so upset?
The Bishop of Virginia Peter Lee ponders this question and suggests that Jesus asks of us, his followers, to be Signs of New Life, Signs of Resurrection…even when we’re “out of season.” (The Living Church, April 16, 1995) We’re called to be signs of new life even during this in-between time of exile for the parish, even during this time of such uncertainty in our nation and world, even during this time when some of us and/or our loved ones are in the midst of serious health problems and real suffering. In these “out-of-season” times, it would be easy to give up and give in to negativity, the “what ifs,” and the “worst-case-scenarios.” But as Resurrection People we’re called to act differently. We don’t deny that these difficult things are real. They are very real. But we’re called to look in them (like a tomb), to outstare the darkness, and to find within them Signs of New Life. We’re called to be Beloved Disciples: to look in the tomb, see the signs: To see and believe.
In fact in our ironic, last-are-first/first-are-last Christian faith, it’s exactly in these dark places, in the tombs, that we will find new life…in season or out-of-season. The core, the essence of our Christian faith is this very thing…this dying and rising cycle, which Jesus embodies in his life, death, and resurrection. So with confidence we can look in those dark places and be assured that THERE (exactly THERE) we will find New Life! ‘Even more amazing is that from THERE (exactly THERE) from those dark places of our lives, we will find our most valuable and authentic gifts. And the gifts we will find in the darkness will be the things that best proclaim to others the profound reality of our faith in a crucified and risen God.
So wherever we are in our journeys…in season or out-of-season or somewhere in-between, let us proclaim the joy we share this Easter morning…Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
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