Easter Day

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Easter Day
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: April 12, 1998

TEXT: Luke 24:1-10 - They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead. He is not here, but has risen."

ISSUE: The first experiences of Easter are perplexing ones for the women and disciples. It is not particularly joyful, but amazement and wonder as to what has really happened. It is not about a resuscitated body. The Easter experience does not become fully firmed up until Pentecost. The reality of Easter comes from faith born out of the full appreciation of Jesus' teachings and ministry, which was matter of raising up that which was lost, last, least, and fallen. The resurrection is about a renewing, forgiving compassionate love, and hope that raises humanity.
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"Welcome Happy Morning" and "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" are but several of the happy and joyful hymns that we sing today, looking back with great joy on the resurrection experience of Jesus. Knowing the fulness of the story, Christians experience Easter as a time of great joy. However, the first experience of Easter for the women and the disciples, and for those close to the early church was not a particularly happy event at all. Quite frankly, they did not understand it at all. All they knew at first was that the tomb was empty. For all they knew they body had been stolen, and possibly desecrated by some enemies. The women in today's story are reported to have been downright perplexed about the whole situation. There are two men, according to Luke's story, in dazzling clothes, presumably angels, who give the women a hint at what may have happened. "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." Peter and other disciples find this news hard to believe, and at first nonsense.
If you examine other accounts of the Easter story in Mark, Matthew, and John, you will find that all of the accounts are perplexing and details are quite different in the varying accounts. It is indeed mysterious. In other instances there is only one angel, not two. In many instances Jesus is not recognizable to those who experience him, at least at first. In all these varying accounts there are those who like the disciples may feel that the resurrection is not believable, but is nonsense especially in our very scientific and technological world today.
If we attempt to approach the resurrection of Jesus from a purely prove it to me that a dead body got resuscitated, from a crass literal interpretation, you won't get very far. That approach is not proveable. In fact we are not celebrating today the resuscitation of Jesus, we are celebrating the resurrection, the lifting up and the raising up of the Son of Man. The issue for us is not proving the resurrection; the issue is what does it mean. What is its impact on us? What does the event have to say to all people of all ages?
The scriptures do reveal to us that the understanding of the resurrection was not immediately understood. The recognition of the Risen Lord Christ did not always come easy. It took time and ultimately was a matter of faith and trust in God's power to do this remarkable thing. You really do not have a full appreciation of the Resurrection in the Scriptures until the Pentecost when the full body of Christ comes into being as the church, the continuation of the suffering servanthood of Christ. The full impact of the Spirit of God coming upon the followers and disciples takes time for them to grasp the meaning of these resurrection experiences and what they mean.
In the passage today, the angels tell the women to "remember" what Jesus had said. They were to remember his life, what it was, and the meaning of it. What he said and did may well meet with crucifixion, but what is of God will prevail. Jesus lifted up the lame giving them new power, gave new insight blind, and new ways of earing and thinking to the deaf. The people who were the cursed and alienated received in the teaching and the affection of Jesus new restoration, love, and hope as children of God. All along in the ministry of Jesus you have him offering to lift up the cursed and fallen. He feeds and gives strength to the hungry, and assures all people of the enormous uplifting extention of God's love.
The very life, ministry, teaching, words of Jesus are about resurrection, about lifting up. You can beat him, mock, curse, spit, and crucify but the very love of God will rise again and come back to haunt you!
Remember in the Christmas story how the first people to hear the Goodnews are a bunch of bawdy forlorn discounted shepherds. They were among the least in the society, near the bottom of the social scale. Fascinating that the resurrection of Jesus is first revealed to women, in about every account of the scriptures. The women git the message first. Woman were another part of the least in the society of the time. Women had no legal rights and were to be kept secluded. Yet Jesus repeatedly honored them. They are are also the life givers, the bearers of new life. Again in the resurrection story they are honored again to proclaim the Goodnews, that the Word of God in Christ Jesus lives on. To the world it was and is nonsense. To the people who knew Jesus and studied him, who trusted and placed their faith in him he continued to lived beyond the cross.
Some of you may have seen a movie that was popular a few years ago called "Ground Hog Day." No great shakes of a movie, but it was quite clever. The movie was a fantasy movie. It was a clever story. It was about a very cantankerous TV news man who went to Pennsylvania to cover the Ground Hog Day celebration there in February. His first day there on the job was just an awful day where everything went wrong.. But the next day when the alarm clock goes off, he gets up and it's still Ground Hog Day; He gets a second chance to do the day over again, and remembering the previous experience the next go around is a little better. This sequence keeps repeating itself each morning when the alarm goes off and each day gets better and better.
Easter Day is the alarm going off for. We remember that we didn't always get things right. There was a message from God in Christ, and we didn't always get it right. There were those terrible dark times bleak times, like the crucifixion, and those tragic times in our lives when we felt like the least, the lost, the lonely, the alienated, the greiving forlorned. But God, the giver of live says to us, let's do it again. Stay close to me, you remember, you know the way, you know of my love and compassion, my grace for you, and how I long to have you step and stay into the Kingdom. Let's do it again, Let's go it again. It's the third day and Christ Rises Again!
Is the resurrection real? Of course it is. It is as real as a mother and father's love for their children. You can't see it; you can't touch it; but you can cut it with a knife. As sure as God created the world, as sure as Moses led his people to the Promised Land, as sure as the winter turns to spring, God is raising up new life in and through Jesus Christ. All we do is to believe and trust that God in Christ is there for us as we embrace him as The Risen Lord.