Easter/Resurrection of the Lord, Year B




On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. 7 And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; 8 he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. 9 It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. (Isaiah 25:6-9 NRSV)



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. 2 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." 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to their homes. 11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12 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. 13 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." 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 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." 16 Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). 17 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.'" 18 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 NRSV)



“WHERE ARE THEY?”



The Easter story is familiar to us. We hear it year after year. We hear it again this morning in the Gospel reading. Before daylight Mary Magdalene went to the tomb where Jesus had been buried and saw that that the huge stone sealing the tomb was gone. She went back and told Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved about it. They went to the tomb and John outran Peter and looked in. Peter, though, was the first to enter the tomb. They saw where Jesus had been, but he was no longer there. Mary had returned to the tomb and saw two angels sitting where Jesus had been. They ask her why she is crying. It is because the Lord is gone and she does not know where he is. It is so important to her to know where he is. It is then that she sees Jesus and he, too, asks her what she is looking for. She answers—she wants to know where Jesus is. Then he calls her name and she recognizes him. It is he, the one she is looking for, and she finds him. It is a moment of indescribable joy. But she cannot hold him because he must ascend. She goes back to tell the disciples.

Paul’s letter to the Corinthians addresses a problem of that church. Many believed that Jesus was going to return soon. Some of the believers died before that return. So some began to lose hope in the resurrection of the dead and Paul bases this on the resurrection of Christ. Christ has been raised from the dead, we have proof, and we have seen it. And because he has risen we will, too. And Paul responds to those who question what has happened, with this word on the reality of the resurrection:

But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39 Not all flesh is alike, but there is one flesh for human beings, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory. 42 So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.”

They doubt because they do not know where the dead are. The dead, Paul says, will be in new bodies, far better than the old ones, just as the new plant is so much better than the seed. Those who have gone before us have already experienced the resurrection. They are not merely wisps floating around; they are in a new life. We do not lose hope because we do not see them. Death does not hold them. The Lord holds them. That is why we do not see them anymore. We, who are alive, will see them again at the last trumpet. That is what gives us hope, too, for those we love, for ourselves.

Our hope looks beyond this world. To look only at this world, death is the end. It is like the stone which seals the tomb. We cannot see through it. We cannot go through it. It must be rolled away by another power, a power greater than death. We live in the faith that God has removed it, that there is another place we go to in order to be among those who belong to Jesus. Scott Walker is a pastor in Texas who describes this hope. He came to say goodbye to a friend with cancer and knew that he was not likely to see him again in this world. He struggled with how to say goodbye and gave him a cross. With it he hoped to give his friend faith, as he put it: “A faith that believes that God can take death and change it into life.” When his friend died the cross was passed on to his wife as a reminder of the promise that they will meet again.

Like Mary and Peter and John we sometimes look for what we have lost. We look for what we can’t see anymore. It is natural to want to see it again. But even though we try, we can’t always find it here. That is why we place our trust both in the world beyond this one and in the one who can take us there. That is the faith of Easter.

The faith of Easter grows like its story did on that first day. The disciples heard from Mary that Jesus was not in the tomb. John saw what was not there and believed. Death was gone. There is much that we cannot see. But there is much that we see or we touch or touches us, and when we share it we create hope in others and proclaim the invitation that those who hear us can also join in what we discovered. Karen Valentin was showing her photos of trips to Europe to a friend, who was enjoying each story behind the photos, when he said that he would like to see it all for himself. She encouraged him to do so. Hearing about the resurrection of the Lord is simply an invitation to others to find it for themselves.

Our hope is in the plan that God has laid out. It is to defeat death. We know that Jesus lived, died, and rose again. Christ walks among us. That is what we celebrate on this day. We know the tomb is empty, that the stone is rolled away, not just there, back then, but the stones that block all of our ways. We, too, run to the tomb. But it is not to look for Jesus. We know the Easter story, we know he is not there. We run to the tomb to see that it is empty, that death is powerless, that death is changed into life, that the resurrection has begun. We, too, see Jesus in the garden. We hear him call our names. We see him again. And we tell each other the good news. Our faith is formed; our faith is strengthened by that good news. “Here is not here. He is risen.” Let us not run to the tomb, let us run to the resurrection in hope. Let us look there, where Christ is.

I was not born a morning person, but through necessity have become one. One of the stops on that journey was when I worked in a cannery on the cleanup crew for a summer. It meant starting at about 11 p.m. and finishing at about 5 a.m., after all the other workers were already done. Going home on my bicycle, I found that the world is very quiet, very peaceful, at that hour. It has a certain quality as the sun comes up, something full of beauty and potential. I started liking morning more after that. Nowadays, my home office window faces east and sometimes I see the sunrise. This morning it was gorgeous. But the tricky thing with sunrise is that it will not wait for you, if you are going to enjoy it you have to pay attention to is as it occurs. If you miss it, the beauty of that moment is gone forever. That is like the day it begins. It is an opportunity, a unique event, that will never be repeated.




What will you do today with the opportunity you have?

Since October I have renewed my practice of seeking some inspiration in the Bible and prayer each morning.  It is a chance to get set for the day and orient my outlook in life.  Once in a while something else also captures my attention.  The other day, Garrison Keillor’s daily radio program, “The Writer’s Almanac,” had a poem, “Reading Hemingway,” by James Cummins.  When you read Hemingway, you become hungry, cold, and dry.  When you read Hemingway you take on his style, feel his moods, share his interests.  I had the thought: “What do we do when we read the Bible? 

Questions for Reflection

Which ways of God do we pick up?  Do we become like what we read?  What do we do when we read God’s word?