Resurrection: guaranteed revitalization and a permanent promise

“God of life, we thank you for the mystery planted in us, the paradox of life from death and community from scattered disciples.  We praise you for the dying which save us from death and for the rising which brings us to life.”  “What was dead shall live; what was dark shall shine; what was forgotten shall be remembered, for the Lord is risen and walks among us…. Christ is risen, Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia! ” (adapted from Intercessions for the Christian People edited by Gail Ramshaw. Liturgical Press: Collegeville, MN.)

Good Easter morning!  Who’s here this morning (some show-of-hand questions)?  Welcome to the Church of the Covenant (in Junction City, KS).  We want to get to know you and invite you to get to know us.  We’re all on the journey of developing deeper roots in faith and we hope that you’ll join us.

It’s Easter and we should begin with a smile.  Perhaps you’ve heard this joke before.  I just heard it this past Wednesday while I was at a convent (Congregation of St. Joseph) in Wichita for spiritual direction.  The woman who told it to me had just delivered a lunchtime lecture on non-violent resistance in remembrance of the assassination of Martin Luther King (April 4, 1968) and also spoke a bit about her ministry to people on death row and national advocacy against the death penalty.  Her name is Sister Helen Prejean – she’s the nun featured in the story Dead Man Walking (she was played by Susan Sarandon in the film version).

On the way to Easter services, a man who very much loved living things was driving on one of our country roads and saw a bunny on the side of the road ahead.  Afraid that the rabbit might jump in front of the car, he began to slow down quickly… but wasn’t able to completely stop in time before the bunny did, in fact, jump in front of his car.  The main cringed as he heard the thud, terrified that this was probably the end of the bunny.  After getting out of his car, he was moved to tears when he saw the rabbit lying there motionless in front of his car – clearly dead.  Emotions built up during Holy Week as well as his grief over having witnessed the bunny’s demise overcame him and he began to sob against his car.  Then, as if out of a cloud, came a smartly dressed woman, in Easter bonnet with white gloves and all, approached the man as he continued crying against his car and she asked, “What has happened?  Why have you stopped and why are you crying so?”  He replied, pointing to the dead, motionless rabbit in front of his car, “I’ve killed this Easter bunny on my way to church.”  Without missing a beat, the woman beamed and said, “Fear not, honey. All will be well.  It’s Easter after all and I’ve seen what’s possible - I have just the thing for this.”  She reached into her purse and drew out a can which she proceeded to shake with glee before pointing it at the rabbit and spraying out all the contents.  Miraculously, the rabbit jumped up from the pavement and began hopping about.  As it hopped a few steps, it turned around and waved its little foot at the alarmed man and the woman smiling beneath her bonnet.  It hopped a few more feet and turned around again and waved at them again.  As the rabbit hopped to the top of a nearby hill, it turned and waved a third time before hopping safely to the other side.  Amazed, and slightly scared, the man looked at the smartly dressed woman and asked, “What just happened?  What’s that you have there?”  The woman smiled a confident grin and responded, “Come and see – this does just what it says it does.”  The man read what she had in her hand, “Hairspray: Guaranteed to revitalize your hair and ensure a permanent wave.”  

Sappy as it is on one level, this tale actually presents some important elements to ponder on this Easter season.  Consider this morning where you are in this tale of the resurrected hare… or, if you dare, where you are with resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Like the women in our Gospel lesson this morning, or the man in this joke, it’s understandable if some of us are so awe struck or afraid that we’re not yet able to speak. 

It’s one thing for us to ponder life after death in the abstract when we have the leisure to do so.  But to face resurrection from the dead?  For anyone here who has experienced the death of a loved one, imagine what it would be like to return to where the body should be to offer one final act of loving remembrance, only to find the body gone and a radiant being telling you that it has been raised and that your loved one is now traveling ahead of you to share the good news of this resurrection. 

To be absolutely clear, amid all the beauty, flowers, and music this morning we’re not celebrating a church teaching or the moral instructions of a parable… we’re standing in glorious awe, perhaps with a bit of holy fear, at the power of God and the triumph of God’s love over death.  As one commentator put it, Jesus “did not give us ‘Seven Keys to Spiritual Riches’ or ‘Ten Laws for a Successful Life’ or any other simplistic teaching. Jesus came ‘to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us’ to God. He came to offer himself, ‘a perfect sacrifice for the whole world.’”  (The Rev. Canon Frank Logue, Canon to the Ordinary for the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia)

And through the next fifty days of this Easter season, the Spirit calls us to consider the implications of this resurrected love in our own lives today.

Many of us, and I count clergy in this too, have become expert in saying lots of things about our church with almost smug confidence – this is what we say here, this is what we put over there, this is when we’re supposed to kneel, this is when it’s appropriate to join in that sacrament, this is how it works, etc..  But how many of us have really become confident in speaking clearly about our belief in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, our Christian faith, and why this is good news to those who haven’t heard it?

Back to the seeming joke…. an unreasonably happy person, in the midst of your despair, has shown you the reality of something that revitalizes even what was thought dead.  Would you rush in here and share that good news with all of us with conviction and confidence?  Perhaps some of you would – praise be to God.  I suspect that some of you, however, like me, would arrive here still a little amazed at what you had just witnessed and a little terrified to tell anyone what you have seen for fear of judgment or ridicule.

And there it is… the crux of our Easter opportunity and challenge.  Once we’ve absorbed the awe and wonder of this moment, we should gather with friends to share the story and then, as God’s messenger told them / tells us, “go, tell” the whole world.

What the woman in the bonnet is carrying with her is the good news we are called to share with the world – God’s grace is guaranteed revitalization and God’s love is a permanent promise… that death can not kill.

Although portion of the Gospel we heard this morning (Mark 16:1-8) ends with the women fleeing in terror and amazement and saying nothing to anyone, we know that they eventually did tell people what they had seen… just as Peter tells Cornelius and others what he has seen and just has Paul later tells many, including those in Corinth, what he has seen – they’ve encountered the risen Christ in their lives, have been transformed through this experience, and are compelled with love to share this good news of hope, forgiveness, and salvation with love to others.

Let’s sit with this a moment.  Had the resurrection never happened, the women and others would have grieved the loss of their mentor and friend as well as some of their hopes and dreams about redemption and restoration with God... and the intensity of their grief would have eventually faded with time and focus on other things.  Perhaps some of them would have secretly been relieved that the controversy of his message and demands of their discipleship would now be relaxed and perhaps forgotten by those who were so disturbed.  


But… Jesus was resurrected.  Jesus lives!  His message is true and we can never deny or ignore his teachings and commands of us.  


Indeed this is exciting and worth celebrating this morning!  …and, if we take this to heart in our own lives, it can be terrifying as well, as we dare to go around proclaiming that resurrected life is possible, particularly as we approach people who are still in the grips of despair.  And yet, that’s precisely what a Lord did and what we’re called to do.

A quick reminder about the season we’ve now entered before we proceed.  Easter is not just a day – it’s an entire season of our church year which lasts fifty days.  You see here the lighted Paschal candle.  Had we shared the Great Vigil experience together last night, we would all have been reminded what is represents – light coming back into the world to guide us from bondage to freedom.  Symbolic of the great pillar of cloud and fire that guided the Israelites in their exodus journey, it also represents for us the light of Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit.  It will remain burning throughout our Easter season, all the way through the Pentecost when we’ll celebrate the Holy Spirit being given to us as a gift.  You’ll see this candle come out again for baptisms and funeral masses to be a visual reminder of the promise of life from death.  Over these next fifty days, each time you see this flame, be reminded that in Christ we are guaranteed revitalization and that God’s love is a permanent promise… death cannot kill what never dies.

Living Lord, whose love displaced the gravity of stone; you entrusted women, who loved you beyond death, with news of the resurrection: we praise you for the open gospel which ends where Easter faith begins.  Accept our fear, our disbelief and take us into this new world led by the risen Son, granting us the wisdom and confidence to speak through our own amazement so that others who need to hear the good news can be resurrected with us, through Jesus Christ, the firstborn of the [formerly] dead. Amen.  Alleluia! (adapted from a prayer by Steven Shakespeare in Prayers for an Inclusive Church. Church Publishing: New York)