Resurrection Day (Easter)

John 20:1–18 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. 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.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 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. 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.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 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.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 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.’ ” 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.

And from those first accounts, the story has been told. We are witnesses, all in the great time flow of God’s eternal current.

Being In the aftermath, the church reemerges and expands. It spreads through the Roman empire, slowly moving the yeast through flour and water. Through and across cultures, the witness to the life, death, and resurrection has been told. Passed. Shared. Adopted, believed, lived.

Across continents, oceans, and time, this story has been told and lived. The words of Mary, Peter, John… living witnesses, now living in us. We live to tell the story.

This is how resurrection happens – in us. We become the living witnesses of this ancient and yet living story.

Will you make this your story? This great story?

Of course, there are many other stories, myths, ideologies, religions, political cults, and emperors who would our compete for our allegiance to this story. This story with has and will be twisted for evil means, manipulated for short-term gains, erased in the fog of war, nationalism, or self-indulgence.

Will we make these our stories? Because they want us to.

But no, we defiantly persist in telling this story. This particular, first century Palestinian story, or born out of Empire’s occupation, contextual to fulfillment of the Hebrew story, a hope for all the nations and peoples of the earth.

We tell the story of Resurrection Day because… it is good news of great joy for all people.

But wait – don’t lots of stories promise to be the good word, the hot tip, the new thing, the right way. They promise greatness, dominance, fortune, security, power. And these stories devour their followers. In false certainty. In deception and distraction distraction. The stories of empire and greed do not die for us – they ask that we die for them. They ask us to reinforce the death machines of conflict, greed, destruction, and harm.

That is not the Easter story. Those are those are not stories of life. Christ’s story, living in us, is about hope for a future.

Mary, Peter, John – They could have easily fallen into the despair and nihilism of living the empire’s story. They could have scattered in their grief, never to return, abandoning Christ as he had seemed to abandon them. They could have run away to flirt with power, success, fortune and fame.

But that’s not who they were. And that’s not who we are.

We are a people who stay. A people who witness, a people who keep telling the great story – the story of God who goes to death for the sake you and me. The Crucified and Risen God, whose story echoes through to the depths of time and to the promise of a realized future of God’s peace, shalom.

I want to live in a story where God’s peace reigns. Not the cheap peace of empire, but the deep, deep peace of laying down our strife, putting away our weapons, and learning to abide in unity with all creation.

I want to live in a story where I find my home; where who I am is defined by how the Image of Christ lives and shines in me. Not a story where my unique person is somehow merged with the angry mob or the narcissistic strong man – No – I am living in the story of the God who becomes low that you and I might be lifted up with him, out of our grasping, out of our striving, simply to know we are beloved.

We are beloved.

You are beloved

By the Creator of all things.

The stone is rolled away. The Living Christ arrives to us all in resurrection glory. The story is far from over, it is only breaking in.

This is our story. Will you join in with this?

The stone is rolled away.

Death is defeated

The threats of empire no longer hold us in fear.

And now, this story lives in us. We are the witnesses. As Teresa of Avila reminds us – Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Will you be the body of God Christ? Will you partake and join the song of healing and hope that echoes out from this moment?

Join as we bear witness to this ancient, good story that speaks still to us today.

This is our Resurrection Day. We rise with Christ, in us, our hope of glory and light for the nations.

Praise be to Christ, whose life, death, and resurrection speak new life into our darkness. Praise to the Spirit, who hovers over us even now, enlivening our hearts to praise. And praise be to God our Creator, who was, and is, and is to come.

Amen. Amen. And Amen.