Easter Sunday 2019

Pastor Scott

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INTRODUCTION

Lately, i’ve done many hospital visits. Seen many that have been in extreme pain and sorrow. Some feel hopeless while others seems optimistic. I’ve also done my first funeral service. It was for someone I didn’t know. I had the funeral home call me and say that they had a family here who has requested for the pastor from the Nazarene Church to do the service. That Billy met with the pastor and they had it all planned out. I told the funeral director that they were probably talking about the pastor before me, because I haven’t made arrangements or talked to someone of how they wanted their funeral service to go. I told them that I’d still be willing to do the service. So the next day I met with the family. The wife and the kids told me about Billy, how he was a good father and a good husband.

Then the next day was the funeral service where many tears where shed for his death and many people rejoiced over his life. Afterwards, I went in the funeral director’s office to grab my coat and my bag. I told the funeral director that if any families coming in who need a minister can give me a call and I gave him my business card.

The funeral director said “Mr. Rowe, we already have your card on file” and he then showed it to me, and there it was. My contact information with our churches logo and my name on it.

My mind then flashed me back a couple years ago, to a man who stopped by the church when I was outside changing the sign. He talked to me and told me he had cancer and didn’t have much time to live and that his family was telling him he should get back into church. I remember praying for him, and giving him my business card,never to see him again, that is, until his funeral.

I remember waking up the next morning and calling my mom. The only thing wrong with that is, my mom has been dead for two years. For a split second, I just forgot.

Death has been explained many different ways, and all of these ways seem to leave me wanting. It feels disordered and wrong. I’ve heard grief described as waves, as if the grief of a loss will overwhelm one moment but feel nearly absent in the next. Grief is an unexplainable pain, and death is a loss beyond all other losses.

And Mary felt all of that. The loss of a friend, a teacher, and a guide. The grief that would come to any of us at the loss of a friend, yet sometimes we feel the loss of hope as well. Mary thought He was the Messiah, the one who would rise up to free them from their oppressors, from poverty, from hardship. She thought he might save her too—a powerful hope for a woman in a world that looked down on women, a world that years and cultures later would often still seek to discredit her.

Her grief was so great that she traveled to the tomb alone, John says. And while other Gospel accounts say there were others with her, they are always still just women. She was going to the tomb at a time that would have been dangerous for the followers of Jesus.

But Mary still went. Maybe she thought they would discredit her due to her gender, or maybe her grief compelled her, or maybe this illustrates how bold and brave she is, that she was going to show up, no matter what that meant for her. But she is there that Sunday morning. Tears in her eyes, grief in her heart—when she witnesses the miracle of all miracles.

2 APRIL 21, 2019EASTER SUNDAY

BODY

1. JESUS SHOWS UP, BUT MARY DOESN’T RECOGNIZE HIM.

a. Mary believes him to be a gardener.

i. John is illustrating a theological truth here—that what first happened in a garden (sin entering the world) was being conquered in a garden, through resurrection.

ii. Jesus is a gardener of sorts, causing life to grow where there was once death.

iii. It makes sense that she doesn’t recognize him because why would she expect to see someone alive whom she has just seen die?

iv. She’s in a garden, so it would make sense for her to believe him to be a gardener.

b. While there is theological truth and depth to John writing about gardens and gardeners, Mary wouldn’t have been making those deep theological connections.

i. She would just know that her friend had died and that she missed him.

ii. She would have been sitting in deep grief, not just at the loss of a friend but also at the loss of the hope of him being the one to free her and her people.

iii. She is crying out of deep pain, and as anyone with deep pain knows, it is hard to focus on anything but the pain of that moment.

1. There have been studies done on the effect of grief on people, and brains shut down to their very basic functions when faced with such extreme emotions.

2. Unnecessary tasks are nearly impossible to do, and it is easy to forget simple things due to the impact of grief on the brain.

3. This impact on brain function also accounts for her inability to recognize Jesus because she is operating in survival mode.

iv. Her one source of hope comes from her ability to honor his body for his burial, and her grief would be magnfied by losing that ability.

1. She doesn’t care about anything in this moment except knowing where the body of Jesus is.

2. MARY RECOGNIZES JESUS WHEN HE SPEAKS HER NAME.

a. When her name is spoken there is a powerful moment of recognition.

i. Being named by Jesus has power.

ii. Jesus sees her, knows her, and calls out to her. She is not just another person grieving; she is his disciple whom he loves.

b. It is out of her naming and recognition of Jesus that she is told to go.

i. She is now given the name of evangelist as Jesus tells her to tell the others.

ii. She is given a task that wouldn’t have been given to women because their testimony lacked credibility.

iii. She is no longer just Mary; now she is Mary who has seen the risen Christ, Mary the evangelist.

3. JESUS SENDING MARY COMMUNICATES TO US THAT THE RESURRECTION IS SOMETHING TO BE SHARED.

a. We are called to be a resurrection community.

i. We, like Mary and the disciples, are called out of sin and death.

ii. We live in hopeful expectation that, just as Christ was raised, we too will be raised.

iii. With that hope, and in that hope, we go like Mary to share the news of the risen Christ and the hope of resurrection life with the world.

b. We find the dead places of the world and breathe resurrection into them.

i. We join the Holy Spirit in the work of sowing seeds of resurrection.

ii. We walk boldly, despite the dangers that might exist, to share with those who haven’t heard yet.

iii. We illuminate dark places with light.

iv. We find those who are locked in rooms in fear, like the disciples, and we share with them the news that they do not need to live in fear.

4. THE WAY TO RESURRECTION IS THROUGH DEATH

4. The way to resurrection is through death.

a. Living the resurrected life means walking the hard road to the cross.

i. This means laying down our greed, selfishness, pride, etc.

ii. This also might mean laying down our very lives for those around us.

iii. It means doing hard things and going to unexpected and hard places.

b. We go into the worst places of the world trusting the hope of resurrection.

i. The resurrection community does not fear the worst places but seeks to bring hope into them.

ii. The resurrection community finds the darkest and most dangerous places of the world to cast the light and life of resurrection.

iii. The resurrection community knows that in the power of the Spirit, they can do hard things.

5. THERE IS RESURRECTION FOR THE DEAD PLACES OF OUR HEARTS AND OF OUR WORLDS

THERE IS RESURRECTION FOR THE DEAD PLACES OF OUR HEARTS AND OF OUR WORLDS

a. There is resurrection in all circumstances.

i. For places embroiled in racism, sexism, and any form of hate, there is resurrection.

ii. For places consumed by poverty and hopelessness, there is hope in the resurrection.

iii. For places battling drought and disease, there is resurrection hope.

iv. For places overcome by violence, there is resurrection.

b. As the resurrection community, we are the ones who are called to go.

i. Even when it is hard and difficult.

ii. The gifts of the body multiply our work.

iii. We are not abandoned but are gifted by the Holy Spirit.

iv. We declare through our lives, our words,

and our actions that even the most forgotten places, even the worst places, can be redeemed.

6. OUR BAPTISM REMINDS US THAT WE ARE A PART OF THE RESURRECTION COMMUNITY

6. Our baptism reminds us that we are a part of the resurrection community.

a. Baptism is the initiating act into the community of resurrection.

b. The water illustrates cleansing but also being brought out of death and into life.

c. When we baptize others, we are welcoming them into this community to be people of the resurrection, but we also remember who we are, that we are people of the resurrection and a part of this community.

CONCLUSION

We are the community of the resurrection. Knowing Jesus was alive was not enough for Mary. She was sent to share the good news with the world. We remember and celebrate that Christ is risen this morning, but it is not enough for us to celebrate here in this space. We, like Mary, are told to go and tell the others. We are called to breathe resurrection, to live resurrection, to sing resurrection, to do the work of resurrection in the world, that the dead places might come to life and that we might see others join in this community of hope, the community of the resurrection.

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