April 8, 2012
“Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!”
Today we gather for one joyful purpose, and one purpose only. Today we gather to celebrate, to remember, and to participate in resurrection!
This week, we have been talking about how we as a church gather to do the work of holy remembering. Holy remembering is so much more than an act of cognition or recall. Holy remembering is what we do together, infused by the Holy Spirit, so that in the telling of the stories of God’s love for God’s people, we are participating, in some mysterious way, in that story, and God is making present the power of those moments in the past.
So today, our joy is to remember, to participate in, to celebrate the resurrection!
How might we remember and celebrate the resurrection this day and every day?
First, let us remember and celebrate that once again, God’s love is afoot in the world! I love the way that John tells the story of the resurrection! There’s so much running around, so much urgency. Mary Magdalene finds the tomb empty, and she runs to tell the disciples, and then after the disciples race to the tomb, it is empty, they look around, and they just kind of wander off, leaving Mary Magdalene there alone weeping. And then, suddenly, Jesus is there, but she doesn’t recognize him. It’s almost like God is playing hide and seek with all of them; there are glimpses of the resurrection every where they look, glimpses of God’s love afoot in the world, but they do not understand it, they do not recognize it. How often is that true for us as well? Remember and celebrate that once again, God’s love is afoot in the world! Remember and celebrate resurrection!
Second, let us remember and celebrate the surprise, the shock of hearing him call you by name and recognizing him as the risen Lord! It is always so. When God acts, we are told again and again, “Do not be afraid!”, but still, we can’t help that shocked gasp of air that we suck in when we hear Jesus call our names and recognize him as the Risen Lord. Dead bodies do not get resurrected in our world, and yet, we meet him, face to face, again and again and again. And it’s always a surprise, isn’t it? No matter how many times we hear the story, when we encounter resurrection and the risen Lord, it is always a surprise. And then, when God acts, we have to reorient our assumptions, our priorities, our expectations. Remember and celebrate the surprise of God’s actions. Remember and celebrate resurrection!
Third, let us remember and celebrate that we are called to be witnesses. In the reading from Acts, Peter is talking about the joyful compulsion that he and the other disciples feel to talk about the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ. He makes a connection between those who witnessed the life and death, those who follow Jesus on his way and witnessing the resurrection. It’s too good not to share, and Peter and the others seem to be overflowing fit to burst with the good news.
I had an experience this week with strangers who witnessed to me of the good news of the resurrection. I got an email addressed to all of us that reads: “Dear Melanie and all -
We're thinking of you today. We're thinking of you and remembering a journey six years ago when we came upon the shell of St. Peter's by the Sea in Holy Week, 2006. We had landed in New Orleans to help our "assigned" congregation, St. Paul's Parish and School in the Lakeview neighborhood. We took a couple of days away to volunteer at Camp Coast Care, then drove further east to Gulfport. And then we found you and the amazing little tomb. We wept tears for you and yours that day. We're sure it's a feeling you know too well. Now we find we're weeping tears of joy to see your web site and the way you have restored that sacred, holy space which God has entrusted to your stewardship. And in doing that we're sure you have found restoration of spirit, mind and body as well. May it ever be so. …I often tell people that seeing [that] tiny, powerful expression of resurrection amidst the wreckage was the moment that Christian hope began to take shape for me. Blessings and joy to you this Easter. With love and gratitude Paul Peck and Mindy Chambers, Olympia, WA (in the Diocese of Olympia - the Episcopal Church in Western Washington State).”
What an amazing testament to the power of the risen Christ, that you could be a sign of hope to these folks in your darkest hour; and that they remember it years later, and can help us remember it too! Remember and celebrate that you, too, are witnesses to the resurrection. Remember and celebrate the resurrection!
Finally, let us remember and celebrate the new creation of which we are a part through the resurrection! The Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright says that “Our calling in the light of Easter is that we are to be advanced foretastes of the new creation begun with the resurrection. [The resurrection] is not just for us. We are not only beneficiaries of that new creation, but we are conduits of it—people through whom [resurrection and the new creation] happen. Remember, participate in and celebrate God’s new creation. Remember and celebrate the resurrection.
In closing I leave you with a quote that a friend of mine shared several weeks ago. [It is by Br. James Koester, and] it is about remembering, participating in, and celebrating resurrection every day in your own lives.
“Wherever in your life is victory, there is resurrection. Wherever in your life there is joy, there is resurrection. Wherever in your life is wonder, there is resurrection. Wherever in your life is resurrection there is Christ calling you to follow him out of death into his larger more glorious life.”
May you go forth into the world this day, and every day and may you remember, participate in, and celebrate resurrection as witnesses to the power of God’s love that is afoot in the world!
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