No one expects the Resurrection! Easter Day 2013

The Day of Resurrection: Easter Day March 31, 2013 “No one expects…the resurrection!” The chief characteristics of all four gospel accounts are fear and surprise….surprise and fear. In Luke’s gospel which we just heard, we see the women discovering the gaping-open, empty tomb, and they are surprised, afraid, confused. Then two men in dazzling clothes appear to them and ask them a question that echoes through the ages: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” The men say to them, “Remember how he told you…” And only then do the women remember, and they go back and tell the apostles what has happened. But the men are also stunned, because “no one expects the resurrection.” And the men think that the women are actually delirious, except for Peter, who wants to go see it for himself. No one expects the resurrection! No matter how many times Jesus predicted his death and his resurrection, none of them was prepared for it to really happen. The women are reminded by the two dazzling strangers, and in that remembering, they are struck by revelation—something beyond reason, or proof or knowing or understanding. No one expects the resurrection! It’s why we are gathered here today. Because no matter how many times we hear the story, no matter how many times we say the Nicene Creed—that we believe that on the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures--we do not expect the resurrection when it shows up in our very own lives. We are gathered here today because so often we too look for the living among the dead. Because we cannot remember the truth of the story on our own. We need each other to bear witness to the resurrection in our lives. No one expects the resurrection! It is why we gather Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. Why we have formation offerings and church suppers. It is why we have coffee hour and Vacation Bible School. It is why we baptize and marry and bury people. It is why we break bread together at God’s table. So that we may remember and so that we may bear witness to the resurrection in each others lives; so that others may help us see and find and uncover resurrection where we least expect it! No one expects the resurrection! Not even I, who am called to preach it and proclaim it regularly. This place and all of you have revealed to me so much about resurrection. It is a part of our DNA here; I have said before that we are truly a resurrection community, an outward and visible sign of resurrection, this church having been rebuilt from the ruins of death and destruction. We are a place where people are finding a spiritual home where they have never been able to anywhere else; a community that truly tries to accept people for whoever they are when they show up here. I think of all the times in the life of this parish when I see love transform people. Those are revelations of resurrection. I think of all the little deaths I have witnessed in your lives—how you get stuck looking for the living among the dead—and how in one profound moment or in a thousand regular moments resurrection is revealed and new life is uncovered. I think of the people with whom I have walked toward death, and even here you have shown me glimpses of resurrection: A glimpse of resurrection from Martha who asked me how she would know when it was time to die, who listened to me and believed me when I told her that she would know, and who then proceeded to tell her family exactly when she was ready. I certainly didn’t expect it, and yet here I have seen resurrection. A glimpse of resurrection from David who is dying even as he has lived, with a gentle humor, steadfastness, faithfulness, and living out a deep and profound love for his family. I wouldn’t have expected to see it there, and yet even here I have seen resurrection. And a glimpse of resurrection from Kit, who told me as he was dying that he was ready for the next great adventure, and who also told me mischievously that he would try to send me a message from the other side to let me know what it is like. And then a couple of weeks after his funeral, I dreamt of him, and he was more joy-filled than I had ever seen him. I certainly didn’t’ expect it, and it was, for me, a profound gift and revelation of resurrection! No one expects the resurrection! And yet it is the risen Christ, wild and free and at work in our lives and in the world, both in the midst of life and in the midst of death. It is our call to bear witness to it in and through and for each other. No one expects the resurrection… Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!