Easter Sermon 2013

Sermon:

Text: Luke 24:1-12

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who is Risen, Alleluia! Now what?

            Ever since I wrote my newsletter article at the end of last month I’ve been intrigued by the line at the start of our Easter Gospel for today. “On the first day of the week, at Early Dawn, they came to the tomb.”

            When Mary, Joanna, and another Mary come to the tomb seeking to finish their treatment of Jesus’ body it is dark. They look into a dark tomb, and expecting to see a body there, find nothing. Dark seems to be a good way to explain what is going on here, we often say that when someone’s confused they have a clouded mind, or a darken mind. We can’t really make out things for what they are when it’s dark. We see things that aren’t there, and don’t see things that are.

            When the three women step back out of the empty tomb they are perplexed at what’s going on. I love the word perplexed. It’s fun to say for one, but I think it also describes us, we are perplexed why the women are perplexed. Jesus is Risen! Come on! Get excited! We’ve heard this story, and been taught it, and have taught it so many times that it’s perplexing to us to understand what is going through those women’s minds.

            To them though, people do not raise from the dead. Despite what they heard Jesus say, it was too foreign for them to comprehend what is going on at that moment. And so they stand there perplexed trying to figure out what is going on. The angels show up and remind them of what Jesus had told them, and they realize that Jesus has not been taken, but has truly been raised, so they run back to the disciples and tell them this great news. Jesus is Risen! Alleluia! And they don’t get it either. They think it an idle tale, something that a grief stricken person would make up. It must have been too dark to see in the Tomb.

            Peter decides it’s worth looking at and runs to the tomb himself, looks in and believes. He returns amazed as well.

            Christ is Risen! Now what?

            The women and the disciples find themselves just as perplexed as before. Christ is risen, death destroyed, it was dark, now light has come, we have been brought to life through Christ. How do we live into that?

            What does it mean to be the people of a resurrected Lord? What does it mean to be the people of not the old, but of this new creation in Christ’s resurrection?

            God calls us to act in the world as Christ acted in the world. To reach out to the downtrodden, to lift up the poor, the heal the hurt, to comfort the grieving. But, to do so in the mindset of the one who always makes new. The one who brings not darkness, but light, not condemnation, but love.

            Christ in his resurrection pulls us to himself, tells us he’s never going to give us up, and shoves us into the world to spread that message.

            We spread the message that Christ is the Lord of Life. And he gives that life to the world. The life that heals relationships. The life that consoles those who grieve, telling us of his never ending promise that death has been destroyed. The life that walks in the places that darkness dwells and brings light.

            We go out and share that life through our life. We share who Christ is by living into Christ.

            The now what of Christ’s resurrection is that we can live into Christ because whether we succeed or not Christ never lets us down. We need not fear the death of failure. We can live into Christ’ resurrection promise assured that Christ holds our life. The darkness will not prevail, because light has won.

            We do not need to fear death because we have been brought to life.

            Yet we do fear. We are called to bring light into darkness. But, much too often, we are the ones trapped in that darkness. We cannot see into the tomb because darkness surrounds.

            The reason I love that line at the beginning of the Gospel is because it gives us such hope. The Easter resurrection moment is in that darkness. Where the Resurrected Christ meets us is not here this morning in this sanctuary full of light, life, and joy, but in those dark moments when we feel trapped.

            Later in Luke Christ meets the disciples not out in the bright temple grounds as they preach, but in a upper room where they have locked themselves. In John Christ meets Mary not as she sings praises of Christ’s resurrection, but as she frantically searches for his body. Grief causing her to see him as a gardener.

            This Easter moment causes us to ask Now What? Christ has been resurrected, how do we live into that? And it’s in that moment when we feel the anxiety from that question building that Christ meets us.

            It’s in the very darkness that Christ sends us to that he meets us. Christ is not in the dark, empty tomb, and yet he is. The tomb is empty, and yet it is filled. The world is so big, yet Christ is there.

            Darkness surrounds, and yet light has won.