The day of resurrection! Earth, tell it out abroad; The Passover of gladness, the Passover of God. From death to life eternal, from earth unto the sky, our Christ hath brought us over, with hymns of victory.
The lyrics to this glorious Easter hymn were composed by St. John of Damascus, some time before 749 A.D. Easter has always been the most joyful of all the Church holy days, yes, even more so than Christmas, though that is where the story begins.
In the Fullness of Time, the Word was born among us as one of us – like us, that is, in all things but sin. Jesus came into the world as Light. How we love light, how we wish for sunny days, but the light of the Son of God was a different story. The world then, like the world now, preferred the darkness that it understood, to the Light that challenged it, that challenges us, to live in a different Way.
Who crucified Jesus? People full of fear, the arrogant ones in charge, they gave the order, and Jesus suffered for us. He died. He was buried. And those frightened people, those who held the power, or thought they did, pretty much believed they were done with that annoyance, that man, and His followers, and His teachings.
It wasn’t so much that Jesus was a bad guy. He just expected so much more from them than they were willing to give. The world then, like the world now, is not a safe place in which to be merciful or forgiving. It is not a safe place to love first, expecting nothing in return but the grace to have loved at all. The world is not a safe place to find one’s greatest hope and treasure in the One who created all and called it “good”.
The world expects us to settle for lesser goals, where temporal power and all that we can grasp are the coin of the realm. But - we know better. We can feel it our bones. We can sense it in a smile. We can see the promise in every new born child. We can sense the loss – the loss of something – someone special at every grave.
We were, we are, made for so much more than the grasping, the greed, the arrogance, the fear. We are, as the psalmist tells us, wonderfully made – and yet too often our lives, broken by sin – our own as well as those of others, are filled with tragedy. We don’t feel wonderful. Instead, we struggle as broken vessels, empty, failed, and alone.
That Jesus was also God did not mean that His humanity was any less complicated or less wonderfully made. Nor was Jesus’ life any less annoying, fragile, discouraging, or frightening than ours. In His humanity Jesus would die like us, and His body would lie in a tomb for three days, surrounded by the cold stone, utterly alone
It was for our sake, because we are broken vessels, that “Christ became obedient even unto death”. Following God is easy when things go well. Trust seems infinitely possible until the obstacles outnumber the successes. And then, when things are not so easy, our brokenness shows, and we rebel. Love came to us and asked that we love as He loves, and we frightened, arrogant, broken people, killed Him.
As Peter tells us in Acts, “You know what has happened …They killed Jesus by hanging Him on a cross, but God raised Him from the dead on the third day and caused Him to be seen.
And seeing Him started out as an unexpected experience on a heart-wrenching, seemingly miserable morning. Imagine going to the tomb of someone you love deeply, only to discover it has been desecrated – not just the tombstone overturned, as we see today, but the actual body of your loved one has been stolen.
And so, we come to the first miracle on what started out for Jesus’ followers as a terrible and dark day.
Mary Magdalene, carrying the vast pain of all creation in her heart, comes to the tomb of God, the graveside of all hope, and looks into - a void… and yet, she refuses to yield her love to that emptiness. She refuses, there, despite the death of Love itself, to give up the love she carries. She keeps that love alive in her broken heart. She loves, and so, on behalf of all of us, she comes to bear witness and to tend to God’s broken body when no one else is able or willing to do so. Why? Because she knows that bearing witness, and tending to what is broken, is what love looks like, both in life and in death.
And then, in this moment of miraculous tenderness and strength, she beholds a new miracle: What is loved is resurrected.
Welcome, happy morning! Age to age shall say: Hell, today is vanquished, Heav’n is won today! Lo! the dead is living, God forevermore! Him their true Creator, all His works adore.
He who is loved, who is Love, is resurrected. Christ lives. Love never dies.
And, as Mary discovered, what you choose to love in this world is touched by eternity, by the very act of loving. Every time you have gently kissed a soft cheek or held a calloused hand. Every time you have refused to break a bruised reed or trample a fragile spirit. Every time you have preserved the hope of the poor, or sought beauty, or made peace. Every time you have done these things; you have been part of the Love that lives forever. Love is God working through you.
I have risen and I am with you still.
We come today to announce that to all who will hear; to all who have heard and still wonder, and to all who hear and are afraid to believe. Christ is Risen!
All that keeps us from being – not as the world – but as God would have us be – has been left behind like emptied grave clothes. Christ is Risen!
Light has broken through the darkness – and this time, we have come to stand in the Light so the Light can shine through us. Christ is Risen!
He has laid His hands on us…and our story has a new beginning. Oh, it may not be easy. Like shining light into the corner of a well-used room…it’s a good room…but there is work to be done.
But we are here Lord. We are Your own. Now and until You come again.
Christ is Risen!!! The Lord is Risen, indeed!!! Alleluia!
Let us pray:
Dear Jesus, on this holy day, and in this season of renewal, we pray in thanksgiving for the many blessings You give us. May our words and deeds today, and always, serve as reminders of the power of Your love. Thank You, Jesus, for this Easter celebration and all the gifts You give us. Thank you for loving us. Amen