April 8, 2007 Sermon
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Easter 2007 – C
April 8, 2007 Allan Conkling
Like all of you, I listened to the news and watched the weather forecast these last few days scarcely believing what it was saying. Snow on Easter? Muttering not very nice things, I moved the plants into the garage Friday, and yesterday morning turned on the heater downstairs. Talk about change! Who can believe it? But what a great segue into the day, for that is exactly what the people said that first Easter morning!
Every time I read this passage from the Gospel of Luke on Easter I have to say that I wish that it would have continued just one verse longer. How much more real it would have seemed. According to Luke, the women ran to tell the disciples that they had just seen a vision of angels…and their words were met with disbelief. Verse 11 says, “But these words seemed to them as an idle tale. The Greek word is “leros,” from which we get the word, delirious, delirium. This was the wild talk of a person who was out of their head. “They did not believe them.” Of Course they didn’t! Snow in April? An empty grave? Visions of angels? Indeed, who can believe it?
Lutheran theologian Vitor Westhelle, in his book, writes:
"[T]hey went to the tomb early morning the next day, to find their own emptiness replaced by the emptiness of the tomb in which they expected to find presence--a dead presence, yet a presence. Instead, there was the absence of an absence. In that labor of mourning and love, the absence…was redoubled in the absence of a corpse in that tomb. Not even a corpse was there to fill the emptiness.” But, as Westhelle goes on to say, “In that absence of absences the messianic presence was uttered: 'Go to meet him in Galilee.'"
Suffice it to say that nothing in all of Hebrew Scriptures and teachings could have prepared the early followers for what occurred that first Easter. It was truly unbelievable. If this gospel were true it would mean new life and new hope in the future. It would mean that Christ is more powerful than the Temple, Pontius Pilate, the Roman Empire, Caiaphas, King Herod, the soldiers, or anyone else who had hated him. It means that He is more powerful than any enemy or any fear that we can have. It means that he really is here, present now…and death no longer has the final word. Love is more powerful than hate. Good is more powerful than bad. The stone was rolled away—new life has begun.
On the other hand there is nothing which seems more difficult to understand, or get our minds around, than Easter Sunday. The fundamental question it raises is not just “How did it happen?” but “What does it mean?” Moreover, as we go forth from this place, even as we proclaim his resurrection and new life—for us our life goes on as usual. War continues on in Iraq and genocide persists in Darfur. On Monday we will go back to work and school. Millions still face diagnoses of illnesses, disease without a miracle cure. Relationships with family and friends remain strained. Yes, we love the flowers and the music, and the brief time to forget our cares, but where, really, is the new life that the gospel promises us?
Easter Sunday is the day to proclaim that the Sabbath is over, and the time for action is here, no matter if things don't appear any different than they did the day before. True, the sorrowful Sabbaths will come again and again, the time to contemplate what Westhelle calls "a God who was apparently negligent in face of the terrible tragedy."
In the midst of the sorrow, just when they thought they were at the end of their rope and life could not go on, Jesus was there, as unbelievable as it sounds. Death, fear, despair, hopelessness, emptiness—these were conquered forever. The Christian witness is that the Lord has broken once and for all time the bonds of this life which enslave us. No longer was Christ limited by space and time; neither would the disciples be; and neither are we.
Their story is ours as well as we go forth from this place renewed in our trust in God, and committed to live our lives as Christians. We have been freed to live lift to its fullest, to love as Christ loved us, and to be all which God has created us to be. That’s the message of Easter. It is as simple and as unbelievably true as that.
This day is not just about bunnies, flowers and the coming of spring time-as this odd Texas weather shows! Troubles, like bad weather, will come again and again. But Easter promises us that very Sabbath is followed by the first day of the week, the first day of creation, the time to once more obey the call to be witnesses to the goodness of God. Alleluia, Christ is Risen.
Copyright © 2003 Emmanuel Episcopal Church. All rights reserved.
Revised: 04/17/07