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Scripture Readings: Isaiah 25:6-9 Matthew 28:1-10
In the middle ages, and across Europe, people were certainly moved out of their normal patterns of worship, and the church moved with them, and the plague followed them. Fortunately, for the most part, the Christian church is taking a more responsible approach this time, but not without significant loss. Certainly, there are congregations big and small feeling the same economic pinch as our members who have lost jobs and businesses that have closed.
Yet there is something else that we lament, and that is the loss of the physical experience of worshiping God in a place we love with people we love. We are missing the touchstone moments of honoring our loved ones with flowers, egg hunts, children in special outfits, and all the cultural things that have become a part of our faithful attempts to proclaim the resurrection of Christ.
More than that, we are missing out on the opportunity to experience the drama and pageantry of the passion of Christ in a place that we have also experienced the love of the Risen Christ! Whether you embrace the story in all its gory glory or simply struggle with the seemingly impossible claim of the resurrection, the drama of Easter is the touchstone event for all who follow the way of Jesus.
Celebrating the resurrection of Jesus together matters to us because it gives us hope. It affirms our belief in God’s grace and gives us a sense of agency and purpose. We need that. While I’d like to say that we need it now more than ever, I think the truth is that we are just more aware of it. We live in a time of fear balanced on a knife’s edge with hope, yet life is always fragile. Jobs are never permanent, and our ability to control all the variables is never as high as we like to think that it is.
Unfortunately, we often hang our identity a little too securely on the idea that we are in control. Times like these reveal that we are, in fact, more like the simple man pretending to be OZ behind a curtain. Of course, statements like these lead to questions like, “who is actually driving this boat” and “why can’t he/she/they see the iceberg we are heading toward?”
The reality is that it’s not that simple, but that does not mean that there is no one in charge – nor does it mean that we have no responsibility, nor does it mean that we have no reason to hope.
As people of the resurrection, we know that there is always a reason to hope. As people who affirm God’s word, spoken through the law and the prophets, we know that God is always active and present and working to bring order out of chaos.
The Prophet Isaiah spoke of God’s providence and described a great banquet where all are provided for and death is “swallowed up” by God’s appetite for love and compassionate care for those who weep. Trusting in the character of God, we know that it is God’s action that gives us purpose and meaning.
It was this kind of active trust that moved the three women to go to the tomb that first Easter morning. I can’t help but be awestruck by their faith. Jesus was publicly crucified and guarded by soldiers even after his death. They knew there was a stone over the entrance of his tomb. It’s like one of those horrible action films where the hero says, “I’ve got a plan...we improvise!” and then somehow it all works out.
Obviously, they were trusting in faith and hoping the guards would take pity on them. Regardless, the three women were there to observe their cultural burial rites. It wasn’t like they – or Jesus – could be a threat to the guards. Besides, the guards would probably be glad to be released from the stench of death, and the women were hoping to remove the shame of having died by hanging on a tree from the body of their beloved teacher.
All of this took place in a deserted, barren space to demonstrate that none of this happened without God’s agency. God is the one who made the choice that led to all of these choices. God is the original cause.
Then, in the midst of this pageant of need and loss and betrayal, God’s angel entered. BOOM! The angel was like a flash of lightning. The stone was moved. The soldiers were shaken, and they fell. The women...the women stood. Suddenly they were no longer part of the backdrop, and they stood in the spotlight. They stood like… well, like the strong women they were, girded by their love for Jesus.
They received the good news, and they went to share it. Now, it’s important to note that they were the ones who received the message because they were the ones who were there. They were there because they were willing to do the job no one else would do, and the main reason no one else would do it is that no one else was willing to be contaminated by the presence of death or the shame of sin.
Come to think of it, that sounds like every Nurse and Dr and Chaplain who are willing and able to work in our hospitals and clinics these days. I hope that you are praying for them because I certainly am.
Back to our story, though, the other thing to note about these women is that, because they were women, none of them would be considered a credible witness on their own. Legally and socially, one woman might be telling tales. Two could be conspiring, but when three women shared the same story it was considered to be truthful, and they knew it.
These three truth-tellers knew in their bones that they had received something divine, something important, something bigger than even they understood what it could be. Maybe that’s why they just kind of “ran into” Jesus.
The text just says that they were running to tell the other disciples when “suddenly Jesus met them.” I think that’s how God meets us sometimes. In our busy-ness and haste – even to do the right thing – sometimes God connects with us and we realize we need to stop shoving food in our mouths before saying, “thanks;” or lamenting over what we don’t have before giving thanks for what we do have; or asking God, “Why?” instead of listening to God who asks us, “Why not?”
The women knew what to do. They stopped. They gave thanks. They worshiped. Jesus encouraged them on their way. He affirmed the angel’s message. He said, “I’ll meet you there.”
Here I am reminded of the portion of the blessing attributed to the shield of St Patrick, which includes the words: Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me. While these words are often invoked as a blessing, they were written as more of a statement of belief.
In the belief that were are held and hemmed – before, behind, within, above, and under – by the very one we seek, we also find our own agency. Our true ability, and responsibility, as actors on the stage of creation, rest in our response to the grace and mercy of God, and that is why we proclaim, “He is risen! He is risen indeed.”
I have to say, though, there are a lot of people out there right now who hear “He is risen!” and they respond to it with “So, what?” In fact, I think that there are times when God looks at the church and says, “So, what? Is that, like a bumper sticker, or does it mean something to you?”
Of course, God knows our hearts and the words upon our lips before we say them. God knows when our faith is real and transforming us and when we are just coasting on the coattails of grace, and God continues to reveal God’s self through those who work to remove the fear of death and the shame of sin.
Sometimes that looks like a person sewing masks to protect the vulnerable. Sometimes it’s a healthcare worker risking her own health for the sake of others. Sometimes it’s a child at home who reaches out to a friend or a grandparent online to be sure that they are okay. Sometimes it’s a whole congregation, giving up their most sacred spaces and activities in order to protect the vulnerable.
This Easter is certainly unlike any we’ve experienced, for our sanctuaries have all become empty, barren spaces in order that God may meet us on the way. The answer to the question of the resurrection, the question asked by God and by those who doubt, has been answered today by the emptiness of the sanctuary and the faith of three women.
Christ is risen so that we may have hope! Christ is risen to encourage us to know that God is active and present! Christ is risen so that we know that our identity is not defined by what we try to control so much as it rests in the opportunity to respond to what God has done. What has God done?
God has removed our shame. God has restored our trust. God has placed us in spaces where we can proclaim grace and mercy and forgiveness. Today is the day to stop and praise God for what God has done. It’s also the day to be encouraged to go and share the good news of what God has done, but don’t worry. God will meet you there, too.
As the Prophet said long ago, “This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in God’s salvation.” Amen.
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