A great day of worship. the music was terrific. Almost back to pre-covid numbers worshipping in-person. On the one hand, not hard to find the theme for Easter Sunday (can I hear you say, "Christ is Risen! he is Risen indeed!). On the other hand, how do you speak of God's act of resurrection, which in so many ways defies any explanation we can offer?
“Transitions: From Death to Life”; John 20: 1-18; SAPC, Denton; April 17, 2022; Easter; Richard B. Culp
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to their homes.
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look[a] into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew,[b] “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
Introduction: As many of you know, we have spent Lent reflecting on transitions in the biblical text and transition in our own lives.
The empty tomb points to the greatest transition in the biblical text and in all of history.
Empty tomb points is about more than a transition,
The empty tombs announces a radical disruption of human history.
How do we characterize what God has done?
The Reformed theologian Karl Barth liked to say that “God has spoken.”
in the empty tomb God speaks
God speaks about our hope.
God speaks about the Ukraine
God speaks about the power to resurrect.
God speaks about brokenness.
God speaks about new life.
God speaks about divisiveness.
Listen to what God says:
move 1: God speaks: “in the darkness, you will find me and my power to resurrect.”
a. In the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene comes to the bomb, “while it was still dark.”
1. In the Gospel of Matthew, the day is “dawning” as the two Mary’s arrive.
2. In Luke, the women arrive “at dawn.”
3. In Mark, the women arrive at the tomb “when the sun had risen.”
4. But in John, Easter begins in darkness.
No glimmer of light.
No glimpse of hope shining through the darkness.
Just darkness.
All the hope,
all the power,
all the promise of Jesus that had died on the cross, and it is still hidden in the darkness of the morning as Mary arrives.
But in the darkness, Mary finds the stone has been removed.
The darkness of the world cannot thwart the God of resurrection.
b. During seminary, I spent some time at the Presbyterian church in Sun City, AZ (one of the first older adult communities in the country). I got to spend some time with the founding pastor (Davis Illingsworth). he told me stories about the church.
His favorite memory was the first Easter, They met in a movie theater because they did not have a sanctuary. Good Friday, they finished in the darkened theater. No light leaking in from the windows. Total dark.
Easter morning, the theater was still in darkness. People made their way to the seats.
“I can’t see the lillies” “Did someone forget to turn on the lights.”
the sat in uncomfortable darkness. then, the minister announced, “Christ is Risen!” and all the lights came on.
“Now that was an Easter service,” he told me.
b. You may remember in 2019 the fire that severely damaged the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.
1. happened on a Monday.
2. not just a Monday, but the Monday of Holy Week.
3. It seemed an affront to Holy Week.
4. how could this tragic event take place with Easter about to arrive?
3. But David Davis notes, “the truth is that fire, destruction, and devastation happen somewhere, someplace, pretty much Every Monday. Every Monday there are folks whose lives are turned upside down, who world is rocked, who are standing knee deep in ashes far way from any Easter morning trumpet blast.” (Journal for Preachers, Vol XLV, Number 3, Easter 2022, David A. Davis, “Easter Preaching in Secular America,” 7).
4. We arrive at the tomb knowing the darkness of the world.
5. A war and humanitarian crisis continue in Ukraine,
but the tomb is empty.
6. Your loved one is near death,
but the tomb is empty.
7. Your relationship is broken,
but the tomb is empty.
8. You next step in life seems scary,
but the tomb is empty.
9. You are desperately seeking something more,
the tomb is empty.
God has spoken - in the darkness, you will discover my power to resurrect.
Move 2: We also hear God say, “you cannot hang on to the past.”
a. Mary’s immediate response to discovering th Risen christ standing next to her was to cling to him.
1. Understandable - he is the one she had been following
he was the one whose teachings had made sense to her
he was the one who had performed miracles before her very eyes.
2. she wants to grab hold of him and hang on for dear life.
Never let him go.
3. she remembers who he was and wants to go back.
back to what she knows.
back to when life seemed safe.
b. But the world has changed.
2. Jesus has been raised from the dead.
3. she cannot hold Jesus and stop what God is doing in the world.
4. She has to let go of the resurrected one and follow him into the world doing with God’s power to resurrect.
b. Sometimes we hang on to the past.
1. We cling to what we know.
2. Sometimes even the dissatisfaction of what we know seems better than the unknown.
3. But did you notice that when the prophet Isaiah shares the vision for that God is going to “create new heavens and a new earth;”
God immediately announces: “the former things shall not be remembered”
the past is the way of the cross; the future is the way of resurrection.
the Risen Christ says to Mary, “let go.”
and then “Let’s go” into that future the God of resurrection has for you.
Move 3: From the empty tomb, we also hear God say, “You are called to live resurrection.“
a. God has shown the power to do a new things throughout the history of God’s people.
1. God again and again does a new thing.
2. We hear the prophet Isaiah this morning describing how God was going to do a new thing.
3. the wolf and lamb feed together. Really?
3. Jesus standing before Mary at the empty tomb might be God’s greatest new thing, but not God’s last new thing.
b. Jesus sends Mary to tell the others about what she has seen here at the empty tomb.
1. It is the clarion call to join with him in what is yet to be done.
2. Our call to participate in resurrection in our world.
c. The empty tomb gives us the tool by which to examine our actions - do the words we speak, do the actions we take, reveal the God of resurrection?
1. Are we giving hope to people?
Or, are we holding people back?
2. Are we freeing people to do a new thing?
Or, are we binding them and keeping them down?
3. Do we act in ways that reveal God’s desire to give new life and do a new thing?
or, are we dragging people down with the past
4. Are we living into resurrection power?
or, perpetuating the ways of earthly power that lead oppress and suck the life out of people?
5. One Great hour of Sharing - those fish;
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
Hunger Program
Self-Development of People.
6. no mistake - the special offering we collect on Easter goes to provide support in crises in the world;
goes to feed the hungry;
goes to help people transform their lives.
7. . Brian Blount, president of Union-Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, VA calls us to “Live resurrection in the present like you are certain resurrection is coming in the future. Fight the resurrection fight.” (Journal for Preachers, Vol XLV, Number 3, Easter 2022, David A. Davis, “Easter Preaching in Secular America,” 7).
As we leave the empty tomb and go into the world, a world that desperately needs to be transformed, we are called to be people of the resurrection.
Conclusion: The resurrected Christ called Mary by name.
The God of resurrection disrupts the world, but also knows you by name.
God speaks. Are you listening?
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