Readings: Colossians 3:1-4, John 20:1-18
Let us pray: May your word both challenge and encourage,
stir and reassure in the name of the risen Christ. Amen.
So – is it true? Is it true that Jesus was raised from the
dead? Is it true that the one and only
surety on this earth, death, was somehow broken, made into something new.
Karl Barth says
this is what brings people to church week after week – they have this unspoken
question: Is it true – that God lives and gives us life?
These are powerful
questions – and they are particularly unavoidable on a day like today. You could say that Easter Sunday is not a day
for beginners, that you need to be a seasoned veteran, well versed in Jesus’
life and teachings, aware of his incredibly wise and compassionate humanity
before you begin to tackle these big and tricky questions like resurrection! A
day when you are asked to believe that which is hardest to believe.
And yet, isn’t it
interesting, that Easter Sunday is a day when people throughout the world make
a real effort to come to church, when we all want to hear the story again, to
participate in the hosannas and the alleluias, Christ is risen.
Even without the
rest of the story, the journey to Jerusalem, the pain and suffering, the
passion of the cross, there is still something compelling and powerful about
this day. Why is that?
When we look at
the first sermons of the church, as recorded in Acts, there is relatively
little reference to Jesus life before this event and it gives the impression
that the early church pretty much saw the life and teachings of Jesus as the
prologue only – a fairly full one but an introduction none the less. For them Easter Day was the beginning, not a
conclusion. All the rest of Jesus life
was seen from the vantage point of the cross, or more specifically the empty
cross. Jesus teachings take on meaning
only when we take into account who the teacher is, God’s chosen one who is to
die and be raised again.
You might say the
through the centuries Christians have begun their journeys of faith by running
to the empty tomb. Don’t forget that the
early Christians would have had just as much trouble as us with this story – they
would have realised the enormous leap of faith needed to believe that this
‘thing’ could happen. Yes there was
plenty in this happening to doubt. But
there is another way to put it, and I use Martin Copenhaver’s[1]
words here:
“that there was
something in the story that reached the deepest regions of their hearts and
minds, where both doubt and faith are found.
That is, in the resurrection God gave us such a miracle of love and
forgiveness that it is worthy of faith and therefore open to doubt. The very doubts we might hold attest to the
scale and power of what we proclaim. So
the place to begin in the life of faith is not necessarily with those things we
never doubt. Realities about which we
hold no doubt may not be large enough to reveal God to us..... what we proclaim
at Easter is too mighty to be encompassed by certainty, too wonderful to be
found only within the borders of our own imaginations.”
Easter then might
just be the place for beginners after all.
The place to experience the profound mystery and the ‘greater than we
can imagine’ God, the place where the stakes are outrageous, where we risk
faith to find a larger faith. That this
is the one time where we don’t seem to be able to create God in our own image,
or box up teachings to suit ourselves.
This day, this experience of the risen Christ, shatters all our
preconceived notions of living and dying,
and invites us into a way of life where, yes, the risks are great, the
doubts are present, the way uncertain but where the promise of the empty tomb
is so great that we cannot help ourselves running towards it.
And as we gather
round the table with Christ in our midst today may this promise of new life be
deepened and our hopes be lifted up in the very mystery of the risen Christ
among us. Amen
Margaret Garland
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