A Resurrection Stand for Life and Hope

John 20:1-18

Easter Sunday, Year A

This is the day. This is the day that God has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that for me is the day is essential to Christianity. This is Easter day. Resurrection Day. Years ago I was in discussion with a friend who wasn’t sure it mattered whether the resurrection really happened. She said "It doesn’t affect my faith one way or the other if it was a historical event." I disagreed.  

I believed then as I do today that without the resurrection, there would be no Christian faith. Without Easter, there is no reason for Jesus to have been anything other than a preacher, a prophet, a rabble-rouser who was crucified by the Romans. Without Easter, there is no reason for Paul and Peter to take the message of Jesus Christ the world outside Jerusalem and Israel. Without Easter, there is no reason for the church.

Easter for me was the day I went to church. When I was a child we went to church a lot, but for one reason or another we stopped going as a family. We would go on Easter, though. And in college and as a young adult, though I didn’t go to church regularly, I still went on Easter. I went to sing "Christ the Lord is Risen Today." I went to hear the word preached. I went because it was Easter, because it was the day that mattered for me. I began to understand at least in my own thinking, that with all the fuss we make about Christmas, with all the fuss we make about the birth of Jesus, we wouldn’t even think about it if it weren’t for Easter. 

The church didn’t celebrate Christmas for much of its early history. It wasn’t until about the fourth century that there was even a date assigned for the celebration of the birth of Jesus. But Easter has always been celebrated. Technically, we celebrate Easter every Sunday when we come together for worship. Every Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection. That’s why Christians worship on Sunday instead of on Saturday as would have been common for the early followers of Jesus. We celebrate the resurrection, because it is one of the cornerstones of our faith.

John’s Gospel tells us that on the first day of the week early in the morning, which would have been Sunday because the first day of their week was Saturday – the Sabbath – which began at sundown, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed. At first she doesn’t know what happened, so she ran and told Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one that John calls the beloved disciple. (We don’t know exactly who this person is, but some say he stands for us.) When they heard Mary’s cry that the body of Jesus had been removed from the tomb, the two men had a foot race to get to the garden.

The unnamed disciple stops, looks into the tomb, and sees the grave clothes lying on the ground. He pauses, perhaps not knowing what to think. Peter, in classic Peter fashion, rushes in to experience the empty tomb. Neither one knows what is happening. But they know that Jesus is gone. John is pretty clear in saying that they did not understand scripture, that Jesus would rise from the dead. And they went home.

Mary, though, doesn’t go home. Mary keeps vigil outside the tomb. It is she who sees the angels, she who sees the man, she who hears her name called, and she who recognizes the risen Lord. It is Mary Magdalene – the faithful disciple, the follower of Jesus, a woman who loved Jesus and who we believe was loved by him – who bears witness to the risen Lord. It is Mary Magdalene, a woman of no place in society, who is the first to witness and to tell of the resurrection.

This should not surprise us. Throughout his ministry, it was those who had no place in society who seemed to get the best out of Jesus. It was women, children, the sick, the poor, the lame, the blind, the beggar, the sinner who got the best of Jesus. It was those people for whom he had a touch, a word, a healing, a presence. Certainly, he came to and for all people. But for those on the margins, those who are overlooked and valued little by society, he had a special presence. If only because he noticed them, he elevated their status. If only because he touched him, he made them part of the community again. If only because he talked to them, he made them matter. 

So it shouldn’t surprise us that Mary Magdalene was the first to know the truth of the resurrection. It shouldn’t surprise us that once again Jesus turns everything upside down.

Because isn’t that what the resurrection does? The resurrection turns everything upside down. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s final vote for life over death. The resurrection is God’s great big “gotcha”. The resurrection is God telling the powers of the world and the powers of death and the powers of greed and the powers of sin, “You don’t get to win.” 

I had a conversation with a friend of mine yesterday about the way of the world. We seem to be living in times when it’s not always cheerful to talk about the way the world is going. My friend doesn’t like the way the world is going right now. He doesn’t like the way things are in Washington or Madison or anywhere in government, doesn’t like that corporate interests always seem to win out over regular working people’s interests, doesn’t like that power goes to people’s heads. He also doesn’t believe that we can have government that is not corrupted. And he believes that it’s just always the way it’s always been and it’s the way it always will be and nothing will change it. As a student of history, he believes that the only thing that can happen is for the current system to collapse and something else to take its place. 

He’s pretty set in his belief about these things. And I’m not. You may call me a cockeyed optimist, but I believe that there is the possibility of change. I believe that there is the possibility of justice. I believe in the possibility of new life and new hope and new dreams. I believe in these things because of the resurrection. I believe in these things because in affirming the way of life over the way of death in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God gave us the hope that justice and love and mercy and peace would prevail. I believe that in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we were given the vision of being part of the body of Christ – the living, earthly, active, compassionate, justice-seeking body of Christ. I believe that in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, there is hope.

Last week, I was on a conference call with about 100 other people who were interested in helping to change the dream of the world. They had been inspired by either a workshop called Awakening the Dreamer or by a program called Four Years. Go. or by a group called the Pachamama Alliance. These are three groups that, working together, are committed to changing the dream of the world. It is their goal to get the word out to one billion people in the next four years that we need to work toward a just, sustainable, and fulfilling human presence on this planet. Of that billion people, they hope that 200 million will commit to taking a stand for making this dream a reality.

Imagine what could happen if 200 million people were committed, around the world, to an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, and socially just human presence on the planet. Would that be a sign of resurrection? Would that the carrying out what we know to be the call and mission of Jesus Christ? I can’t help but think it would.

They are hoping that just as videos and music and jokes and stories go viral on the internet, so too will the communication of and commitment to this dream. They ask each of us to enroll at least 10 people into signing the pledge to stand for the world on the Four Years. Go. website. They asked us to consider what actions we would take in our own lives to create this dream. How would we stand individually in our lives for what is environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, and socially just? What are we willing to do, individually, to make change happen?

This excites me. It excites me because it feels like it is a stand for life, for the kind of life that God had in mind when he called the worlds into being and created humanity in his image and likeness. It excites me because it is a hope-filled action for life that goes against the prevailing despair-driven current of death. It excites me because it is something I can do and you can do and you can do and you can do to change the world.

I began to think of this church as I begin to wonder what action I could take to commit to my stand for the dream and to enroll others in their stand. I began to think of the resurrection that we need in this church if we are to continue as a presence and as a spiritual home in Fall Creek. I began to wonder how we could get the word out that we were taking a stand for this kind of life in Christ. What could be the signs of resurrection in this church if we actively began to get the word out that we were standing for a world that truly sustained creation and life on this planet? And I have to say, I got kind of excited.

This is something that will require more conversation. But it’s a conversation I hope we’ll have and have soon. There is something about this group of folks that feels more hopeful than anything I’ve been exposed to in a long time. They’re not a specifically Christian group, but they certainly have the spirit of Easter. They certainly understand what it means to stand for life in the face of death, hope in the face of despair, and love in the face of indifference. What else do we stand for if not those things?

We are the body of Christ in this place and this time. For us and for our relationship with God, which many referred to as our salvation, Jesus Christ came, lived among us, was crucified, and then, with triumphant glory, ascended to live with God. In that raising, and in that ascension to be with the father, Jesus gives us hope. God gives us hope. We must be a people of hope. If Easter tells us nothing else it tells us that. And for that, may all thanks, glory, and praise be to God, now and forever.

Amen.