Easter Day

Easter Day April 24, 2011 St. Andrew’s Bessemer City

          We are an Easter people. Our lives are formed by the fact that Jesus is alive. As C.S. Lewis said, “The resurrection is like the sun; not only do I see it, but by it I see everything else.”

          Because Jesus lives, we live, and we live no longer for ourselves, limited by our own knowledge, skill, and strength, but we live for and in Jesus, in the unlimited knowledge and power of the creator of all that is and ever will be. The Holy Spirit of Jesus leads us; the Holy Spirit of Truth leads us into all truth; the Holy Spirit of power gives us all the power we need to love and serve Jesus in the world he has redeemed, the world he has made new by his Easter resurrection.

          Mary Magdalen got up early to come to the tomb in the early dawn. She and the other women had watched carefully as Jesus’ dead body had been taken down from the cross and laid in Joseph’s new tomb. They saw the stone rolled across the entrance to the cave tomb at dusk Friday. They rested on the Sabbath, and Mary came early Sunday morning to the tomb. She came with spices to spread on the body, came to weep at the tomb; came to weep for what might have been, for Jesus’ life cut short, for the people continuing in sin and oppression, for the moral bankruptcy of the religious, intellectual, and political leadership of the people. These leaders had thrown away their last best chance; they had chosen the limited short term goals of preserving the status quo, and they had killed their Savior.

          Mary came early to the tomb and saw the stone taken away. Was Jesus to suffer the final indignity of having his body stolen for the sake of its linen wrappings and the coins laid on his eyes and the body dumped naked in the ditch? Mary ran to Peter and to “the other disciple whom Jesus loved” – John who wrote this gospel. She said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”  The men ran to investigate, young John and older, slower, Peter; Peter who had denied him two nights before impetuous Peter who two nights before had said, “I will never deny you” and then did just that, Peter went on in to the tomb.  Jesus’ body had not been removed for the sake of the linen wrappings. They were there and so was the head cloth. It wasn’t robbery; it was something else.  John got it and believed. Peter’s remorse and guilt slowed his response.  So the men went home to breakfast, but Mary stayed, stayed to pray, stayed to weep, stayed perhaps wondering, “What am I going to do with all these spices I’ve brought for a body that isn’t here?”

          As she looked in to the tomb she saw the angels. St. Matthew and St. Mark tell of one angel, St. Luke and St. John have two, and in the other gospels the angels speak. In St. John it is Jesus who speaks, and when he calls Mary by name she recognizes him.

          Jesus knows us each by name.  In baptism parents and godparents say, “We present (Name) to receive the sacrament of baptism.” That’s why we say Christian name. That is the name Jesus knows us by.  Jesus knows us each by name and Jesus calls us each by name. His Spirit speaks to our spirit and he calls us each to love him and to serve him. Just as he called the disciples on the shores of the Sea of Galilee so he calls us in Western North Carolina.

          Just as he ate and drank with them after his resurrection, as forgiven and Spirit-filled Peter preached to the gentiles, so Jesus eats and drinks with us this Easter morning.  

          And Jesus offers us today the same forgiveness of sins and spiritual truth and power that came to the first believers those many years ago. Peter and all those who heard him have died, but they died as forgiven sinners and they live in Christ Jesus.

          St. Paul tells us in today’s Epistle, “seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”  Jesus’ resurrection sets us free from the death of sin and frees us to live new life in him. As forgiven sinners our Easter task is to live fully into Jesus’ resurrection.

          The resurrection opens for us an opportunity to forgive others as we have been forgiven. The resurrection opens for us an opportunity to live what the Prayer Book describes as “righteous, godly, and sober lives.” The resurrection opens for us opportunity to love others in the same way and with the same intensity that God loves us, to be “in love and charity with all.”

         

          Because Jesus lives, we live, and we live no longer for ourselves, limited by our own knowledge, skill, and strength, but we live for and in Jesus, in the unlimited knowledge and power of the creator of all that is and ever will be. The Holy Spirit of Jesus leads us; the Holy Spirit of Truth leads us into all truth; the Holy Spirit of power gives us all the power we need to love and serve Jesus in the world he has redeemed, the world he has made new by his Easter resurrection.

We are an Easter people. Our lives are formed by the fact that Jesus is alive. As C.S. Lewis said, “The resurrection is like the sun; not only do I see it, but by it I see everything else.”  Amen.