Rector's Sermon - Easter Sunday, March 31, 2002

First Reading	Psalm	Epistle	Gospel
Acts 10:34-43	118:1-2, 14-24	Colossians 3:1-4	Matthew 28:1-10

     Easter has a dynamism of constant, practically breathless motion. It is a story of earthquakes shaking the ground, of a heavy stone rolling away and two women who went to mourn the dead being told "The body of the one you seek is not here, Alleluia, he is risen! Now get out of here and go quickly, tell the other disciples, Jesus is alive, and will be going ahead awaiting you in Galilee." Not knowing what really to say, they began running back to tell the other disciples and on the way, the two Marys discover the risen Jesus by their side. It took considerable courage for two women to venture out alone to a graveyard outside the city. But it took considerably more courage to be willing to attest to the angel's announcement of the resurrection.

     Some depictions of the resurrection show Jesus on Easter morning, grabbing a man and woman by the arms, pulling and tugging them out of the tomb. It is as if Jesus is wrestling with a force that wants to hold us back and keep us buried. The two Mary's were probably planning to stay in front of Jesus' tomb and weep. It was understandable if they exhibited a hesitancy to leave the graveyard, and attempt to communicate to others something totally unexpected. The wonderful thing about the Gospel story is that the two Mary's resisted the force to linger at the tomb. They chose not to conform to the pull of their world. Instead, they did not hold back, but they were willing to be led by the angel of the resurrection. They found themselves transformed by the living Christ. That is why their witness has such enduring power.

     Looking back on Jesus ministry, we come to realize that all the signs of God's Grace that Jesus revealed, involved a dramatic break with the expectations of the world. The Gospels use examples of to a person born blind regaining sight, or someone who was ostracized from society as a leper being made clean so to be able to fully participate in larger society again, or one paralyzed being able to walk for the first time. These conditions were not used as indications of sin, but as examples of the way God's grace completely changes our future. It may have been that some of the people Jesus healed, had great difficulty dealing with their change of life, and perhaps even wished that things could go back to how they were. The point is that these weren't signs that modified lives or realigned lives that needed some slight readjustment. They were signs that transformed lives.

     One of the popular symbols of Easter is the egg. The inside of the egg holds the promise of life. Yet it is always important to remember what we see is just the shell. An egg is always on the verge of being cracked open. Life is not life if it stays inside the shell. I suspect we cringe when we think of the image of beautifully and intricately decorated Easter eggs being split open. Maybe we even like to decorate them to give us an excuse that they are just too nice to crack. God does not intend for us to merely to decorate pretty shells. The resurrection implies that the hard shell will be left behind, split wide open in a thousand small pieces, as the force of new life pushes out and appears.

     God doesn't intend Easter people to remain fixated on the shell. In some way, we are called forth from where ever we are, over against forces in the world that want to pin us down and keep us in our place. Easter is saying to us, after this service, leave your pew behind and don't try to carry it with you. Now believe me, these pews are solid seats of good hard wood. They are not going to wear out. It becomes a formidable task to move these things. I've tried it and they are nailed down, screwed down, and glued down with the encrustations of dirt and dust of decades. Trying to move one of these is like butting your head against the cliff at the base of Taughannock falls.

     Yet well made pews will never confirm the reality of the resurrection. Solid seats wouldn't help us to discover God acting among us and in our lives. If anything Easter people need light portable folding chairs. This is what Easter is all about, not the shells of beautiful decorated eggs, nor empty tombs, nor immovable seats, but about folding chairs. It is about God saying fold up your chair, don't hold back, fold it up, go forth into the world and expect to meet the living God.

     What a dramatic sign it would be if next Easter, at the conclusion of the final blessing and dismissal, everyone one of us would get up, fold up our chair, and people of Ithaca would see dozens of people going out of St. John's with chairs under their arms. What a witness we would present, of a quiet courage that we expect to meet the risen Lord, ahead, wherever our travels take us.

     Of course we really don't need props of any kind. As Easter people we are called forth today in this place, right now, to be transformed. Alleluia! Jesus is risen, calling to the life inside our shell, going on before us, and preparing to greet us as this new life emerges.

     And I offer this to you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen