|
First
Reading
|
Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| Acts 10:34–43
|
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Colossians 3:1–4
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Matthew 28:1–10
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As much as we might try to deny it, cemeteries have always been places where in the end, sporadic winds sweep fading dreams across the crumbling markers. The debris of regrets mixes with the soil of what was and of what might have been. You go to cemeteries to honor a past, not to embrace a future; you go to face a duty, not to rebuild your hope; you go expecting to mourn, you do not go expecting to be renewed.
The scene in the cemetery on that first Easter morning shifts suddenly and without notice. Before we can either anticipate or imagine it, it is discovered that the resurrection has already happened. Witnesses are not told, "Stand back and brace yourselves for what is going to take place before your eyes." Rather, it is announced, "Jesus has risen, God has triumphed, now leave this place of tombs, return to your homes of the living and tell the others what has occurred. Your risen Lord will go on before you."
All the Gospels express the truth of the resurrection differently. While that may be at first confusing and throw our sense of order off, that is precisely what resurrection is all about. We want God to be securely boxed into our categories of control, predictability, and authority. We want God to operate in the world under our authority. After all, we all believe that we know best. But God confounds such presumptuous foolishness. The risen Lord will never be confined to staying in our tombs until the so-called right moment or rise up according to our schedule. Make no mistake about it, Easter is not like the regular eruption of Old Faithful.
Sometimes people are seduced into thinking that the church is to provide a tour bus to show you where God may be regularly revealed. The trouble is that God doesn't operate any stinking tour buses. If you get on a bus that treats you like a spiritual tourist, beware, for it is sure not going to Easter and the operator isn't the living God. God won't keep our schedule or honor our itinerary.
That is why the resurrection stories cannot be neatly tied up in one comprehensible package. The risen Lord is a facilitator of transformation, not conformity. Of course, we are all wonderfully unique individuals, and we all are going to discover the risen Lord in our lives at different times, on different levels, and in various ways. The Good News is that God is not tied up or restricted by time, by culture, or by distance. The resurrection is revealed again and again in fresh, amazing new ways, especially as we go forth from here.
So, the message I would leave with you is this. Jesus is not sending us this day to a cemetery where decaying monuments testify to death. God sends us today to embrace a wonderful future rather than mourning a lost past. God sends us forth to rebuild our hope, not to perform a final sad duty. The risen Christ calls us to get off the stinking tour bus of the world and follow Him instead. Don't be like docile and easily led tourists who will only see what is on the world's narrow itinerary. Don't be a passive bystander wringing your hands and feeling sorry for yourself among the grave makers of the world. Become a participant in His mission of justice, goodwill and reconciliation among all in this world. Follow Him in the land of the living and know that He will always go on before you as you journey away from the worlds' cemeteries.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
