Rector's Sermon
24 April 2011

First Reading	Psalm	Epistle	Gospel
Acts 10:34–43		Colossians 3:1–4	John 20:1–18

       Many months and maybe even several years after the resurrection, Peter was called to the house of a Roman Centurion and was moved to accept him and baptize him and his family into the fellowship of the young Christian church.  It was a radical step to baptize a person of non-Jewish background into full membership of the Christian community without requiring the person to follow Jewish dietary customs. Peter defended his action by saying: “I have come to understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” He went on to remind his critics that Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed with the devil, no matter their race, religion or status in society.

       Now Peter knew that the Bible emphasized that God shows no partiality and could not be seduced by gifts or charmed by flattery. God would not be overwhelmed by an army of lobbyists of the rich and powerful or swayed by the abundance of their wealth. Peter knew very well of the words of the prophet Micah, “what is good has been explained to you. O Man; this is what God asks of you, only this, to act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God”. He knew that Isaiah wrote, “Is not the fast that God expects, to loose the bonds of injustice and to let the oppressed go free, breaking every yoke?” Peter knew that people of faith are called to be a light to all nations, and to be a people of blessing for all of humanity. Yes, Peter knew what the Bible said, but now Peter began to understand what it meant.

       Easter people come to understand that God is without limits, no exceptions, no reservations, and no fine print. Death is the ultimate limiting factor of our lives, but not with God. That is why people of different religious backgrounds, lepers who were confined to isolated caves, tax collectors who hid in their barricaded palaces, thieves who hung on crosses, followers and friends who would desert their friend and leader, were all within reach of God’s saving embrace. Easter is telling us that Easter is not just for a few, the privileged who happened to be at the right time and place, or be born with the right sort of parents. Easter is the announcement that God’s grace really is universal and even the barrier of death cannot frustrate it. Jesus has been lifted up to draw all people to Himself.

       We live in a world that sorely needs to understand the universality of the Easter message. Forces attempt to fiercely polarize us in innumerable ways. We are urged to cast certain groups of people into the depths of Hades, to wish and treat them as good as dead. If only we could bury them and seal them up in an impenetrable tomb. But that’s an old way of thinking; it’s a way of thinking that only leads down a treacherous tunnel of increasing misery and further tragedy. It’s the dance card of death. Denial of our connectedness comes more and more with increasing peril. What seeps into the water table in one state, affects what we drink in another. How we manage an invasive species in one section of the country determines the agriculture in another, and what is put into the atmosphere on one continent, affects the air we breathe in another. I do not have any wisdom of the technical solutions to these challenges, but I believe that it is people of faith who are called to witness to God’s gift of abundant life for all. It is people of faith who will truly resolve such challenges, rather than the world's tendency to ignore them, to isolate their detrimental effects and impose them upon the powerless, or to kick them further on down the road. 

       On that first Easter Mary did not recognize Jesus at first. Even in that poignant moment when Jesus said “Mary”, and she exclaimed “rabbi!” Mary didn’t immediately process the full implications of Jesus’ resurrection.  I suspect there were some long heated arguments when Mary went back and told the disciples I have seen the risen lord. So don’t go from here feeling a bit discouraged because Eater joy doesn’t hit you with full force. Just 24 hours ago it was Saturday, and the state of the world hasn’t changed that much. We are not second-class citizens because the Good News of Easter hasn’t been fully manifest to us. Even Peter, the leader of the disciples, was honest enough to say, “oh, now I understand”, and truth be told, I think Peter would continue to say that until he was crucified years later in Rome. Most of us have miles to go on our journey and will have paths to choose from the innumerable forks in the road yet to come to, but in that journey, know that the living Lord will be revealed. There will be moments when it seems as if you hear your name whispered, and you will be aware of the presence of a fresh breath of insight. The most important thing about Easter isn’t simply that Christ died for us, but that Christ rose for us. In risen sunlight of Easter the icy coverings of our hearts melt and our hearts are filled with new life.  Assuredly there will be those times, like Peter, that we may expect to say, “ah ha, now I understand”, for Easter is proclaiming that the shroud that is cast over all people, the sheet that is spread over all nations, has been destroyed. Easter tells us that Jesus lives today, tomorrow, and forever and offers new life for all of us.  Alleluia!  

       And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.