EASTER DAY – Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; 1 Cor.15:19-26; John 20:1-18 –
4 April 2010 – A sermon given by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado
The Path to Receiving New Life
INTRODUCTION – The Christian life
The Christian life is not just one thing. It’s knowing that you are loved and forgiven by God, yes. But it’s way more than that. It’s about being transformed and bringing light and love to others. It’s about a whole new way of seeing. It’s about encountering the risen Christ in all sorts of ways. It’s about being given a whole new life. Christian folk like to talk about eternal life, but that is not something that begins when you die. For once you embrace the risen Christ, eternal life begins for you – right then.
All these different aspects of the Christian life are pure gift. God is loving, generous, and can’t wait to give us all these things. But saying that this new life is pure gift does not mean that there is nothing for us to do. We must choose to play. We must choose to receive what God has to offer. The #1 trait that is needed if you want to play, if you want follow Christ, if you want to dance with this one we call God or Lord or Savior, is the trait of openness.
The risen Christ is always at work in the world. But if we want to get connected, we must be open to an encounter with him. We must be open to being transformed. We must be open to learning some new things, and to seeing in some new ways.
THE EXAMPLE OF MARY MAGDALENE
Peter and John were open to an encounter with God. They were open to having their lives transformed, or they would never have hopped out of their boats and started following Jesus all around Galilee and eventually to Jerusalem. But our example today for what it means to embrace new life is not so much Peter and John, but a woman – a woman who, according to Luke, had already had a powerful encounter with Jesus, when he healed her of seven demons. (Luke 8:2) Her name was Mary Magdalene, and from that time on, she not only followed Jesus, but she helped support Jesus’ ministry.
According to three of the four Gospel writers, Mary Magdalene was one of the women who followed Jesus all the way through to his crucifixion, standing nearby and watching while he died. While many of his followers deserted him during his time of greatest agony, Mary was right there. Mary also stayed around to see Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus take Jesus’ body down from the cross and lay it in a new tomb in a garden near Golgotha. And so it should not be surprising to us that, as soon as the Passover was over, and while it was still dark – early on the first day of the week – Mary came to the tomb. And if she felt sleepy at all, that sleepiness totally disappeared when she got close enough to the tomb to see that the huge stone that had been placed in front of the tomb had been rolled away.
This was too much. First she had seen the greatest man she had ever known crucified, and now his grave had been desecrated? She didn’t even look in the tomb. She just turned around and ran to get Simon Peter and John, and upon reaching them she blurted, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” (John 20:2)
Here’s where the story gets interesting. According to John, Peter and John ran to the tomb. John got there first, since Peter was old and slow. John stuck his head inside, saw the linen wrappings that had been around Jesus’ body and head. Peter, being Peter, just bolted right into the middle of the tomb, and saw the same thing. At this point, John also went into the tomb, and we are told that “he saw and believed” (John 20:8). But then John and Peter left and went back to the place where they were staying in Jerusalem.
Mary Magdalene had watched all this, had observed what John and Peter did. But when they left, she stayed. Sometimes you and I are on the verge of some new discovery, some big encounter with God, and we get overwhelmed or confused, and we check out. Maybe we’re having some big feelings like Mary Magdalene and all of them were having – deep grief, sadness, and feelings of overwhelm, where we’re not exactly thinking clearly. And instead of staying with those feelings, we check out. We turn on the TV or we go back to work or we do something else to distract ourselves. In those moments, it’s possible to stop paying attention.
Mary didn’t do that. She stayed with what she was feeling, which was something like utter anguish or despair. As she was weeping, she finally looked into the tomb, and she saw something that evidently Peter and John had not seen – two angels. And when they asked her why she was weeping, she did not think to herself, “Oh my God, am I seeing angels?” No. She just told them straight out. “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they had laid him.” There was a lot in those words. Had someone stole Jesus’ body? Would she ever find it? They’d already killed him in the most horrific way, and now this?
Then she turned around and saw someone else. The tomb was getting crowded! Where were all these folks when John and Peter were there? My guess is that they were right there. But John and Peter didn’t see them. Mary Magdalene did. She guessed he might be the gardener, and she asked if he had moved Jesus’ body somewhere else. She didn’t recognize that it was Jesus. Probably his resurrected body was a little different than the one she was familiar with. But then he said her name. And her eyes were opened. And her life changed – everything changed – once again.
SOME LESSONS FROM MARY
So here’s what we can learn from Mary Magdalene. Once we choose to be open to having an encounter with the living God… once we choose to be open to learning and transformation, there are several other things that we can do.
First, we can pay attention. The spiritual life is mostly about paying attention. Notice what’s going on around you, but – just as importantly – notice what is going on inside of you. If you start hearing the same basic message from two or three people, pay attention! But also pay attention to what you are feeling. Although Mary Magdalene’s life felt in some ways like it was spinning totally out of control, something told her to remain at the tomb after John and Peter left. She listened to that inner voice. And she became the first person to whom the risen Lord revealed himself. Think about that for a moment. A woman – not one of the twelve guys in the inner circle… a woman formerly possessed… a woman, in a male-dominated world… and Jesus first appears to her. Why? Well, mostly because she paid attention to what was going on inside of her, and followed her instincts.
Second, we can stay the course. One of the things that Jesus said from the cross was “It is finished.” Jesus stayed the course. He saw a life of love and faithfulness through to the end, and so – even when he was in physical pain and agony on the cross – he could acknowledge and even celebrate the fact that he had completed what he came to do. He had been faithful to his Heavenly Father, and committed to demonstrating a new way of being in the world – living in the power of love, a power that triumphs over everything, even death itself. Mary Magdalene did something quite similar. She hung in there when it looked to almost everyone else like evil had triumphed. She didn’t start heading back to Galilee on the first day of the week, after the Passover was ended. She didn’t think to herself, “Now it’s back to life without Jesus. I guess life is just a struggle, and that’s the end of the story.” No. She stayed the course and recommitted. She woke up before dawn that morning and said to herself, “What’s God calling me to do today?” And she heard, “Go to the tomb.” So she did.
And finally, I think the other thing we can learn from Mary Magdalene is to be real, to be honest, to be authentic. Yeah, she was upset. Each time she met someone at the tomb they asked her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” Wasn’t it obvious? “Because the man who loved me and cared about me like no one else ever had… the man who turned my life totally around… is dead, and now his body is missing, and I don’t know where he is!”
SUMMARY
This man wants to turn our lives totally around, too. He wants to transform our lives and turn them into something creative and powerful and full of light, so that we can help bring love and transformation and reconciliation to a hurting world.
What does he ask of us?
First and foremost, to be open to all that he wants to do in us and through us.
He asks that we pay attention and look for signs of him in nature, in our times of worship in prayer, as we read scripture, and in all the people that come into our lives.
He asks us to stay the course, to remain faithful and take the next step that seems right, even when we don’t know where the road leads. And when things get challenging, he invites us to recommit to following him, to recommit to trusting in him.
And he asks us be honest. If you’re sad, be sad. If you’re angry, be angry. If you’re overjoyed, then sing and dance and hug your neighbor. If you’re scared, admit that. If you’re confused and feeling lost, tell someone that. If you need help, ask for it. If you don’t understand, ask a question. Take responsibility for your life. Be honest.
CONCLUSION
Do you know what Jesus said one day? “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32) I love that. It is God’s good pleasure – his great delight! – to give us the kingdom. The kingdom includes anything you could ever want, including loving, long-lasting relationships, including a new, big amazing life for you, including a new life after you die.
Yes, we have to celebrate this day, because this Son of God’s was dead and is now alive again. And if we – the beloved daughters and the beloved sons of God – are open to it, the same will be true for us.