Sermon for April 20,
2014
Easter Morning Sunrise
& 7:45
The Rev. Vicki K. Hesse
St. Philip’s In The
Hills, Tucson, AZ
Lord, open our lips,
that our mouth might
proclaim your praise. Amen
Alleluia!
Christ is risen! Happy Easter!
I like to
watch those television shows
like CSI
or Law & Order.
The
beginning shows a scene of
some
criminal event,
and the
story unfolds
as the
forensic detectives gather clues,
follow
their instincts, connect the dots.
The
ending nearly always has some twist to it
that I
sometimes do not see coming.
The man
with the tow-truck
is
actually the bride’s brother.
The death
of the nasty in-law really was
an
accident, covered up by the bridesmaids
as a plot
by the Italian mob.
I like
the intrigue, the journey,
the quirky
actors, the sense of mistaken identity.
Today’s
gospel text provides
classic elements
of any good story.[1]
The main
characters are commoners:
a woman ,
a fisherman,
another
whose name we don’t even know,
a couple
of angels and the narrator.
The plot
includes the intrigue of a missing body,
the
journey of the quirky actors
running
onto and off the stage,
the sense
of mistaken identity.
The whole
story requires divine intervention
to be
solved, and yet the story does not end –
it opens ever-more
outward toward mystery.
The first
half of the story
focuses
on the empty tomb.
Mary comes
to the tomb
and sees
the stone missing.
She runs
to get the others –
to share
her confusion –
The
others join Mary, quickly running back.
Each one
–
Mary,
Peter and the beloved disciple –
react very
differently. [2]
Mary SEES
that the stone has been taken away.
Running
to Peter and the beloved disciple,
she
laments,
“They
have taken away the Lord from the tomb!”
Mary SEES
but does not yet believe.
She needs
some help believing,
and gets
that help a little later in today’s story.
Things go
no more smoothly for Peter.
Alerted
by Mary,
he and
the beloved disciple run to the tomb.
Peter
SEEs Jesus’ burial clothes,
but does
not believe.
Peter
needs some help believing –
that will
come later this season.
The
beloved disciple outruns Peter to the tomb.
He peeps
in and sees the linen cloths.
And when
the beloved disciple enters the tomb,
“He SAW and BELIEVED.”
All three
of these disciples come to faith;
all three
have different experiences
of seeing
and believing.
All three
are responding to God’s call,
just as
all of you gathered here today.
Mary
needs a personal touch.
The
beloved disciple can believe without seeing.
Peter,
well, has a long way to go,
and yet, ultimately,
he
believes so fully that he starts a church!
The truth
is, no one path accounts for
the
emergence of hope and new life.
The
second half of the story
focuses on
the case of mistaken identity.
Mary remains
at the tomb, weeping,
while the
disciples return home.
When she
bends down and looks into what she mistakenly thinks is the empty the
tomb,
She sees
two angels sitting right where
she mistakenly
thought
the body
of Jesus had been lying.
In a
brief conversation with the angels,
she
shares why she was weeping –
that they
have taken Jesus’ body away.
Then, she
turns around and sees –
where nothing
was before,
a man
standing there.
In a
classic case of mistaken identity,
she sees
the man as the gardener.
She
rattles on about why she was weeping,
not
thinking or reflecting.
Mistaking
him for the gardener,
she
implores him to resolve her problem.
Mary does
not recognize Jesus.
This
story reflects our case of mistaken identity.
We are
there at various tombs during our life –
losses in
our lives –
and we
find ourselves weeping.
We have
lost a job. We have lost our faith.
We have
lost our health.
We have
lost a dear friend, a lover,
a
partner, a parent
The world
has lost an airplane.
The ferry
lost it’s passengers.
Neighboring
countries lost their peace.
After the
shock wears off,
we look
into these tombs ourselves.
We bend
down and look into the darkness,
yearning
to have God make sense of this for us.
It seems
our losses have the final say.
It seems
that our losses
appear
stronger than God’s promises.
We cry
out our questions to the angels,
the
messengers of God, demanding answers.
“Tell us
why this is happening!”
Deep
inside these tombs
of loss
and longing, sometimes,
we do not
recognize the ever present Jesus,
right
there in the midst of our loss.
And the
plot twists –
even
though Mary
mistakenly
identified the gardener,
Jesus
recognizes Mary.
Jesus was
there, all along,
ready to
respond to her queries.
Jesus
said to her, “Mary!”
*pause*
slowly
In that
moment of mutual recognition,
the
intimate and the cosmic joined.
The
reality of the resurrection was revealed.[3]
Suddenly,
the voice of the risen Jesus
changes everything.
The empty
tomb is not a manifestation of death,
but is a
testimony to God’s YES to life.
Mary now
has,
what
Mutual of Omaha[4]
might call,
her “aha
moment” –
that
moment of clarity,
that
defining moment where you gain real wisdom –
wisdom
you can use to change your life.
Today,
Jesus
recognizes us and calls us by name.
Jesus is
there, all along,
ready to
respond to our queries.
Jesus
says our names, “Vicki!” “Bill!” “Cam!” …
your
daughter’s name,
your
friend’s name,
the
immigrant’s name,
the
prisoner’s name,
the
executive’s name,
the
politician’s name.
Today’s
good news is that Jesus recognizes us
in all
our states and diverse ways of believing.
In our moment
of mutual recognition,
the intimate
and the cosmic join.
Jesus
calls us by name.
When Jesus says Mary’s name,
she then knows
him, deeply.
She
speaks to him, “Teacher!”
and
reaches out to hold him,
before he
gets away.
Jesus
tells her not to hold on
for he is
going to his father and her Father
– to his
God and her God.
The plot
of this story is resolved, when,
after the
angels come,
the
missing body is found – alive!
Yet, the
story is not yet at its end;
as the
credits rise, a new story s beginning.
In his
first post-resurrection lesson,
Jesus
reminds Mary that
no one
can hold Jesus to
preconceived
notions or expectations.
When
Jesus says our name,
then we
begin to know him,
ever more
deeply,
and he reveals
new possibilities in our life.
We may be
tempted to hold onto that moment of recognition.
We can
speak to him, but not hold on –
for the
mystery of Jesus never ceases.
He will
freely give us the fullness that he offers, if we but let go.
And in
our letting go,
we will know
the identity of Jesus
just as
he correctly identifies us.
· He will show up in the face
of a needful stranger.
· He will appear in the
exuberant laughter of a child.
· He will walk before us
on the sidewalk, slowing us down as we try to make our way quickly.
· He will soften our
hearts after we harden them upon reading the newspaper.
· He will call us to
non-violent action to work for justice and peace in the world.
· He will meet us in our
dying breath, promising to be with us to eternity.
· He will appear in the
bread and wine.
· He will make himself
known in the scripture.
· He will be present in
the comforting hand
of
a dear friend who simply calls us by name.
And our
response,
like the
first Easter witness, Mary,
is to
announce to all the disciples
here gathered,
“I have
seen the Lord!”
Alleluia!
Christ is Risen!
[1] Inspired
by Richard S. Dietrich, Feasting on the Word Exegetical, John 20:1-18,(Louisville,
Westminster John Knox, 2010) p 371
[2] Inspired by Greg
Carey, “Seeing and Believing at Easter Time,” cited at (http://www.odysseynetworks.org/news/2014/04/11/seeing-and-believing-at-easter-time-john-201-18
)
[3] Inspired by Women’s Bible Commentary: Expanded Edition, (Louisville,
Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), p. 389-390
