I learned from a dear friend of mine that a congregation cannot get with the preacher in the preaching of the sermon if the preacher isn’t first with the people. So in order to connect with you this morning I want to reveal to you at the beginning of the sermon something that perhaps falls in the “confession” category. I just realized that as soon as I mentioned “confession” that I received your undivided attention.
My confession is that I was confused last night at the Easter Vigil when in the midst of our joyous celebration some great friends told me, “Oh great your first Easter here!” I was confused because since the very moment I set foot in this church, since the very moment we started to get to know each other you made me feel fully alive. And one way you know you are fully alive is when you get in touch with your belovedness because someone else is making sure that you feel loved. Now, that is Easter! Loordy, No wonder I was confused…I’ve been having Easter ever since. Every time that you share your love with someone, you are indeed offering that person an invitation to an Easter experience.
The truth is that there is a spiritual force at work when we gather as a community and that same spiritual force sends us out into the world to bear witness and proclaim in words and actions the unconditional love of God for all creation. That’s why I think that the measure of a healthy is church is not whether the people who go to church there have better lives but whether the people who don’t go to church there have better lives because of the people who do go to church there. Healthy religion is about knowing how beloved you are and taking practical steps to make sure that other people know how beloved they are.
If I had to say one word and sit down, which, of course, there is no way in hell I’m going to do, but if I had one word to say, that word would be “don’t give up, have courage.” You see, I knew it, I already said five words instead of one. “Courage is the quality most essential to understanding the language of the world.” You and I understand what it means to stand alone for what one perceives to be right and just. “Don’t give up, have courage.”
The way the Biblical writers kept the disciples of the early church on their feet with courage was to hang pictures of the Hebrew prophets and great saints on the walls of their minds…those who kept on believing even when the lights of the world went out, those beautiful leaders of old who kept on loving in a violent world and remained hopeful in a sea of despair and cynicism.
The Biblical writers said to the early disciples: “Go into that picture gallery of the great heroes of our faith – Abraham, Moses, Amos, Ruth and Naomi, Peter, Paul, Timothy, Mary,
Elizabeth and Mary Magdalene – and linger in their presence and gain courage for life.”i
People come to this place each day, each Sunday, and everything about them says they are facing great difficulties. Life is hard. Life isn’t easy for many these days. Severe difficulties are inevitable and we must struggle. Relationships falter, close loved ones die, economies fail, dreams fade, hope dies in the dark.
William Sloane Coffin knew a great deal about both joy and sorrow. He once said from his personal experience that divine joy unites with human pain. He says, “Try to recall in your own life some moment of great pain or terrible confusion, a moment that had intense suffering, perhaps. You know that at such moments there is nothing more important than the presence of another person who cares. That someone does not have to say anything. In fact, not to speak is often better. Advice, or any attempt to cheer you up, is generally experienced as a refusal to enter into your pain and suffering.”ii
Dr. Coffin recalls how one early morning in 1982, he received word that his son, in his early twenties, had been killed in a horrible car accident. Friends, also notified, came to his apartment in Manhattan and he said, “I can hardly remember a word of what was said, but I’ll never forget the facial expressions. I’ll never forget the arms around me. The fact that friends came at all at four in the morning helped prevent despair.” He rushes to say, “Always remembered this: Just as all the water in the sea cannot sink a boat unless the water gets inside; so all the despair in the world cannot bring you under unless it seeps into your soul.” (Ibid, p. 219) “The mere presence of friends helped prevent despair – not from seeping, but from flooding my soul, drowning me in grief.”
The Easter story according to John begins with these words “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb.” Let’s not forget that the Easter story we celebrate today is preceded by the waters of despair seeping in the hearts and minds of the disciples. Fear and the horror of what we did as human beings to God’s son paralyzed them in such a way that they went home and stayed closed doors. But the story tells us that someone visit them in their despair: Mary Magdalene.
John’s narrative is full of drama: the race to the tomb and the irony of mistaken identity.
John does remarkable things to the traditional stories surrounding Easter. His emphasis certainly falls on the reality of the resurrection, but the focus is not a resurrected Jesus who materializes to his disciples. It is the fact that resurrection means God has vindicated Jesus and that as the Son he has returned to the Father, initiating the new stage in God’s history with humanity. God comes in the darkest night of our soul.
When we read John’s account of the Easter story side by side with Matthew, Mark and Luke
We run into a remarkable difference that shed some insights into John’s message for us today.
Let’s see what this is. Mark introduces the story of the Easter morning by saying: “Very early on the first day when the sun had risen.” Matthew says: “On the first day of the week as the day was dawning.” Luke says: “Very early at early dawn.” But John says: “Early on the first day while it was still dark.”
Now, I think you will agree with me that this not about John being able to tell the difference between sunrise and sunset. As you might recall, John’s gospel is unique from the other gospels in regards to his use of symbolism and theological account of Jesus’ life. John’s gospel is permeated with images of darkness and light, day and night as a way of talking about the hardships of life. That is why when John describes God’s mission in the world, John says “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.” It is in John’s gospel that Jesus says: “I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in the darkness but will see the light of life.” Early in the morning, while it was still dark… that is …while we are still looking into the uncertainty of our future, when we face doubt and discouragement and everything in our life seems to go wrong; when we find ourselves at the edge of the tomb, Mary Magdalene has a message that will see us through to the other side, Mary Magdalene will visit you at four am, while is still dark, her message is that our redeemer lives!
You probably have heard the story of a tightrope walker who was going to cross across the great Niagara Falls. He advertised that he was to walk across the falls and people gathered from far and near to see the tightrope walker. So he took his balancing pole in his hand and prepared to walk across the falls and he shouted to the gathered crowd: Do you believe that I can walk across the falls? Do you believe? And they responded: We believe, we believe! He took the pole in his hand and he crossed the fall and came back and they responded: Bravo, bravo, bravo! He said now, do you believe that I can cross the fall pushing a wheel bearer with my hands. Sure, sure, we believe, we believe! So he took the wheel bearer on his hands and he pushed the wheel bearer across the fall and came back and they responded: Bravo, bravo, bravo! He said, now do you believe that I can walk across the falls, pushing a wheel bearer with a blindfold over my eyes?
They said yes, you are the man, go ahead, we believe, we believe! So he put the blindfold over his eyes, pushed the wheel bearer and crossed the falls and came back and they were just ecstatic; Bravo, bravo, bravo! Then he said, now do you believe that I can push the wheel bearer across the fall, blindfold over my eyes with somebody riding on the wheel bearer? Sure, sure, we believe! Do you really believe that I can do that? Sure we believe it we believe! Do you really believe? Yes we believe it. He said; Do I have a volunteer?
My brothers and my sisters we are gathered today because we are daring to follow Mary Magdalene into the wheel bearer! Mary Magdalene was the volunteer who came back with the message that Jesus lives. So that we can shout today, bravo, bravo, he is risen! alleluia! Amen.
i George Regas
ii William Sloane Coffin, “Joy,” The Collected Sermons of William Sloane Coffin; The Riverside Years, Volume 2, p. 220
This is a temporary posting due to several requests. Sermon with complete citations will be posted later.
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