Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you crying? Who are
you looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she replied, "Sir, if
you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get
him." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him,
"Teacher." Mary left and announced to the disciples, "I have
seen the Lord."
We have had quite a journey to get to this place, this
Easter morning and the alleluias. We followers of Jesus, along with all of the
characters who populate this amazing story of love, Peter, Mary, John,
have accompanied Jesus into Jerusalem with the shouting of
Hosannas. We have watched with horror as the events turned violent. We have
been implicated in the apathy that allowed Jesus to be condemned and killed. We
sat in the silence and waited as we believed with those very first
followers,
that Jesus, the one who stood for love, the one who healed
others, was dead. That was the end. It looked like failure. It looked like the
light went out. It looked like evil won.
And Jesus said to her, Mary. With that one word, with that
name, everything changed. Mary. And Mary knew. She knew that this man she had
known in life, defeated death. She knew that this man she had loved, was all
that had been promised. The temple would be destroyed and raised in three days.
She knew what it meant. Jesus was where the God she had worshipped since she
was a child, lived now. Jesus, was where God walked, and loved and healed.
Jesus, whose body was broken on that cross, now is the one who puts us back
together again. Mary suddenly realized that death does not have the final word.
Mary suddenly knew that it is in dieing that there is new life. "I've seen
the Lord."
"Child of God, take this bread and eat it. It is broken
for you because you are broken. Let it nourish you; let it sustain you. It is
Christ. Always strive to be like Christ, who was broken to heal our
brokenness." (Tom Lutes)
Our sadness and grief of Holy Week, our brokenness in life,
is put back together in this Easter hope, on this Easter morning. We are Easter
people. We are named, like Mary on that first Easter morning, Marty, Jan, Suzy,
Rick, Carolyn, Curtis, and our lives sing with the love that created us, the
love that calls us into being, the love that puts us back together when we
break apart, when we miss the mark,
the love that changes our very hearts and souls into a new
creation. And on our hearts, with the cursive of the healed scars, is inscribed
the words, you are loved, broken, healed, love one another.
As Easter people we don't ignore the reality of our lives,
in all of the happiness and hurtfulness, in all of the care and chaos, in all
of the tenderness and terror. It is never one way or the other, it is always a
dance of pain and joy. But we do live this life fully embraced and empowered by
this Easter reality, your life matters, it matters now. The reality of the
cross and the resurrection shows us that our relationships matter, that dignity
and respect matter.
As Easter people we live in the reality that changed the way
the we are related to one another. Power doesn't win, love wins. Darkness does
not prevail, light shines through. Brokenness doesn't end our lives, it only
creates the fissures into which God's love can seep.
And as Easter people, as people who have been named by
Jesus, like Mary at the tomb, we are claimed as God's own. Our hearts and our
lives are claimed by the love that heals us, the love that puts us back
together, the love that wins. And from that love flows the ministry that God
calls us to, love one another. Because, with Mary, we announce to the world,
"I've seen the Lord."
Now, Jesus dwells with us, and together we are about the
business of kingdom building. like Jesus did and does, kingdom building in
which all are loved, kingdom building in which all are fed. Kingdom building in
which mercy and compassion rule. Kingdom building in which a broken body makes
us whole, kingdom building in which the body of christ makes us a body of
christ.
And that, my friends is hope. Hope that is not magical, or
wishful. Hope that shows that there is nothing, not even death, that can
separate us from God's love. Even when all seems lost, Jesus says to Mary, why
are you crying, and Mary knows that all of her heartache is changed into joy.
This hope does not crumble under the weight of expectation, this hope does not
dissolve into a sea of despair.
This hope assures us that even when we cannot see to the
other side, new life will emerge, it must, it does, because that is what the
cross is all about. We are Easter people.
As we walk out of the doors of this church this morning, our
work begins. The body of christ is at work with God's mission of healing and
reconciliation in the world. It is our work of bearing God's love to those who,
like us are broken, our work of bearing God's love in all places and all times.
Our work of feeding those who are hungry, because we have been hungry. Our work
of mercy and compassion, because we know what it is like to miss the
mark.
We are Easter people. We walk this journey of life knowing
the amazement of resurrection, and the pain and suffering that precedes it. We
are Easter people. We are nourished by the bread and the body that is broken
for us. We are Easter people, made whole by the love that wins.
Alleluia, christ is risen.
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