Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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Why all this crying, Mary? You'll wake up the dead! (In a manner of speaking.) Two angels quietly inquire about her grief -- two angels now present, in the very place where (on Friday), hurrying to beat the Sabbath, Mary and the others had laid Jesus out. Two who had not been there just moments before, when Peter and the other disciple went all the way into the tomb and looked around. Mary, still peering in from the outside, rubbed sleep from her eyes, and saw that the angels were still there. She stopped sobbing long enough to say, "They've moved his body, I don't know where it is!" It was the final indignity, the straw that broke her back While her Jesus lived, they had belted him and cursed him, and now (when he had finally found the terrible peace of death) they had messed with his body.

A Simple Story of an Unexpected Appearance

Then, as she continued leaning into the gloomy tomb, and started to weep again, she heard a voice behind her, a familiar voice, "Woman, why go on like this? Are you looking for someone?" She thought it was the gardener, and as she turned to him she said, "If you have tossed the body somewhere, maybe just to tidy up, it's o.k. Tell me where you put him, and I'll do the rest." And he said, "Mary." And she knew it was Jesus, and she grabbed him, and held him tight, and said, "Rabbi!" And, after a moment, he laughed and said, "You don't have to hang on to me like this. I'm not going anywhere." So it was that Mary Magdalene, a woman (and a woman of not-so-fine a reputation) was first to see the risen Jesus, and first to tell his disciples (indeed, first to tell us all), "I have seen the Lord." So John tells the story of the most important moment in the history of the world.

Peter and the other had seen only an empty tomb. That's a start. It's good to know death has lost its grip. But Mary had seen Christ. Soon, of course, they all would see him -- and some would die for that seeing. (They were witnesses to the resurrection, but there was no witness protection program back then.) From now on, they and the their Christian brothers and sisters would know Jesus as a risen, living Lord -- not simply as one who beat the odds against death, but as one who was with them everywhere and always, in power and glory. From this day on they would be children of the resurrection.

 

Christ Risen Frees Us From the Tyranny of Time

As a young man I would become frustrated on Easter if the preacher didn't state the meaning of the resurrection concisely, in twenty-five words or less. Now it's my turn, and I can see what preachers are up against on Easter. Jesus' resurrection overflows with meaning. It is the touchstone of many other beliefs. It can be seen from many angles, and (like a diamond) it sparkles from all its sides. It means one thing to this person, to another something else. It even means different things to the same people at different times in their lives.

For example, Christ's rising, his victory over death (a victory he graciously shares us), which is the root of the good news of Easter -- this victory frees us wonderfully from the tyranny of time. Time, like gravity, is a drag on us. There is never enough time. "Hurry up!" "Why should I hurry?" "You'll be late for the party." "So?" "So, party's don't last forever. You're going to miss this one altogether." "So? I'll go to the next party." "You'll miss that one, too, if you don't learn to hurry." "So? There'll always be another party." "You expect to live forever? Hurry up."

As Christians, we answer that last question ("Do you expect to live forever?), "Yes!" And it makes a huge difference in how we live. Not that we're always late for parties, but that we are not slaves of time. If you knew, today, for sure, that you would live forever (maybe sleep but never die), how would it change your life? Think about it carefully, for that is exactly what dawned on these early Christians. They were children of the resurrection. The more they thought about Easter, the more it turned them inside out!

Think about it. Think about it this afternoon, when you've eaten all that ham. If it's really true, as the old hymn says, that "time shall be no more," wouldn't that make a tremendous difference? If they took the shot clock out of professional basketball, all the strategies would change -- it would be a different game, wouldn't it? Well, Jesus took the death clock out of life. And the whole game has changed.

We Have the Time to Love Each Other

We are softer in our judgements, for example, when we knew (as we do) that we will live forever. We are easier on each other. For years, when husbands and wives have come to me to talk about their marriages, I have begun by saying, "There is only one rule: we never, under any circumstances, interrupt each other. I promise that we will stay with this as long as it takes for each of you to say every single thing he or she wants to say." And, immediately, the tension eases. Each one says, "I'm going to be heard! My side of this argument is not going to be judged (finally, not going to be judged) by how many words I can squeeze in edgewise. This isn't going to be a shouting match. There's going to be time." And, of course, when people take the time, give the time, to listen to each other, harsh judgements and criticisms fade and understanding (maybe even love) grows again. Much talk today about "quality time" -- something spouses owe each other, and parents owe children, and so forth. But how can anyone give quality time to anything, how can any time have quality, if the grim reaper is always at the door. If all life is a deadline. If we live every day in a panic, with a list of things to do that never get done? Children of the resurrection are not careless with time, but they have enough. If a loved one should die, for example, and we had never found the time to tell him how much he meant to us, there will be time in heaven. If I die, or become ill, and some dreams are unfulfilled, that's o.k. With Jesus there is always tomorrow.

Do you see that to be children of the resurrection is to live lives of boundless hope? Time does not weigh heavy upon us, and do us in at the end. God's promise of life after death, lifts our spirits and lightens our loads. That is all part of resurrection -- we live positive, hopeful lives because of Easter. Easter people are people of life.

People Seem to Choose Either Death or Life

I don't know if I can make this case, but I have often wondered if people don't fall into two groups: children of life and children of death. (Jesus sometimes referred to children of light and children of darkness.) If we accept Hamlet's assertion, that the only real question is the question of suicide, whether to live or die, whether to be or not to be, could we not make a list of those human behaviors that are life-affirming and another list of those that are, in fact, suicidal? For example, addiction is suicidal. Hating is suicidal -- it hurts the hater far more than the hated. Cheating and exploiting people are suicidal, for we need each other if we are to be happy. Hypocrisy is suicidal, for it splits us down the middle, dividing the public person from the private. I say these things are "suicidal" because they lead to death -- to a spiritual death, while our bodies are still alive, and to a total and terrible death later on.

But there are other behaviors that lead to life. Let's call them resurrection behaviors: trusting God, for example, and taking the great risk of trusting others. Loving without expecting a reward -- without expecting even love in return. Forgiving others their sins against us, and confessing our own. Giving instead of getting. These are behaviors that lead to life, the life of grace here and the life of glory later. These are the things we do if we know life is eternal, if we know Christ is risen. If we know that the death clock has been turned off. We now have time to grow, to be what we want to be, and live as we want to live.

Plant Now, Expecting the Flower to Grow

One of the finest of all American writers was E.B.White. (He gave us "Charlotte's Web" for the children, and a lot of good things for big people.) I came across something, the other day, which he wrote about his wife after she had died. He called it Planning the Resurrection. "The only moment in the year when she actually got herself up for gardening was on the day in fall that she had selected, in advance, for the laying out of the spring bulb garden. The morning often turned out to be raw and overcast, with a searching wind off the water -- an easterly that finds its way quickly to your bones.

Armed with a diagram and a clipboard, Katharine would get into a shabby old Brooks raincoat much too long for her, put on a little round wool hat, pull on a pair of overshoes, and proceed to the director's chair -- a folding canvas thing -- that had been placed for her at the edge of the plot. There she would sit, hour after hour, in the wind and the weather, while Henry Allen produced dozens of brown paper packages of new bulbs and a basketful of old ones, ready for the intricate interment. As the years went by and age overtook her, there was something comical yet touching in her bedraggled appearance on this awesome occasion -- the small, hunched-over figure, her studied absorption in the implausible notion that there would be yet another spring, oblivious to the ending of her own days, which she knew perfectly well was near at hand, sitting there with her detailed chart under those dark skies in the dying October, calmly plotting the resurrection."

We Invest Feely in Life, With Gratitude to the Risen Christ

It is right that Jesus should have been resurrected in a garden. A garden is a place of hope. A place where we bury things and confidently expect them to rise. A place where we invest ourselves (our labor, our money, and our love) with nothing but wonderful hope to sustain us 'til Spring and Easter.