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Easter Sunday
April 16, 2006
Delivered by Reverend Sandra Stayner
Easter day has arrived. The birds are singing and the trees have begun to bud. We even have a little bunny that has arrived in our back yard, and I heard a large white bunny has been spied bouncing around the church. This is such an exciting time. The trees along the side of the road have blossomed in the last few days. There has been a wonderful buzz in the air all morning! The church looks beautiful decorated with lilies and white linen, and all the candles.
But if you had come to church here during the week you would have found a very different picture. After the fellowship supper on Thursday night where we remembered the last Supper Jesus had with his disciples, the altar was stripped of its beautiful covering. The candles were extinguished, the crosses were removed, every decoration was taken out of the sanctuary, and the church was left bare. In the darkness people came to pray throughout the night, to keep watch as Jesus suffered. On Good Friday a large wooden cross was tied to the rail. The whole church was in mourning as we remembered that awful day on which Jesus was nailed to a cross and executed not because he had done anything wrong, but simply because his love for the world was so threatening that the world chose to destroy him. To those who watched him die it seemed as if the forces of evil had done their worst. A completely innocent man was put to death for crimes he had not committed. Subjected to a horrific death reserved for the worst criminals of his time, even Jesus had experienced a complete absence of God's presence at the time of his greatest need. It looked to all the world as if the powers of evil had forever overcome the presence of true love.
As the women came to the tomb very early on that first Easter morning, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, their hearts must have felt like lead. They came to do what women always did after the death of someone in their family - they came to anoint the body with spices. They were worrying about how they would ever manage to move the enormous stone that had been placed in front of the tomb. Each immersed in their own experience of grief they didn't look up until they reached the tomb. And there they were faced with an astonishing sight! The enormous stone placed before the tomb by the police to ensure that the body could not be secretly taken away had been rolled to one side as if it were paper mache and the tomb was empty except for an angel in a white robe sitting on the right side. The incredible truth that Jesus had promised slowly began to dawn on the women - Jesus was raised from the dead. The fear that had gripped their hearts as they watched him suffer and die turned first to terror and then to amazement. It would be awhile before they would be able to take in the meaning of it all but for now it was enough to know that their beloved Lord was alive. In spite of their fears God would indeed have the last word in this story!
And their story is of course our story too. We are all confronted with death or death-like situations at times throughout our lives. Like the women at the tomb, we often find ourselves afraid that evil has done its worst. I certainly felt like that when I found myself trapped in a building one block from the world trade center on Sep. 11th 2001. As I made my way through the rubble outside our door with thick black smoke filling my lungs, I felt as though the world had come to an end. And sometimes when I sit in a hospital room with a family who has just lost a loved one I wonder how they will survive the incredible pain of separation. When I read about our young soldiers coming home from Iraq with missing limbs and eyes, emotionally spent from the trauma they have experienced, I find myself wanting to ask why evil still seems to be getting the upper hand. The empty tomb was a startling sign that in spite of all that had happened to Jesus, God was still in control. It remains a sign today in the midst of a broken world that God is still in control and that love will always win out, perhaps almost imperceptively in the battle with evil and death.
And just as the angel promised the women that Jesus would go ahead of them to prepare the way for the good news they had to share, so Jesus will be ahead of us in whatever situation we face. No matter what happens to us in life, we can absolutely trust that we will not be left comfortless. Jesus will be present in the midst of every circumstance with far greater compassion than any human being could ever express. What the women experienced that morning is true for us today. Jesus is alive and active, still blazing a trail for us, and once we begin to experience that truth for ourselves, our lives will never be the same again.
The women were told to go to the disciples in Galilee because there they would finally see their beloved friend Jesus. St. Paul tells us that the church has actually become the living body of Christ. Wherever Christians gather, the love of God will be revealed, the same love with which Christ reached out to heal the sick, give the blind their sight and set the prisoners free. This church should always be the place where anyone who comes will experience the incredible compassionate love that Jesus showed to the poor, the dispossessed and the weak of all kinds during his life on earth.
On my very first day at St. Peter's I was amazed to note that a little tea station with tea and scones had been set up in the hall outside so that I could offer hospitality to anyone who stopped by to say hello. What incredible thoughtfulness that was on Tina's behalf for the church's new rector. When we asked this community for meat loaves to serve at the homeless shelter in Waterbury the freezer miraculously filled up with loads of meat loaves as people all over the parish made their own version of meat loaf for people without the kitchen space to cook for themselves. A simple rose appears on the altar in thanksgiving for new babies that are born. Bev has sold stop and shop certificates after church for years, because a percentage of every certificate that is sold goes to help build houses in Cheshire for people without the means to buy a house of their own. Refugees have been supported as they start a new life in this country. Toiletries are collected every Christmas for the prisoners down the road. God's love is expressed in so many ways not only to members of this community but to those outside as well, because Jesus can still be found alive wherever two or three come together in his name.
The empty tomb is by no means the end of God's story, in some ways it's just the beginning. The women came out of the tomb and ran away because they were frightened out of their wits. It was only after they had spent time with the other disciples, each one sharing their own experiences of the risen Lord, that the reality of the living Christ and the joy of living in his presence all began to make sense, which is why Easter is not over at the end of today, but is celebrated by the church for 50 days. We all need time to take in the reality that Christ is risen from the dead, and we need to listen to one another's stories of the experience of Gods' presence in our lives, before we will be able to take in fully the gift of God's presence in our lives. We will be coming together as a community for many different events over the next few weeks. I hope you will join us whenever you can. You will be amazed by the stories you will hear!
Christ IS alive. Give thanks to God! And let the joy that comes from knowing that we are all held in the hands of a supremely loving God infuse every moment of your lives.
Alleluia! The Lord is risen!
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