April 21, 2019

Resurrection of Our Lord Easter Sunday
Acts 10:34-43
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
1 Corinthians 15:19-26
John 20:1-8

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
 
“Mary”
It’s amazing how much
can be conveyed with one word,
 with a name.
 
With that one word
Jesus turns Mary’s life upside down
in all the right ways.
 
 She goes from weeping in a garden
 near an empty tomb, talking to a gardener,
 to beholding the risen Lord,
her teacher and friend.
 
It’s been a long journey to get to this place,
 with plenty of ups and downs,
 
we don’t know much about Mary before her life following Jesus
 other than she was from Magdala,
a fishing village along the sea of Galilee
 and Luke tells us that Jesus healed her,
 casting out seven demons,
 
since then we know she’s been one of the group of women followers of Jesus
who traveled along as disciples
and who took care of Jesus.
 
 Her own experience aside
 Mary has seen and heard some amazing things,
she’s seen Jesus heal,
she’s seen him feed thousands with a few loaves of bread,
 she’s heard him teach and debate with scribes and Pharisees
 
 she heard him weep for his friend Lazarus
then saw raise him from the dead
she’s experienced the excitement of the crowds
as Jesus entered Jerusalem
could this be the long awaited messiah?
 
 
and then two days ago
 she saw Jesus arrested,
 put on trial
sentenced to death by crucifixion,
 
and even when many of the disciples fled,
 Mary and a few others stayed at the foot of the cross
 and witnessed Jesus die,
 
then watched as Joseph of Arimathea
took Jesus’ body down from the cross,
prepared it for burial
and placed it in a tomb in a garden,
with a stone covering the entrance.
 
And with that
 all that she’s seen and heard,
the hope for the future
that had built along the way,
the purpose she’s dedicated her life to
 is gone.
 
 Dead and buried.
 
She must go observe the sabbath,
 rest and worship away from this place
 but John tells us that early on the first day of the week,
while it was still dark,
 as soon as possible
Mary comes back to the tomb,
 
 she’s so anxious to be near her Lord
 that she can’t even wait for daylight
 and when she goes into the garden
she finds that the stone has been rolled away from the entrance to the tomb
 and that Jesus is not where he is supposed to be.
 
In a panic she runs and gets some other disciples
 telling them “they have taken the Lord out of the tomb
and we do not know where they have laid him.”
 
And having delivered the message
Mary fades into the background for a bit
while Peter and the other disciple race back to the tomb
and find the cloths that had been used to embalm Jesus
 lying in the tomb folded neatly
 
and while they still don’t know quite what to think,
 we who are hearing the story
 know that this isn’t a simple case of grave robbing,
grave robbers wouldn’t have unwrapped the body,
 
 and we know it’s not even a return to life like Lazarus
who was still bound in grave cloths
when Jesus called him from his own tomb,
 no something else is going on here
 
 but in the moment those present don’t know that,
 the two disciples return home
not sure what to think
 
and Mary,
 Mary stays in the garden weeping,
 all she knows is that Jesus is not there.
 
She looks in the tomb again then turns around
and there behind her is another person
and supposing he is the gardener
she asks him where Jesus is,
 
and that is when Jesus speaks her name.
 “Mary”
 that one word capturing all the moments of a life
 that have built up to this point,
that one word conveying the love and friendship between teacher and disciple.
 
And at last Mary knows who it is before her.
She recognizes the voice,
 the one who knows her intimately
and she responds in kind with a term of endearment, rabbouni.
 
So much conveyed with one word
and yet that is who Jesus is,
he is the good shepherd who calls his sheep by name,
 
 
they recognize his voice,
 the voice that they associate with care, protection, with love,
 that is the voice they will follow because they are known.
 
We all long to be known in this way,
to experience this depth of relationship,
sometimes we get a glimpse of this in the love of a parent or a partner or a friend.
I remember growing up listening to my mom answer the phone,
I could tell it was my dad on the other end
without hearing his name,
because the tone of my mom’s voice changed
from formal telephone voice
 to the voice of one speaking with someone known and loved
 
We recognize when someone knows us,
we hear it and we respond to it
even in the situations where we don’t expect it,
 
Mary wasn’t expecting the resurrection,
to paraphrase Monty Python, no one expects the resurrection,
and yet when Jesus says her name
 she knows who is speaking to her.
 
This is the miracle of Easter,
 that in those moments in our lives when dead is dead and gone is gone,
 Jesus says our name
and we know who is speaking to us,
even if we don’t recognize the person in front of us,
especially if we didn’t expect to find new life,
love and understanding in that moment.
 
Jesus the good shepherd laid down his life for his sheep,
 for us
and he rose from the dead and ascended to be with God
all so that there is a place for us
where we are loved and known,
So that we may have life and have it abundantly right now.
 
 And while we may as yet be in the garden weeping,
or staring at the empty tomb scratching our heads
trying to figure out what it means,
when we hear our name called
 we will know who it is that is calling
and we will proclaim with Mary,
 “I have seen the Lord.”
 
Christ is Risen! Alleluia!