Preached by the Right Reverend Grant Lynn Ford at the Sunshine Cathedral on Easter Sunday, April 16, 2006.
1 Corinthians 15:1, 3b-8
1Let me refresh your memory, brothers and sisters. This is a summary of the Good News I shared with you, which you embraced and on which you have built your lives: 3bChrist died for our sins, exactly as Scripture tells us. 4He was then buried and was raised from death on the third day, again just as Scripture tells us. 5After that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6Indeed, he appeared to more than five hundred of the ‘faithful’ at the same time. (Most of them are still alive, although a few have already died.) 7He also appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8Last but not least he appeared to me, though I was like someone born at the wrong time.
John 20:1-18 (abridged)
1It was early Sunday morning — still quite dark! — when Mary Magdalene arrived at the tomb. The stone covering had been rolled aside! 2She quickly ran to tell Peter and John, crying “They’ve taken the Master! We don’t know where he is!”
3Peter and John took off, running at top speed. 4John arrived first, 5bent over to look in, and saw only strips of burial linen lying there. 6Peter charged on in, but all he saw was the the burial linen 7along with the cloth that had covered Jesus’ face, everything folded neatly. 10They returned home, but 11Mary remained outside the tomb weeping. Trying to see what they had seen 12she saw instead two angels seated where Jesus’ body had been. 13The angels spoke to her: “Woman, why all the tears?”
“They’ve taken my Master away,” she said. “I don’t know where they’ve put him.”
14Suddenly she sensed someone standing behind her. He spoke to her, though she didn’t know who he was. 15“Woman, why are you crying? Who are you seeking?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she responded, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you’ve put him, I’ll get him.” 16Then he spoke her name. “Mary.”
She whirled around at the sound! It was Jesus! She cried out, “Teacher!”
17“Don’t cling to me, Mary. I haven’t yet returned to Abba. Here’s what I want you to do. Go and tell my spiritual family where I am going. Repeat this to them: ‘I’m returning to Abba, my God and your God.’”
18Mary Magdalene rushed back to where the disciples were gathered, crying out: “I’ve seen the Master!” repeating everything he told her to say.
It’s Easter morning, and the country church is having a baptismal service down by the river. A gentleman comes along who’d been imbibing rather enthusiastically all night. He proceeds to walk into the water and stand next to the preacher. The minister notices the potential convert and says, “Mister, are you ready to find Jesus?”
The drunk looks back and says, “Yes, preacher, I sure am.”
So the preacher dunks the fellow under the water and pulls him right back up. “Have you found Jesus?” he asks.
“Nooo, I didn’t!” says the drunk. So the preacher dunks him under again, holding him down a bit longer before bringing him up out of the water.
“Now, brother, have you found Jesus?”
“Noooo, I haven’t, Reverend.”
Well, by this time the preacher is getting a little irritated. This is really a difficult convert. So he shoves the man back under the water and holds him there until he’s sure the drunk will drown if he doesn’t bring him back up. So he lifts his head back out of the water and says, “My God, man, have you found Jesus yet?”
The old drunk wipes his eyes and says to the preacher, “Are you sure this is where he fell in?”
This story reminds me of an article in an e-letter I receive from St. Matthew-in-the-City Anglican Church in Auckland, New Zealand. Clay Nelson, the editor, writes:
“As Christians prepare for Easter, it occurs to me that what is remarkable about this holiest of days is that it celebrates the God that was not there. They came looking, but the tomb was empty.
“At this time of year I long to turn the TV on and see this paraphrase of a controversial Australian tourism ad:
The cross has been taken down.
We’ve rolled away the stone.
The tomb is vacant.
So, where the bloody hell are you?
“Empty tombs foster faith, not certainty. Empty tombs do not mark the end of the chase, only the beginning. An empty tomb invites compassion born of empathy for those still looking. An empty tomb proclaims God is out of the box and not to be possessed.”
The church has tried to capture Jesus and put him in a box. They then lock up the wafers and think they are safe. But if the resurrection story tells us anything, it is this: Jesus is out of the box!
And we hear again the plaintive cry of Mary of Magdala: “They’ve taken my Master away. I don’t know where they’ve put him.”
Well, Mary, I have good news. I know where Jesus is. You’re right — he’s not in the tomb. He’s not in the locked box behind the altar. He’s alive and well, as he promised, living within us, just waiting to pop out in the most unexpected moments.
Like our own Bag Lady, Bill, who couldn’t be bothered to bring a can of food for Loaves and Fishes — until one Sunday he handed the girls a can and said, “So there!” And then the next month it was a bag of food. And now Bill can’t wait to bring his food to feed the hungry.
They said to Jesus, “When did we ever see you hungry and feed you?”
And Jesus responded: “When you did it to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me — you did it to me.” [Based on Matthew 25:37-40]
You want to know where Jesus is? He’s not in a box, he’s in Bill and he’s in the deacons and candidates who hold services in adult living facilities, talking to those folks who are too old to get out, sharing a moment of sunshine with them. He’s in those who serve you communion this morning, and in those who teach children in our Sunday school. He’s in those volunteers like Alan and, Amazing Grace who put the bulletins and SunBursts together every Friday. He’s in Kurt, who painted coat after coat of red paint on the church door so it would look like a church door should — red, the symbol of ‘sanctuary’, of safety, symbolizing the blood on the doorpost during that first Passover in Egypt.
Jesus is alive and well and kicking, believe you me. He’s right there with those who comfort the bereaved and those who visit the sick in the hospital or at home.
Why, he’s probably alive in that guy who wears a funny, pointed hat on Sundays, and carries a shepherd’s staff and wears colorful outfits, the guy who has loved this church and its people for these last 20 years, and looks forward to more years to come.
Jesus is also alive in those we help, and even in those who we cannot seem to help at all, as well as those who just don’t want our help. Jesus is just waiting for the opportunity to pop out and say, “Look here! I’m alive! Reach out; touch me. I’m real!”
Next time you wonder, “Where the bloody hell are you?” know that Jesus is alive in the person sitting right next to you — and in you, too! The Apostle Paul put it so clearly when he said, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” [Colossians 1:27]
Paul calls this “the riches of the glory of this mystery.” What is he saying? When we understand and experience this mystery, we comprehend how richly glorious it is — this mystery: “Christ in me, the hope of glory!”
Say it with me: “Christ in me, the hope of glory.” Say it again! And again!
The word for hope (el-pecé) not only means ‘to anticipate, as in expectation’, but it also means ‘to have confidence’. The other interesting Greek work is glory (doxa), the root word for doxology. It means, among other things, ‘dignity’.
“Christ in me, my confidence, my dignity!”
Charles Fillmore wrote: “Christ is risen in you and in me and in all people who realize his spirit as their constant inspiration in all things.” There’s the message of Easter. He’s not lurking somewhere, hidden and remote. He’s not under the control of some dull religion system. He’s right out here with the rest of us human beings, getting dirty, having fun, crying and laughing with us. He’s rolling up his sleeves, pitching in to help, and he’s lying in the hospital bed, waiting for our healing touch.
He’s so real, living right here, that I am filled with confidence; I am living my life abundantly and with dignity.
Christ in me, my confidence, my dignity.
Christ in me, my hope of glory.
Jesus is alive — and that’s the Truth!
Christ in me, my hope of glory.
Christ in me, my confidence, my dignity.
Jesus is alive — I have good health.
Jesus is alive — I have my wealth.
Jesus is alive — I share him with others.
Jesus is alive — and I like it like that!
And so it is! Amen.
