St Laurence's - Easter Day - Alastair Ferneley
Luke 24 1 - 12 (see below)
Have a look around you for a moment and see if you can see a picture, somewhere in the church of the reading I have just read? (Window above side altar) It's there, you've seen it every time you've been here, but how often have you really looked at it and wondered at it? We celebrate Easter every Sunday - nearly - every time we have communion we celebrate that Jesus died and gave his body and blood for us, and rose again. It's there in front of us every week, but how often do we really think about it? I wonder why? It is the very heart of the Christian faith, but it is difficult to understand. That first Easter Day something astonishing happened - something totally beyond our comprehension, and people have been wondering about it ever since.
Look at the window. The women went weeping to the tomb - they thought death had taken away all the faith and hope and love Jesus had brought them. But the stone was rolled away and Jesus' body wasn't there. They were puzzled - they couldn't understand what it might mean - then suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. Not gentle winged figures like we see here - but how else would you draw it? The women were frightened, but the angels - if that's what they were - said something very important, that I want to think about this morning - because it is what Easter is all about - it's a question - "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, he has risen!"
The women were in the graveyard - the place of death, but Jesus was not to be found there. Why do you seek the living among the dead? What might that mean?
What are the characteristics of the dead? A lot of it hinges around this word - 'Can't'. The dead can't move, see, hear, laugh, do anything. We can't meet them, talk to them, be changed by them (?). The place of the dead is a place of sadness, brokenness, coldness, rottenness, a place of can't. The dead are 'Past'. They once were alive, but are no longer. We often think of Jesus that way. It's quite amazing and very interesting that he died and rose again, but what does that have to do with you and me? Many, many people look for Jesus among the dead, in the past, and assume he has nothing to do with them now.
But he is not among the dead - why do you seek the living among the dead? What happened that first Easter morning took a pair of scissors to 'Can't'... suddenly everything that was impossible before became possible - 'Can't' became 'Can'.
Jesus is not among the dead - he is risen indeed - alleluia! So he can move, and see us and hear us - he can be part of our lives - we can meet him and talk to him and be changed by him. Jesus is not among the dead in the past - he is alive now. Easter is not just a celebration of something that happened nearly 2000 years ago, it's a celebration of something that is happening now.
If he isn't to be found among the dead, where is he to be found? What is the opposite of seeking him among the dead? We don't find Jesus among the dead, we find him among the living - in our church community - in our love for one another - in our living hearts - in our ordinary daily lives. What do we say nearly every Sunday at the beginning of the communion prayer...? 'The Lord is here!' He is alive now, we can meet him, have a relationship with him. We can be alive too.
But we so often forget that. Life can feel more like Good Friday - it seems that death - the negative - Can't - rules the world and rules our lives. We see war and conflict and aggression; we see cruelty, violence, drugs and drunkenness, even murder; we see relationships broken, people unable to live together, families torn apart; we see depression and sickness and, yes, death. We still see all these things 2000 years after the first Easter, so we might justly ask, 'Why are we celebrating Jesus' victory over death when it looks like we are still its prisoners and slaves?'
We do see, in the midst of war and aggression - moments where ordinary folks from both sides get together - moments of reconciliation and compassion. Like the famous football match between the English and German troops in the middle of the trenches of WWI. We see moments like where the parents of a murdered child forgive the killers. We see moments where communities rise against the gangs that terrorize them and build their streets into better places. We see, every day, people rising above the petty arguments that spoil our relationships and working hard at loving one another. We see moments where people whose lives have been blown apart by broken relationships or bereavements - we see some of those people rising up and living new lives.
Now a pessimist would look at these moments and say they are the exceptions - they are foolish - like that football match when the soldiers, next day, went back to shooting at each other. These moments of hope are just dreams. They Can't, can't, can't change the overall reality, which is bad. What the resurrection says is, 'No, these good moments of life breaking through are the reality. The rest is a bad dream - which though it is real and terrible enough - will come to an end.' Have you ever been in the middle of a dream which all seemed so real and then a strange noise started - Beep, beep, beep! - it didn't make any sense, until you realized it wasn't part of the dream at all but your alarm clock going off, calling you out of the dream world into wakefulness.
The resurrection of Jesus is like that. It's a blast from the real world that lies behind this world. It's calling us to wake up, to live a new life not ruled by death, not ruled by 'can't'. Actually to believe in the resurrection is an act of rebellion. I don't know if you felt like rebels when you gathered here this morning, but you are. This service is an act of rebellion against the evil, corruption, oppression, sin, and selfishness of this world. It is a refusal to accept that the negative is all there is. No! It can be better that this, and it will be. Easter is an invasion of this world by a new world of faith and hope and love and joy and peace and gentleness and kindness and self-control. It has begun - not just 2000 years ago in the past but now. Jesus is really alive.
And we can live that way. That doesn't mean we won't suffer, and have difficulties - but it means we can go on through our suffering and difficulties knowing - knowing - that there is something bigger and better and stronger than these. We can live in hope.
A new world has begun. Have a look at the window again. I wonder if you can read the words - words from St Paul. "For as in Adam all die..." In Adam - the old humanity - Death is the master. But, "even so, - even so - in Christ shall all - all - be made alive..."
The women came to the place of death, the place of 'can't', to grieve over the past. They came away with a message that he is risen. But when they went to the disciples, they didn't believe them - it seemed they were talking nonsense. You might think I'm talking nonsense now. Then you'd be in good company - the company of all the mighty apostles of Jesus. But Peter ran to the tomb to see - back to the place of the dead where Jesus wasn't, and went away wondering to himself what had happened. Go away and wonder to yourself - what has happened, and what could it mean to you?
Reading;
Very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, carrying the spices they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the entrance to the tomb, so they went in; but they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. They stood there puzzled about this, when suddenly two men in bright shining clothes stood by them. Full of fear, the women bowed down to the ground, as the men said to them, “Why are you looking among the dead for one who is alive? He is not here; he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, be crucified, and three days later rise to life.’ ”
Then the women remembered his words, returned from the tomb, and told all these things to the eleven disciples and all the rest. The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; they and the other women with them told these things to the apostles. But the apostles thought that what the women said was nonsense, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; he bent down and saw the linen wrappings but nothing else. Then he went back home amazed at what had happened.
