Musical Prelude and Service.

Easter Sunday
John 20:1–18
Jesus Christ is risen today! Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!
We sing and proclaim these words and it is my hope we all truly experience the joy and hope that they are meant to invoke.
But we must be careful to remember that these words of triumph, these proclamations of hope and new life, come out of the pain and the heartbreak of loss and grief. They come from a place of defeat.
Mary, followed by Peter and John, go to the tomb on this morning and they are left wondering what has happened to the body of their executed friend and teacher.
They have taken his body and I don’t know where; Mary chokes out in loss and despair.
This small group of disciples is lost and broken. They don’t know what the future holds or if they are threatened.
Their various reactions tell us many different stories. Peter and John are moved to action. Not coordinated or directed. Run in, look around and run out and head somewhere else. What can we do next?
But Mary sits and weeps. She sits in her grief. She takes in the stillness and the quiet and hears the voice of whom she assumes is the gardener.
And in that moment, she experiences the risen Christ. She finally recognizes the voice of her friend; she sees the face of her teacher. And she experiences and witnesses the new life that is present in front of her.
We live in a world that seems to demand action; demands productivity, or the sense that we are getting things done. Even as we are enduring pain and loss and a sense that everything is falling apart around us. Maybe especially in those cases?
We also live in a world that often seems averse to experiencing the painful and difficult parts of human experience. Are there ways to detour around the grief and the pain of death and loss? We can be tempted to work hard to cheer up those who are grieving or wonder why it seems to be taking someone a long time to move on from a time of painful loss. We are made uncomfortable by their pain and their grief.
Or perhaps we know someone who is reluctant to even face the prospect of pain, of betrayal or abandonment. Not necessarily their own, but the pain and grief of someone they know. Unsure of how to respond, unsure of how to make things better.
But in general, I do believe that we need to be prepared to go through the pain, the heartbreak, the grief. Not only as individuals but as a community. We need to be willing to endure the pain of loss, the heartbreak of grief. We as a community of faith have a responsibility to face death and loss with courage and faith. And to be sources of compassion and strength for our neighbours and our friends.
We must endure the loss, the death, before we can witness and truly appreciate the resurrection. Before we can truly celebrate and witness the new life that is always springing forth.
Death, heartbreak, betrayal, abandonment, pain. These are the sad realities of life. We all experience these things to one extent or another. Some experience them more intensely than others.
Some of us enjoy privileged lives that shelter us or soften the blow of these experiences. This is especially true when compared to those who are born to poverty or are oppressed or marginalized for a variety of reasons; including race, where they are born, their sexuality, their ability, or a variety of health issues. The reasons can seem endless. This does not minimize the pain or the sense of loss anyone can experience; but there are people in our midst who may experience these valleys on a more frequent basis, shall we say.
But we all find ourselves at some point, walking through these dark valleys. We can wish to bypass the valley. We may stop and say, “no, not going there.” But we can’t get to the new life on the other side if we are not prepared to experience the darkness. Sadly, we can also find ourselves trapped in the darkness. We can lose our way or succumb to the despair or anger that can be oh so tempting.
But God urges us on to keep moving through. Jesus is walking with us, guiding us. And I want to say, we can trust Jesus because Jesus has been there and walked this path before. Jesus has experienced the pain, the loss, the betrayal and abandonment. Jesus has endured the torture and the beatings and the suffocating pain of death. Jesus has journeyed to hell and back and is ready to walk that path again. He has experienced in turn; each stone and bump along the way and is ready to show you the way to the other side.
And the message remains. There is new life on the other side. There is a new world. A world of resurrection awaits us.
Jesus the Christ lives, he is risen. And we are called to live in the hope of that resurrection, that new life.
This is a message, not just for today, or just for Easter Sunday, but for every day. The message of Holy Week is not just for the past week but for every week. We experience times of despair, of abandonment; we experience times of loss and heartbreak; we witness oppression and death on a regular basis. It’s a harsh assessment but this is a truth of our world.
At any given time, we or someone we love may be experience their own journey of darkness, enduring their own Good Friday.
But we must not forget that we are promised a morning of resurrection. We are promised that we are not alone.
Even as we as a people can feel adrift. Even as we wonder what is coming next and fear for our future, we must be prepared to visit the tomb and perhaps follow the example of Mary and sit in silence with our grief. And then perhaps we can hear in the stillness of the garden that calm voice that knows us so well and listen as it sends us forward with a message of joy and hope that proclaims, Christ is Risen. He is risen indeed.
Amen

 

Music provided with permission through licensing with CCLI License number
2701258 and One License # A-731789