Gospel Reading: John 20:1-18
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus’s head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed, 9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to their homes.
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look[a] into the tomb, 12 and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew. “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and she told them that he had said these things to her.
Sermon
- All through the winter, my husband Charles works outdoors on the farm
- The days are short and dark; it’s a cold, desolate landscape out there
- With snow, mud, manure, and sileage everywhere
- But maybe because of how bleak and dark it is, he pays close attention to the sight and sound of birds and animals—the few that are around all winter;
- One is the horned lark, a little bird that travels in groups and makes a sound like tiny bells tinkling
- There’s the occasional eagle or fox hunting in the snow
- And the Great Horned Owls begin their mating conversations in January; late at night we can hear them hooting to each other; planning their families
- In March and April, tiny changes start to happen, things most of us would never notice; but Charles notices
- He keeps track of the time of the sunrise and sunset
- He might hear, very faintly, the sound of arctic swans flying in skeins so high you can’t see them, only hear them
- The first sandhill cranes, the red wing blackbird, the killdeer;
- This year he has seen a pair of kestrels nesting in a box he put up just for them
- Recently he told me he was walking through the pasture and heard a fly following him;
- that told him the swallows could not be far behind,
- and sure enough, 2 days later, he saw a swallow
- He walks the farm, cleaning out bluebird boxes for nesting
- In the ground, he finds the nobbles of rhubarb poking out,
- and later, the little heads of the asparagus in their patch
- In May, he has taught me to run, not walk, the first time I see an Oriole in the yard, bearing fresh cut oranges to greet them
- Now that I’m here in the city, he sends a text every time he sees these little signs, so I can celebrate with him.
- Most of us ordinary people see March and April as, yes, a little warmer, but also dreary and unpredictable with those surprise weather changes:
- The snow storm that comes after you’ve put your coats away,
- the open, muddy ground in the yard;
- (We walked this weekend at the bird sanctuary, and frankly, at eye level, the woods looked brown and unkempt; but if you looked down at the ground, you could see a little green popping up under the dried leaves; and up in the tops of the trees, the first little buds)
- it’s an ugly, uncertain time of year
- Most of us need BIG signs, like that first 70 degree sunny day,
- or the annoying Robin building its nest on top of your front porch light
- Otherwise, we really don’t believe spring is coming
- But people like Charles–and Kathryn Lee–take the time to go out and notice the tiny signs that spring is always, always coming.
- The resurrection stories in the four gospels each capture slightly different signs that something dramatic happened on the morning we call Easter.
- Matthew’s gospel makes the resurrection sound big and dramatic,
- with earthquakes rumbling
- and angels dressed in lightening, rolling the stone away
- Roman guards fainting
- dead people rising from graves.
- Matthew’s resurrection is one nobody could overlook!
- (It’s a favorite version for filmmakers like Cecil B. DeMille who like pyrotechnics!)
- Mark is very different!
- In Mark’s gospel, the person in the tomb is not an angel, just a “young man”;
- the stone has already been rolled away;
- there is no Jesus to be seen,
- so disciples think the whole thing is just “an idle tale”.
- John’s gospel, my personal favorite, was written latest, and has the most detail and most confusion.
- John makes a point of telling us the signs of Christ’s resurrection were so subtle that his closest friends could easily have missed it entirely.
- It’s still dark when it happens
- The stone has already been rolled away,
- Jesus’ body is gone,
- Some disciples look in the tomb, but see nothing except the linen cloths, and then they go home.
- It’s only when Mary, by herself, pays close attention, that she sees 2 angels in white;
- maybe they are small, like pixies, or floaty and ethereal like clouds;
- They don’t announce anything, just ask her why she’s crying
- And then, Jesus himself appears to her,
- but she doesn’t really notice it’s her friend, because he just looks like the gardener
- This is my favorite part of the story,
- Rembrandt has influenced me a lot with this painting of the moment he encounters Mary (on bulletin cover).
- The risen Christ appears as a humble, unrecognizable little man: a gardener in a floppy sun hat,
- The angel accompanying him looks like a little kid he’s dragged along
- Mary could easily have dismissed this person, but she confronts him with her urgent question: has HE taken Jesus’ body away?
- She cannot see any signs of spring in the garden where Jesus is laid; it’s all just barren earth to her;
- But the gardener in the floppy hat is carrying a pocket full of seeds!
- And a shovel to plant them with.
- Luckily, Mary takes the time to study the gardener, the angels, and all the other little signs that so far, she and others have missed;
- She finally sees the true sign that God is doing a new thing.
- And she doesn’t stop there, with her own resurrection experience!
- She goes off to tell others what she has seen,
- whether they believe her or not.
- We live in a world where it’s gotten harder to see any signs of resurrection.
- It’s harder every day to imagine hope for the poor, hungry and sick
- To imagine a world where our differences are honored and celebrated
- Where other nations are respected, and respect us!
- Everywhere these days there are signs of people losing what is precious to their well-being and survival
- We see more obvious signs of hate and fear
- hunger and disease, natural disaster and war going unaddressed;
- leaving people without our help as a nation;
- the effects of climate change, first slow and subtle, then getting dramatic,
- This Eastertide, I am sad to say I don’t anticipate any big, triumphant victories for God’s people coming in the near future
- Although I am willing to be surprised!
- I think a possible strategy for hope these days is to “start small”;
- To tune our attention to small things:
- To watch for those little flowers that break through the cracks in the sidewalk
- The ways that small, seemingly powerless things and people and creatures gather their spiritual energy and resilience
- To exert slow, steady, loving power and positivity into the world
- Maybe resurrection in our time will not look like a Cecil B. DeMille movie
- But maybe it’s in your power to notice the small, unexpected surprises around you in nature and in the human world
- Have you noticed any small, joyful surprises in the world lately? What?
- Where can you look for more surprises? How can you find them?
- And finally, when you do encounter tiny signs of good news in the world, will you keep it to yourself? Or will you share it, and with who?
- It may look bleak in the world right now;
- But the birds are coming back; building their nests, laying eggs!
- They are ethereal, winged messengers!
- And there are seeds to be planted,
And tools to be gathered to help grow God’s new thing.
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