A Sermon preached on April 21, 2019, Easter Day,
at St. Augustine’s, WiesbadenIsaiah 65:17-25, 1
Corinthians 15: 19-26, John 20:1-18
I recently spotted
this meme on Facebook: “In the interests of biblical accuracy, all the
preaching about the resurrection this Easter Sunday will be done by women.”
That’s not going to work today I’m afraid, but there is a lot of truth in that statement:
Women found and announced the empty tomb. In today’s Gospel Mary Magdalene
tells Peter and the “beloved disciple,” "They have taken the Lord out of
the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." (John 20:2) Women
were first to encounter the risen Christ and the first to be sent – a role that
is called in Greek ‘apostle’ – to pass this message on. Jesus tells Mary
Magdalene to “go to my brothers,” and so Mary “went and announced to the
disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord.’” (20:17-18)
So, without Jesus’
female followers, we might not be here. It’s a pity that it took our Church
nearly 2000 years to catch up on this and give women equal access to all
offices and orders … and that many churches have not yet caught up. But that’s
not my topic today, not who told us, but what they told us about: The Resurrection.
Can Christianity
exist without the resurrection? Paul certainly doesn’t think so: “If for this
life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied!” he
tells the Corinthians. (1 Cor. 15:19) Why is it so important? The resurrection
is the event through which everything Christ did and taught is vindicated. It gives
his death on the cross meaning. It is the event through which death is defeated
and destroyed. It is the event through which God and humanity are reconciled. It
not only changes Jesus, but us too.
Without the
resurrection, Jesus would just have been a very good human being. Very good
human beings are not a bad thing, it is what we all strive to be. But a very
good human being is not good enough to fulfil God’s promise that, as Peter
writes in his first letter, (1 Peter 1:3-4) “By his great mercy (God) has given
us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and
unfading, kept in heaven.” Just as there is no Christianity without the resurrection,
you can’t really be a Christian without hope: it is a key quality expressing not
only the desire for something to happen, but also the expectation and trust that
it will happen.
I’m certain you were
all as shocked as I was when I heard about, and then watched the fire rage at
Notre Dame cathedral in Paris just a few days ago. I was reminded of the fire
here 53 years ago. Our church was gutted, and yet rebuilt within a year. Notre
Dame will take longer to rebuild, but it will be restored as a symbol of resurrection
and of hope fulfilled.
Our living hope in
Christ through his resurrection both impacts and transforms this life and opens
up a perspective to everlasting life. It is so central to our faith, even more
than Christmas, that we celebrate the resurrection not just today at Easter, but
every Sunday in the Eucharist, at every funeral, and at every Baptism: The
Sacrament of new birth and new life.
Originally all
baptisms were by immersion, the baptismal candidate was submerged, pressed under
water to symbolize his or her death to sin, before rising again, perhaps
coughing and spluttering, as they entered into a new life. Before Lawrence and
Rebecca grab Oscar and run away, that won’t happen today. The worst that can
happen to him is that he gets a little water in his eyes if I’m not careful
enough when pouring. But the symbolism, the meaning is the same. He dies to sin;
it loses its power over him. Today he becomes, in the words of the prophet
Isaiah,” an offspring blessed by the Lord,” blessed by the constant presence of
God’s Spirit in his life so that, as Isaiah goes on to promise on God’s behalf,
even “before they call I will answer, (and) while they are yet speaking I will
hear.” (Isaiah 65:23-24)
This gift of God’s
loving presence is not a treasure to be hidden away, just as Christ’s
resurrection promise is not something we cherish until just before we die, as
if we don’t need it before then. We are supposed to grow, to be formed, and to
be transformed by this gift. The Baptismal Covenant we will recite together is much
more than a list of things to do: teach, pray, resist, repent, proclaim, serve.
These are acts that change us as we do them, just like the Presiding Bishop’s
Way of Love[1]
with its very similar sounding set of practices (turn, learn, pray, worship, bless,
go, rest) are meant to transform us by their daily use.
Jesus’
resurrection is not just a single, historical event, nor just a future promise.
The resurrected life begins for us all at our Baptism, that is the momnet when we start
living the life of Christ, with the goal of becoming like him. We are
continually raised to new life through our Baptism into the life of Christ. And
yes, this Christian hope also stretches beyond our earthly lives, even unto
life everlasting. The resurrection promise is the very center of our lives as
Christians. And that is why we say both with certainty, and great joy:
Alleluia. Christ
is risen.
The
Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.
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