St. Mary's Episcopal Church

The Reverend Beth Fain
April 16, 2006
Feast of the Resurrection 2006: Alleluia Christ is risen, the Lord is risen indeed Alleluia! ( Mark 16. 1—8)

Prior to this adult sermon, there will be a brief children’s sermon where we will talk about what the children meant when they flowered the cross and about the return of the word alleluia to the liturgy now that Lent is finally past. They will be told to shout out, “Alleluia Christ is risen, the Lord is risen indeed Alleluia!”, every time I raise a flowered cross throughout the remainder of the service.

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What difference has Christ’s death and resurrection made in your life?
Throughout the forty days of Lent, especially during Sunday morning Adult Christian Formation and then for our Good Friday meditations, we have been hearing from you about how Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection have made a difference to you.

We’ve heard a story about a broken, dying heart.
A story about a fatal gunshot wound and the emergency room.
A story about the overwhelming feeling of sin.
A story about a lost job.
A story about an injured back.
A story about a son who breaks his parents’ hearts.
Any of these sound like something that has happened your life or the life of someone you love?
That’s the story of the cross.
That’s the story of the women who go to the tomb today.
Mary of Magdela. Another Mary. Salome.
They walk to the tomb early in the morning of the day after the Sabbath.
Sunday.
They are filled with worry.
They want to anoint Jesus’ body for burial, but they can’t figure out how they’ll be able to get past the boulder that’s been placed at the entrance.
They discover that they’d worried for nothing (does that sound familiar to any of you?) because they find not only the tomb sitting there wide open But they also find Jesus’ body gone.
Then they are no longer worried.
Now they are alarmed (even though Jesus had told them that he would indeed die, and that he would return to life on the third day after his death).
An unnamed witness to Jesus’ resurrection, a man in white sitting on the right side of the tomb, tells them not to be alarmed, because Jesus has done what he said that he would do, Alleluia Christ is risen, the Lord is risen indeed Alleluia!

The man then tells them where to go and find Jesus.
Alleluia Christ is risen, the Lord is risen indeed Alleluia!

Now the women, who had faithfully followed Jesus to this point, now they are trembling, bewildered, afraid.
And we leave them telling no one anything.
Like the other disciples, the women fail in the commission that Jesus has given them.
Alleluia Christ is risen, the Lord is risen indeed Alleluia!

This is no way to end an Easter gospel.
But this is the way that Mark’s version of the gospel ends, and it makes it a very, very adult gospel.
There’s only the smallest whisper of hope.
In the midst of anger, fear, anxiety, confusion.
And I like it very much.
Because it rings so true.
Every day of our lives, we who know for sure that Jesus loves us and forgives us That Jesus died and was resurrected.
Yet we still act bewildered and/or frightened and/or worried.
We fail time and again to do what Jesus has told us to do.
We don’t expect to see what God has said, has promised, that God will do.
It’s as if each day of our lives, we’re standing at the door of an empty tomb and don’t know what to do next. Like the women.
But don’t forget the unnamed man in white.
The man without a name is the first one in Mark’s gospel to pronounce the truth that Jesus is alive Alleluia Christ is risen, the Lord is risen indeed Alleluia!
I like to imagine that he’s one of those nameless followers of Jesus.
Like us. Like someone we know.
Who shows up this one time.
Is in the right place at the right time, and tells us the truth.
Alleluia Christ is risen, the Lord is risen indeed Alleluia!
I like this gospel account of the resurrection so very much.
I like this gospel because it doesn’t give us any quick or easy answers.
Because it reminds us that God does do what God says God will do.
Because it is for all of us who are afraid or confused or worried.
Because it, like in our day to day lives, has only a smidgen of hope.
But it has enough hope.
Alleluia Christ is risen, the Lord is risen indeed Alleluia!
I ask us once again: what difference has Jesus’ death and resurrection made in your life?

During Lent we had our own men, and women, in “white at the right of the tomb” tell us about the resurrected Jesus.
Alleluia Christ is risen, the Lord is risen indeed Alleluia!

Of ice skating for joy after a back injury.
Of a chair of comfort and care in the midst of the horrific death of a son.
Of an illness from which was created an extraordinary stations of the cross.
Of a sick heart which was replaced with a brand new prior-owned heart.
Of sin and despair becoming like hair on fire with God’s power and love.
Do any of these remind you of something Jesus has done in your life?
I ask us one final time: What difference has Jesus’ death and resurrection made in your life?
One final word: It is not enough to say Alleluia Christ is risen, the Lord is risen indeed Alleluia! unless at the same time we can say that we have also risen, that we have received something from Jesus in our lives.

Not believing in the resurrection is not the very worst thing—at least not believing is admitting that Jesus dying and coming back to life is too tremendous a thing to take lightly without question.
The worst thing is for us who say Alleluia, Christ is risen, the Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia! and for it to have it have no effect on our lives.
(Paraphrase of Christoph Bumhartdt, Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter, Farmington, PA: Plough Publishing House, 2003, pp. 350, 354) Today we have a grown up gospel, for sure.
But may the words of the younger Christians ring in our ears when we are at the open door of our lives, tomorrow, feeling afraid or worried or confused.
To listen to the voice of the unnamed man in white as echoed in the words proclaimed by the younger ones of us:
Alleluia Christ is risen, the Lord is risen indeed Alleluia!

Then go out and finish the gospel.
To not keep standing there at the door of a tomb as if we do not believe that Alleluia Christ is risen, the Lord is risen indeed Alleluia!
But to look for the resurrected Christ. I promise he will be nearby. AMEN
Alleluia Christ is risen, the Lord is risen indeed Alleluia!