Easter Sunday – Alive in Christ

Mark Diller Harder

Matthew 28:1-10

We began Lent with a clump of clay! (pick up clay) Nothing really – just this heavy, almost dirty sticky lump in our hands, just this piece of potential, held by the children, the Lent Journey Group, within each of our lives – to be shaped and formed and stretched and changed and squished back up and re-worked and re-imagined again and again into creative form and pattern and shape.

Like Jesus, we have been drawn into our temptations, like Nicodemus into the joy and discovery and gifts of the dark, like the man born blind, into recognizing our blindspots and how we might really see and know God is present even in our most terrible, horrible days, and like the disciples in search of a donkey, sent on ahead into the unknown. We have reworked and reformed the clay again and again. Like the clay, our lives have been shaped and formed in the image of God. The image of the clay has guided us this season, and brings us now out of Good Friday and into Easter morning.

Do you Remember Kevin’s Dad on the video the first Sunday, showing us his pottery wheel, and slowly and carefully shaping a beautiful vase – widening it out here, thinning the bottom, adding design, trimming the edges, massaging the top, drawing out its beauty, bringing it to completion… when suddenly, ‘whop’ – a misstep, a slip, a jab, and the whole thing flew apart and collapsed again into a heap of clay. From dust we come and from dust we shall return. Most of us jumped a bit in our seats, watching the vase get ruined – a little death – the potential evaporated in an instant, and we wondered what might come next.

The disciples, the women, the followers, the crowds, had been around Jesus for 3 years. They had seen his miracles, they had heard his teachings, they had been baffled by his parables and riddles, they had lived with the turmoil and opposition he stirred up; they had caught his vision too, they had felt his love and his calling. They knew intuitively that he was indeed the Master Potter; he was indeed the Messiah, the awaited one. Their lives were slowly being shaped and transformed.

And then suddenly, ‘whop’, it was all over. He was arrested, tried and cruelly killed on the cross. They had lost their leader and lost their hope. Their breath was taken away from them. Their future collapsed, evaporated, vanished in an instant. They were left only with despair, misery and anguish. They had no idea what might come next, and what they were supposed to do. They had reached a dead end in life, and had no imagination even for what might come next. They are left in fear!

This is where we find the women early on Sunday morning. All they can think of doing is to go to the tomb, to the place where their beloved Jesus had been taken after the cruel and agonizing death witnessed to on the cross. They come in fear. They come in sorrow. They come in confusion. They come because of love. What they find is a great earthquake, a dazzling angel and totally shaken up guards. The message from the angel is succinct and profound. Do not fear. He is not here. He has been raised. Go tell the disciples. And then… Indeed he is going ahead of you – there you will see him.’ It is this line that struck me, that makes all the difference. Jesus is going ahead of you – and there you will see him. That is the message of Resurrection! A message repeated by Jesus himself a few verses later. ‘Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.’ Resurrection for those with eyes to see.

But wait, didn’t we just hear last Sunday, with the disciples’ improbable search for a donkey, that Jesus points us ahead to an unfamiliar road – for us to go on ahead of Jesus, stepping into the unknown, to take a leap of faith with no guarantees that things will work out, to a future we can’t see? These sound like polar opposites, until we look at the relationship of Crucifixion and Resurrection. It is not that simple. Yes, we will experience loss, confusion, fear, disorientation, death itself – Crucifixion, and yes, Jesus goes ahead of us and we will see and experience new life, hope, joy – Resurrection, but there is no predicting how and where and when that will happen. There is no straight path. No formula. No 1 to 1 relationship. No predictability. The path is just as unknown, just as unfamiliar, but it comes with a promise that Jesus will be there and we will see him. I tend to like Math – I even enjoy preparing our taxes and filling out all the different columns and adding them up, and getting to an exact refund at the end – all logical, and orderly and predictable. But Resurrection does not work like that. There are no formulas. There are no obvious columns to add up. You don’t know where you are going and how you might get there, or even if you will get there. It is that stepping into the unknown, that unfamiliar road, each and every time, but with that promise that Jesus, the very one who pushed us to go on ahead on our own, surprise, will also be there when we get there, through the total mystery and astonishment and unpredictability of resurrection. Jesus both sends us on ahead of him, and is present when we get there.

This is what we have been hearing throughout the New Testament. ‘Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life, will keep it for eternal life.’ (John 12:24-25) ‘Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.’ (Colossians 3:2-3). ‘I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.’ (Galatians 2:19b-20a) We are asked to die to ourselves, to sacrifice for others, to let go of control, to walk the journey of Jesus to the cross. Our life is full of little deaths, of losses, defeats, sacrifice. When we think we have it figured out, we recognize that our vision was too small, our sight too clouded, our intentions too misdirected, our purposes too unknown. And yet, when we least expect it, there are also little resurrections, surprising joys, unexpected grace, renewal of life again. We experience healing. A relationship is restored. A conflict is resolved. We let go of trauma and its hold on us. We discover a deeper level of community. We are inspired to a new level of service and commitment to our local community. We discover our true self and true calling. Our spiritual life is renewed and we trust God again. Little resurrections all around us. We suddenly realize that Jesus has indeed gone ahead of us, and if we open our eyes and pay attention we see that God is with us.

Barbara Brown Taylor speaks these words in an Easter sermon: ‘God has power beyond all human understanding; life is stronger than death; none of us can ever say for sure that everything is over for us…God has never forgotten how to breathe life into piles of dust. We do not know what resurrection will mean for us in the end. We cannot know how it will feel or work or look. But we do have evidence it is so. God has woven resurrection into our daily lives so that we can learn the shape of it and perhaps learn to trust the strength of it when our own times come. It is entirely unnatural. It is how God works, now and forever—not by protecting us from death but by bringing us back to life again—because life, not death, is God’s will for us. Every moment of our lives carries the seeds of that truth. For those who believe it – Our hope shall never die. Amen.’

(https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/2559/surviving-crucifixion)

The woman at the tomb early that Easter morning had absolutely no idea that they would be met by the Risen Christ. They had suffered their own little deaths – the death of their dreams, their hopes, their love. Meeting the Resurrected Jesus came as total surprise. Maybe that is why when they run off from the tomb; they go quickly with fear and great joy. They hold those two opposites together. Fear and Great Joy. Mystery and Certainty. Pointing ahead and already being there. Death and Life. Crucifixion and Resurrection. It is an amazing posture of faith – to live out our lives with fear and great joy. To come before God with fear and great joy. Then we are truly open to having our lives both shaped, and in the end totally transformed through the mysterious and wonderful power of God.

This has been a rich season of Lent for us here at SJMC. It has felt like each Sunday and each Scripture story has spoken deeply into our personal and collective lives together. We have kept asking how we are shaped and called by God. As a congregation, we are in a season of change and transition. We are in a pastoral transition and discerning what composition of pastoral team is needed for these coming years. We are still figuring out who we are as a congregation coming out of the pandemic. We are asking important questions about our future and what church and faith will look like for coming generations, questions being asked across the broader church in our time. There is this stepping on ahead into the unknown. And yet, in the midst of this, it feels like there has been tremendous energy released and awakened within us. We are engaging other, and talking, and working together. There is a kind of buzz going on – like little resurrections. We are discovering God already there ahead of us. Yes, we carry both fear and great joy. I suspect that is a good thing, and a faithful response to the Master Potter who calls us and shapes us and ultimately transforms each of us through the power of the Resurrection.

We began with a clump of clay. Who knew how dramatically the clahy would be shaped and formed and then transformed into something so beautiful? Did you see the photos of our children, who each took that clump of clay and designed and shaped their own container – sending it to be fired in the kiln – and the absolute surprise and delight on their faces when they received what their efforts had been transformed into? They had no idea. There is a mystery here. It is this mystery and wonder we meet and experience in our own lives when death is unexpectantly transformed into life, and we meet the Resurrected Christ. Do not be afraid. For Jesus is not here. Indeed he is going ahead of you – there you will see him. Thanks be to God! Amen.

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