I Have Seen The Lord!
Introduction
When my son was little, probably around age 5, I remember this one time we went for a hike as a family. And as children often do, he picked up a stick along the way. It was good for turning over stones to see what was underneath, or poking through the leaf litter on the forest floor. And of course, it was also a walking stick, good for helping to climb over rocks and logs. When we got home from the hike, he still had the stick. And he insisted on planting it in the flower bed behind the house. Just shoved it down into the soil, like he expected it to grow. There it stood, a dry stick poking up out of the ground. I tried to tell him that it wasn’t going to grow. Most things start from a seed or a bulb, or get planted out of a pot with roots attached. This stick didn’t have roots, and it wasn’t from a seed. I didn’t want him to be too disappointed when it didn’t grow. But he insisted on planting it and leaving it there, so we did.
The stick was soon forgotten. It overwintered in the south facing flower bed behind the house. Until one day, in spring, my son came to me with the jubilant news that the stick was alive! It sprouted! I went to look. I couldn’t believe my eyes! He was right! What had once been a dry stick was very much alive! And I said it wouldn’t grow, couldn’t grow! What did I know?!
Somehow, it sent down roots, and grew tiny green leaves, and then twigs, and branches, until it was a shrub. We eventually identified it as a Sumac. Its leaves turned a beautiful red in the fall, and its clusters of small greenish flowers later formed into crimson berries.
Sumac, or Staghorn Sumac, is the variety native to the southern part of Ontario, and east to the Maritimes. It is a hardy shrub that grows in open places such as roadsides, forest edges, and clearings. It likes a lot of sun, and can tolerate most soil conditions. It is pretty drought and pest and disease resistant. Its thick branches are downy and resemble the velvety antlers of a male deer (stag), that is where it gets the name Staghorn Sumac.
Sumac shrubs will spread by sending up shoots from their roots that soon grow into stems and then shrubs. They can spread quite quickly. But in the case of the stick my son planted, it had no roots. It was just a dry branch, as far as I could tell. I suspect it was that downy covering on the branch, when it came in contact with the soil, and the moisture in the soil in the springtime, it sprouted, and grew. Now whenever I see Sumac, I remember the one that sprouted from a dry walking stick my son brought home from the woods, and planted in the ground. Children often know things that adults don’t know or don’t allow themselves to imagine.
Experiencing the Story
Our scripture today is a story about One who was dead.
About a movement that seemed hopeless and over.
About disciples terrorized into silence, hiding behind locked doors.
About a brave woman’s walk, early in the morning to a garden tomb
to weep.
And it is a story of shock.
The tomb is empty.
She sees a vision of angels through her tears.
It is a story of confusion:
Where have they laid him?
A story of surprise:
A figure–the gardener, most likely, who asks,
“Why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?”
In her confusion she accuses him of removing the body.
And then he says her name, “Mary!”
And she responds,“Rabbi!
There is so much dissonance here!
So much that doesn’t make sense!
It is jarring,
incongruent:
impossibilities clashing together.
What seemed dead and done and over is now alive.
He is here.
He is risen!
So Mary reaches for him.
Wanting to be certain.
Wanting to cling for dear life.
“Do not hold on to me,” he says.
This is not a path back to what was.
Nor can you try to capture this moment, preserve it
like a treasure in a glass case.
You can’t contain it.
The creative energy breaking out of this stone cold cave,
the love energy breaking open stone cold hearts,
the force of love that can crack apart stone cold resistance,
cannot be kept,
cannot be restrained.
The Spirit cannot be limited, cannot be managed, cannot be controlled.
Here is new life where there was none.
Here is new hope.
God is alive.
Love did not die.
Death is not the end.
Death does not have the final word.
Here the dissonance we have struggled with all through Lent is finally a gift.
The impossible, the improbable, and the unlikely
come together,
for death now brings life.
New life is not possible without death.
Jesus said, very truly, I tell you,
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 (John 12:24):
joy and hope and love beyond measure.
And now we have a woman transformed, once again, by her encounter with Jesus.
Do not hold on to me,
but go and tell.
And Mary goes,
brave, strong, bewildered, believing.
Mary Magdalene’s stunning announcement,
“I have seen the Lord!” is the first Easter sermon
She spoke only five words
And now we have a movement transformed.
Who is Jesus?
Much of the gospel of John has to do with seeing. Early in the story, John the Baptist directs the gaze of his disciples, Look, here is the Lamb of God! as Jesus walks by. John’s disciples follow Jesus, who asks them, What are you looking for? When they ask where he is staying, he invites them to come and see. Those first followers invite other friends. We have found the Messiah…come and see (John 1:35-46).
Throughout the rest of the gospel we too are invited to come and see who Jesus is, what he does, and what kind of Messiah he is becoming. We hear him say over and over again, I am…living water, the bread of life, the light of the world, the good shepherd, the true vine, the way the truth and the life, the resurrection and the life. Sign after sign after sign points to what Jesus does and how he does it–welcoming, healing, feeding, forgiving, comforting, calming the sea, clearing the temple, riding on a donkey into Jerusalem, washing his disciples’ feet. Over and over again, Jesus points toward God. If you see me, he says, you see God.
The whole invitation in John’s gospel is to see. Open your eyes. Perceive. Understand. Believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. A different kind Messiah. A different kind of King. Seeing and believing are closely connected. And a new vision starts to emerge. A new hope takes shape. The crowds following Jesus grow. And many do start to see–to grasp who Jesus is:
- From John the Baptist, who says, look, here is the Lamb of God! (John 1:29, 36)
- To Andrew and Philip: We have found the Messiah…Come and see. (John 1:46)
- To Nicodemus who says, no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God (John 3:3).
- To the Samaritan woman Jesus met at Jacob’s Well, who runs to her village with the words, come and see, and many Samaritans believed in him because of her testimony (John 4:29)
- To Simon Peter who says, Lord…you have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God (John 6:68-69).
- To the man born blind who says, though I was blind, now I see…he opened my eyes (John 9:25, 30).
- And to Martha’s confession, (or quite likely Mary Magdalene’s confession, as I explored in an earlier sermon). Yes Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world (John 11:27)
- Even Pilate seems to grasp in some way who Jesus is, when he posts an inscription of the cross of Jesus that reads, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews (19:19).
All through John’s gospel, the writer is leading us to Mary Magdalene’s astonishing announcement, I have seen the Lord. John’s gospel moves from “come and see” to “I have seen.”
On the morning of the empty tomb, Mary Magdalene preaches the first sermon. She announces to the other disciples, I have seen the Lord! That evening, Jesus appears to more of the disciples, but Thomas is absent. Later the other disciples tell him, We have seen the Lord.
“Come and see.
I have seen the Lord.
We have seen the Lord.
That’s the Gospel of John. That’s the Easter message. Five words from Mary. Five more from the others…the simplest sermon. The only sermon. Nothing more is needed. Except one thing–that the I becomes we…tell me your story. Have you seen him? Where? Tell me!” (from Diana Butler Bass, A Beautiful Year, 182-183)
There is an interesting line in John 12, after Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey. We read, his disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done by him (John 12: 16). It is like John is inviting us to go back and read the story again. Go back again and read the signs. Go back to the beginning, to that first invitation, Come and see. Follow the trail of signs and teachings.
None of this will make sense at first. There is too much dissonance. Jesus does too many things that don’t fit our expectations, or our religious sensibilities. He heals on the Sabbath. He refuses to blame the man born blind for his condition. He frees a woman about to be stoned to death for adultery. He talks theology with a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well. He feeds a hungry crowd but walks away from their desire to make him into their king. He speaks of a kingdom not of this world.
When the crowds would be poised to follow him, to fight for him, he chooses to ride in their midst on a donkey. He celebrates Passover by washing his disciples feet, and when Peter jumps to his defence he tells Peter to put away his sword. None of this will make sense at first. And especially not the incongruence of a Messiah who will give up his life. Who will be mocked and beaten by Roman soldiers. Who will wear a crown made of thorns. Who will be dressed in a royal, purple robe, soaked in his own blood from a whipping. Who will be crucified between two criminals, despised, rejected and scorned. Jesus’ disciples struggle to see, and so do we. They don’t understand these things at first, and neither do we.
Until Mary Magdalene’s Easter sermon, I have seen the Lord. Then we remember the story and how it unfolded. We remember the signs and where they pointed. We can see more clearly the kind of Messiah Jesus is showing himself to be.
Come and see.
I have seen.
We have seen.
The important part is that ‘I have seen’ becomes ‘we have seen’. That we go and tell. That we testify to the new life we see. That we speak to a new hope. That we ‘walk in newness of life’ as we are called in our baptism. That we live as followers of the One who said, I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35).
Application
Where have you seen Jesus? How is ‘I have seen’ becoming ‘we have seen’ at SJMC? I have seen Jesus over and over again in this congregation, when often quietly, and behind the scenes, people provide support and care for each other. A phone call. A visit. A card. A casserole. A helping hand to fix something. A prayer shawl. A quilt. Prayers of support.
I have seen Jesus in the way that people work in their paid employment, and in their volunteer time. In the way that they engage with their neighbours, and in the ways that they parent and grandparent their children.
I have seen Jesus in the warm, open hearted welcome extended to people of all ages, and diversities.
I have seen Jesus in the stories we share and receive, of life experiences, faith journeys and personal struggles.
I am seeing Jesus in our compassionate, and yes, even angry upswelling of desire to take a stronger stand for peace. I think we are seeing a new thing bubbling up among us. We are seeing a sort of resurrection of what it means to follow Jesus, as that different kind of Messiah. This winter we followed him Out of the Boat. Into the World (title of our winter worship series from the gospel of Matthew), learning from his actions, his teaching and his parables. If we take a phrase from our Lent series a couple years ago, we are learning how to Fight Like Jesus (title of a book by Jason Porterfield). During Lent we witnessed Jesus’ Passion story from the gospel of John, and saw how the dissonance in that story mirrors so much of what is going on in our world today, and speaks into it with the power of truth.
We are seeing a rebirth of our commitment to peace. A renewal of our conviction that peacemaking is at the heart of the gospel of Jesus. Like our Anabaptist forebearers, we are figuring out anew what living as a peace church looks like in our time and place. There is a lively and exciting ferment of ideas bubbling.
How is that unfolding? There is no one right way to be peacemakers. Our Anabaptist/Mennonite peace tradition is an unfolding journey. Sometimes we have been the quiet in the land, keeping to ourselves, avoiding conflict, refusing to participate in violence. Sometimes we have been more activist: Conscientious Objectors, draft dodgers, medics, nurses and relief workers, even in times of war. We have worked for disarmament and environmental sustainability. We have sought political office to make change happen and advocated for justice for those that are marginalized. We have marched and sang, demonstrated and waved banners, and created poetry and artwork. Often we have been there in places of suffering to offer practical support–relief and development aid, (school kits and relief kits) and learned and taught conflict resolution strategies.
And sometimes we have messed up. We have been complicit in the unjust actions of empires. We have settled on Indigenous land. We have used our peace stance to keep people in abusive situations. We have used the bible as a weapon to exclude people in the Queer community. We have been too quiet when we should have spoken up.
What will a renewed peace witness look like here at SJMC? We will need the gifts of all of us, because the need is great! There are so many places and people in the grip of violence. We will need the young and the old. We will need the artists and the activists. We will need the environmentalists and the entrepreneurs. We will need the idealists and the organizers. We will need academics and researchers. We will need hands-on, skilled workers. We will need politicians and business leaders, homemakers and front line workers. We will need people who are oriented to the needs in our hyper-local community and those with the breadth of experience to help us to be globally minded. We will need those with compassion for people who are marginalized, and we will need those who are marginalized. Many of us will need to acknowledge our power and privilege, and then find ways to use it for the greater good. We will need those who communicate well, and those who listen deeply. We will need those who can harness new tech for good, and those who have years of traditional knowledge. We will need those with dynamic flashes of energy, and those with staying power. We will need leaders and followers. We will need people to critique and challenge what is not working in our polarizing world: people who are willing to ask tough, big questions. And we will need people to highlight the good. We will need inspiring storytellers, and role models who can show us the better way.
Most of all we will need help to stay grounded in the biblical text and the story of Jesus, and prayer. We will need to remember the invitation to come and see. See how Jesus does it. See how Jesus always points us to God.
And we need to return to the story over and over again, to ground us and guide us, convict us and challenge us, encourage us and empower us. And when we do, we will find the living water to refresh us, the bread of life to sustain us, the vine to cling to, the good shepherd to guide us, the light of the world to give us vision, the way the truth and the life to orient us and keep us, the resurrection and the life to renew us and lead us with hope. We will see the Lord, again and again.
It is a long journey from Mary’s first sermon, I have seen the Lord, to the final and full embrace of love and justice. We are not there yet. As we celebrate Easter this year we do so in a world that feels unsteady, unstable, unpredictable, but God is not. God remains the fierce, unstoppable force of good and truth and love that our world so desperately needs. The One who raises Jesus from the dead, calls each one of us to walk in the newness of life.
Come and see.
I have seen.
We have seen.
AMEN