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Easter Day – Eucharist – 12.iv.

2009
(Acts 10.34-43; John 20.1-18)

“They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the
third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were
chosen by God…”

Today we have a choice of Gospel readings – either Mark‟s or John‟s


account of the Resurrection. But the reading we‟re told always to have is not
from the Gospel at all. It‟s from the Acts of the Apostles where we find
these words spoken by Peter the Apostle. However confused the story of
Jesus death and resurrection might have become – and we find marked
differences in the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – there are two
things that are clear: that Jesus died on the Cross; and on the third day he
rose again… and he rose because God raised him. This is the heart of the
Easter Gospel: Passion and Resurrection; the coldness, reality and
inescapable fact of death – and the new life of the Risen Christ.

But how we experience it will vary from person to person. There is


confusion between the Gospels as to who is the first witness to the
Resurrection. In today‟s choice of Gospels, Mark and John agree that it‟s
Mary Magdalene who first finds the stone which had blocked the entrance to
Jesus‟ tomb now rolled back. But while in Mark‟s account Mary and the
other women enter the tomb to find a young man dressed in white telling
them that Jesus has risen, St. John‟s Gospel has Mary leave as soon as she
finds the stone moved, so that it‟s Peter and an unnamed disciple who first
make their way into the tomb to find it empty. We might wonder what is

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going on? And perhaps this is part of the truth of Easter - that the writers of
the Gospel don‟t feel obliged to get their story agreed between them. This is
not a fiction artfully constructed. It‟s the simple record – with all the
confusion of the day - of the undeniable fact of the Resurrection. So our
readings today start with Peter‟s testimony in the Acts of the Apostles. Jesus
died – and he rose again. The risen Jesus has appeared and there are people
who saw it, but it‟s not for everyone to need to see it. The Resurrection is
more than something you need to witness personally for yourself.

And Resurrection is more than finding a resuscitated body. It‟s first of all an
empty tomb. But an empty tomb is not proof of Resurrection. In St. John‟s
account, Peter does not know what to make of this vacated space with its
empty grave clothes. The disciple who accompanies him says that he went in
and believed – but he still hasn‟t put it all together… as John tells us, “as yet
they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” It will
take time before the truth of what they are witnessing sinks in. The Easter
story is something that tells us that we can believe – and faith can be a very
real thing – but we still won‟t necessarily be able to make sense of every
predicament which besets us. That’s what Resurrection is about. God active
and alive, something we can believe in, even when we don’t feel or
understand it.

And how is it for Mary Magdalene, the first to discover the tomb disturbed?
St. John tells us that she found the stone moved,.. and she ran for it.
Someone must have taken the body of Jesus away. There‟s more agreement
between Mark and John as to what happened next: when she finally looks
into the tomb she finds either one or two men dressed in white. In Mark‟s

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Gospel she and the other women get the message that Jesus has been raised
– and the disciples will see him… at which they flee in terror. St Mark‟s
account ends saying that they couldn‟t tell anyone about this, because “they
were afraid.” And there‟s little comfort in St. John‟s account. The angels
simply ask why she weeps, leaving her to state the obvious that she weeps
for her Lord, killed on a cross, and whose body cannot even be left in peace.
Mary, before she can experience the fullness of Christ’s Resurrection has to
acknowledge her loss. For us Easter faith is not a miracle cure for all our
woes. It can come only when we recognise the extent of our fears and
anxieties, all those issues we would rather not own up to which sap our
spirit...

We‟ll sing later in this service that hymn which is a favourite of so many:

When our hearts are wintry, grieving or in pain,


thy touch can call us back to life again,
fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

Easter is not a matter merely of addressing the historical facts of the


Resurrection, the emptiness of the Tomb, and the nature of Christ‟s Risen
Body. Easter is the time when we need to let God address us, to bring before
him in Christ those „fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been.‟ At
Easter we do not shy away from the darkness within our souls, the wintry
hearts, the grief and pain we may bear. But we recognise this one man who
has been through it all before us: loving those about him, bringing life into
broken bodies and relationships, knowing the full extent of human joy and
sorrow, yet also experiencing the pain of betrayal, the anguish of being
deserted by friends in his time of greatest need; even on the Cross he has

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spoken words of care and forgiveness; until finally he has entered even into
death itself and the darkness of the tomb.

Only when Mary can say why she weeps does she turn to find the risen Jesus
standing by her all along. She thinks he‟s just the gardener, though
something moves her to share her grief with him. It‟s his response which
brings home the truth of Easter to her. He only he has to speak her name:
“Mary.” It was Jesus who by his touch had brought her healing when they
first met. Now he touches her simply by saying her name – this is how God
comes to her in Christ; this is how we know that God knows us and is alive
to touch our hearts.

Jesus loves us literally to death – his own death. So that his risen life is life
for us all, if only we are ready to accept it. He speaks to us as he spoke to
Mary. „I have called you by your name, you are mine,‟ go the words of a
chorus. And how true that is! That is why the use of our name at Baptism is
so important. Christ calls to us from the start, whether we hear him or not.

In a few moments we will renew our Baptismal Vows. As you declare your
faith, remember that at your Baptism you were called by your name as the
water was poured over you. As we are baptised in Christ he calls us by our
name. Will we recognise him as he calls? Will we see him in the stranger,
even as Mary finds him in one she supposed to be a gardener? Will we find
him in our neighbour, in our friends, in those from whom we are divided by
misunderstanding and the inadequacy of communication or the frailty of our
love?...

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... love lives again, that with the dead has been:
love is come again like wheat that springeth green....

Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,


he that for three days [....] in the grave had lain,
quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

Alleluia. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

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