Episcopal Church of the Messiah

Worship Service Sermons

March 22, 2008

 The Reverend Carolyn Estrada

On Good Friday, when Jesus breathes his last, Matthew tells us that "the earth shook, and the rocks were split."

And today, at the dawning of the first day of the week, there is a great earthquake as the angel descends from heaven and rolls back the stone covering the entrance to the tomb.

In the last three days we have suffered two cataclysmic events, and even the ground under our feet reacts with the magnitude of the experience.

Jesus has died.

Jesus has risen.

There is a painting by the 15th century painter Piero Della Francesca in Sansepolcro, Italy. Unlike other paintings of the resurrection, here Jesus appears almost shell-shocked, his eyes bulging, his demeanor confused… Yet, as I have looked at that picture, I wonder if perhaps the artist hasn’t depicted Jesus as a witness might experience the resurrection: Jesus’ eyes are our eyes, his disoriented demeanor and state of disarray evidence of the emotional roller coaster we have been on, his confusion our confusion, as we try to make sense of what happened. "What do you mean, not here?!" "What do you mean, "He is risen!"?" "Where is he?" "What have you done with him?"

Only two days ago the world was turned upside down with his crucifixion, and now it is rent again with – what? his Resurrection? No wonder the angel feels the need to reassure Mary – "Do not be afraid."

How do we even make sense of these past three days?!

Sprinkled throughout the Gospels we hear Jesus trying to prepare the disciples, telling them what is going to happen. Sometimes, as in John, it is with an oblique reference: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." But other times he is quite direct:

His predictions of his resurrection must have been widely known, for Matthew tells us that the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, ‘Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, "After three days I will rise again.’ Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day…’"

So: why were the Mary’s so surprised?

Why are WE so surprised?

Why is it so hard to wrap our minds around the idea of resurrection?

We live in a culture in which our idea of immortality has less to do with resurrection than it has to do with prolonging life. Scientists have been searching for ways to create life in the lab, and we have heard about some successes with stem cells or cloning. There are those who believe science can do for end-of-life issues what they are beginning to achieve in the lab for issues of conception. They believe it is only a matter of time until the brightest and best of our human resources conquers death. Some of these people have even invested in Cryonics, paying to have their own bodies immediately frozen at the time of their deaths so that once science has achieved their goal, they can be brought back to life with the latest in technology.

But that is not resurrection.

In an old joke, a group of scientists meeting at an international conference rules that God is outmoded, passé, too old fashioned and unpredictable in his manner and his miracles, and decide to give God a pink slip. They notify God that he is being replaced with the latest in technology. and tell God – with some braggadocio - : "We don’t need you any more! We’ve even achieved the ability to create life!" And they proceed to demonstrate their accomplishment, forming a human being from the dust of the earth.

God watches on with interest. Finally God says, "Well done indeed. But - where did you get the dirt?"

But where did you get the dirt?

It’s fascinating to me how much more easily we put our faith in human kind, with all our limitations, than we do in God!

After all, in our hubris, we believe there is nothing we can’t accomplish if we only get enough funding, enough education, enough lab time, enough…

And yet, resurrection is a gift.

It’s something we receive, not something we explain.

There is nothing about resurrection we can understand.

As Christian theologian Frederick Buechner says, resurrection is "entirely unnatural. We do not go on living beyond the grave because that is how we are made. Rather, we go to our graves dead as a doornail and are given our lives back again by God, just as we were given them by God in the first place, because that is the way God is made… The idea of the resurrection of the body is based upon the experience of God’s unspeakable love."

The idea of the resurrection of the body is based upon the experience of God’s unspeakable love.

Today we celebrate that unspeakable love.

It was love that drove Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to the tomb on that first day of the week.

It was love that broke open the entrance to that tomb.

It was love that reassured the Mary’s in their fear.

And it was unspeakable love that destroyed forever.

I had a good friend, Kathy, who died several years ago of ovarian cancer. Kathy knew she was dying, and together we planned her funeral. There was one thing about which she was adamant: "Don’t let anyone say," she told me, "‘she lost her battle with cancer.’ Cancer will kill my body, but we all know that cancer cells cannot live on a dead host; and I, I shall live!"

And I, I shall live!

Kathy knew that unspeakable love and the power of the resurrection.

Author and chaplain Kate Braestrup ("Here If You Need Me: A True Story") responds to her brother’s skepticism about the God of life, the God of the resurrection: "...If you are really wise – and it’s surprising and wondrous, Brother, how many people have this wisdom in them – you will know enough to look around for love. It will be there…holding out its arms to you. If you are wise, whoever you are, you will let go, fall against that love, and be held."

Resurrection is not something to "think ourselves out of."

Resurrection is not something to try to understand.

Resurrection is the gift of God’s love for us, holding out its arms to us.

Let us let go, fall against that love, and be held.

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Amen.