Easter Day, Year B                                                                  Acts 10:34-43
April 16, 2006                                                                         Psalm 118:14-17, 22-24
St. Margaret of Scotland Episcopal Church                              Colossians 3:1-4
The Rev. Linda McCloud                                                         Mark 16:1-8  

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen! 

Some life events are so deep and stirring that for a time words fail us to speak of them.  Randall McCloy, Jr., the West Virginia coal miner, was sole survivor of the disaster that killed twelve of his fellow miners in January.  When Randall was taken out of the mine there was little hope for his survival.  I remember hearing his very articulate wife speak about their life together and how that he loved her cooking.  She was hoping to get him out of the hospital alive and prepare his favorite meal.   

As the nation went on to the next urgent news, Randall lingered in that hospital for about three months.  Then, in an amazing turn of events, he improved to the point that his doctors released him. They said it was a “miracle.”  They said it was as if Randall had been “raised from the dead.”  When Randall arrived back home, he did not say much to the press.  He thanked everyone for their prayers, added a few brief remarks, and then said, “I guess that’s all.”  Some feelings are too deep for words.    

            I thrill to imagine the reaction of the women who took spices to Jesus’ tomb that first Easter morning.  The women probably could have traveled the dark streets of Jerusalem unnoticed because they were women.  It was the first day of the week, so the markets would have been open.  They could have been on their way to buy food to prepare meals.  Instead, they went to the spice merchants and bought spices to give Jesus a more proper burial.  This would have been the women’s job.  They were sorrowful and bogged down with practical matters – “Who will roll away the stone for us?” — but when they arrived they encountered an angel in the empty tomb.  They were dumbstruck. According to Mark’s Gospel, they said nothing to anyone.  Some feelings are too deep for words. 

            If ever I am called upon to officiate at a funeral, one of my major obligations will be to make sure that everyone there knows that the deceased is really, truly, dead.  They can’t be only merely dead — they must be quite sincerely dead.  I should not use any euphemisms to soften that reality.  In the Episcopal Church, we bury only dead people.  Another major obligation of a priest at a funeral is to bury the dead “In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (BCP, 501)  

            On this Easter morning I feel that one of my major obligations is to make sure that everyone knows that on Good Friday, Jesus was really, truly, dead, and was buried in a specific tomb.  That makes Easter morning all the more glorious, when we joyfully proclaim, “Alleluia! Christ is Risen!”  The Gospels make it clear that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead bodily on the third day after his crucifixion and burial.  The tomb was empty.  After his resurrection he ate and drank with his disciples, and even prepared breakfast for them on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.     

Jesus’ resurrection is not to be confused with resuscitation or immortality of the soul.  Jesus was not resuscitated – that is, he was not restored to his previous mode of human existence.  Instead, he was gloriously transformed.  His body was changed in some mysterious way that allowed him to appear to his disciples at will.  Jesus’ resurrection set in motion the transformation of the entire cosmos.  The Christian hope is that when we are raised from the dead to eternal life, we too shall have a glorious body like Jesus’ own glorious body.  We will have a new body that will never die, because Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Our Catechism says the significance of Jesus’ resurrection is that “By his resurrection, Jesus overcame death and opened for us the way of eternal life.”  BCP, 850.  

            When Jesus’ disciples realized that Jesus had been raised from the dead, they began living as though the world had been made new for them.  It was as if something inside of them had also been raised from the dead.  They were accused of turning their world upside down.  Remember Maundy Thursday when the disciples deserted Jesus and fled?  Remember Good Friday, when John was the only disciple present at the cross, while Peter looked on from a distance?     

At some point on the first day of the week, things changed.  When Sunday arrived, the disciples became convinced that Jesus had risen from the dead.  Their lives were transformed.  It took a while for them to grasp the reality of it, so Jesus gave them some time to pray and reflect on all that had gone on before.  We call this the Great Fifty Days of Easter.  We celebrate Easter for fifty days until the Day of Pentecost, which this year will be June 4.  On that day, the Holy Spirit came and empowered the followers of Jesus to articulate the events of Holy Week and Easter.  After that, no one could stop them. They could not help but proclaim the Good News!        

Any reasonable person studying the early church would recognize that something major happened in order for the disciples to go from hiding out to proclaiming openly that Jesus had been raised from the dead.  For this they risked their lives, and eventually lost their lives.  I believe what happened was that they encountered the risen Christ. Before Jesus’ death, many of his followers thought he would liberate them from the Pagan Roman forces.  St. Paul figured out that the Pagans were not the problem, but that sin and death were the problem.  Paul proclaimed that sin and death had been defeated in Jesus’ death and resurrection and that Jesus had liberated the whole cosmos – that we can all have eternal life through faith in the risen Christ. The “time of Christ” for St. Paul began on Easter morning.     

Since early times the Church has baptized new Christians on Easter.  This is to symbolize that becoming a Christian is like dying and rising from the dead.  This is how that St. Paul could say that we have “died” and our “life is hidden with Christ in God.”  This is the central message of Christianity.  This is the Good News. 

            Make no mistake about it.  The belief that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead is unique to Christianity.  This belief is what makes a Christian a Christian.  Theologians call it the “scandal of particularity” that sets Christianity apart from other beliefs.  There is a lot of misinformation popular in current thought.  A lot of people are making a lot of money from this misinformation.  This will lead some people astray.  There is nothing really new in this misinformation.  It is old heresy revisited and it makes for interesting controversy.  But those of us who have encountered the risen Christ in Holy Eucharist know better.   

            We encounter the risen Christ every time we come for Holy Eucharist.  I hope we will allow that encounter to transform our lives, so that we can proclaim as did the first disciples – Alleluia!  Christ is risen!