Easter 2018

Easter Day 2018

    I have several memories of Easter’s from my past.  One of my favorites, was my dad saying I could have any chocolate bunny I wanted just as long as I gave him the ears to eat.  There were many Easters with many chocolate bunnies that had their ears taken by my dad. There was another Easter when my parents, in a move that was totally unlike them, put a Barbie doll that I had really wanted in my basket;  then there was the Easter when it snowed so much we didn’t leave the house; I remember huge snow drifts in the front yard, and pictures of me in my red Easter dress and bonnet taken inside. I hated that dress. When I was seven, I fell the day before Easter and ended up with 7 stitches in my forehead; let’s just say it was for science… there was a pinwheel, a dog and some roller skates involved... mom was not pleased… Later, when I had children of my own, I remember hiding and re-hiding eggs for my daughter to find… once she found them she wanted us to hid them again in silly places for her to find… I think we spend the better part of the day hiding the eggs that she found…

    All of these are memories that help me to think about the people and relationships from those times; if I close my eyes I can smell the chocolate and hear my dad tease me about bunny ears; and i love remembering the gleeful giggles of my daughter searching for eggs all day…

    Memories can be wonderful; we can for a time, reconnect with loved ones who are now gone; it’s one of the ways that we have of never forgetting our own story and where we have been…

    In today’s gospel reading, Mary is weeping at the tomb of Jesus… she and the disciples have been through hell on earth the last several days; certainly nothing that compares to what Jesus suffered.  He was tortured by the empire until he died; tortured as though he was a common criminal, when all he did was teach people about God and how to love one another. What about the kingdom he promised? What were they going to do now?   The memories of the last several days are still fresh and painful, so painful that they blind her ability to recognize Jesus when he comes walking through the garden. The tomb is empty… someone must have taken him as a further insult.  What she remembers of the last few days is also clouding her ability to remember the promises he made; he said he would die… and he promised that God would raise him from the dead… When the man she supposes is the gardner says her name… then her more distant memories return in a flood and she realizes that it is not the gardner… but that Jesus has been raised from the dead… just as he promised…  and isn’t it wonderful how the sound of a beloved voice can suddenly make everything ok again? And for Mary, this encounter with Jesus is like no other… for now she is living in the reality that death and suffering will never have the last word… for if he is risen… she and the others shall be as well…

Why do we gather each year to hear this story?  We gather to hear Mary’s story because her story is also our story... Jesus is her Lord and friend… and he is ours as well.  When we hear the story, we feel it as we do all the family stories that we share, because we are one family because of the life that Jesus lives.   But today, is so much more that merely the telling of a deep memory; when we tell these stories, we are in God’s time and place, and the memory becomes our present reality.  When we proclaim that the Lord is risen indeed, we aren’t speaking about a past event… Jesus is risen… today… in our present and in our reality. He is risen in all times and places… he has broken open the gates of heaven so that no one may be denied the gift of eternal life with God.  Today, this day, the truest light has come into the world so that darkness and death may never triumph… the kingdom of God has come to earth; God so loved the world, this world, today… that he gave his son, so that we would know just how much WE are loved by God… and because we are loved, we are to respond by loving the world that Jesus loves… we are to love it in the ways that he loved it… the kingdom of God is at hand when we heal, feed, visit, comfort… Jesus lives in us when we love even when there is risk; we love the world without fear because Jesus is alive and has changed everything.  He has been everywhere that we could ever be… and so no matter what the risk, no matter what the danger, we love because we are never alone; even in the shadow of death.

So on this day, I wish you joy.  May the resurrection of Jesus so embed itself in your memory and in your life that you can hear his voice say your name with love and joy.  May this Easter be blessed for all of us; may we go from this place confident in the love of God given to us in Jesus. May we always know that we are never alone, and that death never has the last word.  Alleluia, Christ is Risen. The Lord is Risen indeed, Alleluia!