[Propertalk] Easter Day sermon

[Robert P Morrison]

This will have to be checked out after the Vigil tonight. I don't trust myself to any more with it this afternoon!

We're welcoming a 7-year-old girl through Baptism tomorrow - her grandparents can't come tonight.

Peace and empty tombs all round!

Bob

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY    THE SUNDAY OF THE RESURRECTION: EASTER DAY
ACTS 10:34-43			         4th APRIL, 2010	
1 CORINTHIANS 15:19-26		              PSALM 118:1-2, 14-24
JOHN 20:1-18

	In a matter of minutes, Maya will lean her head over a wooden pedestal into which a bowl has been inserted, and I will pour water on her. What is it that will make her do that? What will she be thinking and feeling? Does she trust me not to soak her dress, or even drown her?
	Trust is something with which each of us has to deal on our own.
	Does Maya know what’s happening every second of the time here? Will she be able to answer in a skilful way what’s going on here? Does Maya – do YOU – NEED to know all that’s going on in order to be a part of this?
	You can answer that for yourself, but if you need a hint, it’s “No – but Yes!” The fact is that it’s the same inside this building as it is anywhere else on earth. There will always be questions – so we DON’T need to know everything about the hows or even the whys. We’re asked to hope and to trust.
	But what we do this morning, and what Maya will be committing herself to doing from now on, is a sign that we live in hope, hope that the promise of God is far bigger than we can ever imagine, bigger than any of us can ever comprehend, no matter how old we are.
	Last Friday night, after the service, after leaving a very dark building, with shadows, and remnants of celebrations lying here and there on the floor, and on shelves and on tables, after leaving a building that was strangely quiet – as if it were holding its breath – from that atmosphere I arrived home and found that one of the parts of “The Lord of the Rings” was on TV.
Both the books and the movies are wonderful pieces of work. There’s so much going on. In fact, no matter how often I pick up the books, or watch bits and pieces of the movies, I always find something else to intrigue me. There’s so much to grip the imagination because there’s so much that’s actually left to the imagination. We see the outline of the story, we read about the characters, and we pick up on many of the implications of situations and relationships. However, we have to dig deep sometimes to begin to catch all the different layers of the action. We DO become drawn in and when danger threatens we cringe, although it IS just a book or a film. I don’t know if this is something Maya would watch, but I know adults who find their emotions tested by Tolkien.
	I remember a scene in which the heroes are in underground caverns when they’re attacked by all sorts of creatures. They flee, but just as they’re about to escape, Gandalf, the wise old guide, can’t make the last jump over a chasm. His grip on the edge of the rock finally gives way, and he plunges down into the abyss – seemingly lost for ever.
	A similar scene comes in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, when Aslan, the Lion, seems to be killed by Jadis, the White Witch.
	In both stories, the friends are devastated. They don’t know if they’ll survive. They stumble around. But both Tolkien and Lewis, who read their stories to one another as they were writing them, had a strong Christian faith on which their fantasies were built, and they based their treatment of the deaths of Gandalf and Aslan on the disarray of the disciples after the death of Jesus.
	There was Mary, lost, weeping at the tomb, thinking that she’d never be able to hope again, she’d never again establish a friendship which healed and renewed her as did her one with Jesus.
	It was like leaving this space on Thursday night, with the light lost, or the even darker Friday night, with the bare cross the only thing to see – not even Jesus’ body was there.
	But despite that, we’ve come to this room, somehow drawn to ask questions – about hope, and about meaning. And Maya, she’s come too.
	Maya’s been waiting for this moment eagerly for a long time, mostly because what she’ll be doing is the ultimate symbol of “belonging”.  She may not express herself precisely in terms of darkness, or loneliness, or weakness, but even at her age she knows that to experience life in its fullness, she has to seek strength to overcome them. And she senses that Jesus can do that for her.
Mary had the same need. She knew she needed strength from outside herself in order to cope. She simply didn’t know from where her help would come, however, yet she was drawn to the tomb, to the scene of the disaster, hoping to pick up a few of the pieces to which she could cling. She’d found the one Person who really believed in her, only to have Him ripped from her life just the day before.
What she found in the early hours of that Sunday morning, though, was completely beyond her expectations. She’d underestimated the power of the Love of God.
Mary heard someone call her name. THAT’S when she knew that she’d found what, or rather, whom she needed. Jesus not only was alive. He remembered her; He loved her; He was both able and willing to do anything for her so that she could find who she was and what she could do. 
That’s how WE learn who WE are. From the moment of our birth, people call our names, they encourage us, they correct us, they try to educate us, they socialise us; they LOVE us by calling our name – sometimes a very special name. That’s the way it’s been for all of us.
Jesus still speaks our names – Mary – Maya – Dan – Pat – Janet – Rick – Elisabeth – “I am here,” He says. I am alive.  As the water is poured over Maya, and then as she holds the Bread in her hands and tastes the wine, Jesus is saying her name, over and over, and over again – “I am here. Now you should go and tell everyone, ‘I have seen the Lord.’” No matter how strange things may be at school, or wherever, each of these events can be seen in a new light now.  So we’re invited to share our new hope with everyone.
Yesterday I noticed several different people’s blogs all talking about a book written by Nora Gallagher. It’s called “Practicing Resurrection” – helping us to understand, firstly, that resurrection isn’t a one-time event for only one person. It’s for everyone. But, secondly, it’s to become our way of living. 	We’re to be bold, fearless in face of frustration, exuberant in the eyes of exasperation, daring in the  of disease . You can go on to finish these statements! Nothing is to stop us.
This won’t make problems go away. Sorry, Maya, you’ll still have homework. There’ll be some classes you may never like. That’s why Nora Gallagher talked about “PRACTICING resurrection”.
Our Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, wrote that, “We are not born with the ability to insist on resurrection everywhere we turn. It takes the discipline and repetition that forms an athlete – in this case, a spiritually fit Christian. We practice our faith because we must – it withers and atrophies unless it's stretched. We must continue to give evidence of the faith that is within us.
	“Easter,” Bishop Katharine went on, “(Easter) prods and provokes us with an immense stretching exercise. God has renewed a life given to the evil of this world on behalf of those with no other helper. That earth-shattering and tomb-shattering rebirth has planted the seeds of hope in each one of us. Yet those seeds do not produce fruit without struggle.”
	We can all relate to that. If we want to do something and get as much pleasure out of it as we can, we HAVE to practice. And we practice by keeping in touch with Jesus so that we will be able to put up with all the things and people who annoy us.
	On NPR yesterday I heard an interview with an author of a book with an intriguing title. It is - “The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World … Via its most dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes”. Here’s what Carl Hoffman said in his preface:
Setting out across Afghanistan I was thoroughly frightened. I was accompanied by Khalid, who said, “This is bad. It is a dangerous place. It is the home of … the most dangerous man in Afghanistan. … (Carl said he) suddenly had a terrible feeling. A feeling of dread … I was crazy for trying to ride a bus across Afghanistan in the middle of a war; idiotic. What had I been thinking? I closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep, to think about nothing.
“Khalid prayed.” 1
	I wonder who had the better idea! So, Maya, AND all the rest of us – if you and we want to practice living the resurrection life, then I suggest that we all try at least these three things:
1)	Listen for Jesus speaking our name. He WILL be saying it. It’s just that sometimes we aren’t hearing Him, or don’t recognise His voice.
2)	Talk to Jesus – ALL THE TIME. Some people may think us a bit strange, but that’s O.K. It didn’t seem to bother Mary at the tomb. She prayed. Khalid prayed on that bus. You and I can, and must, pray – talk to Jesus – so we remember HIS Name. And – 
3)	Be daring! Be willing to take risks. DO remember what our parents have said about getting into strange cars, or busses, but practise resurrection by reminding ourselves that there IS nothing which God can’t help us all overcome.
“Acts of faith,” reminded Scott Simon on NPR, talking of composer Marcos Galvany’s Opera “Oh My Son”, about
Jesus, His mother Mary, and Mary Magdalene,  “(Acts of faith) aren’t just for Bible figures, but any man or woman who offers their hopes and gifts. ‘If you do something out of love, amazing things can happen.’” 2
	Come to the water, then, come to the tomb – then go, spread the Good News about Jesus and Life.

NOTES:
1 	“The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World … Via its most dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes” by Carl Hoffman – Broadway Books © 2010. Prologue.
2		“An Operatic Act Of Faith” Story by Scott Simon about Marcos Galvany’s Opera “Oh My Son” NPhttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125532205R: Weekend Edition, Saturday 3rd April, 2010





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Robert P. Morrison
Interim Vicar
The Episcopal Church of St Alban,
P.O. Box 1556,
Albany, Oregon, 97321

541-921-1076 (cell)
541-967-7051 (church)