Ecumenical Easter Sunrise

Today is the day, as Christians, we want to celebrate,
to sing and shout hallelujah.

But…

I think we get ahead of ourselves.

If you follow the last week through Mark’s gospel, we have heard of Jesus riding into Jerusalem to shouts of Hosanna!
cleansing the Temple;
Jesus being anointed by an unnamed woman;
the Last Supper;
prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane;
betrayal, arrest, crucifixion, death and burial.

and then the section we heard this morning:

Three women went to the tomb, to do what was necessary.
The body was buried quickly, and now they body needs to be prepared properly,

The women are carrying the spices with them and wondering how they will roll away the stone.

These women weren’t setting out to change the world that Sunday morning, my guess is they would have been disheartened. Jesus, who they thought was going to change the world is now dead and buried:
what was going to happen now?
what was the past few years all about?

They are doing what they can, going to the tomb to prepare the body, and hoping that somehow the stone can be moved.

I wonder this morning:
What are the worries we carry with us?
What stops us from living out our call from God?

In the midst of fear, in the midst of despair, at times we just carry on as best we can, putting one foot in front of the other, doing what has to be done without any enthusiasm or energy. 
Worried about the ‘what ifs’;
worried that we won’t be able to make it through the day;
worried that something else will complicate life even further. 
some days, and weeks, are like that.

I am guessing that is how the women felt.
They were friends of Jesus; executed as a criminal.
their hopes for a new world dashed.

The worry about how to move the stone, however, wasn’t enough to deter them from their task. They continued; together.

Then when they see the stone has been moved, and the tomb is empty, they are utterly amazed. To their despair is added disbelief and astonishment. After their encounter they flee from the tomb, trembling and bewildered, and too frightened to say anything.

The women were faithful in going to attend to the body,
but in their shock they run away speechless.

Mark finishes the story in an unlikely place, but it allows us to write the next part of the story with our lives. We get to live the resurrection. In the midst of pain, despair, fear, or terror; we can look for the signs of God’s presence, the signs of resurrection and live into the hope we have as Christians. 

“Christianity is the only world religion that confesses a God who suffers. It is not all that popular an idea, even among Christians. We prefer a God who prevents suffering, only that is not the God we have got. What the cross teaches us is that God’s power is not the power to force human choices and end human pain. It is, instead, the power to pick up the shattered pieces and make something holy out of them – not from a distance but right close up.

…. That is the power of a suffering God, not to prevent pain but to redeem it, by going through it with us.”

[From Barbara Taylor Brown, God in Pain]

This is a story of hope in the midst of fear;
this is a story of transformation in the midst of tyranny.
In my lifetime I have seen the Berlin Wall fall and the end of Apartheid.  Both things considered impossible. People who dreamed of a new way of living and didn’t let hate or fear get in the way.  People who practised resurrection living, in the everyday. People who trusted God would act. 

  

Today is a day of celebration,
celebration of new life
celebration of hope
celebration of the power of love.

Not because there is no more suffering or pain,
not because there is no more evil
but because our God has taken the evil and the pain and the suffering of the world and lived through it and died with it and redeemed it.

We have a God who knows suffering,
who knows rejection,
who loved the world, the whole world and each individual, enough to live in our pain, to bring new life and new hope.

And we get to join in with resurrection life;
trusting that God will change the world;
participating with God in that change;
looking for where God is active and getting involved.
That may mean taking some risks,
facing our fears,
finding life in new places.

The tomb was found empty,
from death comes new life.

Where are you finding new life?