Sermons

Easter Day

Sunday 8 April 2007 at 10am

Lesley Ashton
Readings: Luke 24.1-12. Acts 10.34-43

Easter Sunday marks the beginning of the Easter season, Jesus Christ is raised from the dead and at last we can say again 'alleluia'. Those of you who have been in Church since Maundy Thursday will have come into a building that has felt bare and stark. During Lent we have become used to the absence of flowers and decoration, but during these last final days the altar has been stripped and we have only had the bare wood of the Cross to gaze upon. Today the church is transformed with light and the abundance of Easter lilies, with incense and with the Easter candle, all of which proclaim the news of the risen Christ, we have at last travelled into resurrection. Alleluia!

But how do we experience resurrection? Do you feel puzzled, or full of fear or amazed? If so you are in good company. These are the words used to describe the feelings of the women and of Peter when they faced the reality of an empty tomb and the message that Christ has been raised. The first part of the news of the resurrection according to Luke is somewhat different to what we seem to proclaim today.

First the women come to the tomb, early on the Sunday morning carrying spices and perfumes they have prepared to anoint the body of Jesus. They find that the stone that blocked the entrance of the tomb is rolled away, so they go in but they do not find the body of Jesus and they are puzzled. Whilst they stand there they are greeted by two men in bright shining clothes, Luke later describes them as angels, and the women are full of fear.

Why are you looking among the dead for one is alive. He is not here; he has been raised. The news of resurrection, but not the first telling of this happening, because Christ had already told them that he would be raised to life. In their sorrow and in the events of the past few days, they had forgotten this.

There is much made by us feminists that the news of the resurrection was first entrusted to women. We have held it like a banner seeking affirmation for our status as women. But Christ when he was alive had given this message quite clearly to his male disciple too, on a number of occasions.. they too had become so absorbed with his death and their own fears that they had forgotten.

When I read this passage from Luke if seems that the women were not given the news of resurrection simply because they were women (and why did I and others ever hold on to such tokenism?) The news was not given to them simply because they were women but because they were faithful. They followed him to his cross, they stood beside it when he was crucified, they went with his body to the tomb and they kept faith with their Sabbath before returning to anoint Christ's body.

We are not given insights into resurrection life because of our gender, male or female not because of our status, clergy or lay, but because we remain true to Christ and to the Christ we find in others in the world.

The women remembered the words of Jesus, 'The Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, be crucified, and three days later rise to life. In Luke's version the women have not seen Jesus but they have remembered his words, they trust in what he said to them and they go and tell and perhaps also to remind the disciples. They go to share the good news, simply on trust, trust in the Christ who during his time on earth had never let them down. Their message of good news is received as nonsense, the N RSV translates this good news as the women bringing 'an idle tale' and they were not believed. Maybe the news was dismissed because they were women, but who would have believed this incredible news, no matter who had delivered it.

The news of resurrection comes to us from unexpected sources. Two weeks ago, a number of us went to the service in Leeds Parish Church to commemorate the abolition of the slave trade. I had been a member of the planning group and I knew what was going to take place. But I wasn't prepared for the good news, the news of resurrection, that broke through into that service and left so many of us feeling uplifted and joyful. Life breaking through the death and destruction of the slave trade, life being given as a gift from those who through the deepest experiences of despair and its ongoing affects, had remained faithful to their God and trusted in his word.

Back to the gospel. It is Peter, the disciple who denied Jesus three times who is prepared to take his chance in believing the women's so called 'nonsense'. Willing now, to go against the mainstream to take a risk and perhaps look a fool for the sake of his Christ. He runs to the tomb, bends down, sees the linen wrappings but nothing else and he is amazed. at what had happened.

So the women, and Peter receive the news of Christ raised from the dead, not through Christ's presence, but through his absence. They believed even though they had not yet seen him. There have been signs, the stone has been rolled away, the tomb is empty, the linen wrappings remain, there had been a visit from angels. The signs pointed towards a risen Christ but to believe without his presence, takes faith and it takes trust.

There are times in our journey of faith when we experience the absence of Christ. I think if we are honest these times are more frequent than we care to admit. We often hold on to the experiences of yesterday, when Christ felt present hoping that these will keep our faith intact. Perhaps resurrection, at least for some of us, begins when we acknowledge the absence. But in the absence we need to pray to have, like the women and Peter, the faith and trust that Christ will come to us and as he did with the disciples, walk alongside of us on the road

So if resurrection is not always the presence of the risen Christ why on this Easter day do we rejoice as we do and sing our Alleluias again?

Well we rejoice that through the death of Christ we like him are no longer in the tomb of darkness, the stranglehold of sin has been broken and we are released when we turn to Christ into new life, to eternal life that begins in the here and now.

We rejoice because Christ is risen and we rejoice in the paradox that even within the absence he is present urging us on, to go forward and to meet him in the most unexpected people and places, even within the stranger on the road. And as a church we hold the hope for one another that the light of resurrection will come for those who still wait with the absence or with the agony.

And we rejoice that the rumour of Christ, risen from the dead, started by those faithful women, 2000 years ago, has continued to be proclaimed by the faithful, so that the rumour still remains alive for those of us who like Peter are prepared to take the risk, to go in search and be amazed.
Amazed because we find……
Christ is risen, he is risen indeed. Alleluia.

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay