What Day is It?

A sermon preached on Easter Sunday, 2020 via Zoom with the people of St. James Episcopal Church, Arlington, VT.

In the earliest morning hours, Mary Magdalene heads to Jesus’s tomb. As she approaches, she sees the stone has been moved away from the tomb’s opening. Her heart stops. Her brain goes into overdrive imagining what could have happened to the already-broken body of Jesus.

She takes off running and finds Peter and another unnamed disciple. The three run back to the tomb together. They think to themselves as they have thought to themselves many times these past few days, Is this happening? Is this real? What day is it?

The two men stand inside the tomb, staring in silence at the linens that should be enshrouding the dead, but instead have been set aside – no longer in use. Is this happening? Is this real? What day is it? They head home.

But Mary stays. She stays outside the tomb. She weeps. She bends down to peek inside. And she sees two angels where a dead body should be. They ask her why are you weeping?  Is this happening? Is this real? What day is it? 

Then, she feels someone’s eyes on her. She turns around. The gardener. What is he doing here, she thinks? Did he take him? Does he know? Can he help? Is this happening? Is this real? What day is it?

Only, it’s not the gardener she’s speaking with. And he needs only to call her by her name for her to know who this really is.

“Mary,” Jesus says.

The tears flow again in a new way, “Rabbouni! Teacher! Friend! Let me touch you. Let me help you. Let me be with you. Let it be like it has been. Like it should be.

And Jesus says, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 

And so it is that Jesus gives Mary Magdalene the best news there has ever been and will ever be in all of human history. 

And Mary goes and announces this good news to the other disciples: “I have seen the Lord” she says. Mary, the first person to proclaim the gospel on this, the first Easter.

All the hope and joy and promise of resurrection – of our life in Christ – is there. It’s right there in this story. But somehow, even though we’ve heard it countless times, it’s not exactly what we expect, is it? 

There are no parties or chocolate or toasts or grand liturgies or celebrations or glorious hymns or inspiring strains of music. 

I know for many of us today doesn’t quite feel like Easter. It’s not exactly what we expect, is it? 

Like the disciples, we are living in a disorienting time. These isolation days flow into each other and time plays tricks on us. I do find myself asking lately, Is this happening? Is this real? What day is it?

But today, my friends, I can answer that question. It is Easter. I am sure of it. I am sure that Jesus is raised from the dead. I am sure that death is conquered. I am sure that God is with us in our separation and in our suffering. I am sure.

This year, some of us may feel like putting on our party clothes or bringing out flowers or decorations or cooking something special or opening our window and shouting alleluia! Or ringing bells or singing. 

And this year, some of us may not feel like doing all that. And that’s okay. There is no one 'correct' way to mark Easter this year. And actually, there never was. In our gospel accounts of these disorienting days following the state execution of our God we are treated to accounts of a full range of human emotions experienced during extraordinary times. 

During this particular extraordinary time I, like Mary, long to “go back” – to return to things “as they should be.” But of course, as Christ reveals, there are few things about this life on earth that are “as they should be.” The deadly injustices and inequities being exposed by this COVID-19 pandemic demonstrate this. Disorienting times show us something of the work we must do in following Jesus. 

These are days of sadness, and sickness, and loneliness, and boredom and overwork, and fear and stress. And these are days of selflessness and generosity and tenderness and kindness and love. The way we are caring for one another in this time in creative new ways is evidence that the church is not the building – nor does its work depend on it. God’s presence does not depend on our ability to enact our beloved traditions or even our most sacred sacramental acts.  

Today is Easter. And God is calling us, like Mary, by our names and telling us the best news we will ever hear – the promise of resurrection, the hope of the coming Kingdom of God -- where all is as it should be. God is present in all our feelings and in all the ways we respond to the impossible and true hope of resurrection in this and any season.

Alleluia Christ is Risen

The Lord is Risen Indeed, Alleluia.