Easter Sunday: ....by name....

4/21

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

 It's a cool but sunny Easter Sunday. Enjoying the gardens in the front yards of the Victorian homes on the walk from the subway to the church. As I near the church,

Beverley Church

I see that the little church's garden needs tending and the grass needs mowing

the garden

but I'm sure Eugene will take care of that. The sanctuary is dressed in white for Easter. And people are arriving. Eugene would like to get coffee for us, but he's reminded we will do that after worship. Geraldine asks what my good word? and I say, "There can be a new beginning for us, if we say, Yes" and she smiles and says "Yes."  I begin the service with "Alleluia! Christ is risen!" and ask the congregation to respond,"Christ is risen indeed!" And soon it is time for my sermon. 

Alleluia! Christ is risen. (Christis risen indeed...)

They thought it was over. The men had all run away. Men do that. they get into big stories, dramas, movements , scenarios. And when it doesn't go well, they're gone. But the women stay. 

Mary goes first. Why? It doesn't matter to her that the dream seems to be over. The movement over. The revolution never came. Doesn't matter. She loved this man. And we need know nothing more than that. Details don't matter. And she will honor the love she felt by going to the grave to take care of business, tend to the body. That's what women do. And she gets there and the stone is gone. So she goes to tell the main men and they go to check it out and see the empty tomb. And what does the scripture tell us they did? That they returned to their homes. Obviously they didn't get it.

So she goes to see for herself. And it's like the ultimate insult. Not only have they killed him, but they won't even allow the body to receive a traditional  burial. She can't even make the right good bye. And so she weeps. (Believe me, I've never really understood that part with the two angels. All I know is they ask her Woman, why are you weeping?)

And just then, Jesus appears. And asks her the same question. And this is my favorite part....she thinks he's the gardener...I mean check this out...he's resurrected for God's sake (Uh, literally...) and he's not shining or glowing or levitating or anything. He's just standing there looking like the most common laborer in the cemetery. Like overalls , or jeans or? Like in those campesino paintings from Solentiname, blue jeans and a guayavera? He looks ordinary.  And she cannot recognize him. 

And then it happens. He says one word, Mary, her name, and she knows it is him in the very deepest part of her heart and soul. He has said her name said as no one else she knows has ever said it. It can only be him. He knows her so intimately, so well, it can only be him. 

Let's think about that a minute. This is not seeing is believing. She doesn't see anything that leads her to believe.....its what she hears and what she hears is her own name. 

So let's stop a minute...when you close your eyes and think about hearing your name called, what does it sound like, who is saying it? When you hear your name called in love, what does it sound like? 

Today is about believing and how does that happen? There are no external verifications. No iphone videos. No facebook, instagram, snapchat. None of that. All we've got are these four stories in this book. And they're all different. And please....don't even try to mash them all together. Each one by themselves is true, it's own complete story. Read them separately. Allow each one to tell its own story in its own voice (that word again) and explore each for its own truth for what you can learn but you know what?  Those stories are not going to cause you to believe or prove anything unless you already believe it.

So what do we do? Do what Mary does.  Listen....and hear your name called...the way no one else can....because Jesus will do that...God  knows you more intimately than anyone else...and loves you anyways....and that's how we know....we come to believe as Mary does when we hear him call our name...

So proof? You want proof? Look to your left, look to your right....we are here. It's two millenia later and we are still here. What we celebrate in communion is this...as Presbyterians, as followers of the reformed tradition, it is not the bread and wine that becomes the living body of the risen Christ, it is us....we become his hands, his feet, his words, his silent touch...

Today is  about resurrection. I don't know many of you that well, but I know any of us at our ages have had our share of deaths. Many of us have risen again over and over again and sometimes we don't want to do it again. But he hears us in our weeping...oh Mary don't you weep don't you moan....and he calls us by name....

If you hear it and know it's him, follow Mary, who in this story becomes the first evangelist. She is the first to say out loud, "I have seen the Lord..."

So if you have heard him, if you have known him, go out from here today and don't be afraid to say it. Don't be afraid to bring good news in a day and time when good news is so badly needed. (Good Lord, sometimes I don't even want to watch  it any more...) Go ahead and say it, "I have seen the Lord!"

Alleluia! Christ is risen! (Christ is risen indeed!) 

And so we share our prayers and make  our communion. Geraldine sings a solo, shares her music.

Bob abd Geraldine

It's a joyous day as her family has come to be with her. Grandchildren and great grandchildren. 

Geraldine's family came

Soon we will go downstairs where Eugene has put white covers on all the chairs and the good china is out. They will share an Easter dinner together. I won't eat much since I'm heading to Bushwick for brunch with my boys, bringing them eggs I colored last night.

Eggs for my boys

I do have to try some of the traditonal mac'n'cheese that seems to be part of most special occasions. It is Easter.

Eggs fro my boys


Alleluia! Christ is risen.
Christ is risen indeed!






Gospel John 20:1-18

1Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples returned to their homes.


11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, “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.’”  18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.