 |
| Easter Sunday Broadkill Beach DE |
Christ is Risen
Christ is Risen Indeed.
I hope you all have a wonderful Easter. I am sitting writing
this early on Easter Sunday morning overlooking the ocean at Prime Hook Bay,
Delaware. The sun has just risen casting a wonderful reflection over the water.
It is all very peaceful.
Yet, that first Easter morning would have been anything but
peaceful. After the events of the previous few days, lives would have been
disturbed and a feeling that of turmoil would have persisted.
When Andy and I read the lectionary passages for Maundy
Thursday and Good Friday a couple of days ago we, too, were disturbed. It
didn’t feel right to read about a God who was going to destroy a whole people
group, a whole nation (Egypt). It caused a lot of heart searching. We still
have no answers. But today, we are not thinking of death but of life.
The lectionary offers us two alternate gospel readings, John
20: 1-18 and Mark 16: 1-8. They are two different accounts of the same event.
Yet, there are similarities. A wonderful example of what James Dunn calls in
his book of the same name, “Unity and
Diversity in the New Testament”
In the Gospel of Mark
three of the women went to the tomb to anoint Jesus. In the tomb they found a
young man who told them Jesus had risen. He instructed them to go and tell the
other disciples. In the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene came alone to the tomb. After
she found the stone moved, she went and found two of the other disciples. They
saw the empty tomb but returned home while Mary remained to grieve. Ultimately
she had a conversation with an unrecognized man, who was revealed as Jesus, and
she returned to tell the disciples that Christ was risen.
As always with the Easter stories I love talk about the
verses which show the women in such prominent positions. The women (three in
Mark and one in John) were the apostles to the disciples. They were the first
sent ones to bring news of the resurrection to the others. The dialogue between
the risen Christ and Mary contains a real message of inclusion. Women were
equally valued, they can be witnesses, they can be trusted.
Yet, the words that drew me today were those in the last
verse of the Gospel of Mark. The women fled from the tomb, “terror and
amazement seized them”, they were afraid. This seemed such an honest reaction.
I’m sure my reaction
would have been the same, if I had discovered an empty grave of someone I
loved, especially if that loved one was a persecuted minority. There would be a
first reaction of terror and amazement.
Actually, as I thought more about the two words, terror and
amazement, I realized that the two go together quite often. These emotions can
be present in any event. Think of the arrival of a baby (either by birth or
adoption). There is amazement at the gift of the little person, yet fear about whether
one is adequately able to parent the baby in a good and healthy way she
deserves. Or think of any new responsibility, perhaps a new job, marriage or
other significant event, again the mixed emotions of terror and amazement are
often felt.
I try to imagine the thoughts of Mary, Salome and Mary. Their
terror; has the body been stolen? What will this mean for us? Have we really
got to go and tell the others what that man said? Will they think we are crazy?
But also their amazement would reflect their great hope. Could
it be true? Could we have seen an angel? Could we be the ones who are going to
tell this great news? Will we be able to convince the others?
Perhaps, that is the message of Easter for us today. Great
hope!
I always love that nature reflects this for us in the Northern
hemisphere. The flowers starting to
bloom (or push through the snow if you live in upstate New York), the trees are
budding and the birds are singing and nesting. The atmosphere is pulsating with
new life. They bring us great hope of the future things to come.
Of course, if, like my cousins, we lived in the Southern
hemisphere we would now be preparing for winter so nature would be reflecting
things preparing for hidden life as energy is stored.
But wherever you live, enjoy your Easter day. May it be bursting with life and with great
hope for that which is to come.
