What are Your Resurrection Stories? An Easter Homily
Text: Matthew 28:1-10
But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said…”
Can you imagine being one of the women? They were going to engage in a natural act of grief, viewing the tomb. With the story of Lazarus’ resurrection a few weeks ago, we were told that it was quite natural for the loved ones of the deceased to gather around the tomb, not to enter it, but to mourn. It would be like going to the graveyard today.
The women in this gospel carry nothing. They know that Pilate has posted guards at the entrance of the tomb. They couldn’t go in even if they wanted to. Pilate knew that Jesus had talked about rising after his death and Pilate didn’t want anyone to steal the body, pretending Jesus had been resurrected. The guards were there to keep the body in that tomb at all cost.
But as the women came to the tomb, suddenly the earth quaked. An angel in dazzling white rolled back the stone, and sat down upon it. The guards fainted. The women were allowed access to the tomb. They could see for themselves that it was empty. Jesus wasn’t there. He was alive. He even gave them a meeting spot: Galilee, and probably more specifically Capernaum, where he had spent a great deal of time teaching. They ran to tell the others, and in doing so, encountered Jesus directly in front of them. Their mourning was turned into rejoicing. They were given the message that has the power to change the world.
Death could be defeated. Evil would never have the last say. Even in the darkest of days, love could win. This is assured not because of the power of human reason or intellect, this is assured because God declares it to be so. God can create seismic shifts in the earth, God can tear the veil between humanity and deity in two. In our deepest griefs, God can send an angel in dazzling white to roll back the stone. We know God is capable of this in our own lives because God has done it with Christ.
Paul promises us in our reading today from Colossians that we have died and our lives are hidden with Christ in God. Through baptism, we have been buried with Christ. When Christ is revealed, when he comes back to earth, we also will be revealed with him in glory. The resurrection will happen to us too. But what is a future event, the second coming, can also be seen as a present event. Christ can resurrect us too, not just in our physical deaths, but in our sufferings. Christ can redeem even the cruelest things. This is not because God caused the pain and suffering we experienced. God does not do those things that break God’s heart. Evil is not God. But God is able to raise us from those crucifying moments into a new life. Think about it: What are your resurrection stories? What new life have you received?
When I was nineteen I was struggling with who I was and how I fit into the world. I dropped out of college. I felt like a failure. I went to therapy to help me figure it out.Then I felt God powerfully. I had my own moment of seeing the stone rolled back.
It came with a visit from my pastor. You see, I had joined my own church while in high school, I didn’t attend the same one as my parents, and I hadn’t been back since I had left college. I didn’t know what I would even say to my friends there. I was supposed to be miles and miles away, not living within walking distance. But my parents must have called my pastor, because she came to me. We talked about everything I was experiencing. She prayed with me. She invited me back. She told me that I was not a failure, that God was with me.
Not only did she bring the love and acceptance I needed, I found hope. I started to look once again at what I wanted to do with my life. I remembered that moment when I was sixteen on a youth retreat, when a small voice came to me and said, “You could be a pastor.” I decided I didn’t really know if I wanted to be a clergy person, but I could study religion. That would be okay. The next semester I was enrolled in a single course at the local community college: Religion in America. That course gifted me my interest in uniquely American religious movements and the revivals that have happened across the United States. The semester after that, I was at a new college, the college that my grandparents had attended. I loved it there. I began to thrive.
The rest, they say, is history. I went from college to seminary, growing into myself along the way. I became an Episcopalian during seminary and went through the ordination process after seminary. Finally, a decade after I had dropped out of my first college, I was driving to my ordination thinking, “If only my 19 year old self could see me now. God really brought me here.”
What are your resurrection stories? What new life have you received?
They don’t have to be big moments, those are just the easiest moments to recognize. The truth is that every morning is a resurrection moment. We come out of unconsciousness into consciousness. We move into a new day. It’s not always easy. In fact, sometimes it’s quite hard. God doesn’t promise us in the resurrection that suffering will be no more. God simply promises that suffering doesn’t have the last say. But there are things that can lift us up, can give us hope, even in the darkest of moments. It could be a hug from a loved one, the gift of a sunny day, or an especially good nap. It could be time with a pet, watering your plants, or watching birds from your window. These are not the seismic, cosmic resurrections, but they are moments of resurrection in our lives. Whatever helps us move through times of suffering is a resurrection. It keeps our souls alive.
What are your resurrection stories? What new life have you received?
Someday we will have the great stone rolling back moment when Jesus comes again. Someday sorrow and suffering will be a thing of the past. There will be a seismic, cosmic shift in reality. We may even see angels in dazzling white sitting on the stone as the tombs of our world are opened and we see that the crucifying powers of the world have lost, their guards have fainted in the presence of the power of God. We do not know what that day will be or what it looks like.
Until then, we are called to live our lives as if that day were today, as if we truly did have the Spirit of Christ in us. We are called to look for how God can use us to defeat the evil in the world around us. Some of those actions are big. Some are small. Sometimes the most healing action is simply listening, giving each other space to share our pain, allowing ourselves to be broken in community. Some of the most liberating words in the world are, “I care”, especially when followed by doing things that bring life to those in need. We must seek resurrection for ourselves, our communities, and for the world.
This is the message of the empty tomb. It was not just something that happened thousands of years ago. It is something that can happen every day, in both big and small ways. Every day has resurrection potential. Every moment is capable of a seismic, cosmic shift. God has the power to heal, to redeem, to sanctify. God has the power to open the tombs within us.
What will your resurrection stories be? What new life do you hope to receive?
