Today's Scripture Readings
Acts 10:34-43
Peter began to speak to the gentiles: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ--he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
Psalm 118: 1-2, 14-24 (BCP., p. 760)
1 Corinthians 15:1-11 (NRSV)
I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you--unless you have come to believe in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them--though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.
Early 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. So 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." Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and 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. They 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." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" 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." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus 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.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
Blog Reflection
Alleluia. Christ is Risen.
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.
The Alleluia's ring out of our churches, our hearts and voices. The organist plays the most majestic and triumphant of hymns on this the highest feast of the Church year. The choirs sing anthems of the glorious news of our redemption. Lent is over. Christ has broken free of the bonds of death and won for us new and eternal life through His Holy Name.
Our hearts are filled with thanksgiving as we praise our God who this day has shown that life is more powerful than death. Love wins the ultimate victory over hate. The dead now have a face and a name, as Christ has given new life to all who have died and gone before us. As Christians, this is our passover feast, and Christ has been sacrificed for us. Christ has risen in glory and majesty.
The tomb today, is empty. Our human minds and eyes cannot fathom what happened on that first Easter Day. We cannot prove that the resurrection even happened by the Gospel narrative alone. The Scriptures by themselves are powerful, and full of truth. But, they are limited in the sense that they tell a story that is removed from us in the 21st Century of technology, scientific breakthroughs and the development of theology and thought. We were not there physically. We did not see Jesus wake from death, and walk out of the tomb. We too can be like those during the time when these events took place, who wanted to keep the news of this Easter Day quiet, because others might think they were a bit crazy or weird. Because we are human, we need the gift of Faith as well as something physical that we can handle, hold and remember because we touched the very heart of the Risen Christ.
Our Baptism, as well as Holy Communion are tangible ways to be connected to that grace that helps our faith grasp the possibility of new life beyond death. What we cannot see through our own physical eyes, we can see through faith only. This was a common theme of St. Thomas Aquinas. How interesting it is that one week from today, we will recall St. Thomas the Apostle's struggle to believe in the news of the Risen Lord, unless he personally touched the nail prints in His hands and feet.
But, for the time being we have the testimony of a courageous woman, Mary Magdalene. She sought to do Jesus' dead body a compassionate and loving deed. In her quest to find the dead body of Christ, she instead finds an empty tomb. A man asked Mary why she was weeping. Mary thought it was a gardener. Suddenly her name is called, "Mary." She looks up and sees the Risen Jesus before her eyes. Her faith and hope have been rewarded by seeing Christ risen from the dead right before her tearful eyes.
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue writes about the significance of the meeting between Jesus and Mary Magdalene in the garden.
The Book of Genesis tells us, “The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he placed the man he had created.”
And John’s gospel tells us that on the night before he died, Jesus told his disciples, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.” He said this in the Garden of Gethsemane shortly before his arrest. Then in John 19 we are told, “The place of crucifixion was near a garden, where there was a new tomb, never used before.”
This is a second garden, one that, theologically, takes the place of Eden. For in John 12, Jesus had said, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit,” and it is Jesus’ earthly life, his mortal remains, which are laid to rest in this garden. Jesus dies and is resurrected, and so bears much fruit in defeating death itself.
With this in mind, look again at what our gospel reading reveals. Jesus’ whole life and ministry were part of a project undertaken by God to help humanity find its way back into the Garden of Eden. Jesus’ death and resurrection are the final stages in his defeat of death itself. The second person of the Trinity willingly offered his life for the sins of the world. Now through faith in Jesus, all can regain their original innocence and make their way back into the Kingdom of God, back into the garden. And now at the culmination of this long project, working its way through all human history, Mary Magdalene sees Jesus as the gardener. And in this, she is the most right.
Jesus was not simply a teacher. He didn’t come to teach lessons to prepare you for a test. Jesus came to work the soil in his father’s garden, to help spark spiritual growth in the depths of your soul.
If you leave this Easter and think Jesus was simply a great teacher, then you will have missed the point of this great feast day of the Church. For on this day we gather not to remember something Jesus taught. We are gathered today to remember that God raised Jesus from the dead as the first fruits of a new creation, a new garden.
Part of that new creation that Canon Logue writes about, includes a new look at others around us. Christians become living signs of the resurrection whenever we leave our pews and churches on this Easter Day, and seek out those who are marginalized by the Church and society. The new life we experience in the resurrection today, should inspire us to know that all of us are loved exactly as we are, and that who we are is a child of God among others in this world. The Church joins with voices of praise and jubilation all over the globe, in heaven and on earth to celebrate God's redemption of our souls.
Each individual person regardless of race, culture, gender, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, religion, challenge, health, wealth, language, their employment, immigration status and personal behavior etc., is someone that God gave the Son of God on the Cross and rose from the dead to redeem for the hope of eternal life. If we walk from this Easter Day and target our Muslim or Jewish sisters and brothers because they do not celebrate these mysteries with us, we dishonor God's work of salvation in our own lives. Any Christian who labels an individual who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning or queer who like myself, believes that God blesses the love I share with my partner, as someone destined for hell and judgement, is ridiculing the death and resurrection of Christ.
If we want to be living signs of the salvation Christ won for us, then we must leave the empty tomb with the risen Christ in our hearts through faith, and by the power of the Holy Spirit declare God's unconditional and all-inclusive love as without exception. We must be a voice united under the banner of Christ Risen, that all injustice, oppression and bigotry done in the Name of Jesus, represents a dead faith and an Easter Story that never actually happened. The story in the Scriptures in such an instance, is nothing more than a fable of a time that no longer exists.
All of us are God's Easter People. We have been saved by the blood of the Lamb, and we celebrate together the hope we all have because of Jesus Christ, Risen from the dead. May our Alleluia's sung, become our energy to be God's instruments of holiness and transformation for the Church and society.
Alleluia. Christ is risen.
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.
Prayers
O God, who for our redemption gave your only-begotten
Son to the death of the cross, and by his glorious resurrection
delivered us from the power of our enemy: Grant us so to die
daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him in the joy of
his resurrection; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for Easter Day, Book of Common Prayer, p. 222).
Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus
Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of
everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the
day of the Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death
of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our
Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one
God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for Easter Day, Book of Common Prayer, p. 222).
O God, you make us glad with the weekly remembrance of
the glorious resurrection of your Son our Lord: Give us this
day such blessing through our worship of you, that the week
to come may be spent in your favor; through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Sundays, Book of Common Prayer, p. 96).
O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior,
the Prince of Peace: Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the
great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions; take away
all hatred and prejudice, and whatever else may hinder us
from godly union and concord; that, as there is but one Body
and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith,
one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may be all
of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth
and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and
one mouth glorify thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen. (Prayer for the Unity of the Church, Book of Common Prayer, p. 818).
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