Transcript
They left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy. And suddenly Jesus met them. Please be seated.
Happy Easter! It’s official. Jesus is alive. Or at least death didn’t stick. Because today we celebrate the overcoming of death, the fulfillment of what we have all been waiting for, especially what Jesus’s followers have all been waiting for. Jesus walking among us again. We all knew it was coming and now it is here. Resurrection. Alleluia! Christ is risen! Alleluia! Christ is ris. [breaks down into laughter].. Close enough, you know.
Alleluia! Spelt with the first letter being an A is the Christian version of the Hebrew word Hallelujah, spelt with the first letter being an H. It’s an expression of gratitude to God. It means Praise God or God is amazing, and even God deserves our joy, our worship, our hope, and our love. Because today God did the one act. But to be honest, I’m not sure anyone thought would actually happen or even was possible. God overcame death and left a tomb empty and changed the very fabric of humanity, the very fabric of life itself. Today we celebrate the fact that God loved us, loves us so much so that God would choose to die and then overcome death to live again in order to make death powerless.
Today is not about human capabilities or possibilities. It’s not even about imagination. Although I suspect it takes a lot of imagination to conceive what this all means. Today is about the resurrection, the intersection of heaven and earth, the breaking through of heaven into the world, the breaking through of God into our daily lives.
Fun fact: Matthew’s Gospel, the one we just read. It’s the only gospel that depicts an earthquake happening as the stone is rolled away from the tomb. Or actually, I guess the earthquake happens when the angel landed because angels make heavy landings. Matthew is also the only gospel that tells of the earthquake, when Jesus gave up his last breath from the cross. Matthew’s gospel uses earthquakes to signify that thinness of God breaking through, like we often think of when we see the sun breaking through the clouds on a gray day, or when we hold a newborn baby for the first time, or the hand of a parent or a spouse or friend as they breathe their last few breaths, or even when we notice flowers suddenly popping up after the coldness of winter finally ends. The breakthrough between heaven and earth, between life and death, between dying and overcoming death. It doesn’t have to be these huge dramatic moments that Matthew’s gospel seems to love so much.
The breakthrough of God into our daily lives can also be the small things that bring us joy, and not just a joy that’s like happiness, like yay! Fleeting and easy to misplace, a joy that is deep seated at the base of our souls in the inner parts of our heart. A joy that redefines what it means to be human. A joy that reflects a love from a God who doesn’t really care who we are as long as we are willing to accept this all consuming, all encompassing, never ending love that is given to each and every single one of us.
One of my preaching commentary authors mentioned that he tends to preach on that fear and confusion. Part of the Easter story. He said it’s too hard for him to preach on good emotions like joy.
I heard something similar from an author once in seminary in one of my classes, we had to read the novel The Testament of Mary. Very interesting. Highly recommend it. It tells a little bit about the story of Mary. You know, the mother of Jesus, Mary. After Jesus has died and the narrative ends just before Mary fully converts to believing that indeed her son, the baby that she carried inside of her, that she gave birth to in a meager stable that she raised to adulthood, this man that she watched die on a cross. The narrative ends just before Mary finally accepts that yes, indeed, this is the Son of God.
And I asked the author, Colm Toibin, why? Why did he not include the conversion part of the story? And he said, it’s too hard to write about conversion, it’s too hard to describe what it’s like to have a conversion to change from unbelieving to believing, to shift from unsure to absolute or as absolute as faith allows. These two ideas, it being hard to preach on joy and to write about conversion.
They seem to go hand in hand, especially with today, the day on which we celebrate the very significant conversion of the world and of life from death to joy. The day on which we honor these women who some 2000 years ago crept to that tomb. They expected to see a stone and guards and a dead body, and instead they saw an angel and an empty tomb, and even they saw Jesus. Can you imagine the joy that would have been zapping through the very souls of these women? Like electricity, but joy, like conversion and witnessing God?
These don’t have to be big, huge experiences. They don’t have to involve earthquakes and angels and empty tombs. Granted, sometimes it helps to have those big, huge experience, but joy, especially the joy of a God who did the unthinkable of overcoming death. Joy doesn’t need to be these big, huge experiences. Instead, the joy we experience in our faith can be as simple as the sun peeking out from behind a cloud or a newborn baby, or the laughter of a lifelong friend who knows way too much about your past. I definitely have those friends. Or dare I risk saying this? The joy we experience in our faith can even be in those rough moments when toddlers refuse to put on their shoes. So now everyone is going to be late for church, and the doctors news isn’t quite as happy as you were hoping. When the dream job or college admissions application or audition for the school play, don’t plan out quite as one would like or hope, because even in the down moments of life, we can still experience the joy of a God who became man, who walked among us, who suffered and died for us, and who overcame death to be us again 2000 years ago in Galilee and also here and now. Joy in a God who so unconditionally loved us.
That joy doesn’t need those big, huge revelations, but certainly helps I get it. And hearing today’s gospel reading from Matthew maybe makes us feel a little bit better about the joy we have in our faith and our hope in our God. Hallelujah means Praise God, and God is amazing and even God deserves our joy for the big, huge, earth shaking, tomb emptying, angel revealing, bigger than miraculous act of the resurrection. And also for those small moments in our lives, in the lives of those whom we love, that show us that God is with us. In the suffering part, and also in the joyous parts.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia! In our joy, let us all sing praises to God. Amen.