Year C

Easter Sunday

The Rev. Denise Vaughn

Easter Changes Everything

What a glorious day it is because our Lord Jesus Christ has risen.  After the dark days of Lent and the grief of Good Friday, Easter brings the good news that Christ is alive and the whole world feels like it is coming to life. The beautiful spring flowers adorning our cross and the Easter lilies are spilling their beautiful fragrance in the air as we hear good news of great joy. What a happy connection, Easter joy and nature, one that is guaranteed to renew our faith in the God who has the power to overcome death and raise Jesus from the grave. But, to us how entirely unnatural resurrection is; the springing of spring just happens naturally but resurrection. We all know that when a human being goes into the ground that is that. We say good-bye, pay our respects and go on with life in the best way we can. Knowing that the only place springtime will happen is on top of the graves, surely not in them.

On that morning so long ago, Mary went to pay her respects to the one she loved who was now dead, she had to be convinced that it was true, yet when she got there the confusion begins, she finds the stone removed from the tomb so she runs to tell the others. The disciples run to the tomb to discover Jesus’ body is missing. When Mary gets back to the empty tomb, she meets a stranger and asks him where they’ve taken her Lord. It is obvious that Mary, one of Jesus’ most loyal followers and very likely the very first disciple of Jesus, does not yet understand this new resurrection reality. It is all so confusing. It isn’t until the risen Christ says her name that she recognizes that her teacher, her Lord is alive. We learn from Mary’s encounter that the risen Christ is different.

He is now a “God-related” being and when Christ says Mary’s name, he calls her into a new resurrection reality.  His very familiar voice transforms her grief and opens a new world. An expected ending is now a new beginning. A beginning that is not about clinging to the past but rather it’s about the future, a different future. It has to be different Jesus is not dead but alive and Mary’s reaction of joy and of going and telling others of the resurrection and the new reality it brings, is the only reaction we can have. The good news that Mary reports to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” is only the beginning of an ongoing understanding of what resurrection and its implications might mean. Resurrection life changes everything not only life in this world but also what we can hope for beyond the grave.

Christ has died, and has risen and life and death are no longer the same. If God can raise Jesus, then we need not fear the grave or anything else because if God can raise Jesus, then all things are possible and we have no choice but to live this new life and tell this incredible life-changing story. In 1 Corinthians, Paul describes this resurrection life as one in which we are all made alive in Christ. Paul’s point is that this new reality, where death is overcome, means we live different from the life we lived, and living within this new resurrection reality like Mary and the disciples, calls us to be witnesses to the difference Christ’s life, death and resurrection makes for life now in the present and in the future.

For when we confess the resurrection, we confess that salvation for us and for all people is real. We can celebrate it and live out of the confidence and courage it brings. Because God has raised Jesus from the dead, we can trust God’s promises to be with us as we live this new life of throwing ourselves into the work of feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, helping those in need, caring for our environment and visiting those in prison. Because God has raised Jesus from the dead, we can throw ourselves into acts of justice and mercy without fear. We can give our strength and support to all that is life-giving, trusting that God has the upper hand. So look around—what is ailing that needs support, who is afraid that needs courage, who is hungry that needs food, what is dying that needs new life?

Our world suffers from conflicts, terrorism, wars, famine, disease, and hunger. Love seems weak or not at all when measured against the strength and powers of this world, against the diseases that destroy life. Yet, the resurrection shows us that God’s love is the most powerful force in the world and does triumph over all evil. The resurrection tells us that death is not the final word about our existence—new life is. That new resurrected life, that Mary and the other disciples witnessed on that day and in those days after the resurrection. A new life, that invites us to take our place with all those who from Peter onward confessed their faith in the resurrected Christ.

This may be daunting to some of us, as we don’t think of ourselves as connected with the biblical “heroes” we’ve heard about at church. Yet, when we consider the main characters of today’s gospel: Peter who denied his Lord; Mary who did not recognize Jesus and assumed his body was stolen; Paul, who at first persecuted the early Christians, we also read how God used all of these people to spread the good news of God’s purpose to save, bless, and redeem the world. If God can work through these imperfect persons, then surely God will also use all that we have and are, as well. This good news is worth many Easter alleluias there is no need of fear, only hope, joy and love, for Christ is risen.

This is the day that the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it. For on this Easter Day we celebrate not merely an event of long ago but the life changing celebration of God’s desire to be at one with us in Jesus. “To all who receive him, who believe in his name, he gives power to become children of God. Children gifted with new life: a life that is the renewal of our world because Easter changes everything. An ending is now a beginning. A beginning of truth about life that conquers death, of living water and the bread of life given to save, bless and redeem the world. God is with us in life, in death and in life beyond death. Thanks be to God. Christ is alive…He is risen….Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.