What if it's all true!
In the early years of my ministry, I was called to the bedside of a woman nearing death. Her name was Ruthie and there she lay in great weakness. I asked her; “Ruthie, what’s it like?” I don’t know why I said that.
But Ruthie looked at me excitedly, believe it or not; “Fr Paul, this is the greatest adventure I’ve ever been on. Soon, I shall be in Paradise!” Her faith astonished me. As is so often the case, she was the one who comforted me.
I said the prayers at the time of death and gave her communion. We spent some time in quiet to bask in the holiness of that awesome moment. And then she was gathered to all who have gone before.
That’s when I thought. Yes. It is all true.
Alleluia. Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
There are those who have their doubts and that is understandable. I know I do. Many make no room in their lives for God or heaven or eternal life. After all, we live in a world that operates as if there’s nothing more than what you can see right in front of you.
Warfare, for instance, is an experience of nihilism. As Churchill said; “Wow, look at you! You know how to make the rubble bounce!” Again we are caught up in the brutality of warfare.
This year at the Coliseum in Rome on Good Friday the Pope gathered with thousands upon thousands. It was time for the Stations of the Cross. The thirteenth station marks the death of Jesus. The cross was carried by a Ukrainian and Russian family together. The two women looked at each other with tears mingling with sorrow, faith and a desperate hope for peace. As I watched, I found the moment deeply moving.
And that’s when I wondered; “What if it’s all true? What if Jesus is victorious over sin and the grave?” I said it again with the millions upon millions over the millennia;
Alleluia. Christ is Risen!
The Lord is Risen indeed. Alleluia!
When the women went to the tomb that first great Easter Day they had no idea that it was true. They merely found an empty tomb. Someone died. There’s nothing new in that! There was a good deal of panicky scurrying about as the disciples ran hither and yon trying to figure out what they had done with the body.
Then Mary was left alone. She came across one she took to be the gardener. Isn’t that perfectly delightful! The one who tends to the rising flowers bursting forth from the stone cold tomb of winter’s earth. She asked him where they have taken him?
And he says to her; “Mary!”
She recognizes him; “Rabbouni; Teacher.”
“I have seen the Lord!”
Here is the moment that changes everything
Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.
This time I’ve seen it with my own eyes!
Like Peter whose Easter sermon proclaims; “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…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.”
Furthermore, Eternal Life for Peter is not just something that happens when we die. Our new life in Christ begins with the first encounter with the Risen Lord. Notice how he begins his sermon. “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”. Precisely the point. Whatever race, ethnicity, class or gender identity, we are all one in Jesus
As I’ve said many times before, on a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land an old woman asked us; “What is the color of God?”
We looked perplexed trying to understand what she was getting at. And she said; “The color of God is the color of water.”
We were in the Arab quarter in the old city of Jerusalem. We had been to the Wailing Wall with devout Jews, the Al-Aqsa Mosque with faithful Muslims, and the Holy Sepulcher where Christians mark the place of Jesus’ death. But the old woman’s question suddenly challenged all the categories and pigeon holes we humans use to organize our prejudices.
Water is colorless. Our bodies are made up mostly of water. It flows through all life and unites us all as one human family.
Peter finally gets it. God shows no partiality.
The Gospel is about this kind of resurrection life. When Peter proclaims the Gospel it is about the simple fact that Jesus went about all Judea “doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil”. It seems there was a good deal of mental illness in those days among the suffering broken people Jesus met day in and day out.
And so they put him to death by hanging him on a tree. Mosaic law condemned anyone who dies in this way. (Deuteronomy 21:22–23) And in America why did it take until March 29th of this year to sign the Emmett Till anti-lynching bill into law?
The power of all the hate and sin and death is so strong, isn’t it? But the power of Christ over all that sin and death is stronger still. The love of God made flesh and blood in Jesus overpowers every sin and every death.
That’s why I decided to live the way I live. That is why you decided to live a Gospel life!
We are on the Greatest Adventure of our lives as Ruthie taught me so many years ago. Jesus Christ is Risen today. God shows no partiality and neither shall I nor any of you! He went about doing good and healing folks of all kinds of infirmities and so shall we. We’ve got work to do and its God’s work that needs to be done and that work needs to be done well.
And besides, it’s all true!
Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.
Amen. In the Name of God the Most Holy, Undivided and Everlasting Trinity. Amen.
Fr Paul
The Collect:
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.
First Lesson: Acts 10:34-43
Then Peter began to speak to them: “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
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; *
his mercy endures for ever.
2 Let Israel now proclaim, *
“His mercy endures for ever.”
14 The Lord is my strength and my song, *
and he has become my salvation.
15 There is a sound of exultation and victory *
in the tents of the righteous:
16 “The right hand of the Lord has triumphed! *
the right hand of the Lord is exalted!
the right hand of the Lord has triumphed!”
17 I shall not die, but live, *
and declare the works of the Lord.
18 The Lord has punished me sorely, *
but he did not hand me over to death.
19 Open for me the gates of righteousness; *
I will enter them;
I will offer thanks to the Lord.
20 “This is the gate of the Lord; *
he who is righteous may enter.”
21 I will give thanks to you, for you answered me *
and have become my salvation.
22 The same stone which the builders rejected *
has become the chief cornerstone.
23 This is the Lord’s doing, *
and it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 On this day the Lord has acted; *
we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Second Lesson: 1 Corinthians 15:19-26
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Gospel: John 20:1-18
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.
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