Easter Sunday

The text of my sermon for this morning:

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

May I speak in the name of God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Amen.

  

On this joyful Easter Day we are celebrating Jesus’ resurrection in unusual circumstances. Ash Wednesday feels a long time ago, a world away. So much has changed. Back at the beginning of Lent, I described Lent as a time to focus on relationships – to examine and improve our relationships with things, with people, and with God.

And we’ve been made to do that in unexpected ways.

Our celebrations today cannot be ones where we all gather together. And some of us might be feeling anything but celebratory.

There are some poignant resonances with the very first Easter. The Good News of the Resurrection was revealed to Mary Magdalene who, shocked, took it to the two disciples; and then it spread further, to people who had locked themselves away, fearful and anxious.

This year, as we celebrate the Resurrection, we celebrate individually and in family groups, as we self-distance and stay at home, in a country and world that is anxious and fearful.

We are finding new ways to celebrate and share hope and joy in these strange times… rainbows in windows, services online, choirs being able to sing together through video-editing.

As we celebrate today, we are also waiting: waiting to be told how the pandemic is progressing; waiting to hear when the lockdown will end; waiting to hear what will be said about when we will be able to meet in person again. Like those first disciples, we long to hear, ‘what next?’, ‘what does this mean?’

And as we have journeyed through the emotional turmoil of Holy Week this year, we have also heard what Jesus said in those last few days.

On Friday, from the cross, Jesus said to his mother and to the beloved disciple, ‘here is your son… here is your mother’.

This goes hand in hand with what we heard him say on Maundy Thursday, where Jesus gave us a new commandment. That we love one another, as he loved us.

Recently we have seen, heard, and experienced new expressions of this love lived out in our lives and communities.

In our self-isolation and social distancing recently, there has been an enormous outpouring of love and support for each other.

People have been hungry to help. Willing to put themselves out because of the needs of others.

and we’ve also suddenly recognised that the ‘key workers’ in our society aren’t perhaps those we assumed them to be…or the workers that society has traditionally valued the most. We have, collectively as a society, had to begin facing the inequalities that we knew were there, but could easily ignore.

It’s been a transformative time. So much so that I’ve heard lots of people questioning whether we could ever go back to how we were before – or hoping desperately that we don’t.

And I think this points us towards a deeper truth in Jesus’ commandment to love one another.

In not discriminating against others, whoever they are.

In looking at our prejudices, and challenging ourselves with them, so that society becomes a fairer and more loving place.

Jesus said, too, that others would know that we are his disciples, if we have love for one another.

In our love for one another, Jesus is saying - in treating friend, family, stranger and enemy all as cherished, loved, fellow humans,

God will be visible in those relationships.

Seeing the image of God in others, and viewing everyone as a beloved child of God, will never be anything but transformative.

nor is it easy… acknowledging the likeness of God in *every* person is hard

but transformation is going on all around us.

There is so much effort, and concentration, and energy being spent at the moment on looking after one another – shopping for others, staying at home to keep people safe, opening the door or window some evenings to applaud the work of the NHS.

The hunger to help and thirst for understanding echoes Jesus’ words on the cross:

‘I am thirsty’  

We are too.

While the world reels from the effects of Covid-19, people are reassessing their priorities. We are:

thirsty for meaning – what is life all about?

thirsty for relationship – relationship with those who matter to us, whether we know them or not

thirsty for God – who is with us, in our struggles for meaning.

And these struggles aren’t easy.

The deep, profound questions about life aren’t.

the questions we ask and the answers we find may be new, and unsettling. But so is Easter and so is our faith.

here, in the middle of a worldwide emergency where people are suffering and dying,

we have Easter, and we find hope;

Mary Magdalene comes to the garden, and is asked, ‘Why are you weeping?’

Jesus doesn’t say ‘don’t weep’, he asks ‘why are you weeping?’

The great hope from Easter isn’t one that says ‘be joyful, don’t weep’… it’s one that says when we weep…when we are lost and afraid…God is with us.

God is there asking us to recognise that we are not alone in our struggles, and inviting us to let God help us with our difficulties and our pain.

And Mary turns to face Jesus, because he says a single word

‘Mary!’ 

It’s not ‘friend’ or ‘sister’

At that moment, it is not about Jesus and a person, it’s about Jesus and Mary.

And Jesus doesn’t say ‘it’s me, Jesus’, inviting Mary towards him…

At that moment, it’s about Jesus reaching out to Mary….  when Mary is turned away, but looking for God, God reaches out to her and calls her by name, and meets her where she is.

Part of the joy of Easter is that we are shown that whoever we are, and wherever we are, if we look for God, we only have to turn around and recognise that God is with us…and that God will reach out to us, not just to humanity generally, but to each one of us, personally.

In that one word, ‘Mary’, the Easter story shows us that God does not just love humanity, but each and every one of us.

It also brings us full circle back to Mary…reminding us of the time before Jesus was born, and the words of the angel ‘Do not be afraid, Mary’.

And so to finish, I’d like to go full circle - back once more to the cross.

After turning our understanding of relationships upside down, Jesus says ‘It is finished’

The joy, and the hope, of Easter comes from being freed to live in the present; free from being stuck in the past or trapped in perpetual fear about the future.

It is in the present that we can make a real difference to each other, and to the world.

At Easter, we realise afresh that the Resurrection gives us an opportunity to grasp life in all its fullness, with reassurance and confidence.

Easter equips us to embrace the exciting challenge to be made new, because we know what comes next… Jesus, the Resurrection and the life, has flung wide the gates to eternal life.

When they were at home, full of fear, the risen Christ came and stood among his disciples and said, ‘Peace be with you.’

Then were they glad when they saw the Lord. Alleluia.