“Resurrection: This Is My Message”

April 9, 2023                  Easter Sunday               St. Andrew Church               Rev. Anne McAnelly

First Lesson:                                   Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever! ² Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”

¹⁴ The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. ¹⁵ There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the Lord does valiantly; ¹⁶ the right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.” ¹⁷ I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the Lord. ¹⁸ The Lord has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death. ¹⁹ Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. ²⁰ This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it. ²¹ I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. ²² The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. ²³ This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. ²⁴ This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Second Lesson:                                    Matthew 28:1-10

After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. ² And suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³ His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. ⁴ For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. ⁵ But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. ⁶ He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. ⁷ Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” ⁸ So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹ Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

I had the privileged of hearing Rev. Dr. Peter Gomes at a commencement address at Princeton Theological Seminary. He was a gifted and powerful preacher. I was inspired by one of his Easter sermons, here is how it started: “The resurrection is God’s way of getting our attention. It is God’s way of making us listen up, God’s way of getting us to look, to listen and to live … there is nothing subtle about Easter … God takes a leaf from the notebook of Cecil B DeMille and God begins Easter with an earthquake. ‘Suddenly there was a violent earthquake,’ says the gospel. ‘An angel of the Lord had descended from heaven and came down and rolled away the stone and sat down on it. His face shone like lightning; his raiments were white like snow. At the sight of him the Roman guards shook with fear and became like dead men.’ God knows how to get our attention.” (Sermons, Biblical Wisdom.for Daily Living, p. 73).
This really spoke to me, because to be honest Matthew’s account of the resurrection feels skeletal with Jesus only saying “Greetings” to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. If you keep reading it doesn’t get much better. The guards are paid off to lie about the empty tomb, then Jesus briefly meets the disciples, sharing the Great Commission. Yet God gets our attention with an earthquake. But before the resurrection is even understood, fear takes center stage. Fear of the earthquake, fear of seeing an angel, fear of not finding Jesus. The angel said, “Do not be afraid” not in a commanding way, but with comforting assurance: There is nothing to fear. You need not fear. After that earthquake and not finding Jesus, that would be exactly what I would want to hear. We all have fears. If I ask you, what are you afraid of? You might say spiders, snakes or heights. Our fears are also more complicated and amorphous than that. Fear I will not be good enough, fear I will not have enough time to do what needs doing, fear of death. Gomes writes, “Freedom from fear is the achievement of the resurrection- not freedom from death but freedom from fear. We do not fear death; death is the incarnation of our fears. (Death is the embodiment of our fears) Thus to defeat fear is to defeat death and to defeat death is to defeat fear … and to dimmish those fears is to gain life everlasting” (Ibid, p. 77).
The resurrection grants life eternal, but also life in the here and now, life that is free from fear, life that is made new in Christ. Gomes writes, “Life begins when you realize that by removing the fear of death, Christ has given you, for the first time, full possession of your own life. What you have always had, you now own … (your life) It is yours, free, full, and clear” (p. 76). New life in Christ starts now, starts this Easter morning with the breath that you just inhaled. Gratitude for that breath, excitement about the day, curiosity about what comes next. That is the Easter joy. Gomes writes, “Life begins when fear and joy, that odd couple of human existence, enable us despite the one and because of the other to get on with the serious and glorious business ofliving and loving. Life begins for Easter Christians when we realize that we do not have to die to live. You can begin right now, right here” (Ibid, p. 76).
In one of the stories in E.E. Milne’s classic children’s book, “Winnie the Pooh,” there is a scene where Pooh and Piglet take an evening walk. For a long time1 they walk in silence. It is a silence like that which only best friends can share. Finally, Piglet breaks the silence and asks, “When you wake up in the morning, Pooh, what’s the first thing you say to yourself?” “What’s for breakfast?” answers Pooh who then asks. “And what do you say, Piglet?” Piglet responds, “I say, I wonder what exciting thing is going to happen today?” (Sermons.com).

Life begins when we make the most of every day, confident in God’s love, trusting in Christ’s victory over death, so grateful God got our attention with the resurrection! Our morning might not start with an earthquake, but we have the joy of our risen Lord greeting us and to help us meet the day with hope and trust.
The two Marys found the courage to move beyond their fear and to heed the angel’s directive. “These two women become the first apostles. With great joy, they obey Jesus’ command, bearing witness to the risen Christ. Jesus’ command to the women becomes a command to all ofus: (Fear Not) … God has defeated death. Rejoice, and share the good news!” (Working Preacher, Judith Jones).
Charles Kingsley was a very gifted and renowned Anglican preacher. Some years ago, both he and his wife lay terminally ill in different rooms of the same hospital. They communicated by writing notes. One day his wife had a message sent to him that read: “My darling, is it cowardly of me to tremble before the unseen reality of death.” He wrote back “Do not be afraid! It will not be dark, because God is light. There will be no loneliness for Christ will be there.” That is our resurrection hope. (Sermons.com)
Christ will be there at your death; Christ is with you now. That is the resurrection promise. Remember how I was disappointed with Matthew’s account. Well now I see it much clearer. The disciples are promised that Jesus will go before them to Galilee and that they will get to see Jesus. That is our promise too. The great commission, the one account of our risen Lord speaking to the disciples, how does it end? “I am with you always to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). Or as another translation states, “I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age” (The Message). Christ’s resurrection happened centuries ago, but we experience Christ’s resurrection each and every day that we rise and greet the day with the hope ofliving, the glory of God greeting us and the courage to move through the fear and joy of being resurrected people. God got our attention with an earthquake, but God has gifted us with abundant life and love.
Gomes concludes his sermon with, “Because Jesus lives we too may live, with as much time as God gives us, free from fear of the past, free from the fear of the future. Christ ever goes before us. “He goes before you,” says Matthew. He goes before blazing a path for us to follow, and where Christ has gone we need not fear. Christ went to the cross; we need not fear the cross. Christ went to the grave; we need not fear the grave. Christ has gone into the future; we need not fear the future. Christ inhabits life; we need not fear life. God gets our attention at long last by earthquake … (God) tells us that he has come in Jesus Christ that we may have life and have it more abundantly. Because he lives, so, too, may we live. Life begins, my friends, when you discover this truth for yourself, and act upon it. Amen.