April 9, 2023
Easter Sunday
Epiphany, Winnipeg
Matthew 28:1-10
Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Hallelujah!
Yesterday I was feeling kind of down, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for this whole Easter thing, and I was tired and kind of blah about it all and then I opened my e-mail…and someone had written “I can’t wait for tomorrow when I can finally say “Christ is risen!”, “Christ is risen indeed!” And hearing that good news kind of out of the blue at an unexpected time shook me up and woke me up and kind of made me say “Really? Now I remember!” Someone told me that Christ is risen, and it changed everything for me.
That is exactly and precisely and absolutely what happened when Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb. An angel said, “You’re looking for Jesus of Nazareth but he’s not here. He is risen” And maybe Mary Magdalene said, “Indeed!” with conviction and great joy, and the other Mary said, “Indeed? Really?” And then the angel said, “Now go and find Jesus’ disciples and tell them that news,” so the two Marys go to tell the disciples. The disciples, you might remember just kind of disappeared once Jesus was on his way to be crucified. And maybe they were hiding somewhere, or maybe they were kind of scattered here and there, all kind of in a daze and in grief and traumatized by everything they’d seen, and they didn’t know anything about Christ being risen. But Mary and Mary come to where the disciples are and they say, “Christ is risen!” And right there, or an hour or two later, or maybe not until the next day or the day after that, the disciples all said, “Christ is risen indeed!”
And they told two friends. And they told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on and so on and so on and the message kept getting passed from one to another and then one day in April someone sent an e-mail to the pastor and said, “I can’t wait to say that Christ is risen!” And the pastor shook his head in wonder and said, “Christ is risen indeed.” And a few days later the pastor stood up and said “Christ is risen!” and a roomful of people said, “Christ is risen indeed!”
Some of them, some of you, said it with great conviction and certainty, and you’ve been waiting for this moment as much as a child waits for “Merry Christmas!” And I bet some of you said “Indeed?” with a question mark and your fingers crossed, because sometimes it’s not so easy to believe. However you said it, we’re part of this loooooong thread of confession that has carried on for all these years. From an angel sitting on a rock and saying “Christ is risen” the message goes on and here we are, just the next in line and hearing it again.
Hannah and Isla were baptized this morning, and they’ve been brought in to become a part of that long line of the message going on. Christ is risen. From their mom and dad they started to hear that in one form or another right from the start. I’m thinking that Hanna’s probably heard it from a friend like Nola in some kind of way that only kids can understand, and somewhere along the way Hannah will tell someone, and Isla will say something about it when somebody most needs to hear it, and that long chain of celebrating good news will continue.
Two thousand years from now someone somewhere – maybe on Mars – will be getting together with a bunch of other people who will all say together, Christ is risen, Christ is risen indeed! And if someone did a genealogy of the faith they would trace some of it back to that day when two sisters were baptized in Winnipeg, and there were all those other people, and someone wrote an e-mail to a pastor about something they first heard from their mom, and two women so long ago told eleven guys what they’d heard first from an angel and then from Christ himself. They told two friends, and they told two friends, and Hanna and Isla were baptized, and here we are on Mars 2000 years later joining in that same old brand new song!
So. Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed. It’s good news that keeps on giving.
There’s something else that goes along with that message. Before the angel says anything else, the angel says to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, “Don’t be afraid.” And Jesus meets them and says “Greetings,” which is a pretty non-religious thing for the risen Messiah, the healer of the universe, saviour of the nations, to say when he meets his friends on the morning of his resurrection. But after saying hello Jesus also says, “Don’t be afraid.”
Now it might seem that they’re saying that to the women because the women are afraid. And I guess you would be, wouldn’t you? There’s an earthquake and you see an angel and that doesn’t happen every day. The guards who guard the grave have weapons and armour and the all the official power of the state behind them, and when they see the angel and the stone and they feel the earth shake they shake and pass out in fear. But we never hear a thing about Mary and Mary being afraid. Maybe they’re just numb and they don’t feel anything. Trauma can do that to you. Or maybe they’re just not afraid. They will stand up straight and strong and face this. Or they’re curious. Or angry, or determined to stick around and figure out what’s going on. But not afraid. Maybe “Don’t be afraid” just means “Christ is risen. You don’t need to be afraid. Of anything. Ever. Because Christ is risen. Life wins.”
Of course, we’ll all be afraid. Sometimes I’m afraid of what’s happening to my country because of the direction some people want to take it, and some people are afraid of what’s happening to their country because of the direction that people like me want to take it. It can be scary for us all, and that fear can drive us apart. But don’t be afraid. Figure it out. And life will win, because Christ is risen.
We will be afraid. It’s normal. Maybe you’re afraid of that test result you’re waiting for – maybe it’s a blood test or biopsy result, or maybe it’s a math test; that’s a real fear - or you worry about your friend who always lives in a scary place between hope and despair. Some of the people I know and one of the people I am are terrified of making mistakes, some people are terrified of gaining weight and some are afraid they’re wasting away. One is afraid they’ll never get a job, and one worries that their 65 hours a week will kill them. I heard an African-American preacher tell about how they taught their sons from an early age how to act when you’re confronted by police. There’s a lot of fear behind that. And I’ve heard police talk about how scary it can be to get out of the car and walk up to knock on that front door or to ask that driver to roll their window down.
Fear is real. It’s OK to be afraid, and “Christ is risen, don’t be afraid,” doesn’t mean that fear is bad or some kind of weakness. But when we say “Christ is risen” it’s a way we have of saying that we place our lives in the care of the one who raised Jesus from the dead. Our working and our playing, our health or our illness, our hard work for justice and peace or your “I just can’t keep doing this,” are in the hands of a God who raises the dead. Our church council meetings and our Sunday school, our listening and speaking, our big life changes like moving or starting or stopping something, our figuring out what reconciliation means; our climate and our community, our addictions or our poverty, our defeats and our victories, everything we have and are we entrust to the care of the one who raised Jesus from the dead. We trust in the care of the one who has made it clear that death is defeated and life wins…even if that doesn’t always seem clear. Christ is risen. So when the angel says “Don’t be afraid,” it’s kind of a long-haul thing. So keep at it. Or if you’re worn out from keeping at it then just stop and rest. Stop keeping at it for awhile. It’ll be OK, life will win, because Christ is risen.
It’s a promise etched in our souls. It’s a promise poured over Isla and Hannah this morning and marked on their heads in the sign of a cross. Isla and Hannah, all of us, our life and the life of the world…. It’s all in the hands of the God who raised Jesus from the dead. Nothing can prevail over that love and that life. And the other little piece of that? Or the other big piece of that? Our dying, however it happens (and it will) is in the hands of that same God who raised Jesus from the dead.
“Christ is risen” also means that we are risen. We’re brought up out the water of baptism into new life, remembering that every day and being made new every day, raised again, and again, and again, because the promise of that empty tomb and the promise of that water is strong, and it keeps on. And Christ is not risen all by himself, or only for a few of us. Christ is risen and the whole world, and our whole future, is gathered up with him and lives today in the hands of that God who raised him up. Try this then: “We are risen.” “We are risen indeed.” Because Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed.
AMEN.