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I like that. I like that because this morning we've come to celebrate the good part. Today we've come with the disciples to bend down and look inside the tomb where they laid the crucified body of Christ. We've come to peek through the door where the stone has been rolled away. We've come to peek through the door which has now become a divine window; God's divine window of surprise that lets us see the good part! The tomb is empty! Jesus is risen from the dead!
That's the good news of this day. Early that morning, as the dawn came, the disciples - Mary and Peter and John - hadn't comprehended it yet. They were still in shock from the events of Thursday night and Friday. As much as Jesus had tried to prepare them, they hadn't realized the good part yet; they weren't ready. And yet, ready or not, Easter and the resurrection was upon them.
And it is upon us! The good news of that dawn has dawned again on us, and we are here to proclaim it! But what can we say, except "Christ is alive! Christ is risen indeed!"? To try to elaborate or add to the Resurrection is like trying to add to the brilliance of 100 million spot lights by offering to "flick your Bic!" Anything that can be added holds no comparison to what already is!
Our mission today is to speak the good news that already is: The Resurrection - the eternal dawn - is "first of all...last of all...and most of all" the essence of our faith. God is saying today, "Don't hold back the dawn ofthis new day! Spread the word and say out loud,'Christ is alive! Christ is risen indeed!"
When Mary finally realized that Jesus was raised to life, standing beside her, she reached out to Jesus in joy as she cried, "Rabboni!" or "Teacher!" But Jesus told her not to hold him back. The "Light of the World" had dawned once and for all, and that Light could not be held by any one person...but was intended for all the world.
Mary probably thought that things would be like they had been. Like us, she longed for the security of the past more than the adventure of the future. But that was not to be! God was doing something new! Instead of returning to the old days, Mary was instructed to tell the disciples of the dawning of a new day. It became her mission to lead others into the light of that new day.
It is also our mission to do the same: to manifest, communicate and celebrate God's surpassing love made known to us in the Light ofChrist - the Risen Lord. And we, as much as any people, must surely know: from the Light of the World comes a rainbow of possibilities!
Two hundred miles northeast of Los Angeles is a baked-out gorge called Death Valley - the lowest place in the United States, dropping 276 feet below sea level. It's also the hottest place in the country, with an official recording of 134 degrees. (That's even a couple of degrees hotter than St. Louis is the summer!) Streams flow into Death Valley only to disappear, and a scant two and a half inches of rain falls on that barren wasteland every twelve months.
But, some years ago, an amazing thing happened. For nineteen straight days rain fell onto the bone-dry earth. Suddenly all kinds of seed, dormant for years, burst into bloom. In a valley of death there was life!
That is the Easter message. Even where it seems most surely impossible, a desert becomes a garden. Beauty transcends the ugly. Love outwits and outlasts hatred. A tomb is emptied. The grim and haunting outline of a cross disappears in the glow of Easter's dawn!
The thing is...we have to look toward the light. Like Mary, we cannot recognize Christ in our midst until we turn our attention away from the tomb. As long as we stare, weeping and bewildered, into that dark place of the past, we will never understand what the new dawn had brought us.
Yes, the pains we've known were very real. For some - like Jesus - rejection. Kicked out of churches, pushed out of families, turned down by neighbors, let down by friends. For some, it was injury or illness. Long and painful treatments,.the fear of what the next day might bring. For many, disappointments. The realization that we were not - and never would be - the boy or girl next door, the television family, the ideal body type or a spokesmodel for anything. But real pain that existed in that time of darkness can be...has been...and will be overcome by the resurrection that comes with this new dawn!
Here we are today! We have this church - this family - an experience of love thought lost but now found. We have new life and improved health where it once seemed impossible. We have the assurance of belonging, and we have the hope that what we are today is not all that we will yet be! We have survived the darkness and we now have the promise ofa new dawn. Let us not hold back from recognizing it...and embracing it.
This day is not just some front for the greeting card and candy companies, you know! When we say, "Christ is alive! Christ is risen indeed!", we are not speaking metaphorically. We are being emphatically factual! Because of the Resurrection of Jesus, we are - as it has been said - "more sure to arise out of our graves than out of our beds." While we don't know what tomorrow holds, the good news of Easter is that we absolutely know the One "who holds tomorrow !"
Now the reality is that, just because you are here this morning, doesn't necessarily mean you believe in Easter...or that Christ is alive. Perhaps, in your own very human way, you are staring into a dark and empty tomb, weeping for some sign of hope or at least an explanation for how things could have gone so wrong. I can't answer all your questions; I can only tell you that the story isn't over and that, if you feel even a glimmer of light somewhere inside you - a tingle of desire to believe that God is real and that Jesus IS alive - then grab it! Don't hold back the dawn that is waiting to emerge within you to show you that the tomb is not the end.
In a collection of his writings, Sir Christopher Wren told how, at the start of work on his new cathedral of St. Paul's, when he and his chief stone mason had decided where the central point of the roof beams should be, over which the dome of the cathedral was to rise, they sent an illiterate workman off to bring a stone from the rubble of the old cathedral to mark the spot. The workman chose a fragment at random and brought it to them. The old stone had one word carved on it - a Latin word meaning, "I shall rise again."
God can reach into the rubble of our lives and bring forth a Living Stone - the Christ - to mark the spot of resurrection and rebuilding for us. So many of us here have experienced the new dawn - the dawning ofa life free from addictions...free from illness...free from loneliness...free from despair. We are, as much as any, an "Easter people" because we know what it means to come back to life. And I believe that there are many more among us here today who will come to know this newness of life in Christ as well. That's the good news of Easter. There is always and forever a sure and certain hope.
Don't hold back the dawn. Let the light of Christ come into your world. Don't hold back the dawn. Share the joy of Easter every day. Don't hold back the dawn of all the wonderful new things that God wants to do in this place and through our lives! This is the GOOD part and we are here to share it! Amen.
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