Sermon for Easter Sunday, 23 April 2000, St Mary Magdalen, Sheet, published on www.trikeshed.com

Bible reading: John 20 1-18

Over this past week we’ve been following the amazing story of how Jesus Christ was brought to trial, suffered, died and was buried, and how he rose from the dead. Every time you read these stories you find something new. This millennium year, one thing has struck me particularly about the accounts – how they’re full of time. Just go back and have a look at the gospels – you’ll find the writers seems almost obsessed with when the events took place.

And so on. And we have this strange business of the date of Easter. Why is it so late this year, when in other years it seems to be just after Christmas? Without going into a maths lecture, it’s the Sunday following the first full Moon of spring. Now we have no firm knowledge about this, but it’s tempting to imagine that those events of Holy Week and Easter, so many of which happened at night, were played out under a full Moon.

Well, all this business of times and dates is quite important. Why? Because it places Easter in history. Something which really happened and whose anniversary we celebrate. Something by the way that’s a lot more concrete than the life of St George, whose day it is today. Jesus rose from the dead – it’s not a distant, shadowy myth but a fact.

Now I’d like you to take a look at our beautiful east window. In the bottom panel there’s a woman, and the phrase ‘He is risen’. Who is she? Mary Magdalen. She has a very special place in history as the first human being to witness the resurrection of Jesus. And she’s the patron of our church, so you could say that in a very special sense we are an Easter Church, the Church of the Resurrection, Sheet. And that gives us an excuse to celebrate Easter on another day – the patronal festival of our church on 22 July. By the way, the sun always shines on our open air service! But Mary reminds us of the intimate side of Easter – it’s not just a historical fact but a personal encounter. The risen Lord met with Mary and the other disciples, and with Paul, and changed their lives. And he hasn’t died since, you know – he wants to meet with us and change our lives too.

Well we have two Easters a year – I wonder if we can do better than that? What day of the week is it today? Sunday. Now Jesus was a Jew and he used to worship on the Sabbath which is Saturday. But he rose from the dead on the first day of the week, Sunday, and because of that the early church used to meet together on Sundays, and the idea stuck. So – the resurrection is not just a fact, not even just a personal encounter, but it’s actually at the foundations of all our Church life. We remember his body broken for us and his blood shed for us by taking communion, but we also celebrate the fact that he rose from the dead, simply by the fact that it’s Sunday.

I was going to have a visual aid but I couldn’t think of a way of making it big enough without getting in the way. So you’ll have to imagine it. It’s a year planner, and if you imagine a red star on Easter Sunday and another on St Mary Magdalen’s day, and now we’ve got one for every Sunday of the year. Well, perhaps you can guess what’s coming next. I’m going to fill in the whole chart with stars.

If you’ve ever had to get up very early on a spring or summer’s morning, before dawn, you’ve caught something of that first Easter. Because Jesus showed us by rising again the victory of good over evil, for all time. In that sense Easter isn’t really an event at all, but something which is actually woven into the whole of creation. The rising Sun – it may be a pun, but it’s a very fortunate one. Jesus, alive today, is as much a part of our universe as the sun rising every day. Just think of what it means. Victory over death. Victory over fear. Victory over despair. These things do remain in our imperfect world but they are defeated, finished with, banished. Just as the first light of every day banishes the darkness.

So we have dates and times to remind us that Jesus really did rise from the dead. We have Mary and the others to show us that we can encounter the risen Lord personally. We have Sunday as a weekly reminder and celebration together of the Easter message. And every single new day is a witness that Jesus is alive, and the hope that that brings us is as sure and certain and clear as daylight itself.

I wish you a joyful Easter full of blessings. It’s a very special day, but remember Easter can be yours and mine every day – just for the asking.

© Mike Knee, 2000

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