Sermon for Easter Sunday, 2006 April 16, St Mary Magdalen, Sheet

Bible readings: 1 Cor 15:1-11, John 20:1-18

Happy Easter! What a glorious spring day. Which means summer is just round the corner. Which means holiday time! Apologies to everyone with GCSEs, A levels, AS levels, degree shows etc. But I’m in holiday mood so I thought we could talk about something which is really fun, if a bit scary. Fairgrounds, slides, not just slides, helter-skelters, rollercoasters! I would like to find out who here has been on the biggest rollercoaster. I’ve put a few pictures around [in the church] to help you think about this.

1. [Toddlers’ slide] How about this one? Well, that’s scary isn’t it? Well don’t knock it. It might be only (one metre) high, but remember everyone has to start somewhere and if you’re very small you might need to be brave to go on this one.
2. [Bigger kids’ slide] We couldn’t use the projector today and I was desperate to show you some slides. Anyone recognize this one? Where is it? And who is it? Harry – a member of our congregation.
3. Now we’re getting somewhere. Where’s this? Who’s been on this? Skyways at Southsea – this one’s about my limit.
4. Anyone been on this one? Stealth at Thorpe Park. Catapults you from 0-80mph in 2.3 seconds. 205 feet high.
5. This was the highest one in the world for a while. Where? It’s in this country. The Pepsi Max Big One at Blackpool. 214 feet high, over a mile long!
6. Hulk in Orlando, Florida. This one will turn you upside down seven times. Looks the biz.
7. Can’t leave this without introducing Kingda Ka in Jackson NJ. The highest in the world. 456 feet high and you will go at 128 mph!

The events of the last week, Holy Week, are a kind of rollercoaster.

• There were some high points, some happy times, the crowd shouting Hosanna on Palm Sunday, and special moments like Jesus’ last supper with his friends, and washing their feet
• There were moments of hope, as when Pontius Pilate said to the crowd "I find no fault with this man"
• There were some really crazy moments, like Peter cutting off Malchus’s ear with his sword

• And there were some desperate low moments, like when Peter denied ever knowing Jesus – and think of Judas scurrying off into the night to do what he had to do

And then on Friday, everything for Jesus’ friends seemed to go off the rails completely. I’m sorry to have to do this on this joyful day, but we need to go back just 24 hours and imagine what it was like for them. So very bleak, all their hopes and dreams shattered.

I wonder even if the disciples had started to get used to what had happened? On Good Friday we remembered something of the "seven sorrows of Mary" and saw also how serenely she came to accept and start to live with the loss of her beloved son. And for those who had had great hopes for what Jesus might do for them, well, they would have had to shrug their shoulders and think that maybe it was all a dream, an amazing rollercoaster ride that crashed with a bump, and then even the dream that was left behind would eventually begin to fade.

But it’s Easter! And it all starts with Mary Magdalen and perhaps a friend, before dawn, they are going to Jesus’ tomb. And something is up, the stone has been rolled away, the tomb is empty. They run to tell Peter and maybe John, who go to see for themselves.

And a strange mixture of things happens. What do they see? Well, in a way, nothing. Oh, they see evidence, but they don’t see Jesus. One of them "believes", but in a shadowy kind of way. They don’t understand what it’s all about and – this is quite funny really – they go back home! Maybe they wanted breakfast, but maybe they just didn’t know what to do.

(I find that uncertainty quite comforting because I think many of us are in a similar kind of place.) You see, the truth that Jesus is alive dawns on people at different speeds and in different ways. First one disciple believes, without seeing Jesus. Then Mary – she is upset but through her tears she is the first to see Jesus. And gradually more disciples see Jesus and believe. And famously there is Thomas who needs more convincing. Then as Paul tells us, over five hundred people together see Jesus, and Paul himself, undeserving perhaps, sees him on the road to Damascus..

In many different ways Jesus showed that he was alive and yet everyone who followed him eventually had to make their own decision: do I try to ignore this, or do I allow it to change my life? Think of that rollercoaster again: do I make that brave, even foolish decision, to give up control, allow myself to be taken on a thrilling "ride" through life? Because that’s the decision: if Jesus is alive, is there any way you can ignore it? Can you imagine any of those disciples, Andrew, say, encountering the risen Lord Jesus and then saying – nah – doesn’t do it for me. This will all blow over! Impossible! They became 100% followers.

What about us – you and me? It is rather easy for us to think that somehow 2,000 years has diluted the story and the urgency that those first disciples felt. But in fact we have much more in common with them than we might think, and our decision is just as urgent.

You see, even in those first few hours, on that first Easter Day, Jesus was training his friends to get used to not being with him in the flesh. "Do not hold on to me". He set the pattern when he said that to Mary. Within a very short time there were believers who had not seen Jesus just as we have not seen him. Those 2,000 years are actually a very short time. So our need to make up our minds is just as strong. The challenge is just as great. If it is true it changes everything! Not so much what we do – after all some of Jesus’ disciples did go back to Galilee and back to their lives as fisherman, but with a sense of openness and expectancy that God could do anything – and he did! So it was the new way they lived their lives that mattered, and it’s the same for us.

There it is, written on the window, in glass and light and colour: "He is risen". The truth is almost literally staring us in the face. In a world where there is so much hard science on one hand and so much mumbo-jumbo (and conspiracy theories) on the other hand, it is hard to believe. People don’t rise from the dead, but Jesus did, and in the end it is a matter of faith and trust that God knows what he is doing. Because he is risen, his claims that he can forgive our sins and give us everlasting life actually mean what they say. And if you can even start to believe it, then God is calling you personally to follow him.

These days when there is a TV programme with any human interest it’s common to see a message at the end "If you have been affected in any way by the issues raised in this programme, please contact so-and-so". Now I don’t pretend that these words I’ve said could have much effect on their own, but if that [point to window again] – the reality of Easter, the empty tomb – has challenged you in any way, why not talk about it? Of course, it doesn’t have to be today, but then again, why not? Maybe there’s something you haven’t understood, or have understood for the first time – whatever it is, please speak to us. There will someone who can listen, or pray with you if that’s what you’d like. Or we can suggest ways of finding out more. If the joy of Easter has surprised you in any way at all, I can certainly understand – it surprises me often – it is a white-knuckle experience sometimes. Those rollercoasters might offer you the thrill of your life. I think what the risen Lord Jesus wants us all to have is the thrill of life in all its fulness. Simple question – has this amazing truth of Easter dawned on you yet? If so – come aboard, please do!