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Easter 2004C Luke 24:1-10; John 20:11-18
Saint Luke's Gospel continues with 11 But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12But
Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed
at what had happened.e: (Luke 24:1112)
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to looks into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in
white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13They
said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not
know where they have laid him." 14When she had said this, she
turned around and Sc;tw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, "Woman,
why are you weeping? Whom are you looKing for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you
have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." 16 Jesus said to her, "Mary!"
She turned and said to him in Hebrew, b "Rabbounil" (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, "Do not hold
on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father
and your Father, to my God and your God.'" 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the
Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her. (John 20:11-18)
"But these words seemed to them an idle tale." Every other month or so it seems, Time newsmagazine, or Newsweek,
or US News have an article about Jesus. Even Public Broadcasting System - PBS Frontline - has weighed in with an excellent
scholarly discussion of Jesus. And they got it right in their title: "From Jesus to Christ." Most recently Peter
Jennings and CBS aired a special on Jesus during, of course, Holy Week, when Television viewers would be highly inclined to
spend several hours on this rather than the sopranos or what ever. Book atter book, magazine article atter magazine article,
movie atter movie in the last half century, all try to tell us just who this Jesus was. And as Beth Williams' excellent presentations
during Lent brought home, artists, too, over the centuries have sought to answer that question. From Saint Paul's letters
and the Gospel writers through the before and atter Nicene Creed Church Fathers, through Thomas Aquinas to the Protestant
Reformers from Jonathan Edwards in the Eighteenth Century to the recent Jesus Seminar in the Twentieth, whole libraries have
been devoted to finding out who Jesus was. Or, more properly, is! Next time you are in Richmond or Northern Virginia, just
drive through Union Theological Seminary or Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria and just see how large the library
buildings are.
But the truth is that to pin Jesus down as being this or being that is only to place him back into some kind of tomb,
to put him in a box of our own making and not God's. When we pretend that we know just who Jesus is, we simply domesticate
him to be the person we need him to be and close him up in another tomb of our own imagining. (1)
But the movies and the paintings and the articles and the books keep coming. Why, do you suppose it is, that what the
disciples initially thought was an idle tale continues to cause such immense effort?
In The Challenge of Jesus, John Shea wrote that "The only excuse, and a lame one at that, for another book on Jesus
is that we are never quite through with him. When the last syllable of the last word about Jesus the Christ has been spoken,
a small, balding man who until now has been silent, will say, 'Just a moment, I.' After two thousand years
people still journey to Jesus. They bring a vaunting ego and last year's scar, one unruly hope and several debilitating
fears, an unwanted joy and a hesitant heart-and ask Jesus what to make of it. We have only gradually become aware of the hook
in Jesus 'promise, 'I will be with you always, even to the end of the world.' This not only means he will not go away, but
that we cannot get rid of him! He continues to roll back the stone from the caves we entomb him in. It Is only because Jesus
insists on inserting himself into the thick of our plots that we insist on commenting on him."
There's a lot of truth to that. The key seems to me to lie in the encounter Mary Magdalene had with the Risen Christ near
the Garden Tomb after she had reported what she had seen and heard and was rebuffed for bringing the disciples what they believed
was only an idle tale.
Mary Magdalene has gotten a lot of attention lately as a result of the fiction novel, The DaVinci Code. But it is fiction.
What is true, however, is that Mary Magdalene was a devoted and faithful disciple, devoted and faithful until the end - or
at least what she thought was the end in the crucifixion. She had been witness to his horrible death - and hOW she was the
first to learn of his resurrection and in particular the first person to see him, the Risen Christ. The Reverend Kirk Alan
Kubicek retells the story this way:
Only Mary stays behind, all alone, weeping. She stoops to look in, and where before there had been nothing but swaddling
cloths lying all around, there were now two angels asking her, "Woman, why are you weeping?"
And as she blurts out her answer she turns and bumps into someone else who is also asking her, "Woman, why are you
weeping? Whom do you
seek?"
What must have gone through her mind: Whom do I seek? Why am I weeping? Why is everyone asking me these questions? Who
are those men in white in the tomb? Can't any of them see what has happened? Oh, I'm losing my mindl "You're the gardener-you
tell me! Where have you put him? You should know, not me! You work here. You tell me. Whom do I seek? Why am I weeping? Why
. indeed!!"
Then it happens. He says one word: "Mary."
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!
She has heard this voice before. Only One person ever said her name in just this way. But it does not look like him. It
cannot possibly be him. But suddenly her heart is racing again! It is about to leap out of her chest as she throws herself
on the one she has supposed to be the gardener! Thank God I am not crazy after all. It IS Jesus.
"Rabboni!" she cries as she embraces him.
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!
And for a moment it seems as if it is all in her hands, in her embrace. It appears as if she can hold it all back, keep
him there, hold onto him forever and ever, when he says, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the father,
my father and your father, my God and your God. Go and tell the others."
And with that, she is given a new task. And our text simply says, "She went and told the disciples, 'I have seen
the Lord,' and she told them all the things he had said to
her."
It took courage for Mary to go back to the tomb. It took even more courage for her to let go of Jesus. But in doing so,
she gives birth to the Church. By her witness, by her testimony, the history of the world is changed, made new, transformed.
Her words to his friends are the first Easter sermon ever preached! Because of her testimony, we are here today! Mary Magqalene
continues to carry the message of the empty tomb through the ages to this very day. The message that gathers and calls us
all to be a community of his beloved disciples, the blessed company of all faithful people.
Like those first disciples to whom she tells the Good News, we all race to the tomb and look in it to see for ourselves.
Like Peter, Mary and the beloved disciple, we do not all see the same things, we do not hear the same voices. Except the one
voice that calls us each by name. And we know that it is no idle tale.
He calls us today. He calls us by name. He calls us to be his beloved disciples. He calls us to follow him so that we
may do something beautiful with our lives and bear much fruit.
Like Mary, he also calls us to let go of him. We can shut him up in tombs of our own making, or we can be like Mary and
let go and go and tell others about our Risen Lord. In letting go, like Mary, we will find that we are more fully embraced
by him, by his love more than we could ever imagine.
And like the people who were changed by her ,words, others lives will be changed by ours. We are never quite done with
Jesus. And thank God, he is never quite done with us! And thats no idle tale.
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!
And so are we. And so are we! (3)
Alleluia! Amen
1, 3. Adapted and modified from The Rev. Kirk Alan Kubicek, April 11, 2004 - Easter Day - Year C, Sermon for that Day,
at Selected Sermons, Worship that Works, dfms.org
2. John Shea, The Challenge of Jesus, The Thomas More Press: 1975, p. 11, as quoted in Ibid.
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