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Gate Pa – Year B Easter Sunday
2024
Readings:
First Reading: Isaiah
25:6-9
Second Reading: Acts
10:34-43
Gospel: John
20:1-18
What I want to say:
Our
friend died this week. The resurrection affirms that she is with God now. Swallowed
in God’s life. I don’t know what that means or what it looks life. That is ok.
I trust God for all that.
This
story is bigger than Liz, or me, getting into heaven, if that is what being
swallowed by God’s life is. Jesus death is more than Jesus dying on a cross for
me and my sins. It is God dying on a cross, showing us where all our greed,
selfishness, lust for power. The powers of death thought they had won, but God
would not be held in death. When all seemed lost God’s life prevailed. When all
seems lost, God’s love and life will prevail. I trust God for that.
Mary
watched her friend die, a humiliating horrific degrading death. She watched her
hopes for herself and Israel die. She was swallowed in grief, outrage,
powerlessness, despair. She went to weep and despair as the night light let go
and the dawn emerged. She met Jesus in the messiness of her life. She thought he
was the gardener. Nothing changed. Everything changed. The resurrected Jesus
met her in her darkest blackest moment and it changed everything. She became
the first to proclaim the gospel. She boldly lived resurrected life. The
resurrected Jesus invites us into resurrected life now. I trust God for that.
What I want to happen:
What
do we trust God for this Easter?
The Sermon
1.
Liz
Our friend died this week.
-
Had cancer for
awhile
-
Wouldn’t let that
define her
-
Never fought it
o
We all die of
something
-
Anyway she was
too busy living life for that
-
She and cancer
danced together these last few years.
-
All the while she
lived
-
Nearly died in
December when she fell off her ebike
o
Riding in
Redwoods with husband and us
-
Ruptured tumour
o
Said goodbye to
each other – badly
-
She had too much
life left to live.
-
She got a tatoo
celebrating her “gifted time”
o
Seeing children
married
o
Meet grandson
o
Celebrating
daughter’s 30th birthday in Greece
-
Still planning
trips
-
Posted on Tuesday
that she near the end
o
Grateful for her life
§ Family
§ friends
o
Peace with its
end
-
Died few hours
later
She is with God now.
That’s what today is all about
I don’t know what that means
-
what it looks
life.
That is ok.
Jesus resurrection holds that promise
Swallowed in God’s life.
I trust God for all that.
That’s what the invitation for today is about
Trusting God for that.
2. Bigger and Darker
This story is bigger than Liz, or me,
It is more than either of us
-
Any of us
-
getting into
heaven,
-
if that is what
being swallowed by God’s life is.
Biblical story is God’s covenantal
faithfulness to
-
restoration of humanity
-
joining God in the
work of renewal of creation
Jesus death is more than Jesus dying on a
cross for me and my sins.
It is God dying on a cross,
-
showing us where
all our greed, selfishness, lust for power, blindness
® leads to.
-
Allowing the powers
of death think they have won,
Resurrection breaks those powers
Defeats death
Invites us to another way
John is clear
-
In dying on a
cross
o
Jesus is
glorified
-
shows us the
nature of God
o
God’s life
o
Gods love for
this world
o
Gods commitment
to this world
but God would not be held in death.
When all seemed lost God’s life prevailed.
Each time we celebrate the resurrection
Invited to remember
-
God’s life
prevails
when all seems lost,
-
easily give into
despair and anger
-
feel powerless
-
lost all hope
God’s love and life will prevail.
I find hope in that.
I trust God for that.
3. Mary
Today we heard one of the big stories
About Mary Magdalene
watched her friend die,
-
a humiliating
-
horrific
-
degrading death.
She watched her hopes for herself and Israel
die.
It was like she had died too
She was swallowed in grief,
-
outrage,
-
powerlessness,
-
despair.
She went to weep and grieve as the night light
let go and the dawn emerged.
No anointing oils in John
Just a simple act of being in the place her
friend lay
Where her hope and life lay shredded
Dead
Between the tears she finds an empty tomb
And after the men have come and gone
She meets Jesus
And he is not all white and shiny
She thinks he was the gardener.
He is covered with life’s messiness
The resurrected Jesus meets her
-
in her darkest
blackest moment
-
in her moment of
death
ð and it changed everything.
She is made new
She is resurrected too
She became the first to prolamin the gospel.
She proclaims to the men
“I have seen the lord.”
She is remembered
She boldly lived a resurrected life.
We are all invited to live resurrected lives
In her book Pastrix , Nadia Bolz-Weber
describes resurrection life as new messy life.
“God is interested in making me new. And new
is not perfect. In the Easter story itself, new is often messy. New looks like
recovering alcoholics, and reconciliation between family members who don’t
actually deserve it. New looks like every time I admit I am wrong and every
time I don’t mention it when I am right. New is every fresh start, every act of
forgiveness and every moment of letting go of what we thought we couldn’t live
without and then somehow living without it anyway. New is the thing we never see
coming, never even hope for, but ends up being the thing we needed all along.
It happens to all of us. God simply keeps bending down into the dirt of
humanity and resurrecting us from the graves we dig ourselves through our
violence, our lies, our arrogance, and our addictions. And God keeps loving us
back to life over and over.”
Mary knew all that and more
She had seen the Lord
She invites you and me to live that life too
In the messiness of our everyday life
To be made new
Again and again and again
Living resurrected lives
Even when we are lost in death
I’m willing to trust God for all that too.
I have to trust God for that
@@@What are we invited to trust God for this
Easter?
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