A short Easter reflection (because my Holy Saturday reflection was way longer than I intended it to be when I started it …)
I must confess that I’m grateful to not be preaching today. Preaching on Easter is one of two most difficult days to preach (the other is Christmas). I simultaneously ask myself what is there left to say and just how do we put into words the amazing work of God?
The Resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of all that we say we believe and the culmination of God coming to be one of us to show us in flesh and blood how to live in the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven. It is told in all four of the Gospel stories. It is proclaimed in the letters of the New Testament. It is who we are. We are Resurrection People.
Jesus spoke, taught, and lived the power of Love and he never gave up on it, even as government and church powers killed him for it. God’s love for all human beings is so powerful, it even defeats death. Somehow this powerful Love doesn’t eliminate death but takes away the power death has to make us afraid. That doesn’t mean we aren’t broken hearted when people die, it just means we don’t have to afraid of death because death isn’t the final word. Love is.
And it isn’t only about physical death but dying to the parts of us that get in the way of loving others well, the false needs that make us take for ourselves rather than share with each other. The false needs that make us grab for power over others rather than sharing the power of God’s Love with each other. The false needs that tell us things like love and compassion and goodness are in limited supply so I must be careful who I share them with. When we die to the ideas and beliefs and behaviors that keep us working to build our own kingdoms we become free to life the new life we are made for in God’s.
This is the Good News of the Resurrection, that God Loves all people and wants to be in relationship with all. Not just a select few. Not those who ‘get it right’. Not those who are already ‘perfect’. Not those who deserve it or are worth it because Jesus shows us that we are all ‘worth it’, infinitely valuable to God, the true treasure of God’s Kingdom.
And this Good News was first witnessed and proclaimed by women. Luke says it was “’Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles.” Mark says, “Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome.” Matthew says, “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary” And John says that it was just Mary Magdalene. They may disagree on who was with Mary Magdalene but they all agree that it was Mary M who first witnessed the empty tomb, encountered the Risen Jesus, and told it to the men.
The Good News is that God made us in love, by love, and for love so that we could all participate with God in sharing the goodness of God’s Love with the whole world – all people, all genders, all nations. God wants no one excluded, no one marginalized, no one left out. Love as God Loves is the most powerful force in all of creation. And we are given that power if only we can let go of the entitlement, anger, fear, and hate that keep our hands and lives too full to take hold of it.
We are all called to look to Jesus to learn to Love well. Together we walk this journey into the building up of God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven, following Jesus. We are Resurrection People because of Jesus’ own Resurrection. Proclaim with Mary Magdalene and all the women, proclaim it with our lives:
Alleluia, Alleluia, The Lord is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed, Alleluia, Alleluia!
Mother Nancy's Coffee Thoughts 