Sermon for the Easter Sunday 4.12.2020
Church of the Good Shepherd, Acton, Massachusetts
Rev. Melissa Buono, Interim Priest
Readings: Acts 10:34-43; Colossians 3:1-4; Ps. 118:1-2, 14-24; Matthew 28:1-10
In the name of Our Risen Lord, Alleluia! Amen!
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!
Happy Easter my dear friends! and while this has been a most unusual and certainly unforgettable Holy Week and now Easter, I want to thank you for your prayers and your virtual presence throughout this difficult and challenging time.
I began my first sermon on zoom quoting the Grateful Dead and little did I know just “what a long and strange” Lenten and now Easter journey this would be.
The thing is, despite all the inconvenience of working remotely, and not being able to gather in person, there has been the joy of connecting with you by phone and email. And if we’ve not had a chance to connect as yet, do not fear, members of the Vestry and congregation and I are continuing our parish wide outreach to you all and will do so in the weeks ahead.
I’d like to encourage you to look at who’s on this call and think about who’s not here and maybe reach out to them by phone or with a card this week, so that they know they are missed.
But it’s good to hear your voices and see your faces on the zoom sessions! I think we realize in these calls how much we miss one another and how much we care about each other.
Being able to meet online though doesn’t take away from the unsettling fact that everything about this Holy Week and Easter is different this year! From the social distancing and stay-at-home orders, to the zoom gatherings and technical glitches, even the liturgy itself is different with weekly Morning Prayer and the unusual Triduum or 3 Days observance. My apologies to you if you got bounced out of the meeting last night. I had to close out the meeting and start it again and I fear some of you got lost in that transition.
How we long for what used to be - to gather in this space, to greet one another with the sign of peace, to hear the footsteps of the children as they run pell mell up the stairs and into the sanctuary after their lessons, to lift our voices in prayer and song, and of course to share in the Holy Eucharist, as well as our coffee hour gatherings and celebrations.
Let us sit with that longing for a moment. Let us take in this sabbath rest from our usual practice as we pause to reflect on the Easter story. For there are things about this story that we can perhaps relate to in ways that we likely couldn’t in years past. Our customs and patterns of being in Holy Week and Easter are so in-grained that perhaps we missed parts of the Easter Resurrection story because after all, we know how this story ends.
This year, we’ve not had to worry about the accoutrements of worship - no banners to hang, no ceremonial stripping of the altar, ... and not that these things are unimportant, but without them, it’s given us more time to reflect on the story without being swept up in the busyness of the season’s preparations. It’s allowed us space to think about what really matters in this season.
Although in other ways, we are more distracted on the home front from juggling working from home, and online learning for our children to worrying about whether you’ll have a job or a small business to return to. There are fears about lost income and getting needed medications, anxiety about vulnerable loved ones with activities and learning curtailed. There are fears around testing positive for COVID-19 and enduring the awful effects of the virus. Indeed it is a time fraught with worry and fear as we consider the bigger picture of what is happening to the world as we know it.
We all long for an end to this coronavirus and for things to get back to “normal.” But what is normal and what if this is an opportunity to create a new normal? What shall we keep? What needs to change? The text this morning from Matthew even feels strange; I’m so used to hearing the Easter proclamation from the Gospel of John. And reading the account of the women at the tomb has made me go back and read it again as the details are not so familiar.
For unlike the other gospel writers, Matthew does not mention the women’s task of bringing spices to anoint the body of Jesus as the burial happened so quickly in order to finish before the sabbath had begun. Instead Matthew has the women going back just to see the tomb. They had been there earlier; they had watched as Joseph of Arimathea laid Jesus’ body in the new tomb and then rolled a great stone to the door and went away. But Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb until the start of the sabbath when they returned to their home.
What was that Sabbath like for the women? Surely it was unlike any other. They must have been reeling from the events of Jesus’ death and the unfairness of it all - what wrong had he done? No wonder they went back to the tomb at the first opportunity when sabbath was ended and the light was just beginning to break in the day.
In his account, Matthew describes the scene with “dramatic effect” recalling a great earthquake and the descending of an angel of the Lord with a dazzling appearance who then rolled back the stone and sat on it. There were guards who fell over like corpses and the 2 women were filled with fear and awe.
I wonder if the earthquake was an aftershock or even set in motion by the shaking of the earth and splitting rocks that occurred when Jesus drew his last breath on the cross? it was during that shifting of earth that the understanding of the centurion shifted as did that of the others who were keeping watch over Jesus. With their new realization, they announced, “Truly this man was God’s Son.” Was it seeing the mighty hand of God rumble the earth that convinced them? What would they think of the greater act of God’s power that would come in the morning?
The appearance of the angel proved too much for the guards at the grave. They shook and became like dead men themselves, and as such they missed the messenger of the Lord. But the angel spoke to the women bringing a word of comfort: “Do not be afraid.” The angel went on to confirm what had taken place saying to the women, “I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised, just as he said would happen.” And then he invited them to come and see the place where Jesus’ body had been laid.
Again, Matthew’s gospel leaves out some of the details of the other accounts; there is no sharing of what was seen inside the tomb, no talk of the burial clothes left behind. The sense is that we need not linger at the tomb, and the time for grieving is done. Instead we must go and share the good news of Jesus’ resurrection, for he who was dead, is now alive.
Having heard that Jesus would meet them in Galilee, the women immediately left the tomb to go and find the others and tell them what they had seen and were told. They were filled with both fear and great joy. Would the others believe them? They were women after all, living in a culture that did not count women among those to be trusted or believed. But things had happened just as Jesus said they would when he told them that he would die and on the 3 day be raised again.
You can almost feel their excitement and curiosity, the mix of emotion running through them as they try to make sense of the messengers’ news. And if all was not feeling surreal enough for the women, suddenly they were joined on the road by a figure who said to them “Greetings!”
Who was this? Could it be Jesus? Surely they recognized him as they came to him. They took hold of his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus echoed the words of the angel saying “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
The joy of Easter is that though the tomb is empty, Jesus is with us still. And though he died, he lives again in glory. Like the message to the Mary’s, Jesus calls to each of us, Be not afraid! for despite the dangers of this world, we are forever in God’s care.
Things are changing all around us, some more rapidly than others, and it’s hard to take it all in, and it’s easy to be filled with fear and dread, but know that because Jesus lived and died and rose again, God is with us. Listen to Jesus and do not be afraid. May we sing with the psalmist who said, “On this day the Lord has acted, we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
In whatever you are facing this day, may you know the comforting presence of the Risen Christ!
A blessed Easter to you my sisters and brothers!
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Amen.