March 27, 2005 - Easter Sunday - Father Andrew Green

FIRST READING: Acts 10: 34-43
PSALM: 118: 1-2, 14-19
SECOND READING: Colossians 3: 1-4
GOSPEL: Matthew 28: 1-10

(Audience participation will be noted in bold print and italics)

Back up a little bit before dawn. Back up maybe even a few days. Think of the situation that the disciples and those women who were with them - they were also disciples - but think of the situation that they were in. First of all, they were among a people who were very divided, very socially-, class-, and race-divided, and every other kind of conscience you could have - they were divided by all those things. They were folks who had watched their Rabbi, their Leader, and their Master die on a cross. At least some of them watched, but others at a distance were already in hiding when He was killed. Most of all, you have the sense that many of them, particularly Peter and the others of the remaining eleven, had let Jesus down. Think about that. As they wrestled with all of those other divisions and feelings and that horrible place for them to sit, they also had to deal with their own sense of having failed and disappointed the One whom they had promised to serve.

All of that leads us up to this moment when the women, who had already prepared Jesus for burial, came on that first day of the week to check and see how things were. They wanted to make sure nothing was amiss. They were just following through and checking all the details out, and they arrived to an earthquake. They arrived to something worthy of a Cecile B. DeMille movie. The earthquake, the angel descending from Heaven, tearing the door off, and sitting on it! That angel was letting everyone who saw it know that God had power even over death and that was letting everyone who saw it know that a stone door on a tomb, the tomb itself, or even death, which the tomb represented, was not enough to hold Jesus. Amazingly, when these kinds of things happened, the women were scared to death. In Matthew's Gospel, it is interesting, because the Gospel really begins with an angel coming in and kind of frightening Mary and then Joseph, and it ends, to some extent, with an angel frightening the other Mary's who would come to the tomb. But, like every angel I think we have in the New Testament who meets anybody, the first thing out of the angel's mouth is, "Don't be afraid". "Jesus is not here, because He has already risen". The women didn't just miss it by a little bit; they missed it by a lot. They came and arrived in time to see the angel symbolically letting everyone know that the tomb was empty. The women didn't even make it for Jesus' raising, because that happened some time before, we don't know when, but the angel is giving them a message; "Go and tell the others that Jesus is going ahead of them. They will meet Him in Galilee".

Now, in the reading that we have from the Book of Acts, we have Peter, probably a few years later, preaching. Peter is preaching to a group of Gentiles, non-Jews, and I don't know if you have followed along in any of the sermons - those of you who are just here for the first time today don't have the benefit of that - but one of the problems that Peter had was he was one of those who thought you had to be a Jew before you could be a Christian, and so he tended to look down on folks who didn't have the right origins. In the reading that we have today, he is with the family of Cornelius, the Centurion. God has broken into Peter's life in a dream to tell him to go and deal with those folks, even when Peter would have preferred to make sure that everybody understood that they were excluded.

So, the reading from Acts reminds us that that division of class, origin, race, religion, and everything else that was part of the scenario before Jesus' resurrection is not applicable anymore. I am convinced that God shows no partiality, so the important thing that Peter is letting Cornelius and, ultimately, all of us know is that there is no particular entrance requirement that you can't do something about. In other words, where we were born, who we were born to, where we come from is not something any of us can change, and God shows no partiality. God doesn't prefer folks from the West Coast, from the East Coast, Jews to Greeks, or anyone else, but all are welcome in God's Kingdom.

Second, we go to the end of the Gospel, and, at the end of the Gospel, after the women have been thoroughly scared out of their wits, they turn and go, and who do they run into?

You can say it louder. Just because the Baptist is not up here, you can still make noise! Who did they run into?

JESUS!

O.K.! They run into Jesus, and they are shocked and scared and excited, and they fall down on their knees, and they grab His feet. Now, that is a great device in the story to tell us, because what does it tell us? It tells us that they weren't having a dream, like Peter. They were dealing with the real McCoy. They grabbed His feet. The resurrection was real. It wasn't just a dream or a vision or a bit of smoke that they happened to mistake for Jesus, and, as they are on their knees, Jesus begins to expand on the message of the angel. Jesus tells them, and this is very important for us to hear, "Go tell my brothers that I am going before them to Galilee, and I will meet them there". Now, those of you who came a long way to this Easter service may be saying, "That's the important message? That seems pretty vanilla, you know". But let's think about it again. If we back up to those days before the resurrection, we have every single one of the disciples who turned their backs on Jesus. Judas is the famous one, but all the rest of them betrayed Jesus, and Peter, I think, in some ways, betrayed Jesus most of all. Those are the ones who are cowering. Those are the ones who are afraid. They are not just afraid because the religious leaders are after them, too. I think they are afraid because, if it is like they heard that Jesus was raised, He might be after them. These are the people who know about revenge and getting even - an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth - have you ever heard that? They invented it. So, these folks are scared, too, and Jesus tells the women - it is nice that the women can take it, and they have to kind of soften it up for the men, because they can't take it like that - they go to the men and give them Jesus' message, "Tell my brothers . . ."

There is the key. Jesus, the one who was betrayed; the one whom every one left; the one who was left to die upon the cross is telling those who did it, "Let my brothers know that I am going ahead of them, and they will meet Me in Galilee". Jesus is letting them know that they are forgiven. Jesus is letting them know that He is not holding their fear, their faithlessness, or any of that against them. He is inviting them to be reunited, to be forgiven, and to be a part of His family, His disciples, His Church, again.

Now, why is that important for us? I have sometimes preached about my life, where it feels to me sometimes like I always have to look over my shoulder, because it is catching up on me - the stuff that I really don't want anybody else to think about and know about me, or the stuff I would like to have gotten rid of - but I look over my shoulder and sometimes feel like it is catching up. I don't know if any of you have anything like that left over. I don't know if any of you have ever felt like you have betrayed Christ or maybe somebody else, or maybe you did something else that still sticks in your craw and isn't resolved. Quite often, when you feel like that, it is hard to come close to folks where you assume, "Well, they don't have this problem. I am the only one that has ever betrayed Jesus or anybody else". Jesus' message to His disciples is a critical message to us, because it reminds us that there is nothing that any of us has ever done that can get between us and God. If Jesus is able to say to those who turned against Him and betrayed His trust and His intimate relationships with them and called them His brothers and, indeed, sisters again, and invited them to continue on the ministry that they were going to take over from Him, think about how much Jesus welcomes us. No matter what it is that we have done - and I am sure all of you have great and glorious sins, maybe even better than mine - but they don't count in the face of God's love and forgiveness.

So, we are invited here without partiality. There is no special seating in the Kingdom of God (whether there may be for some people here in this Church or not - check the name on the edge first before you offend somebody!). But, in God's Kingdom, there is no special seating. In God's Kingdom, there is nobody who is holding your sins against you or my sins against me. In God's Kingdom, we are to focus our eyes on Christ, who is risen. We are not to focus on all the details about how He got there and how He ended up dying on the cross, but we are to focus on Christ, who is risen, and let the world know about all the things that, either for a long time or for a short time, we have come to know and to give thanks for about God's love for us. Our job is to keep that focus and to let the world know that it includes them, too. It includes them, too. We have folks out there who are used to being cast out, and they need to hear the Good News. We have folks out there who are used to doing the casting out, and they need to hear the Good News, too. We have folks out there who are kind of in the middle and are just not wanting to talk to anybody about any of this, and we need the Good News more than anyone else, because we are the ones who make up the majority of the Church and, indeed, the world. The world is not overwhelmed with people who hate others. The world is overwhelmed with people who don't know what to do about it.

We have a message from Christ that tells us, today, "My brothers and sisters, go ahead of Me to Galilee. Meet Me there, and I will let you know where we go next." The Church is not a group of people who are to sit around all the time and wait and fuss over all the stuff, but we are folks who are to be on our way to meet Jesus. We are folks who are to be focused on Christ, who is risen. We are folks who are to be able to communicate that and share it with everybody and, especially, with the people we run into who need it the most. Maybe they don't need it in a big bombastic sermon; maybe they need it in just a hand on their shoulder. Maybe they just need a hug. But, if it is done in the name of Christ, and if it is done to reconcile, to welcome, and to include, it is a part of Christ's invitation for His brothers and sisters to go ahead of Him and meet Him in Galilee, where He will let them know what the rest of their ministry is going to be about.

So, I would invite you, with me, to focus on Christ, who is risen, and give me one more Alleluia, Christ is risen!

ALLELUIA, CHRIST IS RISEN!!!

AMEN