Loading...Sermon March 27, 2016
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen, Newport, PA
Easter Year C – Isaiah, Acts, Luke
The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Luke 24:5
Please be seated.
This past week, a friend of mine wrote a blogpost that captured me. Listen to her words:
My resolution was to blog at least once a month and only blog if I actually had something worth reading. That lasted a few months, then life got hard and I went underground. Then life got really, really hard and I went to the tomb.
I went to the tomb the day my marriage surprisingly and suddenly ended. I went into the tomb the day my life partner of nine-years left, the day my hope for a family died, the day my life as I knew it died. I went and crawled up next to a dead Jesus, cried, and died myself.
My faith died in that tomb. Who I thought I was as a wife died in that tomb. My hopes and dreams died in that tomb. A life I had spent my adulthood building died in that tomb. My closest friendships died in that tomb. And I spent months, depressed, sleeping, crying in that tomb. Some days, Jesus and I talked, but most of the time, things were just dead. I spent a lot of time in bed and I spent a lot of time staring at a blank wall in my therapist’s office - which, incidentally, is painted tomb-color.
My friend’s post started me thinking about the times I’ve gone to the tomb…Jesus’ tomb. The times we’ve all probably been there: when a family member died, when a marriage or relationship ended, when a friendship has gone, when we could no longer do something we loved, when we felt everything piling up around us.
We go to the tomb with Jesus. We stay in that dark cave with a heavy rock blocking out the world. We block out life and wonder if we can ever have life again.
One time in my life when I recall being in the tomb, at least in some aspects of my life was after a relationship ended and then my mother died. I found solace in prayer. I was living in the DC area at the time, going to church at The Washington National Cathedral. I spent a lot of time there, even when it wasn’t a Sunday. I found comfort praying in one of the many chapels there.
One Saturday I was there and I decided to sit in Resurrection Chapel. This chapel is filled with brilliant mosaic depictions of the appearances of Christ from Easter morning to Ascension Day. These mosaics are filled with gold leaf between pieces of glass adding the brilliance to each mosaic. The chapel is very quiet, because it is set aside for prayer. I sat in a chair and stared at these mosaics. After a time, I heard, “I will resurrect your life.”
I was startled by that knowing. “I will resurrect your life.” It was Christ’s invitation to come out of the tomb… to come back to life.
And that’s what I know in sure and certain terms. Christ is risen. Christ is resurrected. And Christ bids each of us to arise to new life…to resurrection.
But how do we roll the stone away? That big, heavy stone we’ve put up to block life out?
Like my friend, sometimes going to a trained therapist helps us move the stone away and enter life anew. There are wonderful medications that help for a time or for a lifetime. We have friends who come to us like angels and care for us. Prayer may do it. Participating in a community like the one here at our parish can roll the stone away. Sometimes we just get tired of being in the tomb. I think it’s rare that we can roll that stone away all by ourselves.
And in resurrection, our lives will be changed. Our lives will not be the same as before. Whatever we’ve experienced changes us. Our time in the tomb changes us.
Yet, we are risen to a new life. We are resurrected to new life in Christ and new life with Christ.
Christ is risen and is here with us in this place as we renew our baptismal covenant, as we sing God’s praises, as we raise our Alleluias, as we celebrate the Eucharist, the meal that reminds us of God’s great love for us…of Jesus’ great love for us.
Rejoice and be glad. The stone is rolled away and the tomb is empty.
Amen
