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Sermon April 17, 2022
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, MSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Easter Sunday, Year C
http://lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Easter/CEasterPrin_RCL.html
Audio: /documents/Eucharist__Easter__April_17__2022
Video: https://youtu.be/73dB5CSW2iQ
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
You have heard me speak about my trip to the holy land in 2012, nearly a decade ago. I went there to take a course at St. George’s College in Jerusalem, called “The Palestine of Jesus.” St. George’s College is a fairly easy walk to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The church is a sprawling structure that houses Mt. Calvary and the tomb of Jesus.
The tomb is surrounded by a small chapel and the line to get inside the area can be long and take awhile. The Rev. Dr. Kamal Farah was our course Director and he remarked that he didn’t know why people stood in line to long to get inside that chapel, because the tomb was empty! Why would people want to see the empty tomb?
And so in our Gospel today, we hear a very similar question from the two men in dazzling clothes who ask Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who have brought spices to the tomb, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
Jesus is not in the tomb. It is empty.
The beings in dazzling clothes tell Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them that Jesus has risen. They remind the women that Jesus had told them he would do so.
Yet, when Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women return to the rest of the disciples and tell them what they have seen and heard, there is total disbelief. The response is in polite terms, BS or maybe in today’s terms, “fake news.”
Peter does go and confirm that the tomb is indeed empty.
Where is the risen Christ?
The Gospels provide various accounts of Jesus appearances and eventual ascension into heaven. And then there is the account of Paul who hears Jesus’ voice on the way to Damascus. Yes, Jesus ascended into heaven and made sure the holy spirit was here with us and in many ways, the risen Christ is still with us.
Today and every Sunday, we gather to share the Eucharist. The words of our Eucharistic prayer remind us how Jesus shared this meal with his followers and followers continue to share this meal and have been doing so with nearly the same words for thousands of years. We know the risen Christ is present with us when we share this meal.
And throughout our lives, we have all experienced people or times when we know the risen Christ is present, whether it be in our time of worship here or out in nature or in working for justice or in helping others.
Most importantly, I believe, the risen Christ is in each one of us. A prayer attributed to Teresa of Avila (the winner of the Silver Halo in the Lent Madness 2022) might say it best:
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which He looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are His body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours
Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia.
The risen Christ is within us. May we be Christ’s body to the world.
Amen
