Easter

"After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb."

The women went to the tomb, it was early in the morning. They went to weep, to plan, to get some air, they went because there wasn't much else to do. What, after all, do you do when all of a sudden you purpose has been taken away. What would they do without Jesus? They had devoted so much to serving him. What do you do when what you have done for many years, your whole life changes? Try to hold on to the way it was before? Try to fill your time with little tasks? Finally settle in to your loss? The women did a bit of all these things. They went to be close to what they had lost and they made up chores for themselves redefining life by what it didn't hold for them. So they went, maybe they took some flowers. Perhaps something like these. Maybe some lilies.

That would be appropriate for the women to take, they are kind of a funeral flower, they hail death. Around the time of funerals people always end up with a house filled with lilies and their petals and pollen, their smell and their imposing presence. I've actually always wondered why we make them our symbol for Christ and for resurrection. Yes Jesus died and so the lilies, but Christ is risen now! And yet here we have this funeral flower, you'd think we would have traded it in for something else. Several years ago, after my brother's funeral my house was filled with lilies most of them cut but one, just like this one, my mother noticed had a tag asking that it be planted outside. We found a spot in the corner of the garden out my bedroom window. And all summer long it was a green stalk that looked almost like a tiny palm tree in the garden among the lupines, roses and columbine. And then, in the fall, it turned brown and we cut the dead stalk down. A suitable end to something that came at the time of death.

We forgot about it, dead and under the ground. But you know, lilies are hardy. You can plant one in your garden and it will come back every year bigger and more filled with life. The lily in our garden certainly did. One year later almost exactly it grew and with its trumpet shaped flower hailed new life. This is part of the reason they really are appropriate for reminding us of the new life of Jesus. They live on and on. So, the women went to the tomb, knowing what they would find. A body wrapped in bands of cloth. Jesus dead, his body broken and abused, lifeless and already returning to the dust of the earth.

"But when they got there, the tomb was no longer dark, the stone rolled away and the angel said: Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised."

What could this possibly mean? What for people who had lost their purpose to suddenly hear this utterly crazy news? How should we take it? With fear? That was the first reaction of the women. They were afraid. While they were sad they had a grasp on everything. Now this new joy turned over everything they knew about light and darkness, about tombs and temples, about being alive and being dead. And they heard the words, be not afraid. They had prepared to go back to their pre-Jesus lives and yet...And yet it looked as if they would never be able to do that. Because they had the Good News, they knew things and could do and say things that would bring new life to all people and they had a call from God, be not afraid. The angel said Come into the tomb and see for yourself that death has lost it's hold but then go and share the message.

Did the women go into the tomb? Did they stay there for a long time? Did they search it top to bottom? We don't know nothing tells us. We don't know how long they stayed, how much it took to get them back on their feet. How long the fear and shock and pain and anger lasted. But eventually they Got up. the angel said, get up, Tell others what you've seen here at death's door and what you believe. And so they went.

Believe it or not the Easter Lily has something to say about this too! The lily has developed in such a way that everything about it yearns and strives for life. Did you know that this lily has two sets of roots? One set that reaches into the soil for water and nourishment and one set that grows outward nearer to the surface. What is really remarkable about these roots is that they are there so that the plant can move. they are there to move the lily around. To more optimal places. The outward growing roots will move the bulb if there is a source of water nearby they will move toward it, if the light comes form a certain place and so on. Buried in the ground once they get a hold on life they can't help but move in order the live more fully.

Would the women have lived if they had stayed in the tomb or walked home and told no one? Or course they would have just like they had that morning as they walked to the tomb. In fear and quiet morning. Still feeling the loss of their friend and teacher. Still angry at the world for taking away their faith and theirs dreams but instead just hearing the news that Christ was risen was enough for them to want to spread the word. And so they left the tomb. hesitant at first and then moving faster with more joy telling each other the story over and over again louder and louder. Spreading the news all along the road that they took to get to the other disciples.

The gospel says, "they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And Suddenly Jesus met them on the road."

Christ is Risen.

And this is where we find him on the road. As we strain for the light. As we move to live life more fully. As we work to change the world around us so that it is more filled with life. The women at the tomb heard the news that death was overcome and they ran to share the message of new life. We know that our Redeemer lives and so we move to spread the Good news with those around us. To transform the shade we find ourselves in into bright light, to replace the dry ground around us with the promise of the baptismal water. And we are assured that just as much as lilies bloom in the spring, just as much as the tomb was empty, just as much as the women were afraid, Christ lives and always meets us on the way. This is Good News, Thanks be to God. Amen.