“Springtime for the Soul”

John 20:1-18
April 8, 2007 (Easter Sunday)

Saint Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John Fleming

You would have thought that the idea would have crossed my mind before now. After all, I have preached on Easter Sunday morning for nine of my fourteen years in the pastoral ministry (associate pastors never preach on Easter Sunday morning). In addition to that, I have been in Easter services, or at least in the nursery of the church on Easter Sunday morning for now thirty-nine years.

You would have thought that the idea would have crossed my mind that Easter Sunday is always in the spring. That I know. I am not altogether dense. What I had not thought about, what had not crossed my mind, is that Easter happens as the whole of creation is coming back to life. Flowers are blooming, trees are budding, and grasses are growing.

I learned this. You probably already knew this. Easter is not on the same day every year like Christmas is. That part I knew. Here is what I did not know. The date of Easter has to do with the moon. You see, Easter is set, it is always on the first Sunday after the first full moon that is either on or after the Spring equinox. I know, I know. It is a lot easier to look on the calendar. Our United Methodist Book of Worship tells me when Easter day will be until the year 2020. I can already tell you that next year, Easter day will be on March the twenty-third.

Come Easter, it is not only Jesus who has come to life. The whole world has come to life. Sap flows again through the trees. Leaves burst forth out of buds. Azalea blossoms bloom brilliantly. Try saying that quickly five times in a row!

As most of you know, most Saturday mornings Susie, Annie Grace, Julie, and I go to Conway to have breakfast with my parents. We wanted to do that to spend quality time with my parents. It seems lately we have had a lot of quality time together. It doesn’t seem like it was all that long ago that when we came home and crossed the Arkansas River and saw the river’s valley. Not long ago, the trees were bare and bud less and brown. As we drove home last week, I could not help but to notice that the trees were splendidly green. Green leaves were on the trees. Green tassels have become brown tassels and now have fallen from the oak trees in the parsonage yard. And green, or at least a lighter shade of it, has appeared everywhere from the hood of my car to my lungs.

The whole world has come back to life after a winter break. I did not used to pay attention to these things. There is a difference in having to take care of flower beds and having flower beds of your own. Now I pay attention to the perennials that have been asleep for the better part of four months. These plants have struggled and have pushed their way through the dirt and are now coloring our flower beds. My favorite plant is a hosta. I love hostas. When they appear, I know for sure that spring has arrived. Yep, spring has sprung and as one preacher put this, “It is as natural as it can be.”

A resurrection, on the other hand is not natural at all. In all of the Bible, there are four stories about resurrections. Three of them have to do with proving who Jesus was. The fourth is the story of Jesus’ own resurrection. That story is the most powerful of all stories. One anonymous writer puts it this way. “Christmas is the promise, and Easter is the proof.” The Easter story is a powerful one.

But think about what naturally happens when someone we love dies. Usually there is a burial, a graveside service. Friends and family gather for it and then we all go home. When it is over, that is that. Most people do not come back to the cemetery in hopes that our loved one will be alive again so that we can pick up where we left off. Not on this side of the grave, anyway. Most of the time, we go to the cemetery with our family and with our friends, we pay our respects, and we say our good-byes. And then we go on living as best we can. If there is a return to the cemetery, it is usually to make sure that the funeral home and the folks at the cemetery have done their job.

When someone in my family dies, I always go to the cemetery the next day. At least once in my life I went back there, to the cemetery, because I still couldn’t believe that her death had happened!

Maybe that is why Mary made her way to the cemetery in our lesson for this morning. John’s version of the resurrection of Jesus, by far, is the most popular of the four. John tells us that Mary made her way to the tomb, early in the morning, while it was still dark. I think she went there to pay her respects. I also think she went there in hopes of convincing herself that what had happened was true.

As I said, it still dark, but even in the darkness Mary could sense that something was wrong as she approached the tomb. From a distance she could see that the stone that had sealed Jesus’ tomb was missing. You have to wonder what the first thing was that crossed her mind. You don’t have to wait long to discover it. Mary was sure that someone had taken away the body of Jesus. She didn’t yet believe what Jesus had been predicting would happen did happen. So instead of believing, she ran to get help. When she found Peter and John, she exclaimed, “Someone has stolen the body of Jesus and I don’t know where they have put him!” Wanting to see it for themselves, Peter and John ran to the tomb. By the way, there is more running in this one passage than there is in the entire Bible.

Now when Peter and John arrive and are satisfied with what they have seen, they leave Mary there, weeping. If the two disciples tried to take Mary back to Jerusalem with them, it is not recorded. If she refused their offers, John did not write about it. Instead Mary stands there weeping. Mary acts out one of the oldest dramas in the world. She stands by a grave, weeping. Some of us have done that.

Do me a favor this morning. Stand with her as she cries. If it makes you feel better, put an arm around her. Do something else for me today. Think of someone you know who has cried in a cemetery lately. Bring them along. Have them stand with you as you stand with Mary. Don’t rush it. Tears have a natural rhythm to them. Hold your tears as they drip down. Hold your friends as they cry. Hold one another as you stand outside the tomb. And when the moment is right, stoop down and look inside the tomb itself to see what you can see.

John tells us that there were angels there. Apparently they were not there when Peter and John looked in a few minutes ago. Now that I think about it, maybe the angels were there. Sometimes you can only see angels through your tears. When people are afraid, angels tend to tell them not to be. That’s all throughout the Bible. When people have tears streaming down their cheeks, angels tend to ask them why they are crying.

Go ahead. Say it out loud. That might help. If you’ve brought someone to be with Mary, hear them say it, too. Listen, “They have taken away my home. They have taken away my sister. They have taken away my master and I do not know where it has all gone.”

That’s what Mary said when she was asked why she was weeping. She answered tearfully and fearfully, “They have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him.” I guess it never occurred to her that maybe the angels had something to do with his disappearance.

Notice what happens next. Mary turns and bumps into who she thinks is the gardener. His only value to her was that he might know the answer to her question. She says, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have lain him, and I will take him away.”

That is when it happened. Maybe this is where we get the verse, “He speaks and the sound of his voice, is so sweet the birds hush their singing, and the melody that He gave to me, within my heart is ringing.”

Jesus called Mary’s name. She turned and said to him, “Rabbouni, which means teacher.” Notice what he says next. “Do not hold on to me, “ he cautioned, “because I have not yet ascended to the father.” Why would he say that? Maybe he could hear it in her voice. Maybe he heard Mary secretly saying, “I want you back. I want things to be the way they were. I want the old life where everything was familiar. I want things to be back the way they were, when things weren’t so scary.

I know that feeling. How about you? I can remember standing next to my sister’s critical care unit bed and making her promises I knew I couldn’t live up to. All I wanted was for her to wake up. Three days later. Ironic, isn’t it? Three days later, I stood by her coffin and wanted the same thing, but this time I asked God for one more day, one more chance to say, “I’m sorry this happened. I wish I had been a better brother to you. What do we do now?”

Mary wanted things to be back the way they were. Notice what Jesus could offer now. He had not come back for more than a few days. He was on his way to be with God. Maybe this is why all the other gospel accounts of the resurrection tell us to not be afraid, because a new life is always frightening. A new life is not natural. As Barbara Brown Taylor puts this, “When you go to a tomb and find one filled with angels, that is scary.” When you hunt for the past and find the future, that is chilling. To seek a body to honor one more time and find a risen Lord, well, that is what we are celebrating this morning.

Death is natural. Loss is normal. Grief sometimes grips us and holds us. But this morning, the stone has been rolled away. By the light of this day, God has put something inside of us that cannot be killed. If you will just remember that, then there is nothing you cannot do. You can move mountains and banish fear. You can love those enemies and pray for those who hurt you. You can even change the world.

It seems the only thing you cannot now do is to hold on to Jesus. He has asked us not to do that. Jesus knows that we would rather keep him with us that to go where he is going. What I think might be better for us this morning is not to hold on to him, but to let Jesus hold on to us.

I want to close our sermon the way I close all Easter sermons now, by quoting what Adam Hamilton says when he’s asked if he believes in the resurrection. Listen to his answer, “Not only do I believe in the resurrection. I am counting on it!” Let us pray.

(Special thanks to the writings of Barbara Brown Taylor and the commentary of John written by Tom Wright. Both have helped me with this Easter sermon. I dedicate this sermon to my sister, Emily Ann Fleming Castle).