Easter Day 2005

It has been a truly wonderful Holy Week, and I’m not just saying that because it’s my first at Christ Church and Holy Corner. It has been a truly wonderful Holy Week. It all started this time last week with Palm Sunday – only a week ago, but it already seems like an eternity away, at least emotionally. It was nice to be able to start the Palm Sunday procession in the Church Centre; for one it helps to make the connection between the Centre and Church proper. It was good to process outside, round the building – shows the neighbourhood that we’re open for business. I also have to say that I really enjoyed getting everyone wet as the palm crosses were blessed with Holy Water!

One of the very special things about Holy Week has been worshipping in all the different churches and institutions round Holy Corner. On Monday, we were at St. Peter’s R.C. Church for their service of Stations of the Cross. On Tuesday, were gathered at Morningside Baptist Church for their evening service. Wednesday we were at Polworth Parish Church. On Good Friday we worshipped outside the Christian Fellowship for Healing, in the Eric Liddell Centre, Morningside Baptist Church, Morningside United Church as well as our own Christ Church. Speaking personally, it has been extremely rewarding and enriching to experience Holy Week from so many different perspectives and through the lens of so many traditions. It was quite something quite literally holding up the traffic along Morningside Road, as we all processed behind a large wooden cross from ours to the Baptist Church.

One of the most moving moments took place at the Children’s Service on Good Friday morning. We carried a big wooden cross in procession all around the church and grounds. Part way through our worship one of the boys from our Young Church insisted on carrying the cross from the back of the church all the way down to the church hall. Watching this young man struggling with this heavy and awkward cross was a very poignant moment.

Some of you might remember the words that John Williams spoke a few months ago – I mentioned them in the Parish Magazine during Lent; that “the true meaning of Christmas will be revealed at Easter time or just after.” You might also remember that this was a quote from the Governor of the Bank of England, speaking not about theology, but about the economy. The Governor was referring, as you recall, not to God’s plan of salvation, but of the retail spending figures for the last quarter of last year.

That phrase has been a kind of mantra for me these last few weeks – for all of Lent, in fact – going round and round in my head.

“The true meaning of Christmas will be revealed at Easter time or just after.”

And the true meaning has been revealed – because it’s all of a piece. Just like the garment which Jesus wore to the crucifixion, the seamless robe over which the soldiers cast lots so is the story of His life, His work, His Ministry. It’s all of a piece. It’s all one. It all fits together.

Because there is one common thread that weaves its way all through the story – from Jesus’ birth – actually from long before His birth. One common thread that weaves its way all through the story of Creation, all through the story of the people of Israel, all through the words of the ancient Prophets, all through the story of Elizabeth, Zachariah and John the Baptist, through to Mary and Joseph - and then onto Jesus, His birth, the growing up, His Baptism, His teaching, His healing, His disciples, His Last Supper, His Passion, His death, His resurrection and on to Eternity… And that common thread? That thread is Love.

The true meaning of Christmas, Easter, in fact, the whole story, is Love. Very sadly I have been helping two families who have been bereaved this last week. Coping with the death of some close is never easy, but it’s especially trying at holiday time – Easter is no exception. To lose someone close when the rest of the world is in party/holiday mood can be like rubbing salt into the wound. And yet, and yet this is what Easter is all about – death and yet resurrection; death and yet life beyond death; death and yet faith; death and yet hope.

Love.
Love that brought the Creation into being
Love that called Israel to be a people
Love that reached out through the words of the prophets
Love that became flesh and bone at Christmas as the Christ-child Jesus
Love that walked the earth
Love that taught and healed and gave
Love that suffered and faced death
Love that is stronger than death or anything else that could be thrown at it
Love that calls us into itself, into Herself, into Himself, into each other, into Eternity…
Love, the true meaning of Christmas, yes.
Love, the true meaning of Easter, yes.
Love, the true meaning of Jesus, of Christ, of the Church, of the Faith, of Christianity, of today…

Now all of this is very familiar, very comforting, very nice (in one sense). It all seems to fit well with a certain middle class belief/hope/ myth that everything will turn out alright – in the end. But I believe that there is a twist in our story…

And it centers around the encounter between Mary Magdalene and Jesus in the garden – the encounter we read about just a moment ago.

“At this, she [Mary] turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. “Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it that you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

“Do not hold onto me,” he [Jesus] cautioned her, “because I have not yet ascended to the Father.” (John 20:15-17)

I read a remarkable commentary on this story by an Episcopal Priest called Barbara Brown Taylor. She wrote:

“It was a peculiar thing for him to say [“Do not hold onto me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father.”] since there is no evidence she was holding on to him in any way. Unless it was what she called him – my Teacher – the old name she used to call him. Maybe he could hear it in her voice, now she wanted him back the way he was so they could go back to the way they were, back to the old life where everything was familiar and not frightening like it was now. "Teacher!" she called him, but that was his Friday name, and here it was Sunday – an entirely new day in an entirely new life.

He was not on his way back to her and the others. He was on his way to God, and he was taking the whole world with him. This may be why all the other gospel accounts of the resurrection tell us not to be afraid – because new life is frightening. To expect a sealed tomb and find one filled with angels, to hunt the past and discover the future, to seek a corpse and find the risen Lord
(from Home by Another Way,” by Barbara Brown Taylor)

Yes, the message of Easter can be one of comfort.
Yes, the message of Easter can be a source of strength.
Yes, the message of Easter is one of Love.
But the message of Easter is also one of challenge.

It is a challenge because it speaks of new life, not the old life with which we have grown so familiar.

It reminds us that God loves us right where we are for exactly who we are totally, unconditionally and without reserve – but God also calls us ever closer, ever deeper, ever nearer.

To use the words we have just heard, “[Jesus is] on his way to God, and he [is] taking the whole world [including us] with him [if we will go].

There have been a lot of changes at Christ Church these last two years (I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you what they have been), and I think that we all sense that there are probably more to come. Going deeper in our faith, in our walk with God, growing spiritually is never a simple or straightforward affair. And all of this can be challenging, stretching, frightening even – Church is, after all, the one thing in the maelstrom of life that we hope will not change or if so only very gradually and only if absolutely necessary. Just like Mary Magdalene, we are tempted to cling on to Jesus, to make Him stay with us, to keep things the way they are or were.

"But the only thing we cannot do is hold onto him [or the way it was]. He has asked us please do not do that.”
(also from “Home by Another Way,” by Barbara Brown Taylor)

“Do not hold onto me,” [Jesus] cautioned [Mary] “because I have not yet ascended to the Father.”