It’s quiet, here in the park. Wisps of dust half-heartedly remember yesterday’s excitement. No kids loudly discovering plastic eggs. A candy wrapper blows about, left from Sunrise Service. Inside the sanctuary it’s also quiet. A few partly-digested Alleluias linger in the choir loft. There’s a stain on the carpet from little Devon’s unfortunate over-indulgence in Easter candy. The church dreams in dozy memory of yesterday’s grandeur…. Easter has been here.
Yesterday we joined Isaiah in a vision of God’s Perfection (65:17-25). Heaven and earth is to be renewed, and the Holy City will be free of weeping and mourning. Everyone will enjoy his or her own stuff: no alien bullies will raid their best larders! “They shall be offspring blessed by the Lord–and their descendants as well.” Even wolves, lions and lambs will co-exist: for the Lord has redeemed God’s People.
Having been touched by Resurrection, we hear tales of the Acts of the Apostles during these weeks of Eastertide. Peter had been summoned to the house of Cornelius, a Gentile, to tell about Jesus. Without clever elaboration he told about Jesus’ life and holy works, his passion and crucifixion. “But God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear.”(10:40) The Church was being formed by visionaries who dared ridicule and worse by telling how God has designed Life Beyond Death. Though few of them dare believe it, many will be at our Easter assemblies for relief from the deadliness of hate & fear, greed & anger which permeate our nation today.
John’s Gospel (20:1-18) is familiar, so read it with wide-eyed astonishment. Mary (Magdelene? of Bethany?) is angered not to find Jesus where she’d last seen him. Peter & John shrugged their shoulders at what was hard to comprehend–and went home. Mary hung around, but still couldn’t invest in a Resurrected Lord. Finally she accepted the New Work of God. Finally she dared Tomorrow. Her message to the disciples and to the rest of us who hope beyond hope is that Jesus will meet us on The Day After.
As a jaded old preacher, I’ve struggled over the years to inject something memorable or even clever into the Easter Story. I’ve not succeeded. Yet the world-weary have gathered to sing “Christ the Lord is Ris’n Today” to bolster their courage, and strain to once again hear a long-cherished message…even in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. And the Day After Easter will hear its echoes in the Halls of Commerce, the corridors of the schools and the hungry streets of the lonely–
The Lord is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
God Bless Us, Every One Horace Brown King
My musings on the announced readings for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook, or at horacebrownking.com
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