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Good morning. Happy Easter. Alleluia. Christ is risen (The Lord is risen indeed… Alleluia).
It is good to be with you today as we relive the story of the empty tomb, and reimagine with curiosity what it really means for the world right now.
The character who will guide us is Mary Magdalene. She is the star of the story – other than Jesus.
She is in all four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, present at the resurrection, just as she is present at the crucifixion.
It is the day after the Sabbath, early in the morning, when Mary arrives back at the tomb. Three days prior, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had taken Jesus off the cross, quickly, to attend to the body before the sun set and the Sabbath began.
Mary wanted to check their work. (I know what Nicodemus feels like…)
For three years Mary had committed herself to Jesus. And while tradition has affixed many stories to Mary Magdalene from demons, to prostitution, to being Jesus’ girlfriend… the one thing we do know is that Jesus inspired within her a love that is stronger than fear; which is why she showed up at the cross, which is why she showed up at the tomb.
And while she was most likely reasonably afraid, she was not ruled by fear. Love prevails.
And so, there she was with another Mary, perhaps the mother of Jesus, perhaps the mother of James. There were many Marys in those days, just as there are many Lauras’ on Epiphany’s staff.
But it was Mary Magdalene who led the way. It was Mary Magdalene who ran to tell the disciples that Jesus had been raised from the dead and would meet them in Galilee. And for her fearlessness, she was given the title that has tracked through time: The Apostle to the Apostles.
It was her unique calling, to announce the resurrection – that death had been relegated to the dustbin of creation, revealing the eternal, unstoppable network of love, right down to this day.
And the only thing that has caused this love to go offline in all that time is fear. Fear kicks us off the network.
Which is why the first words out of the mouth of resurrected Jesus is: Do not be afraid. Fear not. He says it again and again, because fear stops the flow of love. Fear is the opposite of love. Fear closes us down. It plugs the pores of transcendence. It collapses the heart in upon itself, in a way that denies the presence of God.
Fear works by taking one example and convincing us it is the whole truth. It tells us lies, and repeats them over and over again, until we are repeating them as well. Fear hijacks and then distorts reality making it mean and small.
Resurrection tells a different story. Resurrection claims that the bad thing is never the last thing.
Resurrection is God’s way of saying- You may ignore me. You may deny me. You may condemn me. You may even kill me… it is allowed, that is to kill God, because for love to be real, authentic, powerful there must be freedom to do even the very worst thing. There is no love, if there is no freedom.
And yet, resurrection has the last word. God returns. Love prevails. We are made to be part of the network of unstoppable love, soul to soul to soul – flowing, if we let it. It is our choice, allowed by God. God loves us that much.
I’ve had to learn that lesson over and over again. It’s why I keep coming to church… I mean it is my job; but, I come even when I’m not working to be reminded of this unstoppable network of love. It is here we remember week in and week out that resurrection has the last word. It is here we practice shedding the habits that lead to lie absorption and division and anxiety.
It is here loneliness falls away as we engage a community that acknowledges everybody as part of God’s unstoppable network of love. There are no outsiders. No litmus tests. Wherever you are on your spiritual journey you have a place at Epiphany.
Lately I’ve been reflecting on this unstoppable network within the context of my first trip to Iran. You can imagine, I hope, why I have been reflecting on that trip lately. That said, by even bringing Iran up, I am acutely aware that this reference might feel like an invitation for political assumption and rumination. Resist the temptation as I tell my story.
Back in 1990 there was a massive earthquake in northern Iran, near the Caspian Sea, in the region around Tabriz. I was working for an international relief organization at the time, and I was part of a small team sent over on one of the first planes allowed into Iran from the United States since the hostage crisis in 1979.
On my team was a small Irish woman, a nurse, named Catherine, with bright blue eyes. She was probably in her late 60s and had lived in Iran for years during the days of the Shah. She spoke Farsi fluently.
We had to layover in Paris as we awaited our final clearance. As we sat around the hotel Catherine pulled a sheet off one of the beds, laid it out on the floor and began to write on it in Farsi. The letters were big and bold, and she invited us to color them in with the red and green markers she had. We took that sheet with us back onto the plane and draped it over a pallet of medical supplies.
Hours later, we landed in Tehran. The military was expecting us. The religious police were not. They boarded the plane first – a pretty stern looking bunch. One man, not much older than I was, saw the sheet, tore it off the pallet, carried it down the stairs, and spread it out on the tarmac. I followed behind him… thinking this isn’t good. Everyone gathered around.
And then I saw it, tears welling in his eyes as he read the words.
And in that moment I realized that whatever story I had been telling myself about him and his country was not the whole story. And whatever story he had been told about me was breaking apart as well. There on that tarmac freighted with historical baggage, he read our simple message out loud: “From the people of the United States to the people of Iran – with love.” Love broke through – unstoppable; for it is love, only love, that will save the world.
For a moment that day the router was reconnected and love flowed through the network designed by God. And we let it, because we refuse to let fear have the last word. Just like Mary Magdalene.
Yes, fear is real. It is a reflexive response, flight or fight, but it doesn’t need to have the last word.
Easier said than done? Maybe, but doable nonetheless, with practice. The Christian lifestyle is a practice. It is not about adherence to intellectual conformity.
It is about developing habits that allow us to be love spreading difference makers when we are not thinking about how we are acting.
Christianity is a practice, which is why we call Epiphany a spiritual gym.
And so, with that in mind, I want to leave you with three words to practice: curiosity, imagination and hope. I think there are words Mary well exemplified.
The first is curiosity. When you find yourself judging someone, assuming you know why they are doing what they are doing – pause. Wonder. Get curious. Ask some questions. You will certainly discover something deeper. There is always more to the story than you think. Practicing curiosity allows us to go beyond fear.
Next there is imagination. Imagine the person you are judging, as I like to do, as they were when they were a child. How did they play? What gave them joy? What did their laugh sound like? It was that image of a child that overwhelmed me that day on tarmac. The man as a child, curious and then moved by compassion.
Practicing imagination in this way allows us to meet our siblings, because we are, after all, each of us, children of God. There are no accidental people. Practicing imagination allows us to go beyond fear.
And finally there is hope… hope for what the world could be. If you were Ruler of the world, with all the power possible, what kind of world would you create? With that in mind, now cast a line into that future. Hook onto one of those pieces of hope and reel it in. Then live it out, NOW, because living hope in the moment allows us to go beyond fear.
Three words, three practices: curiosity, imagination, hope – ways to being that move us beyond fear.
Mary Magdalene, the Apostle to the Apostles, the witness to resurrection who responds when Jesus says: Do not be afraid by letting love flow through the network, unencumbered, unstoppable, surging past fear, knowing that the bad thing is never the last thing.
Mary Magdalene took this the word of resurrection to the world: Love wins.
That’s the Easter message: Do not be afraid. Resurrection. God loves us that much.
Thank you for being here. Happy Easter. Alleluia, Christ is risen. (The Lord is risen indeed… Alleluia).