Colour Supplement

Articles by Christians around the world

Easter Sunday 23 March 2008

 

Setting out

a sermon preached on Easter Day 2008

by Jeremy Harvey - Reader at St. Andrew's Church

 

 

Some certainties and an uncertainty

 

I was the same age as many of the children here today when I set out on my journey of faith. My parents also took my younger sister to church, and when she was three she was playing with the hassocks before the service. But when she heard the organist  playing, she looked up & asked, ‘Mummy is that Jesus practising?’

 

Over the years I’ve been much blessed and there have been welcome certainties to my faith. One is that I’ve long found Christ’s teaching totally believable and always an inspiration. Many of his sayings have lodged in my memory without my trying to learn them. Some pop up uninvited at unexpected times. (e.g Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.) And his stories never lose their appeal and freshness.

 

In contrast I’ve not found it easy to understand his resurrection. Yes, I believe in it – though there was a time of about a year in my twenties when I could not – and recognise that it is a pivotal moment, an amazing response to his horrific death. I have to accept that the risen Christ is different to the earthly Christ. (But the mystery of his resurrection and its full meaning will, I am sure, continue to evade us. And that’s true of everything about God. For by definition God is beyond our full comprehension.)

 

What then helps me get a little closer to the meaning of his resurrection? Two things: an ordinary requirement & a story.

 

That difficult letter

 

I wonder if like me you find it difficult to write a letter of condolence. I put it off, I don’t even start, because I don’t know what to say. Temptations, such as this, can stop me from doing what I should.

 

But once I set out to write, I find enough things to say, including things that I had forgotten and that I had never imagined I would include. Over the years I have learnt that I have to get writing, to set out. Then the content will emerge as a kind of gift. I have to trust the conscience call to write that letter.

 

Getting closer to understanding Christ’s resurrection is similar to doing that duty piece of writing or making that difficult phone call.

 

A very early start

 

In the dark Mary Magdalene sets out for Christ’s tomb early on the third day after his crucifixion. (Here’s the story that helps me.)  She sets out, not knowing  what to expect – just aware that she had to. She finds the stone guarding the tomb has been moved. What’s happened? What now?

 

She goes to tell Peter and John and all three have to set out for the tomb. The men run neck and neck until John pulls away and gets there first but does not go in. Peter arrives, and, bolder, goes in, sees that the tomb is empty & that Jesus’s burial clothes are scattered about, & comes out. John now goes in. He sees enough to believe that Jesus is risen.

 

One man grasps what’s happened, the other doesn’t. Both then return to their homes. Did they confer about this with Mary Magdalene? We only know that she stays put & bursts into tears. Her great love for Jesus overwhelms her. But this time she bends down, peers into the tomb and sees two angels, sitting where Jesus’s body had been. ‘Why are you crying?’ they ask. ‘They’ve taken my Lord away to goodness knows where’.

 

Just then Jesus appears behind her. She assumes he is the gardener. ‘Why are you crying? Who are you looking for?’ ‘Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where he is & I will get him’, she says. ‘Mary’, he says. ‘Teacher!’ she replies.

 

From tears to absolute joy

 

One word from each of them, and all at once that before-dawn setting out seems wonderfully worthwhile. Mary’s tears are transformed into absolute joy.

 

She kneels in worship and wants to hug his feet but he stops her. ‘Go and tell my brothers I’m returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’

 

She rushes off to find the disciples- maybe shouting, ‘I have seen the Lord’. And she passes on Jesus’ message.

 

That story is close to our setting out to write that difficult but necessary letter. But there’s much more to it than that! For I find Mary’s inviting me in my imagination to set out for the tomb and see things as she, Peter and John found them. So I do and get to the tomb.  ‘What’s happened?’ I ask.’ What’s going on?’ But then I bump into Mary Magdalene and she’s radiant.’’ ‘I’ve seen the Lord!’ she keeps saying. And then she adds, ‘Pass it on. Pass it on. WE  MUST TELL THE WORLD!’

 

We may feel guilty about how slow we are to believe that there was life for Jesus after his death, Bit by it bit Mary & the others learnt what was going on. If it took her and them time, it will also take us time. With patience our faith and understanding will grow.

 

One thing I am sure of: we are much more likely to find him if we set out.

 

Jeremy Harvey

 

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