Church of the Good Shepherd
3700 Rutherford Street
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17111-1997
The Reverend Kester T. Sobers, III, Pastor
The Resurrection of Our Lord
Easter Day
April 16, 2006
I received The Da Vinci Code for
Christmas two years ago, and even though I like to read things that my
flock is reading so that we can have meaningful discussion, I have yet
to crack it. I much prefer what Holy Scripture says about Jesus and
Mary Magdalene, and like to refer to her as the first apostle. She is
the one who in the final portion of John’s rendering of the story of
the first Easter, brings the news of the resurrection to the Disciples.
Only in Matthew and in John do we find actual “sightings” of the risen
Jesus. Moreover when the women report the message of the angels in
Luke’s gospel, the disciples treat their words “like an idle tale.”
With all the flowers and the “alleluias”
of Easter day, perhaps somewhere in the recesses of your minds there is
just a hint of being perplexed. Could it be that the risen Lord is
hidden from your eyes? In the Scriptures, after all, there are
relatively few who actually see Jesus after his resurrection. Maybe you
have lost your faith but continue to go through the motions of “going
to church.” Someone told me one time as though their statement made
perfect sense, that they have a custom. It is always to go to church on
Easter: No other time; just Easter. Maybe it is sickness, or injury, or
failure, or family difficulties, or some great need or loss that
renders us unable to find the Lord Jesus where we think he should be.
Maybe as we survey the landscape of our lives this Easter day, we don’t
know where he can be found. There is, after all a great deal of
searching and not a lot of finding in the Gospel accounts of this day.
One might have very logically thought that someone had stealthily
removed the body of Jesus in order to dispel any thought of
resurrection like the one that Jesus had promised. Today, the “someone”
might be for us: sadness, anger, pain, frustration. These things might
logically preclude our finding the risen Lord.
The profound nature of Good Friday in
Scripture and even in our parish celebration of the death of the Lord
might well imply that the power of evil is greater than the power of
good. Jesus is the victim of human cruelty and hatred, although he
“went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil,
for God was with him.”
The apostles came to know Jesus in a
real but special way as he appeared to them in the days between the
resurrection and the Ascension forty days following. They witnessed the
Ascension and came to know him in a place of glory at God’s right hand,
there to serve as judge of the living and the dead, our Advocate, the
bringer of forgiveness of sins. And even though he was frequently
rejected by those he came to save, the faithful knew him as the
foundation of their lives, although rejected, as the head and
cornerstone.
Where is Jesus this Easter day? Exactly
where he was during his earthly life: with us in our anxiety,
suffering, and fear. Jesus is present in the hearts of all who believe
in him. This is where the risen Lord wants to be: one with us, eager to
do good for us and heal us of every ill of body, mind, soul and spirit.
Is there a place for our great joy and
alleluias of this day? Is our festive gold vesture appropriate; the
flowers tasteful and proper; our hymns with verses contemporary and
ancient; our assembly a legitimate sign of community?
I proclaim a solemn and joyful YES to you this day.
Those of us who believe in angels, those
of us who trust the proclamation of Scripture, those of us who believe
in the Communion of Saints, those of us who believe that Jesus is true
God and true man, those of us who believe that Mary is the Mother of
God, a Virgin pure and impregnated by none other than the Holy Spirit,
and finally those of us who trust that the body of Jesus on the cross
shows forth not defeat but the glory of Almighty God, do so only by
faith. And that faith comes to us legitimately only by the Word and
Sacraments which are gifts of which the Church is the faithful steward
according to St. Paul.
What this means is that each and every
time we celebrate the Holy Eucharist it is Easter. In the Holy
Sacrament of the Altar God himself is present: In the humility of bread
and wine and the Word spoken by human beings.
As you celebrate today in the midst of
the beauty of holiness and as you approach our beautifully decorated
altar today, let the words of Mary Magdalene ring in your ears: “I have
seen the Lord!”
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
Amen
April 16, 2006
First Reading: Acts 10:34-43
Psalm 118
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Gospel: John 20:1-18
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