Easter Day 2011

+Jesus called Mary Magdalene by name and when he did, she recognized him and everything seemed ok.

Everyone likes to be called by name.

On Friday I mentioned to my friend Alison that I still needed to write my Easter sermon and that, frankly, I was struggling. Do you write a sermon for the folks whose name you know, the regulars, the stalwarts? Or do you write a sermon for the occasional visitor the face you recognize but whose name you just can’t remember? Or the strangers, the folks who have walked in here for the first time ever, the folks who are unfamiliar to us and we to them?

I want to call everyone by name, to say something that will make each of you feel spoken to, to feel heard.

I want to say something that will make whatever weighs on your heart today more bearable--I want to make everything ok.

But the only way I can make anything better for anyone is to allow them to get to know Jesus the man and Jesus the Son of God.

Several years ago a young girl asked me, on Good Friday, why we did this every year? Why did we put ourselves through it when we know how it ends?

Why do we slog through Lent, trudge through Holy Week, agonize with Jesus in Gethsemane, cry out with Jesus on the cross, and weep with Mary at the tomb. Because by doing this, we get to know him. He already knows us, but this our chance to really get to know him.

We all want to be known by name even Jesus.

To truly celebrate the Resurrection is to know the one who was Resurrected. To know the one who is Resurrected is to care about him. And caring about him is what this Lent and Holy Week is all about.

Why should we care that this 1st century Jewish Prophet walked into Jerusalem at a time of great tension and upheaval knowing that the authorities didn’t want him there, knowing that they’d lost patience with this so-called messiah who, if he really was the messiah, would be one of them, one of the elite instead of one of “those people,” the vagabonds, the sinners, the poor, the smelly, the weird. the different?

We should care because we’ve all been, at one time or another, on the outside looking in; we’ve been ignored, belittled and doubted. Some of us have even been despised…for how we look, for whom we love, for the color of our skin, the size of our bank account, the issues we choose to fight for, the candidates we support or the choices that we’ve made. We’ve all been on the outside, looking in.

Why should we care? Because at other times, we’ve been on the inside, fearful and resistant to those on the outside who want to come in, despising the one’s who think differently than us, who disagree with us, who wants us to change how we think. We should care because we’ve all been part of the crowd who just can’t seem to get out of their own way to listen to reason, to consider another way.

Why should we care that Jesus just wanted his friends to stay awake with him all night, waiting for the betrayal he knew was coming?

Because we’ve all had those times when we’ve felt alone and afraid when really all we needed all we longed for was a silent witness to our pain, someone to just sit with s in our grief, someone to be there with a shoulder to cry on, someone to offer a hug, a smile, a pat on the back. We know what it feels like to be alone with a heavy heart.

Why should we care that Jesus was betrayed by one of his closest confidantes, one of the inner circle, one whom he loved? Because we’ve all had love gone astray, we’ve all freely given our trust to another only to have that trust abused and abandoned. We all know what it feels like to be let down, to be cheated, and to be lied to.

Why should we care that Jesus suffered on the cross, that he endured great physical pain, that he screamed out in agony, wondering why? Because we all have had or will have pain which feels unbearable, agony which tears at our very core, losses that just seem to much too take.

Why should we care that Jesus died? Because we are human, just like Jesus was human and we are terrified of what it minas to stop being this---to stop being a living, breathing person walking the earth, that everything in our physical makeup is designed to keep us from dying…because death is the one thing all of us will experience and it is one thing which is, eventually, irreversible.

Why should we care that the tomb is empty, why should we care that Jesus Christ is Risen today? We should care, it should matter to us, because there is NOTHING Jesus experiences which we too won’t experience---because we are all promised resurrection. We all will rest in peace and rise in Glory. We will all shed our human shell we’ll leave behind our lifeless corpses to live in an eternal bliss where the love of all for all forever is not the hope, but the reality.

God, among us through the person of Jesus, lived a life.

A life not unlike ours. He enjoyed things, he loved people, he was hurt by people, he had hopes he had dreams and the absolute worst things happened to him, the absolute worst things imaginable he endured…and by walking out of that tomb this morning, by calling out Mary Magdalene’s name, Jesus is saying to us, I have been there……anything this world throws at you, I have been there and I have defeated it….I have some through it, I have come out the other side and guess what? If you take my hand, I’ll lead you out the other side too.

That’s the Jesus we celebrate today a man whose name we know, a God whose name we praise. Alleluia, Jesus knows my name and I know his. +