Easter Vigil, Yr A (2023) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield

Easter Vigil, Yr A (2023)                                                       The Rev. Karen C. Barfield

Matthew 28:1-10                                                                        St. Andrew’s on-the-Hill

In the name of the one, holy, and living God:

            who was, and is, and is to come.  Amen.

Last Sunday -Palm Sunday – our gospel reading ended this way:

“Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last….

The earth shook…

 rocks were split. …

“Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”

Between the ending of that gospel reading and the beginning of today’s reading we get a little bit more of the story:

“Many women were also there,

looking on from a distance;

     they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him.

“Among them were Mary Magdalene,

and Mary the mother of James and Joseph,

and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

“When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus.

“He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus;

then Pilate ordered it to be given to him.

“So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock.

“He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away.

“Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

“The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’

“Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day;

otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people,

    ‘He has been raised from the dead,’

          and the last deception would be worse than the first.”

“Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers;

go, make it as secure as you can.”

       So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.” 

So, you see, when the two Marys left the tomb that night, it was sealed tight.

On this day,

the day after the Sabbath,

                        as the first day of the week was just beginning to dawn…

       that first hint of peach and purple beginning to illuminate the sky…

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary make their way back to the tomb.

Again the earth shakes as it did the moment Jesus breathed his last.

God is at work.

An angel appears,

            rolls back that stone

                        and delightedly sits perched on top.

The guards are terrified,

            involuntarily shaking,

                        preferring to be anywhere but there.

The moment…

and their breath…

stands still.

The angel appears to not notice them,

            speaking only to the women:

      “Do not be afraid.”

“Do not be afraid.

            I know you are looking for Jesus; he is not here.

      He has been raised, as he said.”

“Come and see for yourselves.

            Then go and tell his disciples:

       He has been raised from the dead…you will see him in Galilee.”

The women saw and believed…

            Perhaps they weren’t even quite sure what they believed,

      for they left with both fear and great joy.

It was a moment when the brain doesn’t quite catch up to the emotion.

He was gone.

They watched Joseph placing him in the tomb and securing it with a great stone.

            They knew the guards kept watch all night long.

And yet…he was gone.

            How could it be?!

Angels only appear when God is at work doing new things…bringing new life.

So, yes, perhaps he had risen indeed.

Fear

            and great joy.

Just run and share the news.

            Don’t think.

     Just run and share the good news: He is risen!

And perhaps to assure their minds as well as their hearts Jesus himself appears to them on the road.

The women fall down at his feet,

            touching his flesh.

“Do not be afraid,” Jesus says.

“Go tell my brothers to go to Gallilee.

            I will meet them there.

      Keep moving forward.

                        I am alive.”

There is a great deal of fear in this story:

            the guards shake with fear,

       Mary Magdalene and the other Mary are afraid when the angel appears.

                        They leave the tomb in fear,

                 and once again fear visits them when Jesus appears.

The constant word, however, is: “Do not be afraid.”

There is a great deal of fear in the world right now.

            There is a great deal of fear in our own lives.

The appearance and apparent randomness of disease, violence, and natural disasters has that effect.  Many of these things are beyond our control.

The appearance and apparent randomness of death has that effect.

Richard Rohr writes about death – and life:

“Death, in any form, is perceived as the great human enemy.

“We construct much of our lives to avoid it, delay it, and deny it.

“It seems that we are not ready to die,

until we have truly lived.

“Ironically, people who touch upon real life are the ones who can also let go of it.

“The transformational journey of death and resurrection is the only message.

It really is the way we are saved.” (Richard Rohr on Friday, April 3, 2020)

The disciples…

            the Marys…

     stood and watched as their Teacher, their healer, their hope was crucified.

So, on this day that began in darkness and fear

            yet was illumined by the dazzling brightness of an angel

     and the Peace of those words: Do not be afraid…

on this day the Marys ran with joy, despite their fear, to tell the disciples: He is risen!

He is risen indeed!

God acted at that boundary of life that we call death

 and did something altogether new!

Within these words: “He is not here” lies deep hope for the world,

            deep hope for us…

      even in the midst of deep fear or sorrow.

Do not be afraid.

God has overcome death,

            and God sustains us in this life.

Those words, “Do not be afraid,” do not mean that nothing will go wrong…it will. 

Nor does it mean that everything will turn out for the best…sometimes it does not.

But those words, “Do not be afraid,” are the words of assurance that in the valleys of our lives God is with us. 

Nothing we can encounter is stronger than God’s love.

These words are words that engender courage…

words that help us to act even in the face of fear

or pain

  or disappointment

or deep, deep sorrow.

In the words of David Lose:

“In the resurrection we have God’s promise that life is stronger than death,

that love is greater than hate,

that mercy overcomes judgment,

       and that all the sufferings and difficulties of this life are transient –

        real and palpable and sometimes painful, for sure,

but they do not have the last word and do not represent the final reality.

“Fear and joy,

despair and hope,

doubt and faith,

      these are the two sides of our lives in this world.

“But in the end, we have heard the resurrection promise

that joy, hope, and faith will ultimately prevail.” David Lose (https://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=3174)

Christ’s resurrection signals above and beyond all else

that our God is a God of new life

and never-ending possibility.

“The good news of Christ’s resurrection does not take away our fear –

though sometimes we wish desperately that it would –

     but it does offer us courage and hope

        by anchoring us in the sure promise that God will have the last word,

and that that word is one of light and life and grace and mercy and love and peace.  (David Lose, ibid.)

And for this we say:

Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen.

Christ is risen indeed.  Alleluia! Alleluia!  Amen.