An Easter People
Rev. J. Cody Nielsen
Kay Spiritual Life Center
April 24, 2011—Easter Sunrise Service
John 20:1-18
It is often said that Christians are an Easter people living in a Good Friday world. Today, on our Holiest day of the year, very early at the beginning of the week, we have come and we behold an empty tomb, and we are to make haste… The lesson says that the disciples ran…. Now, how many of you ran here… We’re supposed to tell everyone… loudly from of the treetops of the world… to behold the light of the world made new to tell of the Resurrection of Christ…. But we have to see it in the background of a world that is filled with darkness…what does it mean to know that with every Easter Sunday there may be another Good Friday kind of day lurking… Because whenever I see this amazing day, this Sunrise, this beautiful light come from the East and ascend… I have to wonder, what do we do with this?
To consider this question, I turn to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words . Emerson once remarked that when it is darkest, you can see the stars… Without good Friday, we can’t see begin to understand how today, we see signs of the light breaking in…. A candle in a well lit room doesn’t change that lighting… But a single candle burning in the midst of darkness can provide illumination in a way that can allow for all to see. Only when we are presented with a backdrop, a background of a broken and dark world, can we begin to see the reflection of all persons, of all things, in a radiant and profoundly encouraging light of this Resurrection on Easter Sunday… it’s light in the midst of darkness…. That illumination. Had Christ shown up in a world that already looked like the kingdom of God… we might have completely missed his appearance… But today, we have seen something new… this new light, a bright shining and mesmerizing moment in the journey of our Church…
But that often would sound like we would come to this Easter Day with the expectation that it feels like the end of some cosmic journey that includes danger, heroism, and ultimately death, but death overcome…It looked bad…. but Jesus gives the little surprise I’ll get up from the tune… and now everything is alright…. It seems like this is about where the credits are supposed to be rolling and the bugs bunny….dababababdee dabababdeee that’s all folks is supposed to come… This is where the journey ends right…. The hero has conquered the opponent, the time for peace has begun…Anakin skywalker was saved, the Klingons are defeated…. But we’re still an Easter people in a Good Friday world… The story can not end here… because we’ve been living in the background of darkness for 2,000 years…and it doesn’t seem to be getting a whole lot better…
I think with God in charge, this scene, this empty tomb, this moment, it doesn’t at as the end, but just the opening of the second, third, fourth movie (unlike some directors, God’s vision tends to create better acts every step along the way)…. And it just happens to be like that for our Church……. The Resurrection isn’t the ending, but a new beginning… Easter has just begun… But it won’t be over by tomorrow morning… It will be a part of our liturgical year for the year 50 days, until Pentecost….
This is where everything begins for the disciples, not ends… Their mission now becomes to tell the story… The journey’s of Paul, the Acts of the Apostles, they all will now take place. I might even imagine that nothing of Jesus’ ministry stood out until the Resurrection… But once the resurrection happens, everything is changed… The light has come, even when it is cloudy… And that light has exposed some of the dark places of the world and given us mission to go and spread the light in the dark places.
The Good Friday’s of the world are now able to be spoken of with hope… Places of fear, is violence, hatred, oppression, and suffering,…Places where division, war, anxiety, stress, and pain have been know now begin to be viewed through the Lens of a world ressurected… We can now look forward to the hope that comes with this Resurrection. The Disciples became Easter People in a Good Friday world, full of hope for a world torn apart by dispair . The world that they knew was different now. Nothing will ever be the same once the tomb is found empty.
We now go forward into mystery that Easter gives us, into a New Day, with new possibilities,…, the journey of Lent has passed, the pain and death on a cross during Holy Week has come and gone, and the darkness has been replaced with new life and new birth in the midst of a world which too often seems dark and broken… Only when it darkest can we see the stars… But now, The Son has risen… the Christ has Come…. A New Day Begins…And Hope can Never Fade…And today we once again reminded why we Easter People in a Good Friday World…
