Easter Day, 2007                  April 8, 2007

When I was a child, we would pass by the old cemetery on the way home from school. I liked to walk on the rock wall that bordered the cemetery. More than once, my friends and I would play there. The tombstones and columbarium made a great place to play hide and go seek, or guns, or whatever game children play. We meant no disrespect. Young children do not know the hard rules of life and death, but through the years I've learned.

Now I’ve learned that death is real, and always tragic. It’s a lesson that began with the death of my brother when I was just six years old. It continued with the death of my grandmothers and grandfathers. Then came the death of my own father. Finally, it continues with each funeral I conduct as a pastor. With each death, we are confronted with the dark reality of our mortal life in the world as it is today.

Today, for me a cemetery is not a place to play children’s games. A cemetery is more like a prison that a playground. Death locks us out of life’s dreams and hopes, and it slams the door on all the future plans of our lifetime. Visits to the graveyard are accompanied by cries of anguish rather than the fun and games of children. Do you know what I’m talking about?

Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary, James mother knew what I’m talking about, and much more. When they saw Jesus executed so brutally on Friday, few of us can relate to the level of sheer horror that came to them. The injustice of his execution by the Roman soldiers, the betrayal by his own people, even his closest friends was something few of us could fathom.

The women walked slowly that first Easter morning. They carried precious spices to anoint his body because there was no time for a decent burial on the night of his death. They had to wait until the Sabbath was over so as not to break any customs that would alarm the authorities any further. They were up in the wee hours of the morning, so as not to be seen by the Roman soldiers or other men.

When they arrived at Jesus’ tomb in the early morning darkness, these women were confronted with yet another crowning blow, one more horrible thing they never expected. The stone that covered the cave where he was buried was rolled away; and when they went in the tomb, the tomb was empty; Jesus’ body was gone.

Why would anyone want to steal his body? As they tried to make sense of it, suddenly, two angelic men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The two asked them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen.

That question that gives me pause. Why do we seek the living God among the dead? Why do we associate Jesus with the cemetery, but not with the new creation he had embodied in his earthly life?

Once my daughter put the question this way. When she was about 10 years old, we were walking past the same cemetery I had visited as a child. She began to walk on the stone wall that surrounded the cemetery, just as I had done 35 years before. Then she paused, and looked at all the statutes of Jesus and the crosses on the graves and said, does Jesus live here?

Trouble is, those who don’t know the living God act as if Jesus is dead. Why do we look for new life among the dead things of the old creation? Why do we get so tied up in computers and cell phones and HD TV’s that have will soon be obsolete? Why do we let our credit cards hold us financially captive until we die? Why do we work so hard for corporate advancement in corporations that only value the bottom line? Why do we follow leaders who betray us whenever it suites their own personal ambitions? Why do we seek the living among the dead?

Only a short time ago these women and the other disciples had been playing follow the leader with Jesus, watching him overcome the power of death, sickness, and sin. Remember Lazarus? He had been rotting in the grave for four days, yet walked right out when Jesus called, "Lazarus, Come out?"

Up until a few days ago, Jesus had helped them imagine a new creation, a new kingdom transformed by God’s grace and love. In the new kingdom, a man who was beaten by robbers and left for dead was received help by a Samaritan man. In the new creation, lepers were cleaned, and a Roman centurion’s daughter was healed with a Word.

Jesus invited them into a new kingdom of God, where the winners are those who come in last, and the myth of scarcity was broken when Jesus served a 5,000 plate banquet for the hungry from a little boy's lunch box with five loaves and two fish.

Jesus was opening up their hearts and minds to the ancient promise, the fulfillment of God’s new day. In that day, instead of survival of the fittest, wolves and lambs were lying together, and lions gave up meat and began to eat straw, and the homelessness could all build a house to live in. Thousands of people were excited about the beginning of the kingdom of God.

All the while, the disciples were like children playing in the cemetery. They did not hear Jesus when he told them about his arrest, his trial, or his death on the cross. They did not take Jesus warning that those who were benefitting from the status quo were going to kill him. When he died that Friday afternoon, they forgot that he told them about his resurrection, and grieved his death as if that was the end of their relationship to him.

It appeared the game was over; their hero had been defeated. The graveyard was but a stark reminder of the captivity, the bondage to the powers of death, defeat, despair. There was nothing these women could do, except come to the graveyard with their spices. They were looking for the living among the dead.

The two angelic men told them, “He is risen, just as he told you he would do.” Then they remembered his words. They didn’t know exactly what to make if it just yet. But this meant that the kingdom of God was here. The powers of death had not won! Now all the rules were changed. This gospel is too good not to be true.

The women now realized they could not mourn his death. They could not keep silent. The resurrection of Jesus changed everything of the old creation and was the beginning of a new creation. This was a whole new ball game, with new rules based on God’s grace and love they knew in Jesus Christ. Now there was something they had to do. They moved from mourning his death to witnessing his resurrection.

They told the men, the other apostles. But they didn’t believe what they said. Back in those days, men didn’t often take women very seriously. :-) Only Peter was curious enough to go and check out their story. When he went to the empty tomb, sure enough Jesus body wasn’t in there. He was amazed, perplexed by this, so he went home to consider what it all meant.

Do you get what this means for us and for the world? For Peter and the other disciples it took some time to realize that when Jesus rose, a new day had dawned for the whole order of creation. It took some time and several appearances of the risen Christ, but eventually, they would understand. Jesus would have to show them what his resurrected body looked like. This was not just a temporary resuscitation, but a whole new life. Jesus resurrection was not just for him or for his disciples, but for all people, for all of us.

When we are baptized into his death, we are also baptized into his resurrection. In raising Jesus from the dead, God broke the bondage of evil. In the new kingdom, the graveyards are transformed into playgrounds for children. Death, sickness, war and violence are finished. And so we are set free for life! Faith transforms the power of death into the hope of the resurrection. The hope of the resurrection is that this world is not just where Jesus died. This world is where Jesus lives!

Sometimes that is hard to believe. The power of evil, death and sin often appears to be in control. Some days it is hard to see with eyes of faith. That is why we need to worship weekly, to pray daily, and to read the Bible together. In those times when our faith is weak, we can draw upon each other’s faith. When the power of division overcomes us, we need the forgiveness of sin in the Lord's Supper and in our baptism.

The sacraments might seem like childs play to the world. Eating bits of bread, drinking sips of juice. To a casual observer it would appear a harmless tea party. But when we look with eyes of faith, when we listen with ears of hope, in this bread broken, this cup poured, we discover that the tomb is empty, and we are free to follow Jesus. When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we dare to imagine a different world, a world not imprisoned by the powers of sin and death, but set free, set free for love, justice, peace.

This is the victory feast of our God! We have been set free! Even we are victims of the atrocities of this world, we can get up from the table and follow our leader out of the cemetery and into the streets, into the board room and the back alleys. He is living, so that we can live in him. Christ is risen. Alleluia!

Amen.