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Gospel: John 20: 1-9
On the first day of the week,
Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
“They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don’t know where they put him.”
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter
and arrived at the tomb first;
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.
For they did not yet understand the Scripture
that he had to rise from the dead.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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What can you say when celebrating Easter while still in this pandemic? How do you preach Easter joy while so many still feel stuck on Good Friday?
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Well, there’s an old saying, “Religion begins in a cemetery.”
Standing at the grave of a loved one, we feel a swirl of emotions – everything from sadness, anger, and regret, to hope.
Standing at the graveside, we hope.
As a priest, I’ve stood with families hundreds of times as they mourn the loss of their loved one – a parent, a spouse, a friend, and even the unimaginable death of a child.
Many families have known that grief this year because of COVID. We weep over what’s happened to our world. For some, it’s felt like Good Friday all year long.
We weep. And yet, we hope.
Christ’s victory over death is our consolation; for some, it’s all they have. It’s what we celebrate today.
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“Religion begins in a cemetery.”
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If you visit Jerusalem, the place where Jesus rose from the dead, you can touch the empty tomb! It’s literally a stone’s throw from Calvary, the hill where he was crucified.
But the inner journey from grief to hope – from Good Friday to Easter Sunday – isn’t that easy; it requires a giant leap of faith.
Consider the different reactions of the disciples gathered that first Easter morning. Their emotions, reactions, and beliefs might not be too different from our own.
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John “saw and believed.” Bingo.
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But Peter was much slower to believe.
He saw the same things John did – the stone rolled away, the burial cloths folded, the tomb emptied of its precious contents.
Still, Peter was stuck on Good Friday. The reality of the resurrection hadn’t sunk in just yet.
Days from now, Peter will say to the others, “I’m going fishing.”
Not, “I’m going to tell the world what God has done for us! Alleluia!” Not, “Jesus has been raised from the dead! Alleluia!”
But, “I’m going fishing.”
Peter no longer wanted to be Peter the Apostle. Just Peter the fisherman. He wants to return to what’s familiar – as if the last three years with Jesus didn’t happen. He just wants to go home.
How many have felt like “Peter the fisherman” this year?
We want so badly the joy of Easter. We want the peace that Jesus promises. We want to believe. But we find ourselves swaying between belief and unbelief.
We’re somewhere in between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
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Then there’s Thomas, often known as “Doubting Thomas.”
He wasn’t with Peter and the other Apostles when the Risen Lord first appeared to them. Thomas was hiding somewhere else on his own, caught in the intricate, personal, often hidden web of grief.
Although the others said to him, “We have seen the Lord!” Thomas couldn’t believe them. He needed his own proof.
It’s only after Thomas slides his fingers into the healed side of the Risen Christ that he exclaims, “My Lord and my God!”
How many feel like Thomas, caught in a web of grief?
The resurrection still feels like a distant truth.
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Then there’s Mary Magdalene. She was the first to approach the empty tomb and the first to see the Risen Lord.
But consider why she was there.
The Gospels describe her as a “sinner,” a woman who had many demons cast out of her. Some say she was mentally ill or perhaps even a prostitute.
Still, Jesus loved her unlike any man ever had. He healed her. He offered her a new perspective; a fresh start in life.
Overwhelmed with gratitude, Mary never left his side. She stayed with Jesus until the very end, which is why she was there on Easter Sunday. She had nowhere else to go.
She was wrapped around the Lord.
Maybe some of us are like Mary: we came to Christ broken, but he put us back together.
And we’ve loved him ever since.
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That’s an honest assessment of that first Easter community, which may not be much different than our own Easter community.
There’s John the Beloved who “sees and believes.” Bingo. There’s swaying Simon Peter, Doubting Thomas, and the once tormented Magdalene.
All of them made the giant, life-changing leap from grief to hope – from Good Friday to Easter Sunday.
For John it was instant. For the others, it took time. For Peter, a lifetime.
Perhaps that’s where we fit in. It can feel hard to celebrate the joy of Easter while there’s still so much pain and suffering in our world, not just the havoc wreaked by the pandemic.
But we’re not deaf to the cry of the poor. We’re here to tell them that there’s Good News! That the Lord sees their tears; that he took on flesh and overcame the grave for us.
Today we rejoice because Christ has overcome the world, which is why, “religion begins in a cemetery.” … In that cemetery.
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From there the Lord says to us, “Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person, and we cannot be separated.”
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