April 16, 2017 Easter

Several years ago a priest friend of my family called one Easter afternoon and asked with some urgency, “Have you heard the news?!”

It was one of those years when there seemed to be bad news every time you turned around, so all the joy I had felt after our Easter morning church service drained out of me, and I said, “No…what?”

And he blurted out, “Alleluia! Christ is risen!”

I managed to give him the appropriate response back, “The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” as relief flooded back into me as we both giggled at how silly he was.

The news he called to tell me was good. Good news. THE Good News. Christ is alive. All the forces of hate and violence, sin and death, did not succeed. As I told the kids (at Christ Church) last week, Easter is the day when God says, “Ha ha! You can’t keep me dead!”

Just think—for 2000 years we have been celebrating this good news every Easter Sunday. Person-by-person we tell each other the ways in which we experience the new life of grace offered through Jesus’ resurrection. Person-by-person, it has spread from that one grave in Jerusalem all the way around the world.

But what if it had happened now, with all our technology, with the 24-hour news cycle and social media? How might that “special news report” have gone?

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We interrupt our regular programming with a special report. There has been an unusually localized earthquake in a cemetery in Jerusalem. Our own Matthew Levinson is on the scene.

I’m Matthew Levinson, here at a wayside cemetery on the edge of Jerusalem. With me is a witness to the events of the morning, a Miss Mary Magdalene.

           Magdalene, please.

Ah, yes, okay. MS. Magdalene. Can you tell us what you witnessed?

           Well! Me and the other Mary (boy does she hate being called that!) we was coming here to the tomb of our friend Jesus.

 

Is that the Jesus the criminal executed on Friday?

          HE WAS INNOCENT, thank you very much!

Okay, the man executed as a criminal on Friday. Reports are he was some sort of rebellious, Messiah-wannabe.

          I don’t know about wannabe, but yeah, he’s the Messiah.

My condolences on your loss.

           Will you stop talkin’ for a minute and let me tell what happened? Anyways, Me and Mary were comin’ to the tomb and just as we got here there was this earthquake! We looked up and there was this angel there, rollin’ back the stone! Them two guards just fell right down like they was dead! It was hilarious—these two big strong Roman soldiers, faintin’ away at the sight of one angel!  Hahaha!

Uh Miss—MS!—Magdalene, I’m not sure it’s a good idea to laugh at Roman soldiers…

           Yeah, yeah. Whatever. So anyways, there they are lyin’ passed out on the ground, and the angel tells us Jesus ain’t there!

No? Where was he? Did someone steal the body?

           No! Don’t you get it?! Jesus kept tellin’ us he was comin’ back after three days, and none of those stupid disciples believed it! They all went and hid. It was only me and the other Mary..well and some of the other women…we remembered what he said. So we came to check it out. And there you are! The angel said he had risen from the dead and would meet us back in Galilee.

Ms. Magdalene, you must admit this story stretches credulity.

           I don’t know what credulity means but if you’re sayin’ we’re makin’ it up, answer this for me. Why would two big strong Roman soldiers be so afraid of two little defenseless Jewish women that they fainted away at the sight of us?! ‘Cause seriously it was so funny…Bloop! Right over on their faces…hahaha…

Ms. Magdalene, please…

          Okay fine, so how did we roll that great big stone back? Huh? And what did we do with his body?

          And why was there an earthquake?!

So what you’re saying, Ms. Magdalene, is that you believe this Jesus person is alive? That he somehow survived the crucifixion?

NO, you dope! He died—he really died! But God resurrected him! See, he just changed his Facebook status to “arisen”!

And why would this God you speak of do such a thing?

           To show us that God’s love is more powerful than all our hate and violence. To show us that God forgives all of us and that we get a new start. To show us that the kingdom of God is more powerful than the Roman Empire with its silly fainting Roman soldiers…hahaha…

Yes, well…If that’s true that’s really quite good news.

           Yeah. Now listen, I can’t stand here yakkin’ with you all day. I gotta go find the disciples and tell them about this!
Which camera is the right one?…Hey, Peter, if you’re watchin’ the news right now, we’re comin’ to find you!
I can’t wait to see his face when we tell him about this! But oooh, I don’t wanna be around when Jesus asks him about what he said the night Jesus was arrested! We’d better hope Jesus is in a forgiving mood!

Uh, yes. Thank you, Ms. Magdalene…This is Matthew Levinson, Jerusalem News Service. Back to you in the studio.

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How do you tell the story? It all depends on how you have experienced it. None of us were there that morning when the stone was rolled away and the tomb was found empty. But it is my deepest hope that every one of you sitting here today has your own story to tell. Some experience of God shaking things up so that the stone of your heart rolls back, letting love and hope and new life burst forth.

This is the story, and it is ours to share. This is the meaning of redemption: God takes even our worst experiences and bring forth something good and new and alive out of them. There is always some good. It may be buried deeply, it may need an angel’s help to reveal it. But there is always hope to be found.

Have you heard the news?

Alleluia, Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Amen.