"Look! But...go" Sermon for for Easter Sunday in Jerusalem 2021

 

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE SERMON

Sermon for Easter Sunday 2021

The Rev. Carrie Ballenger

Lutheran Church of the Redeemer

Celebrating on the Augusta Victoria Hospital Campus

Mount of Olives

Mark 16:1-8

 

Alleluia, Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Dear siblings in Christ: it is so good to be with you this morning, especially because last year we could only gather virtually to celebrate the Resurrection! Thanks be to God for this opportunity to worship together. A warm welcome to the Danish-speaking and Swedish-speaking congregations, and to all visitors this day.

And now may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable unto you O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.

***

On the day after my grandma’s funeral, I stood on the front porch of her house with the key in my hand for the longest time. Because of travel schedules for other family members, I had become appointed the last one to leave, and it was my job to lock up the house. I had agreed to do it but had no idea how hard it would be to lock that door until that very moment.

Because I had moved multiple times and lived in many houses in my childhood, Grandma Goldie’s house had always felt the most like “home” to me. As I stood there at the door, I wondered what it would feel like, not only not to see her again in this life, but not to see that front porch, and Grandma’s kitchen, and the rope swing my grandpa had hung from the apple tree in the backyard. I didn’t want to forget any of it. So I kept looking, and looking, and looking….until my toddlers in the backseat of the car let me know it was well past time to go.

A few years later, I was dropping those same children off at elementary school in Chicago. I remember standing just outside the school playground, watching as they walked with their teachers up the stairs, into the doors of the school, and off to a new life of learning. Once again, I didn’t want to leave that spot. I didn’t want to forget the moment! And so I looked, and looked, and looked, as all the children found their way into their classrooms.

And then it was time for me to go.

Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went to the tomb early in the morning to anoint the body of their beloved Jesus with spices. The Gospel text tells us they were worried about many things, chiefly about who would roll the stone away from the tomb.

But when they arrived, the stone was already rolled away, and they saw something (or someone) they didn’t expect. It was an angel, dressed in white, who gave them very good news. He said, “He has been raised. He is not here!”

Alleluia, Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia!

But then, there was more. The angel said to the women: Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”

Look, there is the place they laid him. But go.

I love that the angel told them to look, because it is so important to acknowledge when hard things happen. The angel didn’t try to convince the women that nothing had happened. He didn’t try to gaslight them or rewrite history. He didn’t say, “nothing to see here.” No, the angel said “Look. Look: Something terrible has happened. I know you’re looking for Jesus. I know you loved him.”

I can imagine the angel also saying, sympathetically, “I’m so sorry. This is hard.”

Friends, the last year we’ve experienced has been really hard. Across the globe, people have spent so much time at tombs and in hospital rooms. The virus has taken so much from us: Health. Jobs. Opportunities. Friends and neighbors. Systems of injustice and oppression have taken away the breath, the hope, and the future of far too many. The weight of these losses may have even taken away your faith in God—or at least, faith in your fellow human beings.

At this moment in time, we may only want to stand still, looking backward, contemplating all that has been lost. We may want to remain at the tomb with Mary Magdalene and Mary and Salome and hope that, by sheer force of will, we can make the world look and feel “normal” again.

And the angel of the Lord says, “Yes, look. This is what happened. This is what was lost.

Look: This is where they laid him. But now…go.”

Go! And know that Jesus goes before you.

Dear people, hear the Good News: Christ is not in the tomb. He didn’t stay there, and we don’t need to, either!

The Risen Christ goes before us, into the world, into the future. The Risen Christ goes before us, and therefore we don’t need to be afraid to leave the tomb, or to step into the unknown, because wherever we go, whatever challenges we must face, whatever struggles we must endure, Jesus is already there. Thanks be to God!

Of course, in the Gospel according to Mark, we read that when the three women left the tomb, they did in fact feel afraid. They were seized with terror and amazement, and for this reason they didn’t tell anyone what they had seen and heard.

The other Gospel accounts tell it a bit differently. But I can understand the terror and amazement our sisters in Christ were feeling. The moment when your world changes can take the words right out of your mouth.

The moment you heard “Global pandemic” for the first time.

When you got the news, “You’re having a baby!” or “You got the job!”

When you first saw that video and heard George cry, “I can’t breathe.”

When you lock the door to home for the last time behind you.

Or, when an angel in white says to you, “He is not here. He has been raised.”

Maybe some folks have instant words and eloquent speeches to give in these world-shifting moments, but I usually don’t—and I’m paid to have words to say!

So Mary and Mary Magdalene and Salome left the tomb as the angel instructed, but they were wordless for a bit. They were afraid! Their whole world had changed—again—in just a few moments. But they had heard the words of the angel: “Jesus goes before you to Galilee. There you will find him.” And so they went on their way.

And what was the Risen Lord doing when he left the tomb? He was showing believers how to live the risen life. Jesus was teaching the disciples—and us—about life after the tomb, life after the resurrection, life after everything we know about the world has changed.

Jesus shows us the risen life is about long walks with friends, discussing politics and the news of the day.

It’s about entering locked rooms, or institutions, or systems, and sharing the peace with those who are afraid of others, or afraid of change.

It’s about preaching the Good News of love and justice with the whole world.

The risen life sometimes even includes breakfast on the beach!

And then, at his Ascension, Jesus sent his followers down the mountain and into the world to live as people of the Resurrection. He sent us to live the risen life, continuing his work of feeding, healing, and preaching the Good News of God’s love to all the lost and broken—beginning in Jerusalem and going to all the ends of the earth. Amen!

Friends in Christ, which of us will still be in Jerusalem together on this mountain next year, watching the sun rise? I don’t know. But the truth is, I didn’t know the answer last year, or the year before that, or the year before that. For this reason, it’s always a precious thing to gather on this day, at this stone altar, and to watch the sun rise before us. It’s precious and powerful because it reminds us that just as the sun always rises to light the day to come, so also Jesus, crucified and risen, goes before us to light all our tomorrows.

So now, with the angel in white who spoke to the women that first Easter morning, let me say again:

Look! Here is where they laid him.

Now go: Because Jesus goes before you!

Go, to love and serve and the Risen Lord.  

Alleluia, Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia.