This has been a very dark, hard week in so many ways. 

Holy Week always is

We have made it through what the mystics call the dark night of soul.

We have weathered the storm. 

On Friday we thought the whole world had died.

On Saturday we feared that all the hope we had was gone.

We felt shrouded in darkness and despair.

It was as if the whole earth cried.

But somehow we have found our way here today. We, maybe even much to our surprise, have made here: to Easter morning. To hear again the story that life not death has the final word; that God’s love and justice is more powerful than the world’s hate and evil.

So here we are: Easter morning . . . a day of surprises . . . a day of confusion . . . a day that will turn everything around . . . a day when darkness will become light, when mourning turns to rejoicing, when life emerges from the tomb of death, and fear gives way to faith. 

Easter . . . the foundation on which OUR faith is built. 

Easter . . . the story we turn to over and over again to sustain us and strengthen our faith 

Easter . . . when it begins to dawn u that what seems to us to be us utterly impossible really is possible . . . BUT only if we dare to believe that new life truly is possible . . . not just for Jesus but for us as well

So, let us look at the story again.

Mary comes to the tomb where Jesus was laid to rest.

She came in deep grief and profound pain.

She came aware of all that had been lost with Jesus’ execution: 

hope for a world made new . . . 

hope for a life where she was truly seen, accepted, included . . . 

hope that those who had been marginalized and excluded would 

finally have a place at the table and a voice in decisions

that directly impact their lives and those of their families

and communities

She came thinking all the hopes and dreams of her people had been laid to rest along with Jesus, forever sealed in the tomb.

She was so caught up in her grief and pain that she could not see let alone understand the miraculous thing that was unfolding right before her. 

It confused and even frightened her.

First the stone is rolled away; then the tomb is empty, Jesus is not there

Thinking his body has been moved, or worse, stolen, she runs to tell the disciples. Maybe they know what happened. Maybe someone saw Jesus being moved and told one of the male disciples. She had to find out.

Can’t you just feel her panic as she runs. Where is he? What have they done with him? Can’t we almost feel the pounding of her heart and feel her tears as they fall from her eyes not having the energy to wipe them away?

We live in a time when many people, maybe even some of us here today, feel like Mary did as she approached the tomb that day. Feeling that all hope is gone. Filled with grief for all that has been lost and fear and dread for all that may come.

Easter challenges us to dare to see life in what appears to be the finality of death; to see and call forth hope when despair is all around us; to dare to shine light into the darkness and see all the possibilities and promises that have been hidden. 

Jesus’ resurrection is God’s way of saying to us, literally showing us, that God can and will always make a way when to us there seems to be no way. The resurrection of Christ is God’s promise that new life, abundant life, full life, truly is possible. n

The resurrection is God’s way of saying to us that we, too, can step out of the tombs that bind us and hold us and step into the newness of life that Christ comes to bring.

So, let’s consider what some of the tombs that we inhabit may be. 

Some of those tombs are personal: fear, anxiety, guilt, grief, shame, 

feeling unworthy or less than, powerful emotional forces that 

can paralyze and immobilize us

Some of those tombs are cultural: roles that we are cast into that limit

how we are to act, what we can and cannot do, how we are to dress,

how we are to show up and present ourselves in public, powerful

expectations that seek to define who we are rather than all allowing

for authentic self-expression and actualization

Some of those tombs are systemic and institutional: rules and laws and

policies that bind and restrict us, that form a hierarchy of power and

privilege, systems that are designed to create a small elite and to 

render everyone else powerless, voiceless, and invisible

All of these tombs, and so many others, imprison us and keep us from living the full and abundant life that Christ came to bring to ALL God’s beloved children, not just to a chosen elite, but to ALL. Some of them even have the power to make us doubt that new life is even remotely possible.

Jesus did not stay in the tomb. God did not allow the powers of oppression to have the final word. God flung wide the doors to that tomb and the resurrected Jesus stepped out into the light, free and unbound.

The message of the resurrection could not be more clear: God does not want us to stay locked in the tombs that limit and bind and restrict us, the tombs of oppression and death that we so often find ourselves in, tombs that we too often cannot see a way to escape. The resurrection is a sign that there is always a way to step out of the tomb and into new life.

The invitation and the movement of resurrection and new life is always the same: from death to life; out of the darkness and into the light; from captivity to freedom.

That is the hope and the promise of Easter ~ may it be so for you.

Amen