my sunrise service homily

March 24, 2008

Isaiah 60: 1-5; John 20: 1-20

This morning we witness the rising of the sun, which reminds us that we bear witness to a risen son, Christ our Lord. We are drawn together, today, by the mystery of the Resurrection. We are pulled into a story that has been written on our hearts. This morning we stare into an empty tomb with Peter. We examine the discarded linen with the one whom Jesus loved. We hear the Christ’s divine words to Mary. We try to cling to our old ways, our traditions, our “it’s always been this ways,” only to be promised something new.

Welcome to the morning of Resurrection. He Is Risen. He Is Risen indeed!

The Bible readings, today, share a unique bond. They are married to one another in an Easter kind of way. These two readings need one another to tell the resurrection story. Their connection spans 500 years, 3 Empires, and countless generations. What they have in common is found in the divine words, the red letters.

On one hand, we hear Jesus say to Mary, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and sisters and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” At once we hear echoes of Ruth committing herself to Naomi with her special brand of relentless faithfulness. We hear an earlier prayer beginning, Our Father who art in heaven. The words of Jesus tell us what the Resurrection has made us: family. It has transformed us from desperate individuals seeking somewhere to belong to a community of siblings, heirs to Jesus’ Dad.

On the other hand, we hear the Lord describe to the prophet the identity of the family: the DNA. Our light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon us. But this light is not just for ourselves. On the contrary, the glory of the resurrection is for those who have not yet seen it. The light of the risen Son doesn’t banish all darkness. Instead, we are informed through Isaiah that darkness is out there, but the Lord rises upon us, his church, and his glory appears over us. Nations will be drawn like moths to the flame and Kings to golden hues of dawn’s early light. Those who have been distant will come home. Those who have been enslaved will be set free.
The riches that the Lord speaks of will not fill our checking account with zeros, but fill our sanctuary with those people who have walked in darkness, who lived in a land of deep darkness (Is 9:2). God’s glory will be their light, our light.

The entire mission of God is accomplished in the space where these two texts connect.

Throughout Christ’s earthly ministry he consistently impressed two things: one, that God’s Kingdom had drawn near and two, that the citizens of that kingdom were to be as one family. The crucifixion made a way for sinners to become citizens. The resurrection made a way for the family of God to become regents of his Kingdom. The resurrection ignites the lamp on the lampstand. It gives power to the luminous city on the hill. The resurrection doesn’t hide in dark obscurity, but bursts forth from the people of God. It sets the Spirit of God loose not in just one person, but in one people. The resurrection calls the church into being so that not just individuals, but nations will see and believe.

The empty tomb is a truth: The body is gone and the tomb of death has lost its grip. The empty tomb is an oxymoron: It is not empty, it is full of the sign of God’s power. It’s not a tomb, for in its belly creation stirred and the church leapt forth.

The resurrection is a people of God thing. When we call ourselves the church we align ourselves with an empty tomb and the miracle that occurred inside it. The resurrection is a challenge. It challenges the church to become a community that calls others into community. It means that we are not a benevolent society of individuals, but individuals who are dangerous to society; and NOT because we threaten to harm the world, but instead because we fulfill our promise to love it. The resurrection is our perpetual reality. What poured out of the tomb on this day nearly 2000 years ago, altered the course of history and can continue to do so.

Jesus did not leave before instructing his family how they could change the world.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (Jn 13:34)

This is the challenge of the Resurrection: love as Christ loved.

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn 15:13)

Look around you. Are these your friends? Is anyone here worth your life? Jesus thought so.

The Apostle Paul went so far as to write a treatise on love in his first letter to the Cornithians: “Love is patient, love is kind, It does not envy, it does not boast…You’ve all been to a wedding. If you haven’t: check out 1st Corinthians 13…it’s in the greatest hits. Paul’s preamble to this love list begins like this:

“If I speak in human or angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol.” As the church we can sing with choirs of angels, or sound like a handful of dropped silverware.

The resurrection is a challenge.

It challenges us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and love like Christ loved. This is how we live – who we are — 364 days a year, with this day to remember why.

Arise, shine, for your light has come,
And the glory of the Lord rises upon you (Is 60: 1)

Amen.

Posted in mere christianity