Year A
 Jeremiah 31:1-6
 Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
 Acts 10:34-43
 John 20:1-18

May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth…

I spoke some last evening about being reminded that the stories which have come down to us…  stories which remind us that we are freed from all that enslaves us…  and I want to say something more this morning…  about the faith which frees us from the slavery of death…

There used to be a time…  when a handshake was all it took to seal the deal…  when trust came from being known by name…  these days…  handshakes have given way to contracts…  which themselves are broken too often and too easily…  we have become somewhat cynical about taking things on faith…  but still…  there are times when faith is all we have…  even when what we experience just doesn’t make any sense at all…

In the movie Contact…  Jodie Foster plays Dr. Elizabeth Arroway…  a scientist who’s not much of a believer…  and she’s involved in what is in the movie…  an actual…  real-life program called SETI… the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence… in this case…  by scanning for alien radio transmissions…  well…  cutting to the chase…  a machine in built…  and she travels through wormholes…  well at least one…  she’s been outfitted with the most sophisticated recording equipment that’s available… to make sure…  to make certain…  that every moment of her encounter is documented…  and she meets with an alien from a technologically advanced and ancient civilization…   who appears to her in the image of her beloved father…  but although she was gone for eighteen hours…  from everyone’s perspective at Mission Control…  she appears to have been gone for no time at all…  and to have gone nowhere…

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples…  I have seen the Lord…  and she tells them what he had said to her…  Dr. Arroway testifies before Congress… and the story she tells seems implausible…  impossible…  and she has no proof of it…  and as her story unfolds…  she’s made out to be a delusional woman…  orphaned young…  under a great deal of stress…  part of a failed project she’s staked her life and her self-worth and her very sense-of-identity on…  and she’s accused of creating a fantasy which has reunited her with her Father in Heaven…  as it were…  she’s asked how she can present a story that for all appearances…  strains credibility…  she’s asked if she expects everyone sitting there to simply accept her story on faith…  and she says… what we might imagine Mary Magdalene to have said… 

I had… an experience. I can’t prove it. I can’t even explain it. All I can tell you is that everything I know as a human being, everything I am — tells me that it was real. I was given something wonderful. Something that changed me.  A vision of the universe that made it overwhelmingly clear just how rare and precious we all are. A vision that tells us we belong to something greater than ourselves. That we’re not — that none of us — is alone. I wish I could share it. I wish everyone, if only for a moment — could feel that sense of awe, and humility, and hope.

As I said last evening…  the stone wasn’t moved so Jesus could get out…  but so that those who came could see in or get in…  but the disciple whom Jesus loved had this kind of unshakable faith…  and when he looked in…  and when Peter went in…  all they saw were the linen wrappings and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head…  there were no angels…  or angelic pronouncements for them…  no inquiry about why they’d come…  and although the passage says nothing about what Peter thought or felt…  we’re told that the other disciple saw and believed…  he could have let his senses and his head convince his heart that he had no evidence for the conclusion he drew…  that he was just imagining what he saw…  or didn’t see…  he could have allowed the authoritative voices of his time question his credibility and sanity…  but he believed because he already believed…  he believed in his prior experiences with Jesus…  he believed in the relationship he had with him…  and he trusted his experience…

When the alien being called Dr. Arroway by her nickname –– Sparks –– she knew that she was known…  and when Jesus called Mary by name –– when he used Name to re-establish community –– she was known… and she recognized him as Lord…  something happened that changed these people…  we may not always be able to explain these things to others…  or even to ourselves…  but we know what we know… 

For John…  the writer of today’s Gospel…  everything begins with Logos…  In the beginning was the Word…  and the Word was with God…  and the Word was God…  everything begins with the Word and his relationship with God and the Holy Spirit…  and although the church celebrates Easter through the lens of resurrection appearances…  for John…  there’s another way of marking Jesus’ victory on the cross…  the Good News that Jesus commands Mary to proclaim is not that he is risen…  but that he is ascending to God…

The cross brings the incarnation to a close…  but the story of the Logos finds its conclusion in Jesus’ return to God…  which completes his descent from Heaven…  and this return makes new life possible for the believing community…  because Jesus has turned resurrection from a historical event…  into an eternal state of being…  that’s available to us in each and every moment…

Resurrection is about more than just life after death… it’s about a new kind of life that starts here and now… and about a new way of being in the world and with God…  the assurance of hope in every new beginning…  because in the beginning…  the fabric of creation was woven with the threads of redemption…  ]  because in the beginning…  the fabric of creation was woven with the threads of new life…  because since the beginning… we’ve been surrounded on every side by the persistence of life…  every moment is a new beginning…  all creation shouts for joy every time we choose that which God blesses…  and what God can’t bless…  God redeems…  over and over again…  until there’ll be no need to redeem…  but only to bless…  and for that…  and so much more…  we say…  Alleluia…  Happy Easter…