We Want Proof!

Sermon for Eater Vigil

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church 2017

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!

Tonight we come to the culmination of our Lenten journey.  We have gone from being reminded that we have been created out of dust ant that to dust we shall return.  Hopefully we were able to find some way to set aside the 40 days of lent to do something different so that we could hear God.  But no matter God was and is calling each and every one of us – and even through the noise of our everyday lives can break in.  Its just easier for us if we can set aside our business to listen occasionally!  And that is- at least in part – what Lent is about.  Last Sunday we had the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and the first reading for the year – and for many the only reading – of the passion narrative.  Holy Week is a blur for me.  The service here at noon on Wednesday followed by Maundy Thursday – when we are commanded to love one another as Christ loves us ending with the stripping of what little adornments where left in the church – to Good Friday and the remembrance of the cross, and Holy Saturday – when remember that nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God.  That there is no place, not even Hell, where God forgets us and there is no place – not even hell – where God will not pursue us and offer his love and forgiveness. 

And we come to tonight.  The church is resplendent in all her finery.  The lighting of the new Paschal Fire.  The singing of the Exsultet, and the wonderful reading of our Salvation history.  A reminder that from the very begging of creation God saw, and continues to see all of creation as Good.   But we sometimes don’t see creation or each other as good so we sometimes need to be reminded –and sometimes even rescued in dramatic ways.  Israel delivered from Egypt,  Isaiah reminding us that God economy isn’t like our economy.  That God offers over and over again salvation.  That God desires nothing more than to see his joy filled and love filled dream come to fruition in our time.  And that even as we can be nothing but dry bones that God desires to put life back onto our dry bones so that we can continue to work to bring the Good News to God’s people. 

And that brings us to the reason we are here.  The empty tomb.  Something so hard to try and explain and understand.  How can death have been defeated.  Hoe can something that seems – to us – to be so permanent be defeated. 

Matthew’s Gospel account of the empty tomb is different  that the other Gospels in that he wants to provide proof.  Proof that this thing we call resurrection really happened. In the part we read this morning at our Holy Saturday service – the just precedes this evening’s reading Matthew tells how the Pharisee’s remembered that Jesus said that three days after his death he would rise again.  So they ask Pilate to set a guard at the tomb to make sure that the body is not stolen.  Matthew wants to prove to us that this really happened.  That it is not a hoax. 

So today we come to the setting of that first Easter Morning.  The tomb – guarded against any potential body snatchers. And God making a big entrance – accompanied by earthquakes and Angles – enough to strike the guards into a coma-like stance and to roll away the stone. 

The Angels see the women, Mary Magdalene, the Apostle to the Apostles, and “the other Mary, and tells them – do not be afraid – that Jesus has indeed risen – and to tell the men – you know the ones still hiding in the upper room for fear that they would be next on the Roman’s list for crucifixion – to tell the other disciples that Jesus indeed is risen.   And then as they go Jesus pop’s up and greets them and reinforces the message from the angels.  Provides the proof that indeed Jesus has risen.

Proof.  Matthew offers us proof.  Guards making sure the body is not snatched, earthquakes to get our attention, and then Jesus suddenly appearing in front of the women.   This seems to be just the type of Gospel we need today.

Our modern world is one that demands proof.  We want to see with our own eyes – or at least hear from an eyewitness before we can accept an event.  And with all of the technology literally at our fingertips we can get that proof.  We can see the devastation of natural disasters as they unfold around us.  We can see and witness the horrors of a chemical attack on children and other civilians in Syria.  We can find the proof right on line.  On the daily news and in whatever form we consume news.

But proof is not what resurrection is about.  We are the proof.  We don’t need to walk around asking if people have found Jesus because resurrection changes us. We are the recipients of a love that will not die.  A love that will follow us into our darkest corners – the ones where we sometime want death – or that feel like death to us and that Love keeps offering to heal our wounds over and over and over again.  It’s the story of our creation and the story of our creator. And it is what our world needs so much right now.

We don’t need more proof.  We need people who can say yes to Love.  Say yes to a Love that refused to stay in the tomb.  And once we do we will be changed.  We will be able to see the goodness that is still all around us – even when the “proof” of mans inhumanity to man also seems to take precedence in our technology filled world.

We are called by resurrection to see the empty tomb.  Not for proof but to feel that the Love that came down on Christmas refuses to die – has always refused to die.  And if we can see that we can change the world.  If we can stop insisting that we have to have proof we can help bring God’s dream of love of creation to fruition.

If we can see the people who have no homes as beloved children of God – then perhaps we will begin to see Jesus in our midst.  If we can see those whom we disagree with as beloved children of God  then perhaps we can start making a change in our world.   I am not suggesting that we do not call out evil when we see it – but there are ways to call out evil and misdeeds without demonizing one created out of Love.  And I know this is not easy.  Especially when all we have to do is open any form of media – from computers to TVs for proof that evil is out there.

Love.  A love that refuses to die.  A love that calls us to help spread that good news that Love is always an option.  That Love will always surround us – even when we can’t see it or feel it.  It is there.  That is what we need to take away from the empty tomb.  God created this beautiful creation and called it good.  Again and again God comes into our lives and offers love. 

This Easter Season – Easter is not a single day but a season – 50 days long – this Eater season let us look for the moments of resurrection where we can recognize that the tomb cannot contain love.  That we are called to be changed by resurrection onto a people that can help spread that message of love into our work.  And when our world demands proof.  Proof of this crazy thing we call the message Christianity is real.  That we will be the proof.  We, as crazy Jesus people, have been changed by resurrection because we know that nothing, not even death – death on an instrument of torture – on a cross – will kill that love.  And that Love will follow all of us all the way to our deaths and beyond to offer us Love.

Amen