A new, unburied, resurrected life in Christ. April 3, 2021. The Rev. Kathleen M. Sturges

 

The Great Vigil of Easter

Mark 16:1-8

There’s a story about a boy who one day asked his great-grandmother why she had so many wrinkles on her hands. “I’m old,” she told him and then she asked, “Do you know what happens when you get old?” “You die and they bury you in the ground,” he said. And then after a moment of thought added, “But that’s ok because God comes and unburies you.”

Really, what more is there to say? That’s the Easter story. We get buried by the circumstances of life and God comes and unburies us. Over and over, God comes to the tombs of our lives and raises us up. That is Easter. That is the power of God’s love. That is the good news we hear - or at least begin to hear - in our reading from the gospel of Mark.

Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome - some of Jesus’ most devoted disciples, who followed Jesus in Galilee, who watched Jesus be crucified and die, who discovered where his dead body was laid to rest - it is these women who, at the first moment they can, head back to the tomb with with spices, to grieve and honor their friend with proper burial rites. But they are worried about the stone, “who will roll [it] away?” they ask. Yet when they look up they see that the stone has already been moved. So without pause, they go inside the tomb to find out what’s going on. But these devoted, persistent, and brave disciples are not prepared for what they encounter - an empty space where their dead friend should be and instead a young man in white who tells them that Jesus has been raised and proceeds to give them instructions to spread the news. But what do they do? The gospel of Mark reads that, “terror and amazement seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” We are left with Mary, Mary and Salome buried in a tomb of grief, of fear, of awe, unable to say a word.

That is how Mark’s gospel ends - in the silence of burial. It’s an uncomfortable ending and rightly so because the experience of burial is never a pleasant one. But although that is how the gospel of Mark ends that isn’t the end of the story. We know from other gospels that the women don’t stay silent and buried forever. The very existence of Mark’s gospel reveal that God does come to them, rolls away the stone, unburies them so that they may proclaim the good news.

And in their story we find our story. For there are so many ways that our lives get buried before we experience our final burial - we can get buried in sorrow and grief, fear and anxiety, anger, guilt, hopelessness, regret, self-loathing, the things we’ve done and the things we’ve left undone. These become the stones that bury us in tombs of death whether it be physical, emotional or spiritual. And with the women, we may wonder, Who will roll away our stones? Who can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves?

It is on this day, especially, that that question is answered. Who will roll away our stones and do for us what we can not do for ourselves? God in Christ. For every stone that seals a tomb, for every burial we’ve known and experienced, there is always an Easter. Easter is not a one time event because God’s speciality is the bringing forth of new life from death. So it has been throughout our salvation history starting with the beginning of time when we were created out of nothing and made alive in God’s image, to the parting of the Red Sea when God leads the Isrealites into a new land and life, to the Valley of Dry Bones when God’s Spirit breathes life into dead skeletons, to the prophet Zephaniah who declares new joy and new life that is found in God’s mercy. These stories are Easter stories. And it doesn’t stop there. “God unburies you," says the boy. The young man at the tomb says, “He has been raised.” And the Church proclaims for all time, “Christ is risen!”

Tonight we are not only celebrating Easter, we are living Easter. We who have been buried for more than a year in a tomb of pandemic, a tomb of loss and isolation, a tomb of grief and death, we are experiencing new life. This Easter vigil proclaims that the stone of our tomb is being rolled away. God is leading us into a new, unburied, resurrected life in Christ. And not just we who are gathered, but all of God’s people near and far, present and past. For Christ’s resurrection life has no limits and knows no bounds.

And that boundlessness is in our very midst because we are joined in celebration by a cloud of witnesses, God’s beloved who have gone before us, including those who are buried in our cemetery. Many of whom we have known and loved. They are part of the company of heaven who with Angels and Archangels join with us in proclaiming the glory and the good news of God’s never-failing, never-ending life and love. They are just as much a part of this worshipping community as we are. They are among us, unburied and alive, with Christ and in Christ, just as we are unburied and alive, with Christ and in Christ. In the fullest sense, we are united in Holy Communion - together living into the new, unburied, resurrected life in Christ. This is Easter.

The very fact that we live means that we all experience death in both big and small ways, buried by the circumstances of life. But that’s ok because God comes and unburies us  - not just once, not just at an Easter vigil service. God comes and unburies us always and forever more.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen. The Lord is Risen indeed. Alleluia!