St. Paul’s United Church Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010

The Day of Resurrection

Hallelujah! – Empty is Full!

John 20:1-18

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Have you ever had the experience of a “snack attack,” a feeling that you just have to munch on something not good for you, and it has to be now? So you go to the cupboard to get that bag of chips you know is there – you bought it for an occasion like this -- and as you pull it out it feels dismayingly light. Sure enough the bag has nothing left but crumbs. The first thought that comes to mind is “empty!” The second thought for some of you is “teenagers!”

Or you go to the fridge and grab the juice container and again it is suspiciously light. How could anyone put it back in there with so little left inside?! Empty!

These are just annoyances but sometimes that empty experience is much more serious, or frustrating. I hope none of you has ever accessed your bank account, only to find out that it has been emptied out and that you have been the victim of identity theft.

Or that you have found yourself stranded on a lonely road because you didn’t notice the gas gauge was at empty. Last year I was driving along Taunton Rd, just north of Bowmanville, when I passed a man who was doing the “jerry can shuffle.” You know the walk, where the person is shifting the full gas container back and forth as he or she makes his way along. It was a hot day and I remembered a parable of Jesus about a good Samaritan and the uncaring people who passed on by, so I stopped and backed up to offer a ride. Sure enough, he had been hurrying toward town from up north because he had an appointment he wanted to keep. So he prayed that the gas gauge which was hovering down near the bottom wasn’t accurate. Well, it was.

He actually had the gas can in his car, but it was empty as well, so he was forced to walk several kilometres to the nearest gas station to get it filled. I drove him back to his car, listening to his vow never to let the gas tank run dry again.

Empty is rarely good, is it? Empty, grumbling stomach; empty, uninspiring fridge; empty bank account with bills to pay. Full is our goal, and why not? One of the deep desires and the promises of our faith is the fullness of life, abundant life in Jesus Christ?

So Easter is a strange and wonderful day, an upside down day, when we say that empty is full. On Good Friday, the day of crucifixion, the three crosses of Calvary were full, with Jesus at the centre and the thieves on either side. It is always a day when we are filled with sadness and a deep sense of loss. Soon after it is the tomb that is full, the place where the body of Jesus is laid to rest. The stone is rolled into place, an act of resignation which feels so permanent, and those who love Jesus grieve over his death.

Strangely and wonderfully, it is the emptiness of Easter which brings us hope and full-fill-ment. Now the three crosses are empty as a sign post on the way to new life. And it is the empty tomb which speaks of our hope and the promise of resurrection life.

Once again we heard the story of Easter morning from John’s gospel, of how Mary Magdelene comes to the tomb in the gloom of early morning. We aren’t told why – Jesus’ body had been anointed for burial before the tomb was sealed. Did she come because she needed to be close to Jesus, the way we often go to the cemetery to remember our loved ones? What she finds there sends her running for “back-up.” The stone has been rolled away and the body is gone –empty! Have the authorities spirited the body away to pre-empt the martyrdom of Jesus by his followers, or have robbers desecrated the grave? Mary goes off to find two of the disciples who end up in a footrace back to the empty tomb. John says that the empty tomb is enough for them, they see and believe, and then they are off, presumably to share the Good News with others.

After they leave Mary is alone again, still overwhelmed by grief. It says in the paraphrase, The Message, that she was weeping, and I checked five other versions and paraphrases which all use that same word “weeping.” When I think of weeping, it is the tears which come from deep within, often expressing rage, or profound loss. They are blubbery, “I can’t control myself” tears which express that sense of loss. When we finish weeping we are often spent, exhausted, empty.

Poor Mary can only focus on what and who is not there, so much so that she expresses her anger to the person she thinks is the gardener – “what have you done with him?” But when Jesus speaks her name – Mary – the sound goes from her ears to her heart and back to her eyes and she recognizes Jesus as her Master and friend, risen from the dead. In that moment or recognition she goes from emptiness to fullness because Jesus is the Christ.

What an important message this Easter morning! Is there anyone who hasn’t felt emotional and spiritual emptiness in some form along the way?

Eventually we all experience the emptiness of loss with those we love, whether they have two legs or four. Years ago I had the miserable task of taking our ancient Labrador retriever to the vet to be euthanised. She had been a wonderful companion on many walks and was unfailingly patient with our children when they were very young, tugging on her ears, and then later dressing her in ridiculous outfits. But in old age she was blind, and deaf and hobbled around. It was her time, and we knew it. The veterinarian and his staff were very kind and I stoically watched and waited and the walked out the door, thanking them as I left. In the car I had to sit for a while and shed the tears of loss.

Sometimes our emptiness is of a different kind, the sort of emptiness which comes when we are at a crossroads in life, when our emotions are depleted to the point we just don’t feel in the way we want to feel. Perhaps we have been knocked around by disappointment and we have learned to be guarded about what we share about our feelings with others. Or we have experienced changes in our lives which leave us rather bewildered. It’s interesting that we have an expression “the tank is empty” to describe that form of emptiness.

There is even the gnawing hunger that comes from searching and searching for meaning in our stuff, only to discover that it does not overcome emptiness. Have you noticed in recent years how some of the richest people in the world have decided that material wealth is not the ultimate source of satisfaction. So now these individuals whose bank accounts were full to overflowing are turning around and giving much of it away. Now, none of them are lining up at soup kitchens, but we can learn from them. We can learn that we share from our abundance and that as Christ satisifies us, we are able to offer what we have to others.

In our Easter gospel lesson we heard that Mary was filled with the presence of Christ, and with the love of Christ who knows her by name. She doesn’t stay in the graveyard though. She has something to share with those who are mourning Jesus’ death, and the last verse of our passage tells us that she is an evangelist, she goes and tells the others that she has seen their Master and friend – he is alive!

Earlier this year Christian historian and futurist Leonard Sweet speak at a conference, and he addressed the reality that in many places in North America the church is struggling for survival. Not only are people fretting over empty pews and empty coffers, they feel overwhelmed by the task before them. He offered that while we can’t deny this moment in our history, there is opportunity to be renewed as resurrection people. He told us that we are too stuck in our emptiness, and we have become ABC churches -- we are all about attendance, buildings, and cash.

His encouragement is to listen to the gospel and become MRI churches. He isn’t referring to the medical procedure. An MRI community is missional, relational, and incarnational. Today we heard that this happened on Easter morning, although perhaps in reverse. Mary has her experience of the Risen Christ. They reestablish their relationship of love, which give her hope. And her mission becomes telling others that Christ is alive.

This morning we are invited again to cross the threshold of the heart which allows us to hear and see Jesus in our midst. Christ speaks to us by name, uniquely, tenderly, joyfully. Allow the message of the empty cross and the empty tomb to fill you with all that you need and more for abundant, flowing-over life in Christ. That’s why we are here today, isn’t it?

I will leave you this morning with what may be the earliest hymn of the Christian church, which we find in the apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi.