The Sunday of the Resurrection: Easter Sunday

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

The Lord is Risen indeed, Alleluia.

+ In the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, One God. Amen.

Whipping through fields, racing towards a tomb, stumbling in the darkness.

The tomb where our Lord, our teacher, our friend, our God, is laid is in sight.

The tomb which holds our Lord, our teacher, our friend, our God, is now empty.

We race to our friend and fellow disciple, Simon Peter. He races to the empty tomb.

Our hearts break. The body of Christ is gone.

We stand weeping until a man speaks to us. And he says her name: “Mary!”

And her eyes are opened and she sees Jesus, and she goes and tells the disciples “I have seen the Lord!”

This is why Mary Magdalene is given one of the most unique and splendid titles of the Saints, “Apostle to the Apostles,” because Christ commissions her to go and tell the other disciples of His resurrection.

We find ourselves like Mary, Apostle to the Apostles, this morning: Amazed.

Amazed that, gathered together, we are caught up in the fullness of the Christian Year and in the fullness of Salvation History.

Today we rejoice in the ultimate celebration by which God – timeless, eternal, transcendent – blasts into the world, and calls and invites us created beings – time-bound, mortal, finite, and fallen – into the very domain of divinity.

At the very center of our most holy faith in Jesus Christ stands an amazing and profound paradox.

Timelessness becomes time-bound;

Eternity meets finitude;

Transcendence becomes immanent.

Paradox is a central meeting point for our encounter with God.

In death, Christ destroys death and brings about life.

In baptism, we are brought into the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

In death, we are brought to life – and life eternal.

This is the wondrous and amazing reality which we Christians proclaim when we speak of the Resurrection.

So, we gather today, like Mary, Apostle to the Apostles, and Peter nearly 2,000 years ago, around an empty tomb.

Amazed.

We gather at an altar.

Amazed that Jesus Christ, the Word made Flesh, yet visits us as we consume the bread and wine made His body and blood in Holy Communion.

We gather, amazed, that the gift of God in Jesus Christ is not merely the defeat of death, but also the invitation into immortality.

In the words of St. Gregory Nazianzen, writing in the 300s, “Yesterday I was crucified with Him; today I am glorified with him; yesterday I died with Him; today I am alive with Him; yesterday I was buried with Him; today I rise with Him. Let us offer ourselves; let us give back to the Image what is made after the Image.”

Friends, the call of Christ on our life is Resurrection.

We offer our lives as a people who though dying are already resurrected,

who though mortal stand in immortality,

who though finite are indelibly joined to infinitude in baptism.

Every prayer we utter.

Every hope we hold.

Every act of mercy offered to the poor and suffering in the world.

Every temptation shunned.

Every virtue upheld.

Our very lives, offered to God for transformation and service: All of this is a testament to the great Hope, to the life we live as a resurrected people.

All of this is a testament to the light which came into the world, which darkness could not, and did not, and never will, overcome.

We bear in our lives the marks of eternity on our souls, which is union to the Life of Christ.

We bear in our lives the death and resurrection of our Lord.

We bear in our lives a faith which sears the powers of hell, and the powers of darkness, which prowl around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

Yet we resist, firm in our faith.

In our faith in the power of God in a hurting world desperate for light and love.

In our faith that things which were cast down are being raised up, that things which are old are being made new, that things which are dead are yet being raised to life.

In our faith that Jesus Christ was resurrected, and that He is alive to this very day, a human being sitting in eternity at the right hand of God the Father.

In our faith that we are invited into this eternity as well.

In our faith that we are bearers of God’s light.

In our faith we preach life to the dead, we proclaim life to a dying world!

In our faith we are a resurrected people alongside Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.

And so today, as we proclaim the resurrection, as light and life and love and mercy and forgiveness triumph, we proclaim as St. John Chrysostom writes over 1600 years ago regarding the death and resurrection of Jesus:

“Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with. It was in an uproar because it is mocked. Hell was in an uproar for it is destroyed. Hell is in an uproar for it is annihilated. Hell is in an uproar for it is now made captive.

Hell took a body, and discovered God. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see…

Christ is risen, and you o death, are annihilated. Christ is risen, and the evil ones are cast down! Christ is Risen and the angels rejoice! Christ is Risen, and life is liberated.”

Today is the Sunday of the Resurrection.

We gather around the empty tomb, like Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles, did nearly 2,000 years ago.

Amazed that Jesus is alive.

Amazed that we are a resurrected people invited to life eternal by He Who Is Life.

Our Lord, Jesus Christ, is resurrected.

Our God is alive.

And so let us boldly shout:

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!

AMEN!