A Very Corona Easter

Easter Sunday 2020 - Mark 16:1-8

Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

I invite you to proclaim this good news throughout worship this morning, throughout the day today, and throughout your entire life as we remember the miracle of our faith! We are an Easter people, a resurrection people! ‘Do not be afraid! You are looking for the crucified Jesus, but he is not here! Look for yourselves; the tomb is empty! He has been raised, just as he told you!’

Easter is my favorite season; yes, even more so than Christmas. For whatever reason, the joy hits me on this day like no other day of the entire year! But also because of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, when we remember how we cannot have resurrection without first experiencing death. Holding those two things, life and death, in tension is actually where I believe we live most of our lives. We are resurrection people, yes, but we are also a people who cannot and do not gloss over death and the very real presence of suffering in this life.

We must go there, because our God went there.. and because Christ went before us, we are always greeted with the words, ‘Do not be afraid.’ Do not be afraid to walk into the darkness. We are afraid, we’re afraid of the unknown.. of the possibilities of what lies in the darkness.. but as Easter people, we can be certain of at least one thing; we WILL find God in that darkness.

‘Do not be afraid, I am with you,’ says our God who died and descended into the dead before rising again. When we walk through darkness, God is there, and in this way we too are called to be the people who walk with others through the darkness. Acting like guides, unafraid of death and therefore unafraid to enter into the most horrendous aspects of this life.. lifeboats sent out to rescue the drowning, but not because we are superheroes, but because we know that no matter what we encounter, we WILL encounter GOD and that is enough. The Holy Spirit lives in each one of our hearts and gives us the strength to walk through our own darkness and meet our neighbors in theirs. That is what it means to be Easter people.

The world needs Easter people now more than ever. The entire world is united in one looming darkness – the coronavirus. Fear abounds and we, like the women approaching Jesus’ tomb are wondering WHO is going to roll away this stone!? Some people are saying that God has sent this virus to weed out the sinners. Some people are saying that real Christians won’t get sick. Others are questioning why God would allow this to happen. Dear friends, I do not pretend to know all the answers. What I do know, however, is the Easter message. That God loved the world so much that God humbly let go of all Godliness to take human form and then proceeded to preach love and peace, so much so that it led him to the cross.. where God suffered the most gruesome of deaths, descended to the dead, and miraculously rose again on the third day. ALL so that WE might have LIFE and have life abundantly. That does not sound to me like a God who would send a virus to wipe out thousands of the very people God died for. That doesn’t sound to me like a God who wants death and destruction, but rather a God who will go to the ends of the universe to restore all of creation. We know that Christians are not exempt from sickness and death. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection did not take away the darkness from this world. People still die every single day, some of old age, some of disease, some in tragic accidents, some to injustice and how does God respond? Jesus, God in the flesh, responded by weeping with us. When Lazarus died and Martha and Mary were in agony, Jesus wept.

I still to this day cry out with Martha and Mary wondering why, if God is able to do so, Jesus didn’t save Lazarus before he died. I still cry out with Job from the dung heap wondering why, if God is all powerful, God does not swoop in and make it all perfect right here and right now! But God never chooses the power and might and domination in the ways that we humans do or want God to do…

God chooses what is weak to shame the strong, what is foolish to shame the wise. God reverses the role of what power and strength even look like. In Jesus we learn that true power and might looks like turning the other cheek, washing our neighbors feet, inviting the poor to dinner… true power is not on display on a king’s throne, but hidden in the cross, in vulnerability and in death. Our unimaginable pain is not because of God or in absence of God, but held within the wounds of Christ. There are no Godless places or experiences. For God has been there, transformed that – SO THAT, we too can be transformed by our death experiences; little, everyday deaths, and real legitimate death. In this way, we survive. In this way, we always return to life after death. I cannot answer the question of why evil exists or bad things happen in this life. I can only proclaim what I know: That death has been defeated. That God is at work transforming death into life. That love wins.

My friends, we are surrounded by death at this time in our lives like many of us have never seen before. But do not be afraid. The tomb is empty, our Messiah – our Savior – lives, walks among us, and has broken the kingdom of God into our midst! There is nothing we shall fear, for even in our worst nightmares God is present. God has entered into death and forged a way out. No matter what death or darkness we may stumble upon, God will always be there to lead us out.. to lead us all the way home. May this not only comfort our hearts, but embolden us to fearlessly meet one another in grief and suffering.. knowing we will not be consumed, but rather transformed. For, I don’t always know what God is up to in this world, but Easter is our sure and certain promise that God is in the business of raising life out of death.

‘Do not be afraid! The one you came to mourn is alive!’

Who will roll away this stone?

Who will open the tombs that want to keep us in death?

Who will raise us to life again?

The only one who can – Christ our Lord.

Christ is risen and in Christ we will rise again!

Alleluia!

“Dare we claim that the cross is at the center of the universe, as God’s embrace of the struggles of all there is? That God in Christ means healing not just for your and my personal sins, not just for the sufferings of humans, not just for the wounds of planet earth, but for all there is? The cross as the credibility of God’s love! God, who did not allow the injustice of the cross to persist, is certainly not pleased with suffering for suffering’s sake. Rather God wants to be known by the outpouring of the Spirit of comfort and strength – to heal and celebrate life in abundance.”

- Archbishop Dr Antje Jackelén, Church of Sweden