Sermon:
Alleluia! The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
A blessed Easter to you all; it is great to worship together on this greatest
of all days: the day we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
and the fact that we are reconciled with God.
And it is also good news because it puts to rest the false and guilt inducing idea
that we are made right with God by pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps and
then being rewarded by God because of how awesome we are. And this how religious
faith is seen. We see it in stories and jokes. Here is one of my favourites:
There is a story about a guy who went to heaven. He appeared before the pearly gates
and meets St. Peter who asks him, "Have you ever done anything of particular merit?"
"Well, I can think of one thing, the man offers. Once I came upon a gang of tough
bikers who were threatening a young woman. I told them to leave her alone, but
they wouldn't listen. So I approached the biggest and most heavily tattooed biker.
I hit him in the head, kicked his bike over, ripped out his nose ring and threw it to
the ground, and told him, Leave her alone now or you'll answer to me!
St. Peter was impressed. "When did this happen?"
"About two minutes ago."
It is funny, but it is false. We don't have to impress St. Peter or God. Jesus has done
ALL of the heavy lifting, given us new life and new hope and this is the reason that
we are celebrating this morning. Jesus has started something new and invited us to
be a part of what HE is doing. This morning I want you to look at Resurrection
in a different way.
I want you to see it through the eyes of a gardener. I am guessing that many of you
are gardeners, as a matter of fact I am hoping that many of you are, 4
and that you are looking forward to putting in your garden this year.
It has truly been a long, long winter. The ground has been frozen like bands of
iron with snow covering it.
But now the snow has melted and the ground is thawing and there is a change coming.
I am looking forward to it this year. I am not much of a gardener, and didn't get one in
in time last year. But this year I want to try again, because I enjoy the fresh veggies.
Soon I will dig in the ground and put in my tomatoes and my zucchinis; stuff that is
hard to kill. I will put some flowers, and I know my kids will really enjoy getting out
and digging and making a mess.
One of the things about my kids is that I had to explain to them when they were young
that it takes time for things to grow. Yes, nothing is happening, and yes, it is a little boring
for awhile. But have some patience. There is something happening; you just can't see it!
And then it starts to come, but lots of other things come out as well! Weeds! And so there
is an intense time of keeping out the weeds. Getting rid of them and protecting the fragile
plants. And then come the fullness of the garden and with enough time. The reward, the fruit.
You know when I grew up I hated tomatoes. I didn't like them on anything. And when people
offered me their tomatoes from their gardens I graciously said no. But then I ate one out of
politeness. Oh my goodness!! It was so good, and rich. I couldn't believe it. I had only been
eating store bought tomatoes and not had the real thing. Now I cannot wait. I love the late summer.
Now if you are wondering if I have gotten off on a tangent with the garden, I actually haven't
because our gardens in our backyards are a great way to understand what is going on with
the Gospel that we are celebrating this morning.
It comes from a line that often gets missed in the gospel reading for this morning. It is
when Mary Madelene comes out of the empty tomb; she is weeping and she sees a man
standing there. And the line reads, "Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, 'Sir
if you have carried Jesus away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.'
"Supposing him to be the gardener." In one sense, that is just a throw away line. She
meets someone who she thinks just works there, and in that sense, she is wrong. The
man doesn't just work there. But in another sense, it is not a throw away comment, because
the author of the gospel is an artist, and this little word gardener packs a tremendous importance:
because the risen Christ is indeed the Master Gardener and this image helps us make sense of the power
of this day, and its deeper meaning. The meaning is this:
It is a tie in to the first two chapters of the first book of the Bible: In the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth; and what did he create: a garden. A rich and beautiful symbol of a deep primal unity
between humanity, nature and God. It is for us the ultimate symbol of God's vision where humanity, creation
and God live together in a deep harmony.
Obviously, reading the paper and listening to people's stories that is not our natural state now. We were
made in the image of God. But doesn't it seem that this image has been broken. We are
deeply alienated from nature and from God. And this is the story of scripture. But the bible again and again
comes back to this vision of Eden as a sign of God's desire to heal us and to heal the world. From
Isaiah we read:
For the Lord will comfort Zion;
he will comfort all her waste places,
and will make her wilderness like Eden,
her desert like the garden of the Lord;
joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the voice of song.
And from the prophet Jeremiah we read:
They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,
and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord,
over the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and over the young of the flock and the herd;
their life shall become like a watered garden,
and they shall never languish again.
In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the garden of Eden was translated
by the word paradise. And we see this word in the new testament giving a vision
of hope for what God intends in his great act of healing, salvation:
Paul talks about being caught up in paradise, the book of Revelation talks about
the one who conquers being given permission to eat from the tree of life in paradise.
And on the cross Jesus refers to it promising one of the thieves crucified with him
that this day he will be in paradise.
Why am I following this train of thought? Because in supposing Jesus to be the
gardener, the poet John the Evangelist is telling us that Jesus is the Master Gardener
and his Resurrection is the beginning of the creation of the new Garden of Eden.
In fact, we could read the story of the Resurrection of Jesus as saying:
In the NEW beginning, God RE-CREATED the heavens and the earth. But like
the first garden, this was not an instantaneous event; it is a long process. Much like
my own garden. It takes time and effort and faith.
And the point of the new creation is that new creation is you. Your heart. Your
heart is the garden. Paul tells us this amazing truth:
if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away;
see, everything has become new!
You are the reason for the resurrection of Jesus.
This is the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the point of this day.
He wants to renew your life, my life,
the life of the world, the life of creation To give us the grace, the tools that we need to put to death all
within us that keeps us from fullness of life, and that we wrestle with: bad temper, selfishness,
the constant feeling that we never have enough, laziness, jealousy. And all in the greater world
that needs healing: greed, war, human trafficking, exploitation, and so on. And we pause on
this day, especially today to remember the pain and suffering of humanity: the violence in Syria, Iraq,
Ukraine, the refugees around the world, the hunger, the poor, the grieving, and we hold them all
up before God, in the light of the hope of resurrection, of a new world.
The gospel is a vision about a renewed heart and a renewed world. Jesus is bringing life back to the world.
As Karl Barth wrote, our faith is that the Spirit "will not stop nor stay until all that is dead has
been brought to life and a new world has come into being." Our hearts are renewed back
to the image of God to grow in the virtues of love, courage, joy, patience, generosity, inner
strength, committment and peace. And then we answer God's call to live in this broken world
as agents of Resurrection. We live a new vision of hope and love in a broken world, and Christ
gives us the courage to do it. We are the hands of Christ in the world, but it is his project.
This is the Christian vision.
And it all centers around Jesus. For he is the Son of God, the one chosen to make this possible through
his death and resurrection. The church has always taught that he is alive, and that he invites us
into personal relationship. Be a part of Easter; be a part of the Resurrection.
Let it change you. Don't let Easter go by without going deeper. Use the chance to recommit yourself to God in Jesus.
Because Easter is always about new beginnings.
For we know now that
Love is stronger than hatred.
Hope is stronger than despair.
Life is stronger than death.
And nothing is impossible with God.
Alleluia! The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia.
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