My sermon today arises from two experiences and a promise. The first experience is the one we have all just shared: of trying to imagine what happened on that first Easter day. (Perhaps you thought that the little skit I did with the children was solely for their benefit, but no ~~ it was for all of us.) Part of what it means to celebrate Easter is not only to remember what happened, but to visualize it, to take ourselves back to Jerusalem in the year 31 AD and ask ourselves, what would I have seen, and heard, what would I have felt and thought? Our license to make this effort of imagination comes from the New Testament itself, where we find four slightly different accounts of these events. Research in our lifetimes has shown that eyewitnesses to the same event do give slightly different stories, depending both on where they were standing, and also on how they filter what they saw through their own life experiences.

A great deal does depend on where you, the eyewitness are standing, even if you are only there in imagination. The eleven disciples were hiding out for fear of their lives: according to Matthew, they did not visit the tomb of Jesus, even after the women’s report. The only witnesses were the Roman guards, lying on the ground and two or three women who came to prepare Jesus for burial: 4 or 5 people who were right there. But what did they see? Notice that they did not see the resurrection happen. They felt an earthquake, which was caused, apparently, by an angel rolling the stone back from the entrance to the tomb. I must confess that this is a slightly hilarious image, of an ethereal being without physical substance, rolling a stone possibly weighing a ton. I find myself imagining that God told the stone to get moving, and the angel was just pretending to push it, so it looked right to human eyes.

The angel was really there to give Mary Magdalene and the other Mary the important message that Jesus had already been raised ~~ he left the tomb before they arrived. The only reason for rolling the stone away was to give them a look inside to see that it was empty. What I think, as a 21st century person trying to imagine this event, is that God was preparing them for what would happen next. What I feel, and what Matthew says the women felt, is both fear and joy: the joy is for the possibility that it might be true. But the fear is stronger: partly that something awful has happened--the body of Jesus has been stolen, yet at the same time, fear that something great has happened, something I won’t be able to understand.

According to Matthew, the women ran from the tomb and suddenly met Jesus. I think they were quite surprised--they were not expecting to meet him. After all, the angel had said, “he is going ahead of you to Galilee”. To me this makes the account more credible ~~ it is quite different from people who are waiting in anticipation for something they do expect to see. Finally, notice the first words Jesus said: “Do not be afraid”. He has recognized their feelings are in turmoil, and his concern is to calm them down. Notice that he makes no statement about his resurrection -- instead he sets up that meeting in Galilee, because he had work for the disciples to do.

The second experience I want to share with you, is the one I had last year at Easter. Most of you know that just before Palm Sunday a year ago, I got word that my mother was dying. So I flew to Illinois, and sat beside her bed through Holy Week. She died the day before Easter. One of her best friends was an Episcopalian, and a member of the Vestry in his parish, so I went to that church on Easter Sunday. I went in sorrow, needing to hear a word of hope about the resurrection, and I was sorely disappointed. Not only did the preacher avoid the topic of resurrection, his sermon had very little religious content. This experience sitting in the pew, has created in me a burning desire to say today, what I would like to have heard last Easter.

First, I needed to hear someone else say to me, death is not final. Despite all appearances to the contrary, life does NOT end with death -- life is changed by death. We do not know how, we do not know much at all about the nature of the resurrected person, but we have the evidence of Jesus that the prophecies of resurrection are true. God is the life-force, the power-filled creative energy who is able to include death as a stage in the process of life. St. Paul says essentially the same thing in I Corinthians 15, when he refers to death as a bare seed sown in the ground, to which God gives a body as it grows. St. Paul says God will give us a spiritual body, a glory body. So today, I say to myself, and to everyone here who is mourning the death of someone you love: do not be afraid ~~ the one you love has “gone ahead of you” with Jesus, on to the next stage of life. Life is changed, not ended.

Second, I would like to have heard a clear affirmation that the way Jesus calls us to live is true, and will connect us through him with that Holy Living Creative Energy we call God. When I say the way Jesus calls us to live, I mean the way of faith, the way of trusting that God does actually love me, that God forgives me, and that God expects me to forgive others. Living in the way of Jesus gives us some independence from the worst things that people and chance can inflict on us. If you lose your job, if your doctor says you have a rare disease, if your spouse leaves you, if your adult child won’t speak with you, nevertheless God loves you, Jesus is with you, and the Holy Spirit will strengthen you and guide you. The way of Jesus is true.

I come now to that promise to which I referred. At the beginning of Lent, I said that I would prepare a sermon on “surviving death” for the 5th Sunday of Lent, when we had the story of the raising of Lazarus. You were very polite, and didn’t ask me on March 9th, why I sidestepped that theme. What I intended, in announcing that theme, is to talk about the three kinds of death we all face, and how we are able to survive all three, when we follow the way of Jesus. The first kind of death we face many times in our lives: it occurs when something we are very attached to, is destroyed, or ends. In childhood, that something probably would be a blanket or a favorite toy, but it might also be the loss of a friendship when the friend moves away. Both in childhood and adulthood, the necessity to leave a home we love, is a kind of death. Graduation from high school or college is the end of a lifestyle, and may be experienced as a serious loss. Whenever there is a big change in our lives, even if we have chosen that change, there is the loss of what went before, and there is the process of letting-go and grieving.

The second kind of death is the end of the life of someone we love. Naturally the third kind of death is the end of our own lives. In fact, most of us face d many deaths in our lives before we must face our own. Here is what it takes to survive death. First, pay attention to the things, and to the people that are important to you. recognizing that the things, are temporary, and the people are mortal. Pay attention, and actively enjoy those things, those people, right now, while they are here. Don’t wait a day longer to say, I love you; don’t put off to a better time your enjoyment of your health, your home, your work, or your garden. Second, accept the reality that you will face a long series of losses in your life, some of which will be the deaths of those you love. Decide for yourself that you will learn how to let go of that which you love. But how, you will ask, can I learn to let go? By recognizing that letting-go is something that must be learned, and that generally it takes a long time: years, not weeks or months. Then, learn by walking with Jesus the master, and by seeking the help of others who have learned how to do it. I say Jesus is the master-teacher of this art, not only because he let go of his divinity in order to become human, but also because his teaching is focused on this process. Forgiveness is letting go of sins; love is letting-go of judgment; serving others is letting go of pride; giving is letting-go of what is mine. Read the Gospels: it is all there. In the process of learning this art, eventually you will also learn how to embrace What Comes Next, after you have grieved and let go of someone, or something that was important to you. You may not like What Comes Next at first. But if you have grieved, if you have let go, something new will come to you perhaps in quite a different form than you could ever have imagined. And finally, surviving death means facing the reality of one’s own end, not with resignation or despair, but with the faith of Jesus, that the Father is able to include death as a stage in life.

This is the hope we celebrate today: not only that Jesus rose from the dead; not only that he will help us survive all the deaths we must face in this life; but also that we are looking forward to a new and different life after our own deaths! Jesus’ resurrection is the foretaste, the first fruit, of a general resurrection. At that time, all that is wrong will be set right, all that is broken will be healed, and all those whom we loved, will be raised with us to enjoy a new earth, that no longer includes death, but life eternal.