Safe at Home?

 

Safe at Home?

 

John 20:1-18

Seeing the risen Christ 

 

20:1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.

 

20:2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."

 

20:3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb.

 

20:4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

 

20:5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.

 

20:6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there,

 

20:7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus's head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.

 

20:8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed,

 

20:9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

 

20:10 Then the disciples returned to their homes.

 

20:11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb,

 

20:12 and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.

 

20:13 They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him."

 

20:14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.

 

20:15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."

 

20:16 Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher).

 

20:17 Jesus said to her, "Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

 

20:18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and she told them that he had said these things to her.

 

Throughout my years in ministry, I have used my Easter sermon to pay tribute to women, their braveness, their theological astuteness, and their seeming intuitive ability to ferret out what is important, separating the “wheat from the chaff.” Yet again, I will ask you this question: would we BE here today in the Christian church, if it were not for the brave women who went to the tomb? 

 

Today’s passage from John highlights one of those women—Mary Magdalene—while the other gospels talk of “the women,” signifying that Mary may not have been alone. Since John is always honing in on the “God” side of Jesus, I think he singled out Mary so he could report on this important encounter she had with the risen Jesus. The gospels tell us that, while the disciples ran and hid after Jesus was crucified—they just went home and locked the doors—the women plotted as to how they could properly prepare Jesus’ body for entombment. They would not be deterred by a simple Roman guard, which the gospels say was stationed outside the place where Jesus’ body was placed. Remember that the gospels also tell us that Peter denied that he was with Jesus three times, the last being to a lowly servant girl. Unfortunately, the “bravery” lesson for these guys would not come for a while, although they all (save Judas) did eventually succumb to martyrdom. Initially, they hid themselves in their homes. Sure, they had reason to be afraid—the religious officials and the Roman authorities might come for them, next. But what of it? At what point do Christ-followers put the powerful lessons of faith and life Jesus taught us into play and shrug off the fears of any repercussion for living them out? We currently live in a time when a new government in our own country is threatening to grab, boost, and use its power and install policies designed to secure it for them, while hurting minorities, immigrants, the poor, and the proverbial “widows and orphans” Jesus loved and protected, as did the early church. Will Christians stand up for the “least of these”? Or will we hold to our own featherbedding by supporting these oppressive, self-enterprising forces, expecting their redistribution of wealth will “trickle down” to benefit us, personally? Will we stand up for ethnic minorities who will be hurt by these policies clearly meant to benefit wealthy, white Americans, or will we stay silent because we either harbor unspoken racism ourselves, or hope that we will be the beneficiaries of these policies? And what of the growing American “hatred” of immigrants, fueled mostly by misinformation and lies? The ancient Jewish people were COMMANDED by God, in what is known as the Code of Hospitality, to accept “foreigners” as citizens and afford them the same rights. “Welcoming the Stranger” was both a hallmark of what it meant then to be an Israeli, AND it just happens to be the title of my Doctor of Ministry dissertation, so I know of what I speak. Demonizing immigrants is not at all acceptable to Yahweh, and certainly not to God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who went out of his way to minister to and accept those marginalized by the prevailing majority of his time, even when it was to his own rejection or peril.

 

Back to the women…SO, while the disciples hid in their homes, here we have the women—symbolized in John’s text by Mary—going to the tomb out of love and respect for Jesus. John’s gospel tells us that they initially brought over a 100 pounds of spices to treat Jesus’ body for entombment, but here is Mary, three days after Jesus’ crucifixion, coming to the tomb again. Why? To grieve, possibly, but it is my belief that they BELIEVED what they heard Jesus saying, and they had hope that his death was NOT the end of the Jesus journey! If nothing else, their curiosity trumped the kind of fear that sent the disciples to their homes, hiding. 

 

The text tells us Mary saw the stone rolled away, and went to tell the hiding disciples, but since her message to them was that someone had “taken the Lord’s body away,” she must have at least peeked inside. Who but the bravest of brave would do this, having seen the great stone rolled away? Frankly, it’s a little surprising that the fraidy-cat disciples, Peter and John, decide to run to the tomb, but again, maybe they were “convicted” by Mary’s bravery, so off to the tomb they go. When they find the tomb empty, and see the cloths that had been wrapped around the body abandoned and the body gone, John says they “saw and believed,” but then WENT HOME! It is only the brave Mary who stays and ends up encountering the resurrected Christ. The men? Back home, chillin’ in the darkness, with the shades pulled.

 

Why I wonder if we would even be here in the church today if it weren’t for the women is this: God had made a tremendous sacrifice for us—“For God so loved the world that God gave the only Son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus himself had talked of the “temple” being torn down and that he would raise it again in three days, a metaphor that the gospel makes clear that Jesus was referring to his own body. The disciples should not have been clueless about what Jesus said was going to happen. And then it happens, and do they show up? No, they ran and hid. Had NO ONE shown up at the tomb on that third day, might God have just bagged the whole thing, figuring humanity really didn’t care? Might God have been so “rejected” by the faithlessness of Jesus’ closest friends that God would have left us to fight the debilitating, condemning power of human sin ON OUR OWN? The Bible doesn’t tell us this, but if I were God, I think I would feel this way! HOWEVER, someone DOES show up—Mary. I do wonder if her brave heart and less-fickle love of Jesus kept God in the game, one that saved us all? None of us came into this world without the bravery of a woman, and I am suggesting that due to the courage and diligence of the women, we get a second lease on life, as well. Prove me wrong?

 

I will preach this Easter sermon to a small, struggling church with a wonderful band of dedicated, courageous leaders who have persevered. The United Methodist disaffiliation really hurt this particular church, but these prevailing souls have kept things moving forward, and regularly engage in serious caring ministry to their community, so much so that the Annual Conference is partnering with them to appoint a full-time pastor, as I step down as interim, at the end of June. There are some incredible women leaders in this church, including our own “Mary.” I’m not discounting the male leaders we have, for they are strong and gifted, as well, but it is the women who keep the gears turning of ministries like our “NU2U” clothes ministry and the monthly free Community Dinner. Our regular support of the Mission Barn and its relief ministries is also led by a passionate woman who lives out her faith by helping others stay alive through crisis and disaster. 

 

I often wonder where the Christian church would be today without the impressive list of women who have provided leadership and sacrificial service to it down through the centuries? Three weeks ago, we lost a great one—the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell. Joan Campbell came to the Christian ministry later in life, but thanks to her own bravery, abilities, and tenacity, rose through the ranks of leadership, becoming the first ordained woman to lead the National Council of Churches. She later became the first woman to lead the department of religion at the Chautauqua Institution, which is where we got to meet this giant of faith, when our daughter, Shelah, worked with her as a Summer intern. Joan Brown Campbell hung out with Kings, Popes and Presidents. I used to tease my daughter that she got to call a great faith leader like Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, “Joanie.” 

 

Part of her obituary read:

 

She led a delegation to meet with Pope John Paul II, to present His Holiness with a copy of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. She was part of the delegation led by President William Clinton to attend the funeral of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel. Along with her friend, Reverend Jesse Jackson, she traveled to Belgrade during the Balkan wars and negotiated the release of imprisoned American soldiers, working with the Serbian Orthodox Church. She and Carl Sagan, the renowned astronomer, helped cofound the National Religious Partnership for the Environment. She served as an election observer when Nelson Mandela was elected as the first black president of South Africa. She was the only woman in the procession of over 200 clergy at the enthronement of Desmond Tutu as the archbishop of the Anglican Church in South Africa. Towards the end of her tenure at the National Council of Churches, a young Cuban boy named Elian Gonzalez survived a shipwreck and ended up in the home of relatives in Miami. Working with the Clinton administration, the Cuban government, and the Cuban churches, she helped negotiate Elian’s safe return to his family in Cuba. Archbishop Tutu called Joan “a woman of courage and compassion. She helped put an end to the evil of apartheid. “

 

Woman like Mary Magdalene and Joan Brown Campbell are why we have so many women in ministry today, why our Annual Conference has now had two straight women as its Bishops, and our current District Superintendent is a gifted, courageous woman, as well! AND, as those of you at Faith Community UMC in Rochester know, your new full-time pastor is a gifted woman pastor—a scholar with a heart for community ministry, and like Joan Brown Campbell, came to ministry later in life, out of the library into the pulpit. Faith Community’s new best life will be led by a woman—how exciting!

 

The contributions of these women leaders are why we ALL are now “safe at home,” not hiding behind the curtains, but as the old hymn says, “LIKE A MIGHTY ARMY,” spreading God’s love, not bullets, around our communities and around the world. We are “safe at home” from the ravages of human “sin”—those negative behaviors and attitudes that put the “self” in the center, marginalizing others, if not exploiting them for personal gain. Since it’s baseball season, I’ll use a blatant baseball metaphor—going “home” is not about hiding or resting, it’s about “winning the game.” To be “safe at home” in the game means a team is one run closer to victory, but you often get quite dirty in the slide. Is this not the goal of the church? To have a “final victory” over the destructive things we do to each other and against the nature of God, won by love and sacrifice? Is this not what the glorious Easter event is all about? Those who thought they had silenced the “radical” message of Jesus by crucifying him had just planted seeds of his resurrection, and paved the way for the eternal life of the “love” message that will eventually and inevitably transform the world. In Christ, we are truly “safe at home,” but as Yogi Berra well said, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” 

 

For us all—and especially for the people of Faith Community United Methodist Church in Rochester, PA—may the best be yet to come. And may we all pay tribute to the brave women who showed up, and who continue to show up to remind the church that none of us is truly “safe at home” until we are ALL safe at home. Friends, Christ IS risen; he is risen indeed! Happy Easter!