Scripture: John 20:11-18
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 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. 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.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 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.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to 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.’” 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.
Reflection: Easter, 3 AM, 5 AM, 9 AM… and in May
— Easter: 3 AM —
It is extremely significant that Easter did not come at daybreak.
The rising of the Human One of God was not synchronized with the rising of the astronomical sun of our heliocentric interplanetary system.
The light of day did not cause Easter.
The light of day only revealed to human sight the Easter event that had already occurred “while it was still dark” (v. 1). (Charles G. Adams)
Our greatest blessings often come to us when we can barely see them - when we have no reasonable right to expect them. Sometimes there is no empirical, political, social, or economic cause for hope, but still, we hope. We don’t always see the goodness, the blessings in which we believe; we persist in believing more strongly in what we have not seen than the things we have seen. Sometimes we look for love and justice and cannot find them; but we still love and serve people who do not love us or seek justice for any but themselves. Sometimes people will think we have no reason or right to rejoice, but we still rejoice. All through the night of doubt and sorrow, eternal life is affirmed. Throughout the night, so dark for us, everlasting love is demonstrated. The ongoing presence, in our work and ministry, of the ancestors of our faith is made possible by God. The dawn can light the sky with its unique beauty, because the significance of Easter has already bloomed during the night. Easter does not come at daybreak. It calls us before the light breaks, still in the dark. We can sing Hallelujah, and sing it quietly to our hearts, to God, even when everyone else is asleep, at midnight, at 3 AM, at 5 AM… still in the quiet, dark abyss.
— Easter. 5 AM —
“But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 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.” (V. 11)
The tombstone is already rolled away. The body of Jesus which should be there, inside the tomb (not the two angels - regardless of how breathtaking they might look), IF EVERYTHING WAS ALL RIGHT, is gone. Then, Mary figures out what must have happened: “Somebody came and carried away Jesus. EVERYTHING IS NOT ALL RIGHT!”
— Easter. 5:30 AM —
What we see with our own eyes does not always show us the truth and lend us the right information. In the Easter account we read today, Mary wrongly assumes the human one she sees standing in the tomb is a gardener (because Jesus must be dead; He can’t be standing, alive!) who must have the missing information to help her understand why the body of Jesus is gone. But only the voice of the gardener tells her the truth — the human one is not a gardener, but the risen Jesus — , and leads to understanding, when “Jesus said to her, “Mary!””. Somehow, her sight fails to let Mary recognize the Risen One by seeing, but the voice she’s hearing, opens her spiritual eyes and heart.
The light of day did not cause Easter.
Easter faith does not require the aid of light, of dawn or day.
The daybreak on the first Easter morning is not cause – it is correlation.
Today’s Easter story teaches us that faith understands that Easter is not just one day of the year. Easter is always with us, most powerful in those miraculous moments, the moments of decisions and understanding that open our heart by hearing, by honouring. We can honour the presence of Easter’s activity, even when the daylight to aid our seeing, foreseeing, searching and seeking the evidence to believe is so weak and dim.
Easter is Every Awe-Struck Time of Eternal Revolt/Resurrection of love, kindness, justice, compassion.
Then will we go together to climb the hill of death and walk down to the valley of oppression to roll away the rocks that hold our beloved ones, our neighbours in tombs, knowing that nights are, and powerfully can be, and ought to be, the times of Easter, not needing to wait until dawn, but while darkness surrounds us still.
— Easter. 9 AM —
Two days before the “worst blizzard in decades” arrived here, in Manitoba, Min-Goo and I went out for a walk on the Seine River trail we adore. (We just do it, whenever we can!)
The signs of Manitoban spring, beautiful and fresh in its unique way which makes my heart race and renew itself, were everywhere. As soon as we opened the door and went out, we heard that the songbirds had come back. I could recognize five or six different kinds of song tones and style. They never let go of the golden chance to sing whenever the Sun is higher and warms the earth. That morning, a raccoon visited and Jah-bi and I enjoyed watching him doing some secret thing on top of the fence, which had been exclusively a squirrels-only highway. (Only the raccoon knows what it was doing there alone.) The geese were busy too. On the trail, each goose couple was so focused on gaining weight and asserting their territories, one of them, the male one, stood right in the middle of the trail and never moved, no intention to give way for me, and hissed at me, when I naively asked “Who are you?”. We soon noticed it was not only wild animals who were busy, but the trees, looking dead, were displaying the energy of Easter all over… For example, snow was slowly and gradually melting everywhere, but there was the significance of Easter around the trunk of each tree! We saw every tree had its own circle, a ring of no-snow on the ground around them! (Show the picture) The Spring circles under the trees were everywhere! We asked, “What is that?” The whole woods became a tree circle polka-dot skirt…
Obviously, the only answer that can resolve this discrepancy of the different speeds of snow melting — between the no-snow circles around each tree and the rest of the forest — is to understand that there must be astounding activity going on between the trees and the earth, even if we might not see those Easter activities in our eyes’ sight! We learned in our high school science classes that every movement of any object, any being, (in other words, when it “works”), creates energy - the “work” causes heat! Even in this cold, even if it is unnoticeably, by human eyes, gradual and slow, the trees have already started their thermal activity - - Easter activity - - changing their surroundings and themselves with heat and light. In the meantime, God’s love, the cosmic love, powerfully flows within the body of the earth, through the trees from root to branch, through rivers, birds, raccoons geese, … It makes me wonder, “If we are like a tree, are we creating snow-free circles around us, God’s Easter activity zone, releasing love, changing the world, recording the signs of spring? The Creator’s glory?”
Easter. In May.
Another thing I enjoy these days, other than gossiping about wild animals, is watching the show, Dickinson, on Apple TV, Emily Dickinson’s coming-of-age story, starring Hailee Steinfeld. I have a favourite Dickinson poem, and I have chosen to share this poem with you on this Easter Sunday, because when I first read the poem, I could find a gardener, a tomb, Easter, and the master of the Easter Pageantry… The Risen Jesus as a cosmic song of God’s perpetual love.
All these my banners be.
I sow my pageantry
In May —
It rises train by train —
Then sleeps in state again —
My chancel — all the plain
Today.
To lose — if one can find again —
To miss — if one shall meet —
The Burglar cannot rob — then —
The Broker cannot cheat.
So build the hillocks gaily
Thou little spade of mine
Leaving nooks for Daisy
And for Columbine —
You and I the secret
Of the Crocus know —
Let us chant it softly —
"There is no more snow!"
To him who keeps an Orchis' heart —
The swamps are pink with June.
May the mystery of Easter, which is wild and transforming even while it is still dark, gift you, accompany you, touch you, strengthen you, and may we recognize God’s assurance that we will, you will, sow Easter pageantry in our own May time.
Hymn: VU 186 Now the Green Blade Rises
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| Fawn Lily, Roberts Memorial Park, Yellow Point. Photo credit: Linda Crane |
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