Easter Sermon
Wycliffe College, Toronto
26 March 2008
Because of its reflective character, John's Gospel dwells on details and lets them speak in ways the other Gospels' proximity and excitement sometimes prevents. The beloved disciple is "he who remains," abides, literally leans on Jesus, and remaining is a key word in this Gospel. Because remaining allows one the space, the time, even the awkwardness of inaction, to discern and believe.
John does not criticize the active role of apostles; this has its place in God's plans of sending forth and announcing and doing as Jesus did. But John stays where he is, close to Jesus, and so dwells on details and lets their significance come into focus.
That said, he is a pretty good runner, and faster of foot than Peter the Apostle. Still, notice that though he gets there first, he stops and looks in only. Peter arrives later and true to form moves boldly forward into the tomb itself. Like one of those determined CSI agents.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
It is of course Mary Magdalene who comes on the first morning. Routines are important when grief is high. It is still dark, and vision is poor, but Mary sees one thing: the stone is not where it should be but has been moved. She assumes without looking that the body has been stolen, or taken to another spot. A routine is supposed to be a routine, and here even that cannot be counted on.
So Mary runs to tell the beloved disciple and Simon Peter and off they go. The detail of the linen wrappings suggests the body has not simply been transported away. Why would the linens be removed and tidily set down? The disciple looks in and sees this, bending down. When Peter arrives and enters-no awkwardness for Simon Peter-he sees the wrappings and the head cloth by itself, rolled up. The other disciple has not yet entered the tomb. He was there first, but he remained to ponder the events before acting. So when he does enter, we are told-in one of those pregnant phrases from John-he believes. Believing is what Jesus has come for, and believing is possible because the beloved disciple sees and understands, and then conveys this to us as testimony.
At the Cross the disciple Jesus loved perceived and believed in another way. The scriptures of Israel, which were meant to testify to Jesus during his life, but often are thwarted in their purpose: they sound forth as a mighty orchestra when the bones of Jesus are not broken and the side of Jesus is pierced. The beloved disciple can hardly contain himself in his insistence that this deep accordance is what makes the death on the cross an event from before all time, and so for all time as well. Enclosing our time here today. Understanding how the old scriptures open on to the new is critical in our full appreciation of Jesus. The beloved disciple gets it.
For this reason the note about not understanding the scriptures and returning to their homes focuses on Peter and the others, but not the disciple whom Jesus loved. He believed without seeing Jesus - another important theme for John and a sign that the Holy Spirit can convict and bring belief to our hearts and minds even when the clues are scattered and strewn as are the linens of the dead and missing Jesus. So that is resurrection appearance #1, appropriate to the discernment of John, whose Holy Spirit grasp is great indeed.
Now John moves to Mary.
Glamis Castle is the childhood home of the late Queen Mother and a not to be missed site for visitors to Scotland. I became a popular person during my time in St Andrews because so many wanted to see Scotland (to play golf). So I visited Glamis often as tour guide.
In the chapel there is a marvelous painting by Jacob de Wet, a student of Rembrandt and a painter in his familiar Flemish style. The painting is of the Risen Jesus, dressed as a gardener. He is wearing a wide brimmed hat and holding a shovel, draped in working clothes. De Wet has even put glasses on him, to show he is a working man. Mary stands astonished and staring up at him. The golden hue around his head shows that this is the Jesus of her loving discernment. Rabboni. It is not the voice alone that wakens her faith and perception, but the mention of her name. "Mary." Jesus the Gardener is of course for John the New Adam in the New Garden. Mary the obedient Eve. And in his work clothes, Jesus is everything he was before, and more. He is wearing the clothes and the body of his eternity.
It has been said that the standard 'liberal account' of the resurrection has Jesus rise in the interior mental life of the disciples, and not as a body. The Gospels do take the subjective aspect seriously. But the objective body of Jesus is crucial to the resurrection. His body is not like the young man NBC has been showing on the morning news, who was pronounced dead after an accident, and then came back to life again to astonished and grateful parents. That young man will die one day, and he is just as he was before, if a bit sluggish as his brain heals.
John shows a Jesus who really appears in bodily form, and who appears as well in response to the limits, hopes, fears and realities of his disciples. Mary believed the body was missing. Before it is over, Jesus must tell her to let go of him, to release his body. He has come to her on the terms of her present concern. In the accounts which follow, Jesus appears not to individuals but to the entire group, not as a gardener but showing his hands and his side. And at last he will appear to Thomas, on the terms he requests, even if chiding him. Blessed are those who have not seen but yet believe - one model for that faith being the beloved disciple with which this account began.
The variety of the resurrection appearances makes it clear that one cannot talk about the Easter miracle in any way that reduces it to a single rational explanation or clever analogy. This is because of the highly personal character of Jesus' appearing, and because what Paul calls a spiritual body is a glimpse at eternity: the body Jesus wears for all time, making him continuous with who he was before, but also discontinuous because eternal: all time at once in him. New Adam, Gardener, pierced side, nail wounds of eternity.
This is also why Peter makes it clear when he speaks to Cornelius that the resurrection happened in restricted space. "Not to all the people but to us, who were chosen by God as witnesses."
I had a colleague at St Andrews who genuinely believed that faith in Jesus required the kind of firsthand encounter that Peter and Mary and John and the others had, on the same terms. She is what theologians would call a follower of Kant: disliking particularity, the one-off, the closed circle. But her concern came I believe from some place in her heart. I remember her once describing not being able as a little girl to cross a line painted on the floor of the bank where her father worked. Faith would mean for her being able to cross a line, a line described by Peter to Cornelius, and said to be fully in the purposes of God. Cornelius is of course on the other side of a line in time, but also one in election, outside the people of Israel.
But the point of Acts and the point of John here join up. Peter described the resurrection. He described it as announced from of old, from a time before the final time. He described the limits placed upon it in the purposes of God. He could have added the concern God had in Jesus appearing in that restricted space as was meet and right, fit, and lovingly manifested, and not reducible to direct rational terms. One size fits all.
And before Peter is finished, while he is yet speaking, the Holy Spirit takes what is of God's restricted purpose in time and explodes time to bring resurrection faith. Blessed are they who have not seen and yet believed. We do not cross a line. God the Holy Spirit crosses it and claims us, every bit as dramatically and ever bit as surely as he crossed death itself, bypassed our crouching to see, and stood behind Mary in sure and certain terms, and called out her name. John knows that faith comes not from being in this circle at the beginning, but in hearing and seeing on account of the Holy Spirit's use of their personal witnessing to quicken faith in us. A faith so powerful that even Peter stood in amazement at what was happening before him.
This change in Jesus and our perception of him has its counterpart in us and in our own lives. It was hard for Mary to see in a Gardener the Jesus she knew before and the Jesus who was from before all time. Little wonder. It was the Spirit-Jesus' voice and her name-that brought light and life.
Colossians reminds us that when Christ lays claim to us, with resurrection Holy Spirit power, we no longer are who we think we are. We are taken up into the purposes of God. So when Jesus tells Peter he used to clothe himself and go where he wanted, but now he will stretch out his hands and another clothe him, he is speaking about the clothing of eternity given by our Master to us to wear. Making us new creations and no longer in charge of ourselves as once we were before. Colossians says it in great language: our lives are now hid with God in Christ. Therefore seek the things that are above.
This Easter I have had in my mind the stunning climax of the Joseph story, when Joseph sends everyone away and reveals himself to his brothers in Egypt. Why is it they do not recognize him? The text says "His brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence." What was wrong? Too much time had passed? A sense of displacement and confusion, as they stood in the court of an Egyptian ruler? Belief that Joseph was dead? Guilt at having left him to die? Was it the great weeping of Joseph?
Probably all of these things.
But I suspect at some point Joseph had simply become another man than the young boy who bragged about his special coat. He had been taken up fully into the purposes of God. He could kiss and weep with and forgive his brothers, and that is because God had made him a new man.
That, my friends, is the story of Jesus and the Easter mystery. God has come to make us new men and women, to give us clothes of eternity, to release us from former ways and to show us a new garden, the possibility of obedience and true fellowship, a new destiny, a new love, a new purpose and a life hidden with God in Christ. No longer understandable on old terms, but now to the Glory of God the Father, as was His life always and everywhere.
This new life may come in a flash, as with Cornelius, or it may take time to take full form, and put on, as the brothers of Joseph adjusted to a new reality in him, and so in themselves as well. "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." "Do you love me, Peter?" Because this is about eternity and our life hid with God, we may need three tries to answer that question. God knows all that. He raised Jesus from the dead and he means to raise us and seat us with him. That is the Easter mystery, the resurrection power of God in Christ, and the hope that energises and guides our vocations in Him. So let us:
"Seek the things that are above. Where Christ is."
For: "The Lord is Risen Indeed. Alleluia."
26 March 2008
Because of its reflective character, John's Gospel dwells on details and lets them speak in ways the other Gospels' proximity and excitement sometimes prevents. The beloved disciple is "he who remains," abides, literally leans on Jesus, and remaining is a key word in this Gospel. Because remaining allows one the space, the time, even the awkwardness of inaction, to discern and believe.
John does not criticize the active role of apostles; this has its place in God's plans of sending forth and announcing and doing as Jesus did. But John stays where he is, close to Jesus, and so dwells on details and lets their significance come into focus.
That said, he is a pretty good runner, and faster of foot than Peter the Apostle. Still, notice that though he gets there first, he stops and looks in only. Peter arrives later and true to form moves boldly forward into the tomb itself. Like one of those determined CSI agents.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
It is of course Mary Magdalene who comes on the first morning. Routines are important when grief is high. It is still dark, and vision is poor, but Mary sees one thing: the stone is not where it should be but has been moved. She assumes without looking that the body has been stolen, or taken to another spot. A routine is supposed to be a routine, and here even that cannot be counted on.
So Mary runs to tell the beloved disciple and Simon Peter and off they go. The detail of the linen wrappings suggests the body has not simply been transported away. Why would the linens be removed and tidily set down? The disciple looks in and sees this, bending down. When Peter arrives and enters-no awkwardness for Simon Peter-he sees the wrappings and the head cloth by itself, rolled up. The other disciple has not yet entered the tomb. He was there first, but he remained to ponder the events before acting. So when he does enter, we are told-in one of those pregnant phrases from John-he believes. Believing is what Jesus has come for, and believing is possible because the beloved disciple sees and understands, and then conveys this to us as testimony.
At the Cross the disciple Jesus loved perceived and believed in another way. The scriptures of Israel, which were meant to testify to Jesus during his life, but often are thwarted in their purpose: they sound forth as a mighty orchestra when the bones of Jesus are not broken and the side of Jesus is pierced. The beloved disciple can hardly contain himself in his insistence that this deep accordance is what makes the death on the cross an event from before all time, and so for all time as well. Enclosing our time here today. Understanding how the old scriptures open on to the new is critical in our full appreciation of Jesus. The beloved disciple gets it.
For this reason the note about not understanding the scriptures and returning to their homes focuses on Peter and the others, but not the disciple whom Jesus loved. He believed without seeing Jesus - another important theme for John and a sign that the Holy Spirit can convict and bring belief to our hearts and minds even when the clues are scattered and strewn as are the linens of the dead and missing Jesus. So that is resurrection appearance #1, appropriate to the discernment of John, whose Holy Spirit grasp is great indeed.
Now John moves to Mary.
Glamis Castle is the childhood home of the late Queen Mother and a not to be missed site for visitors to Scotland. I became a popular person during my time in St Andrews because so many wanted to see Scotland (to play golf). So I visited Glamis often as tour guide.
In the chapel there is a marvelous painting by Jacob de Wet, a student of Rembrandt and a painter in his familiar Flemish style. The painting is of the Risen Jesus, dressed as a gardener. He is wearing a wide brimmed hat and holding a shovel, draped in working clothes. De Wet has even put glasses on him, to show he is a working man. Mary stands astonished and staring up at him. The golden hue around his head shows that this is the Jesus of her loving discernment. Rabboni. It is not the voice alone that wakens her faith and perception, but the mention of her name. "Mary." Jesus the Gardener is of course for John the New Adam in the New Garden. Mary the obedient Eve. And in his work clothes, Jesus is everything he was before, and more. He is wearing the clothes and the body of his eternity.
It has been said that the standard 'liberal account' of the resurrection has Jesus rise in the interior mental life of the disciples, and not as a body. The Gospels do take the subjective aspect seriously. But the objective body of Jesus is crucial to the resurrection. His body is not like the young man NBC has been showing on the morning news, who was pronounced dead after an accident, and then came back to life again to astonished and grateful parents. That young man will die one day, and he is just as he was before, if a bit sluggish as his brain heals.
John shows a Jesus who really appears in bodily form, and who appears as well in response to the limits, hopes, fears and realities of his disciples. Mary believed the body was missing. Before it is over, Jesus must tell her to let go of him, to release his body. He has come to her on the terms of her present concern. In the accounts which follow, Jesus appears not to individuals but to the entire group, not as a gardener but showing his hands and his side. And at last he will appear to Thomas, on the terms he requests, even if chiding him. Blessed are those who have not seen but yet believe - one model for that faith being the beloved disciple with which this account began.
The variety of the resurrection appearances makes it clear that one cannot talk about the Easter miracle in any way that reduces it to a single rational explanation or clever analogy. This is because of the highly personal character of Jesus' appearing, and because what Paul calls a spiritual body is a glimpse at eternity: the body Jesus wears for all time, making him continuous with who he was before, but also discontinuous because eternal: all time at once in him. New Adam, Gardener, pierced side, nail wounds of eternity.
This is also why Peter makes it clear when he speaks to Cornelius that the resurrection happened in restricted space. "Not to all the people but to us, who were chosen by God as witnesses."
I had a colleague at St Andrews who genuinely believed that faith in Jesus required the kind of firsthand encounter that Peter and Mary and John and the others had, on the same terms. She is what theologians would call a follower of Kant: disliking particularity, the one-off, the closed circle. But her concern came I believe from some place in her heart. I remember her once describing not being able as a little girl to cross a line painted on the floor of the bank where her father worked. Faith would mean for her being able to cross a line, a line described by Peter to Cornelius, and said to be fully in the purposes of God. Cornelius is of course on the other side of a line in time, but also one in election, outside the people of Israel.
But the point of Acts and the point of John here join up. Peter described the resurrection. He described it as announced from of old, from a time before the final time. He described the limits placed upon it in the purposes of God. He could have added the concern God had in Jesus appearing in that restricted space as was meet and right, fit, and lovingly manifested, and not reducible to direct rational terms. One size fits all.
And before Peter is finished, while he is yet speaking, the Holy Spirit takes what is of God's restricted purpose in time and explodes time to bring resurrection faith. Blessed are they who have not seen and yet believed. We do not cross a line. God the Holy Spirit crosses it and claims us, every bit as dramatically and ever bit as surely as he crossed death itself, bypassed our crouching to see, and stood behind Mary in sure and certain terms, and called out her name. John knows that faith comes not from being in this circle at the beginning, but in hearing and seeing on account of the Holy Spirit's use of their personal witnessing to quicken faith in us. A faith so powerful that even Peter stood in amazement at what was happening before him.
This change in Jesus and our perception of him has its counterpart in us and in our own lives. It was hard for Mary to see in a Gardener the Jesus she knew before and the Jesus who was from before all time. Little wonder. It was the Spirit-Jesus' voice and her name-that brought light and life.
Colossians reminds us that when Christ lays claim to us, with resurrection Holy Spirit power, we no longer are who we think we are. We are taken up into the purposes of God. So when Jesus tells Peter he used to clothe himself and go where he wanted, but now he will stretch out his hands and another clothe him, he is speaking about the clothing of eternity given by our Master to us to wear. Making us new creations and no longer in charge of ourselves as once we were before. Colossians says it in great language: our lives are now hid with God in Christ. Therefore seek the things that are above.
This Easter I have had in my mind the stunning climax of the Joseph story, when Joseph sends everyone away and reveals himself to his brothers in Egypt. Why is it they do not recognize him? The text says "His brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence." What was wrong? Too much time had passed? A sense of displacement and confusion, as they stood in the court of an Egyptian ruler? Belief that Joseph was dead? Guilt at having left him to die? Was it the great weeping of Joseph?
Probably all of these things.
But I suspect at some point Joseph had simply become another man than the young boy who bragged about his special coat. He had been taken up fully into the purposes of God. He could kiss and weep with and forgive his brothers, and that is because God had made him a new man.
That, my friends, is the story of Jesus and the Easter mystery. God has come to make us new men and women, to give us clothes of eternity, to release us from former ways and to show us a new garden, the possibility of obedience and true fellowship, a new destiny, a new love, a new purpose and a life hidden with God in Christ. No longer understandable on old terms, but now to the Glory of God the Father, as was His life always and everywhere.
This new life may come in a flash, as with Cornelius, or it may take time to take full form, and put on, as the brothers of Joseph adjusted to a new reality in him, and so in themselves as well. "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." "Do you love me, Peter?" Because this is about eternity and our life hid with God, we may need three tries to answer that question. God knows all that. He raised Jesus from the dead and he means to raise us and seat us with him. That is the Easter mystery, the resurrection power of God in Christ, and the hope that energises and guides our vocations in Him. So let us:
"Seek the things that are above. Where Christ is."
For: "The Lord is Risen Indeed. Alleluia."
