Sermon for Easter Day, April 9, 2023

Acts 10:34-43+Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24+(Colossians 3:1-4)+Matthew 28:1-10

You would think that on a matter of such great importance as this, they might have gotten their stories straight. Were there two women at the tomb on that morning or just Mary Magdalene as John says? Or was it three women as Mark says or four as Luke says? Was the stone already rolled away or was it still closed? Who did the women see? Was it an angel coming from heaven with the rumble of an earthquake as Matthew just told us or was it a man (Mark), or two men (Luke), or were they angels?

Mark says the women were afraid and didn’t tell anyone. John says two of the men went with Mary Magdalene to see what was up. Matthew and Luke have the women going to tell the disciples.

This is the most cataclysmic event in the history of the world, and we don’t even know what happened! All we know is that the broken body of their crucified friend, the one whom some of the women had watched being placed in this freshly dug tomb, was not there anymore as dawn broke on the third day.

Writer Frederick Buechner says that “It doesn't have the ring of great drama. It has the ring of truth.”[1]

Whatever it was that happened, whatever the mechanics were of Jesus being raised from the dead, those early believers simply would not shut up about it, and the world has never been the same.

This does not mean that it was easy for them. It was never easy, at least not for the first few hundred years when they were in a minority and subject to frequent persecutions from the empire. But they leaned into this hope that was theirs, the hope that the victory was won, and they would all be part of God’s reign on earth as it is in heaven.

One of the (admittedly) few blessings of the pandemic in 2020 was the launch of a little show on AppleTV about an English football club called AFC Richmond. Ted Lasso is centered around a club owner whose husband divorced her for a much younger woman who, initially at least, wants to run the team into the ground to spite her ex. So, she hires an American football coach who knows nothing about soccer, but then he wins her over with a daily delivery of homemade shortbread, homespun humor, and aww shucks lovableness.

The current third and last season had Richmond promoted to the Premier League after having been demoted last year. They were predicted to wind up last in the league but have been on a winning tear since hiring a cocky superstar named Zava. We are not quite halfway through this season, and while the happy ending might come with Roy and Keeley reuniting and the team winning and Nate and Ted being reconciled, it might not. Maybe that would be too neat and predictable, but here’s the thing – it doesn’t matter. For all its corniness and pie-in-the-sky cheerfulness, this show is about keeping faith when all evidence is to the contrary. It’s about sticking together when things are hard. It’s about having hope grounded in the reality that life is not always easy.

And it’s about a silly sign above the door that says “Believe.”

Perhaps our faith and resurrection have a bit more gravitas than do football and Ted Lasso, but there is something to be said for perseverance, for not responding to difficulties the way the world would have us respond, for sticking together when the going gets rough, for not pitting ourselves in opposition to another but in proclaiming our story, our truth, our Good News.

Friends, the gospel writers may not have been able to put together a single story about the resurrection, but how would that be possible anyway when the impossible happens? Yet, if it did not happen, if we come here each week because it makes us feel good or we want to see our friends or hear some good music, then I’m afraid we’re missing the point.

Theologian N.T. Wright says that “The church is either the movement which announces God’s new creation, or it is just another irrelevant religious sect.”[2] That new creation became a reality when the tomb could not contain the son of God, death was swallowed up in victory, and we were shown the way to be reconciled with God.

Friends, the victory is ours. We just have to learn to live into it.

Believe it.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

 [1] https://www.frederickbuechner.com/quote-of-the-day/2018/3/25/easter?rq=Easter

[2] Acts for Everyone, Part One: Chapters 1-12 (The New Testament for Everyone)

[2] The poet shared this poem on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JayHulmePoet/status/1642463480467845120/photo/1