New Life Unnoticed

They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.

Mary Magdalene, first report from the empty tomb [John 20:2]

She turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus…supposing him to be the gardener…

Mary, weeping outside the tomb [John 20:14-15]

Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

On the road to Emmaus, the first Easter evening [Luke 24:16]

Icon by Vladimir Tamari

New life rises from a stone-closed tomb and it goes unnoticed, unrecognized, unappreciated. The first visitors to the empty tomb assume that the body has been moved or stolen. One of them thinks the just-risen Jesus is the gardener. Others ask the traveling companion who comes up alongside them if he’s the only one who doesn’t know what awful things happened to Jesus in Jerusalem…and it turns out the companion is, in fact, Jesus.

This life is so new, so fresh, so unexpected that no one sees it for what it is: world changing, life transforming resurrection. People just like you and me squint at the new life through old lenses, lenses clouded by long-held assumptions and colored by fear, yet rendered obsolete the moment Jesus shed the shroud and left the tomb.

We are Easter people. We live on the far side of the resurrection of Christ. We proclaim for seven weeks: Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Yet we so often walk through our days as if Jesus were still lingering in the tomb. Resurrection life is afoot in the world and, squinting through old lenses, we so often miss it.

Thankfully, this Risen One is persistent. He keeps coming up alongside us to give us new lenses to see the new life he offers. A sip of wine and a bit of bread…water and Word washing over us…forgiveness offered or received…a friend living in recovery day by day…a simple sunrise or the complexity of a relationship restored…these and so much more are signs of resurrection and new life afoot in the world, so easy to overlook or mistake for something else. In, with, and under the mundane matters of our drudging days the Risen One comes near again and again to speak our name, open our eyes, stir our hearts, take our hands, and lead us out of dark tombs into resurrection light.

This Eastertide, may God’s Spirit open our eyes wide with wonder to see new life coming near, open our hearts to receive it with hope and joy, and open our hands to share it with all we meet along the way.

Christ, our companion, hope for the journey,

Bread of compassion, open our eyes.

Grant us your vision, set all hearts burning

That all creation with you may arise.

       [Susan Palo Cherwien, “Day of Arising,” ELW 374]

Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!

What Are You Bringing to the Tomb?

…they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared... (Luke 24:1)

…they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell… (Matthew 28:8)

Have you started to think about what you will wear to worship on Easter Sunday? How about what you will bring with you? Who will you bring to worship that day?

And what will you take with you when you leave?

Many of us spend a good bit of time deciding that to wear to worship on Easter Sunday. It makes sense that we want to dress up a bit on this great day, using bright colors and new clothes to celebrate the good news that Jesus has, indeed, been raised from the dead.

I wonder, however, what would happen if we spent as much time reflecting on what we bring with us to worship on this great day. Offerings, I hope. A worshipful spirit, yes. But I am thinking more about the “spices” of grief and struggle, disappointment and discouragement, sin and sorrow that we carry around in tightly tied bags buried deep in our hearts. Do we dare to gather them up and bring them with us to worship on Easter Sunday?

The gospel writers Mark and Luke tell us that on that first Easter morning the women brought spices along with them to the tomb. In my mind’s eye, I can see those first witnesses of resurrection so shocked, so surprised, so overwhelmed by the realization that Jesus is risen that they drop the bulging bags on the floor of the tomb. I can see the bags burst as they hit the hard floor. I can smell the place of death filling with the sweet aroma of frankincense and myrrh, like the spices first laid at the cradle of the infant Christ. “He is not here, but has risen.” No need for the spices now.

Is it possible this Easter Sunday for us to be so shocked, so surprised, so overwhelmed by the news that Christ is risen, that we drop our own “spices,” watch the carefully woven bags burst, and smell the sweet aroma of new life rising from the open tomb of our spice-bound days?

I wonder, too, who will you bring to Easter Sunday worship?

I mean this literally, of course. Who needs to hear the good news, but might not go to worship if you don’t invite and bring them? But I also wonder about all those people and communities who are wrapped up in spice bags in the chambers of our hearts. These are the ones who have hurt us or disappointed us, or whom we have hurt or disappointed. These are the people and broken relationships that we can’t bring ourselves to talk about or reconcile or heal.

Do we dare to gather them up – at least one or two of spice-wrapped people or relationships – and bring them with us to Easter Sunday worship? Is it possible that this Easter Sunday we will be so shocked, so surprised, so overwhelmed by the good news of Christ risen that we will allow the bags we’ve so carefully wrapped around our broken relationships to be torn open and replaced with reconciliation or healing?

None of the gospel writers mentions the women’s spices once they hear that Jesus is risen. It’s as if the spices and their burst bags are left on the floor of the tomb as the women run back into the world carrying the lighter load of awe and joy and a life-changing story to live into and tell.

What will you take with you from Easter Sunday worship? I pray that you will be taken by and will take with you hope, healing, and new beginnings. I pray that you will meet and be carried back into your daily life by the awe and joy of resurrection life. It might not happen finally and fully this particular Easter morning. But I trust that you will find your grip on those bags loosened, if just a bit. You will receive a foretaste, a sign, a glimmer of hope and healing and the joy and freedom of new life in the risen Christ.

So, dear sister, dear brother, gather up those spice bags and all those people you’ve wrapped in them. Tuck them into your pastel purse, clip them to your Easter bunny tie. Bring them along to worship Easter Sunday…and every Sunday. Look for the crucified and risen Jesus to surprise you just enough that you find your grip loosened. Then leave the bags on the floor of the tomb and go. Go in awe and joy. And with that lighter load, run and tell others the good news: Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!