I Will Look For Joy, I Will Seek Hope, I Will Search For Courage

Sermon-Easter Sunday-April 4, 2010
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
In 1939, a newly commissioned American submarine, the Squalus, sank off the east coast in 250 feet of water. If a sub went down, "every man on board was doomed. It was accepted that there would be no deliverance." No submarine that ever sank up til that time had ever been successfully rescued. There was no electricity and the oxygen was quickly running out. In one last attempt to rescue the sailors from the steel coffin, the U.S. Navy turned to a pioneer, Charles “Swede” Momsen who had an experimental, never before tried piece of equipment. Momsen lowered his huge pear-shaped diving bell until it made contact with the sub's deck a ship equipped with Navy divers to the spot on the surface, directly above the wounded submarine. The trapped sailors in the sub heard the metal boots of the diver land on the exterior surface, and they moved to where they thought the rescuer would be. In the darkness they tapped in Morse code, "Is there any hope?" The diver on the outside, recognizing the message, signaled back by tapping on the exterior of the sub, "Yes, there is hope."
We do not understand what happened that first Easter. We can’t explain it. It was between God and Jesus. Jesus was dead, of that there is no argument. He was buried. Everyone agrees to that. Two days later when his friends go to visit his body-things had changed. There are various accounts of what Jesus was like when he rose. In today’s account Mary, one of his closest friends, mistook him for a gardener at first. Each of the gospels has different stories of what happened that first Easter morning. But each one agrees on this-somehow God raised Jesus from the dead, and when they realized it-his disciples were changed.
When I was a kid I was always intrigued by the cicada shells that I found hanging on tree trunks. I didn’t understand what had happened. I knew they were empty, but I couldn’t understand where the animal inside had gone, So I tried to explain it to myself and the only thing I could come with, was that these insects were vacant inside. There was no body in the shell-that’s how they were born-empty, hollow, lifeless. I couldn’t figure out how any living thing could have escaped from that small crack I saw in all the old shells. Then I found a snakeskin once, and my grandfather explained to me how snakes shed their skins-and grew a new one, leaving the old body behind. And I put that together with the cicada and thought, “oh, they just shed their old body and fly away.” I never saw a snake do it-or a cicada. But people I trusted told me it was true-and it made sense of what I saw. And so I understood something about snakes and bugs and bodies, but even more I learned that things would happen in life that I would not understand. So I better pick people whom I trusted to make sense out of things to me.
Every preacher in America this morning is talking about the resurrection of Jesus. Except me. I want to talk about Mary Magdalene. Mary was scared when today’s story first started-so when she found the stone moved aside she went and told Peter and John. Then they left her alone in the cemetery. Again. So she was to first one to see the empty tomb. And then, when she was alone, Again, she was the first one to see Jesus. She didn’t recognize him. And when she finally figured out who Jesus was, she tried to hold on to him. But he wouldn’t let her. He had more places to go, more people to surprise. So our story ends today just as it began-with Mary going to the disciples-and telling them some unbelievable news. First she had told them that the stone had been rolled away, and at the end that Jesus had appeared to her and had shed his skin. She didn’t understand what had happened, she didn’t know how to explain it-but both times she went and told “the boys”, the disciples, what had happened. I’m sure they didn’t know what Mary was talking about. But they knew Mary. She had been with them the whole journey-and they trusted her. In next week’s gospel you’ll hear what happens to them. But on Easter day, on Easter morning-all they had was Mary telling them that life was different now. Things had changed. And they trusted her, and believed that she made sense out of something they hadn’t experienced yet.
Peter Gomes the great Harvard preacher and theologian says: “Easter is not about Jesus; it's about us; Easter is not about death; it's about life and Easter is not about the past; it's about the future.”
Easter is about us standing in the cemetery, alone, lost, confused, scared and crying. Easter is about us finally seeing Jesus and never wanting to let him go. Easter is about us going to someone we trust, someone who has been there the whole journey with us, and asking them to explain, not how this happened-but why. Easter is about us tapping on our outer shell, tapping in a language no one else understands, and asking, “is there any hope?”
The disciples who went back home from the cemetery that day because they didn’t understand, later changed the world. The disciples who abandoned Jesus, betrayed him, lied about him, turned cowardly, were so changed that they became not just new-they grew new bodies-alive, brave, and utterly fearless. It’s not what happened to Jesus that affects me most-it’s what happened to them. After the resurrection the same people who had been empty hollow shells, flew away. The same people trapped in a dying boat, became witnesses to the whole world. I don’t know how Jesus rose-but I watched what it meant to those closest to him-and I am changed.
In your bulletin is another envelope and card and pencil. When Lent started I asked you to write down a prayer that you would pray every day for 40 days. How many of you decided to pray for someone, perhaps even yourself, and some trouble, problem or hurt? I have different challenge for you today. I want you to do this-for the next 50 days(the season of Easter) write one of these three down-“I will look for joy, I will seek hope, I will search for courage.” Every day. For 50 days. It’s Easter. It’s a whole season devoted to finding joy, discovering hope, being filled with courage.
39 men were rescued from the sunken submarine Squalus. The first time that had ever been done. Peter, the denier, after Easter, traveled all over the Mediterranean telling people that his friend Jesus had risen from the dead-eventually Peter was put to death for this witness. Mary Magdalene, had once been plagued by seven demons-but she is now called the apostle to the apostles, for being the first, for standing alone, grieving, but unwavering in a place of the dead.
And who will you be? For the next 7 weeks, I challenge you to find resurrection in your life-look for joy, seek hope, search for courage. Put this envelope in your pocket, your purse. Then come back on Pentecost Sunday and open it up. Look at the shell you left behind. Spend the next 50 days discovering that Easter is about you, it’s about life, and it’s about the future.
The angels asked Mary, “why do you seek the living among the dead?” For the next 50 days, look for the living, look for the resurrection, see what you discover about Easter. Amen.