What If You Stopped Looking For Death

Silence can be the cruelest part of faith. The trauma has already happened, Friday is already over, and you’re left in the long, airless Saturday where hope feels like a rumor. We start there on purpose, because Easter isn’t a denial of grief, it’s God meeting us inside it. From the first moments of John’s Gospel while it is still dark, we follow Mary Magdalene’s stubborn love that keeps showing up even with a stone in the way, trusting that resurrection is coming. 

Along the way, we talk about resurrection hope as more than a private miracle. The story says creation responds, and we learn to listen for it through simple spiritual practices like considering the birds and noticing flowers, especially when anxiety is loud. We also challenge the trap of “sin management” that keeps our attention on death. The good news is that God rolls the stone away, and the invitation is to look for life, ask for healing of the inner eye, and let our community’s witness carry us when we struggle to believe. 

Thomas reminds us that honest doubt and real heartbreak are not failures. Jesus does not scold him; Jesus shows up. Then the disciples go back to the house and the table, learning how to wait together, practice resurrection by changing the way we think, and choose kindness over hate in a hurting world. Mary’s moment with the “gardener” calls us to find the sacred in the ordinary and turn toward the living Christ who speaks our name. 

If this message helps you breathe again, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find this Easter sermon and this hope.

Transcript

Welcome And The Silent Saturday

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the First Love Church podcast. This is a collection of Sunday teachings inspired by the revised Common Lectionary and recorded weekly in Ocala, Florida. Thank you, Caroline. All you have to remember is what it felt like when you stood in the place of death and heard the living call your name. Yesterday was the very last day of Lent. And in the practice of this last day, there is silence. It's nothing. And I was thinking about how very often that is where we have lived our lives. The trauma has already happened. Friday has already happened. And Saturday, Saturday, Saturday is just painful. We don't have the foreknowledge to know that the resurrection is there. It is just silent. And the silence sometimes is deafening. But Sunday comes, beloved. This is the day we celebrate and we remember the resurrection. This is the day that we remember love wins. This is also the day when we remind ourselves of the story of women who have come to the tomb. If you find yourself this morning with a broken heart, if you find yourself in a relationship that has been ripped and torn or ruptured, if you find yourself in places where all you have is silence in return for the love that you have given, you are in good company this morning. You are in the company of those who have come to visit, to attend to the body. We're going to read this morning from John's Gospel, and we're going to read the story of the resurrection. But there was a part this week that I was reading, and I was reading the same accounts in all four of the Gospels. And in one of the Gospels, it talks about the women who are so brokenhearted. And they get together and they're going to anoint the body. And one of them doesn't tell us which one says, But who will roll away the stone? There is no answer. And they go anyway. I thought that reminded me a lot of how women are. We'll go to love and to do those things even when there's not an answer that says this is how it will be done. And so I want to join the text this morning. And I want you to join your hearts and allow the Holy Spirit to re-enchant the story to you. Maybe you've heard this story a million times. May you hear it with new ears this morning.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

You know, Heather and I got to spend uh all day together yesterday in preparation and just doing the different things that we got to do to get ready for church and uh just the whole idea of what yesterday, the that Saturday represents, you know, because there's that uh hope that I'm sure all of the disciples had as they followed Jesus on what would become their idea of a new life, you know. And then Saturday would really feel like all of that hope was taken away. All of the air is taken out. And and uh and still uh some people had a beautiful posture on that day, you know. They still went to anoint the body, they still did what they knew to do, you know. And I and I think about that because I feel like this whole life that you and I have been given is one long Saturday. We were born into this world in a miraculous way, and then we wait in hopes of resurrection. And we experience a million many resurrections if we're paying attention, but we experience a million different deaths. And I I really have come to realize that this life is uh a great opportunity for me to practice dying a million times before I do it, that one last final time, so that I'll be good at it. Learning how to really die to self, you know, and really, really stop making this thing about me. Newslash. It's not all about me. Newslash, it's not all about you. And for us to really understand what beautiful and miraculous is happening on Saturday, but I can't see any of it. In fact, from my vantage point, it seems hopeless and it seems all for naught. Doesn't it? But could we trust? That that resurrection is coming. That's what Helen I want to talk to you about today.

Birds Flowers And God’s Care

SPEAKER_01 5:24

And it is our joy to remind you that resurrection is not just personal, resurrection is for the whole world. Even the story of the trauma, and even the story that we are told of where Jesus dies, the earth responds. There is an earthquake, there is a blackness, a darkness, even the cosmos respond to this. And this is an invitation for us to be reminded that resurrection is coming. That for not only us, but for the whole earth. One of the practices that we have been doing during Lent is listening to the birds sing. And I hope you have been re-energized by this or renewed. And I hope you don't stop because I want to remind you that the birds are singing about the resurrection. They're reminding us he's risen, he's risen indeed. Hallelujah. I didn't know if you knew that that was their song, but it is. And so when you listen tomorrow, listen again and hear them sing. And we listen to the birds because Jesus told us to. In times of great anxiety, Jesus said, look at flowers and listen to the birds, and remember that your heavenly father knows when any one of them falls, and he cares for them. And so, how much more does he care for you? Every time you see a flower and a bird and they are cared for, remember that your heavenly father cares for you. And I've been really aware of the birds, and we've had some wonderful visitations from the birds, some of them in the house that took a lot of effort to get them out of the house. And we've been sitting with the birds, and I was walking outside the other day just to feed the animals, and I noticed there was a bird that had been torn apart by something. Feathers were all on the ground, and it was so sad. And I was hoping it wasn't one of the birds that I had been listening to earlier, and some other animal got in. So I just covered it up with a bunch of leaves and sticks and whispered to the ground, resurrection is coming. Beloved little one, it will not always be this way. Every way that we have experienced death or we ourselves participate in death, there is a truth that the scriptures tell us that nature tells us back, one day every sad thing will be untrue. One day, love comes and resurrects the whole story.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

I think it was yesterday, it might have been the day before, but uh when I got up, uh uh Heather was sitting on our front porch. And so I went out there and you know, started to ask her what she was doing. And she goes, listen to the one bird. He's got quite a set of lungs on him. And this one particular bird, and he was, we couldn't see him, as we've got pretty much tree cover on the whole front of the property. And but he was up there, uh she and and they were just still.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

The rocks were not gonna take their place.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Uh, and just how loud it was, and and uh so I started whistling back, uh, and the bird would would do the song, and then I'd wait for the silence, and I'd and I'd do my little whistle back to the bird, and uh and then I'd run out of oxygen. And then that bird would sing its song, and I'd gather enough breath to do my song, and and I realized that that that nature was pacing me, and I was in a uh a breath meditation, and I didn't realize it, and I was I was being led by this little creature, you know, and I was experiencing something amazing. My wife and I were just filled with such joy by setting out, you know, you know, and people pay so much to their dealers for whatever it is that they hope will bring them joy. And God has it set for us. If we'll just find it, and so that's why we ask you to do these things that God instructs us to do. We don't know what they're gonna do for you, but I promise you, God will do something amazing in your life. If you consider the birds, keep something.

John’s Gospel As New Creation

SPEAKER_01 9:29

And if you consider your own belovedness, this time reminds us that if God so cares for birds and flowers, how much more does he care for you? You are loved and cherished and seen. The God of the universe witnesses your life, sees you, acknowledges you. And we look at this beautiful invitation in John's Gospel. The other three Gospels tell you that it was the breaking of the dawn. That's awesome. But John's Gospel tells it a little different. And John is, of course, reinterpreting the Genesis story. Everything in John is a reinterpretation of the creation story. And you know the story as the listeners of this letter would have known it. In the beginning, the earth was without form and void, and darkness covered the face of the earth. This is the story that people who are the readers of this, the listeners of this would have heard. They know this story. There was a time when there was darkness, and then the scripture tells us the spirit of God, God's own spirit, began to hover and brood over the earth. And then we hear this creation story that we know that God in God's self is creator. This is how God reveals himself, and this is the hope for us. So the readers there would have known that particular part of the story. So John is telling us a new creation story. Early on Sunday morning while it was still dark. Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. Beloved, if there is one thing that I want to ask you to consider, allow love to keep showing up. Even when it feels like there is a stone in front of the tomb, keep showing up. Keep offering your heart, keep offering the love that you have been given. This is the posture of Mary Magdalene. This is the posture of this disciple who comes and still offers when she doesn't even know how it's going to get through the tomb. She doesn't know how this is going to happen. This continually coming. In Mary's gospel, there is a word for us, a reminder to return to the good. Beloved, no matter where you are in the story, return to the good. Return to the good right now. And this is the power of resurrection. You can change your mind. You can change your mind. And this is the hope, this is the practice of this new life.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

I was talking to somebody recently, and they were they were talking uh a lot about their sin management. And uh, and I think um the the important part of this story is that they could not roll the stone away. God rolled the stone away. And if and if you get stuck as Christians, and we do over and over, we get stuck in sin management. We realize that we're doing some stuff that isn't good for us and isn't pleasing to God, and then we we start our journey and trying to fix ourselves instead of remembering it's God who rolls the stone away. And so, with that same energy that you might be trying to figure out how you can manage sin, what if you looked for God to roll that stone away? What if we really looked for resurrection in these areas, not just some kind of band-aid? We need resurrection. Life needs to be brought to this dead body, not a little sin management to it, amen. Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm not saying go forth and go ye in sin all you can. What I'm saying is that if you make that your focus, you will focus on death, because sin and death are one. But if I can focus on resurrection and life, God leads us to life and more abundant life. Amen. Think they're with me?

Go In Past The Linen Wrappings

SPEAKER_01 13:41

I do. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. I just want to tell you Jesus loved all the disciples. I don't know why this one in particular is named as that. I mean, I would like to be known as that, the one that Jesus loved. And I want to tell you, you are also the one Jesus loved. In fact, in John's Gospel, chapter 17, Jesus is having a conversation with his father. And he said, You know what I'd like you to do for them? Make them one and let them know that you love them as you love me. Beloved, if you don't hear anything this morning, hear this. You are the one that God loves. You are the beloved disciple. And Mary said to them, They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him. And Peter and the other disciples started out to the tomb. And they were both running. And the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. Here's where we recognize the humanity here. I don't know who the writer is, but this person is insisting on being known as the faster runner. And so the foot roast, if the foot race is noted, and the runners have been given their prizes. And so here we ask ourselves, what does this mean that that we would even care? Here is a beautiful invitation into the human story, into the story of comparison or also the story of passion running so fast. This is where I thought that he would be laid, and then to find something else. And he stopped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn't go in. There's more to the story than just what we see from outside the tomb. Beloved, the invitation by the Holy Spirit is go in and hear the angel's message. Listen to the women who are going to tell you that there is reason for hope. Then Simon Peter arrived, and Simon went in. We've been talking about Peter for the last few weeks, and maybe he had a reason to go in. Maybe his own grief and his own guilt and his own wanting the story to be different forced him deeper into the story. And there is such a hope here. And he noticed the linen wrappings laying there. And while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings, and the disciple who reached the tomb first also went in. And he saw and he believed. The scripture gives us this indication: blessed are you. Jesus tells this to Thomas after he comes back again. Blessed are you who do not see and yet believe. We do not have our physical eyes to depend on for resurrection. And that is why our collective witness of the resurrection is so important. That's why we must listen to each other when we have stories, when we have experiences that say, I once was dead, but now I am alive. And beloved, maybe if you have trouble seeing, or if you have trouble trusting to believe what it is that someone else has seen, that you could ask God for healing of your inner eye to be able to see the hope that is coming to us in Christ.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

You know, there's resurrection all around us. Uh, but sometimes, you know, we just have trouble believing it. You know, Jesus said that He would, He would be uh raised up, and they went in and the tomb was empty, uh, but they didn't have proof. They hadn't not yet seen his body, but they believed, you know. And I and I think for you and I, there's going to be things that come up in our lives, and and uh there are opportunities for us to see resurrection and believe. But I want you to understand something that if you have trouble believing uh and you struggle in an area, you're not less than, you're not forsaken by God, and he's not angry at you. What God does that is so powerful is he will continue to show you so that you would believe. Thomas said, Hey, I'm not gonna believe any of this that you the people I've been hanging with for the past three and a half years, unless I see the body of myself. And so what does God do? You know?

Thomas Doubt And Jesus’ Gentleness

God’s Patience Through Our Detours

SPEAKER_01 18:35

And so talk about that just for a moment. Please be mindful of that. That story is for your encouragement and for my encouragement and for the encouragement of the world. Thomas is heartbroken. He sold lock, stock, and barrel and was behind this. This is the Christ. Just a few stories ago, we rehearsed this and together we remembered. They're going to bury Lazarus. They're gonna go see where they have put the tomb. And Thomas goes, Let's go and let's die with him. Let's go and we're going with Jesus. He was so committed. And when Jesus was murdered by the empire, by Rome, that was so good at their crucifixions, Thomas's heart was broken. Thomas was not gonna allow his grief to go unfelt. No one was able to say to Thomas, get over it. Get over nothing until I put my hands in his side. I am not going to be able to get over this. I will not be able to believe your good news until I see for myself. Jesus appears through the wall, beloved. A little anxiety on top of your already anxious heart. Jesus appears and looks right at Thomas, takes his hand and says, put it here. Believe. He doesn't scold him, he doesn't say, you have to do better, you have to be like everyone else. Jesus does not do that. Jesus says, if that's what you need, then I will show up and be that for you. Thomas puts his attention right there and says, My Lord and my God. He begins to see and he believes. And so I don't want to miss this part of going that Sunday resurrection day means it's time for you to get over your grief. Beloved, this may still feel like Saturday to you, but be of good cheer. Listen to the other women who are saying, Oh, oh, I have seen the Lord. And it says here in the scripture, they could not understand these scriptures until this happened that Jesus must raise from the dead.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

You know, I think about my own uh transition journey and into following God because I was raised Catholic and we had some of our weird beliefs and things. And then I went to a charismatic church, and good Lord, they had some weird stuff going on over there. And and then I was running around with a lot of successful musicians in Chicago and working on my career in music at that time. And boy, there were some weirdos in that whole group, and and and they were some hardcore evangelists, they were just evangelizing for uh for no God, you know? And so I was being pulled in all these different directions, and and uh, and I remember God distinctly saying, Well, if you're not gonna decide, I'm done with you. No, God was so patient with me to to uh uh while I was hanging around those people that were putting all kinds of garbage in my ears that I would go to the church, and sometimes my Catholic church would wouldn't have anything for me, and sometimes I'd go to the charismatic church and they'd be swinging from the chandeliers and I'd really be missing God in the middle of all this. And and it was and it was the patience I found of God and the faithfulness of God to. To walk me to this place where I finally said, I'm just exhausted in not believing. And I choose, and I and I believe that, and I want to. I want to believe. And I was led to a place. I was led to that pasture. I was led to that stream where I could drink. And I wasn't in any way turned away because I wasn't making the right choices in life. Or, you know, I was sin-free in some way. Trust me, it was not the case. And it wasn't that I picked the right church. I was going to two different ones. I'd go to my Catholic church on Sunday morning because that was I told it too. But I found life in the charismatic church on Sunday night. And then Saturday night I was at the Thirsty Whale in Chicago playing in metal bands. So it was like, what's going on? You know, pick your lane. And God is so patient. And I just remind you, why is God patient? Because God is bringing resurrection to you so that you can have peace, so that you can bring life to those places. There was so much death. Two of my best friends killed themselves in the, you know, trying to make it in the music scene. And one of them even went to the church and tried to get help from, could get no help from the priests at that particular parish. He took his own life. And I was around this hopelessness. But yet God was patient and God showed me resurrection. And so I know there's areas in your life that has great joy in life, but I'm certain there's areas that are dead or feel very dead. Feel very absent from God. And I'm promising you there is resurrection. Do not give up hope. Do not give up looking. Do not give up that pursuit. And I promise you, God will bring a satisfaction where you can say, I can I can wrap my mind around this, I can wrap my heart around this, I can believe.

Back To The House And Table

SPEAKER_01 24:05

We pause here for a moment to thank you for joining us today. If you're finding this episode meaningful, would you take a moment to share it with a friend? This podcast is made possible thanks to the generosity of people just like you. If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church and the continued work of our podcast, visit us online at firstlovechurch.org, reminding you to like, follow, and subscribe. This verse is one of my favorites in the story. Then they went home. Because isn't that our lives? We see an incredible thing, we have an experience. Then we go home. Now, the text here and in the translation of the language, it's a little different. It doesn't say they went home because, again, these people are not from Jerusalem, but they're from Galilee and some other place. It actually says they went back to the house. Why that's important. Because it was at the house that they had all got together for Passover. They went back to the table that Jesus had offered them. When they were confused, when they weren't sure how this was possible, when they believed but didn't believe, they went back to the house and they went to the table. And this is the pattern for all of us that when we come to the table that Jesus has set for us, it is a table of miracles. It is a table of restoration. It is a table of something so profound. But do not give up, beloved, when you have an experience where you see a promise of resurrection and then it feels like everyone's, let's just go home. Let's go home, but let's go home changed. Let's go back to the house. You know the story, it's not a spoiler, but they go back to that house, they have the communion again. Jesus shows up walking through the doors, again, not for the faint of heart, locked doors, and Jesus shows up. And then Jesus tells them to stay there and wait. Because, beloved, we are an Easter people. But wait, there's more. It is not just the resurrection, beloved. We become people filled with God's own spirit. We become the carriers of the Spirit of God. So as much as they are waiting for Jesus to appear, they are waiting for the Holy Spirit. They get together at this house and they are eating communion and they are eating their meals and they are praying and they are waiting. And it says the Holy Spirit comes to them with a sound like a rush. Don't don't miss the next few weeks. We are going to talk about the power, because you know, Pentecost comes. We got Easter tide right now. I don't want to jump too far into the story, but look at this and take great, take great comfort. You've had that experience. You've seen the Lord. Now go back to the house.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

You know, not many of us are great weight people. You know? I was so bad when I was a kid, you know, if I if I didn't know what a Christmas present was that was under the tree, I waited until no nobody was home and I unwrapped that present. And I looked because I could not stand to wait those couple weeks. And I'm sure nobody else has uh ever did anything like that, but I'm just confessing my my struggle with waiting, and I just wonder how many of us really recognize how difficult it is, but how important it is to be able to white knuckle through Saturday. And there's a waiting here, there's a waiting in this life, but it leads to resurrection. And so I advise you to wait. And so, what's what's their way of doing that? Going back to where there was a group of people that were like-minded. What is that kind of like? It sounds a little like church. They had a group of people like-minded that they went back with that encouraged them when they wanted to unwrap the present or wanted to just throw the whole thing out and go the other direction. Then they went back and they were reminded, oh, remember, this is what we do in the meantime. We have our communion. We we have our, you know, and then what what what happened, you know, again, spoiler alert, come back in a couple of weeks, but we're gonna talk about the day of Pentecost and when they continued to gather together, but they continued to and learned how to wait. And that is gonna be something that's gonna be a theme if you are part of a church. You need to learn how to be good at waiting. And as you learn how to do that, watch these good things that come to us. I will tell you as a testimony that the love that Heather and I have after 35 years is so different than the love we had in those first years. And that love was exciting and it was new, but it didn't have what this has. And then I look to those people that are further down the road, and they tell me what it's like to be married and to have waited and been patient. And that means you endured a lot of picking up socks that weren't yours or doing a project that you didn't want to do on that day that you thought was your day off, and or just holding your tongue when it wanted you want to say, say what you want to you want to say. But I'm telling you that learning breeds a kind of great love. And I tell you, in in our relationship with God, there's just things that we learn to do in the meantime, and we learn that through those that being a part of a local church and being there on a regular basis. That's a good idea, Dennis. Thank you for sharing that with me.

Practice Resurrection Change Your Mind

SPEAKER_01 30:21

The invitation is is to sit for him. That's great. Look, connect the dots. Yeah. The invitation is to practice resurrection. And how do we do that? My brother was a little bit of a literal literalist. He's two years younger than me, and we grew up in church, and we would hear the sermons, and then I would go home and make him sit down while I repreach them. And he endured a lot. You should all look at my brother with a lot of respect. Because but one time the preacher said, We got to practice resurrection. And so my brother went in the backyard and got a shovel, and he was gonna practice. And so, like, there's people like that in our lives where somebody's gonna go down in a hole and then he's gonna call them out. But let's not do that. What does it mean to practice resurrection? Don't get a shovel in your backyard unless you're planting tulips or daffodils or something. The invitation is to allow our minds to be changed, to give up thinking that leads to negativity and death and to allow the resurrected or the ascended thought to come. Jesus invited us into this way of living. He said, I want you to come and repent. And that means change the way that you think. Beloved, change the way that you think when the world tells you that you have to hate, change the way that you think and receive the love of Christ. And he said, This is the way. Love is the way. Love is eternal. Jesus said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. And Jesus shows us what love looks like. It is this cruciform-shaped love. It is the love that ends between two thieves. And that's what it looks like, except that love is eternal, and that love does not stay dead. Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in, and she saw white-robed angels. There have been two other people there, and they didn't see the angels. Mary did. Sometimes, stick around, beloved. The angels are gonna show up. Or maybe you don't see the angels, but somebody else in your group does. She taught two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head, the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. Dear woman. Please hear the love, even in this greeting. Why are you crying? The angels asked her. Seems rhetorical to me. You're sitting in the tomb where I left my beloved. Seems like you would know. But they said, Why are you crying? Because they have taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they have put him. This part of the verse stands out to me because sometimes our version of who God was or how we thought God was going to be has been taken away from us. And we find ourselves in grief because the form of the God, the form of Jesus that we saw was no longer there. And we see Mary's pattern.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

You know, the sadness that she has is clearly for us easy to uh look past because we know the story. Yeah, she's sad, but she's getting ready to hear the truth, you know. And and I and I wonder sometimes if you recognize that the attitude that you might have needs to change, but you're not seeing the resurrection. So you're staying in the negative. I was working for somebody a while back and and they just kept playing, like I was in their house and had to do a bunch of work in their house, but they kept playing the hate radio, you know, and the and I just I can't, I won't listen to that. I won't listen to a group of people run down another group of people, even if they're 99% right. There is no reason why, church, we need to be a part of that. That is not the gospel. They might say Jesus' name once in a while on those shows, but it's not okay for us to waller and hate. Somebody has to say to us, no, you know? And what happened was the way she saw it, it was sad and it was terrible. And we have to be around people. One of the great things I love about watching my wife deal with folks is some people will come up and they will just start harping on how bad life is. And they don't even get into second gear before my wife stops them. And with the most sincerity and most beautiful thing about her, is she says, Let's pray. Because you're breaking my heart. Yeah, but I didn't finish. And they want to go on for hours. And she goes, No, we're gonna pray. And there's two kinds of people that respond to her in two different ways, I mean. Some of them just begin to weep and they bask in the prayer and they begin to see the truth. And others will leave as quick as they can, like they were sprayed with raid and they were a roach. And they run to find somebody else that will listen to their negative spirit and their hate and their doubt and their fear. And she cried because she had a different idea of what was going on until the angel sets us straight. And there are angels around that will set you straight if you'll let somebody. But listen, church, what is different about you if you feel the same hate as the devil? What's different about us, church, if we all we do is criticize the other? How about if we just talk about resurrection? You know, uh people try to bait Heather and I into those conversations all the time. And I just sometimes I'll get suckered into them. But Heather will just be blessed.

SPEAKER_01 36:31

Love is the way.

SPEAKER_00 36:32

Bless them. We just love them. We love everything they're about. And yeah, but they couldn't, you could because we just love them because God, and God has made us one. Well, how can you be one with them? You know what? God said that He'd make us one, so you go, and then pretty soon they'll just their heads will pop off, it'll just explode. They can't take it.

Recognizing Jesus In Ordinary Places

SPEAKER_01 36:52

It's not exactly how it goes. Beloved, we have hope. Yes, we have hope. No matter what the situation is, right? There is hope. There is hope in Christ, there is hope in changing our perspective, there is hope in the mercy of God, there is hope in God who reveals God's self. God is love, God is patient, God is kind. Over and over again, when Jesus is with someone, he speaks of the kindness of God. That's really what the miracles are. When a woman who has lost her son is weeping, Jesus brings him back to life, that is kindness. When someone's belly is hungry and Jesus feeds them, that is kindness. When someone is hungry and Jesus' disciples look to Jesus and say, What are you gonna do? And Jesus looks to them and says, What are you gonna do? How will you be kind, beloved? That is the pattern for us. How will we be kind? This world is hurting, beloved. There is so much pain and so much anguish all around us. We know a healer. We know a God who still does miracles. There is hope for us in this resurrection, not pie in the sky, but this idea right now, presence, right now, hope, right now, love coming. And she turned to leave. She was gonna go back to the house too, as we do, and she saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn't recognize him. I wonder how often this is where we are.

SPEAKER_00 38:43

Right?

SPEAKER_01 38:44

The presence, God with us, never alone, never alone. Jesus with us, and yet we don't recognize him. Maybe it was her grief. I don't know if you can see really well when you have been weeping. Maybe her eyes were swollen shut. Maybe it was the tears. Maybe it was because he was not who she was expecting. Maybe he looked different. I don't know. But the point is he was there and she did not recognize him. Dear woman, why are you crying? Jesus asks her. The people that were around them, the pattern that we see is not telling someone to get over their pain. Why? It's a question, it makes a curiosity. Let's have a conversation about this. Dear woman, why are you crying? Perhaps you should be curious why someone thinks differently than you. Perhaps you could be curious things are going the way that they are.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

I mean, I see it as this way. Uh my my interpretation of it is this that uh, you know, she's missing it because she was looking for a body that was dead and he's alive. And so I think that that could really be a key for you and I. You know? Are we looking for the life in the situation? Or are we competent because of our experiences? That's one of the, you know, experience can help you, but it can also bind you so horribly. Because I've had these experiences in the past that guarantee me that I'm not gonna have any other future than this one that was bleak. But I can tell you that if you're looking for life, you're more likely to find it among the risen. Amen. But when you're looking for that death among the risen, it's you're not gonna find it. You're not gonna find it. And I and I gotta tell you that we're resurrection people, and we might not be looking for it. And and I do want to challenge you that it's not always somebody else that we're talking about that has that negative attitude. That might be you. You might be that one that keeps your own storm cloud around and you're constantly looking for the dead. That didn't go over good now. Help us, Lord.

SPEAKER_01 41:24

Dear woman, why are you crying? Jesus asked her. Who are you looking for? And she thought he was the gardener. May we always find the sacred in the ordinary. Just the gardener. Just the gardener turned out to be the resurrected Christ. Be mindful when you talk to the people who are landscapers. Perhaps they are angels. The scripture says you miss angels because you are not even aware of people. Now, not every landscaper, I don't believe, is an angel, but there might be.

SPEAKER_00 41:51

Some of them are named Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 41:52

Yes. Sir, she said.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

Not every joke's a winner, but you just get a gardener.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

Who are you looking for? And she thought he was the gardener. Sir, she said, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him. I also appreciate very much this part of the language. How was she gonna carry a body back by herself? I think she probably had friends. But the idea, I will go and get him. It's not gonna be too heavy for me. Just tell me where you've put him and I will go and get him. Mary. Jesus said. And she turned. Beloved, this is our posture as well. To turn, to turn from things that always remind us of death, to turn from things that are negative, to turn from things that are impossible, and to turn toward the resurrected Christ. Rabbonai, which is Hebrew for teacher. Don't cling to me, Jesus said, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go and find my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God. Go and find my brothers and tell them. Here is Jesus' proclamation to Mary: go and find the brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God. And what Jesus tells her to do is remember, we are one. It's my God, it's your God. It's my father, it's your father. And Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, I have seen the Lord. And she gave them his message. Beloved, you also are a follower of Jesus. You also have grief and heartache in your life. And the invitation is that you would. Find a place of resurrection, find a hope, find something that reminds you this is not the end of the story. Death is never the end, beloved. Death is a grief, and it is a place where we acknowledge and feel these things, but we remember because Christ died and resurrected, so we also live. There is an invitation into living the message, into telling the story, into recognizing I have seen a miracle, I can hold your hope. I can offer peace because I myself have seen peace.

SPEAKER_00 44:50

You know, I do want us to uh make mention of the fact that it's so important that uh Jesus sends Mary to tell the disciples that the first evangelist is a woman, and that's maybe not as important to you today as it would have been then, because it's just counterculture. It's just, you know, wouldn't have been appropriate for the way the religious people would have structured their government and how and how the world just existed and treated women and viewed them. And so the fact that Jesus does this is showing that he does things opposite the way that uh the world does it and against a lot of our patterns. And I think sometimes we have to be real careful because you might have beliefs inside that oppose Jesus. And they might feel really religious and really good, but so much of the time when when Jesus comes to you, it's a way that you didn't expect, or maybe that will go against some of our, it'll it'll kick our religious cows, if you know what I'm trying to say to you right now.

Communion Prayer And Sending Forth

SPEAKER_01 45:57

Because Jesus said, you've heard it said, this is the law, this is the rule. An eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth. But Jesus said, Oh no, I'm telling you a whole new way of living. Uh I'm telling you to turn the other cheek. I'm telling you that violence does not change things. Jesus is showing us that love is the way. The Holy Spirit, the transforming spirit, the spirit of resurrection, that is the way. I have seen the Lord. And then she gave him his message. Beloved, we are gonna go to holy communion just a minute.

SPEAKER_00 46:35

Because it doesn't come to you the way that you thought it should. Amen. And and we have to we have to throw our religious thinking out and just trust spirit, you know, because we've got a lot of things we think that we're gonna do for God to come to God holy with our sin management. And God just wants to roll away the tune, roll away that stone, amen.

SPEAKER_01 47:02

We're gonna go to communion in just a moment, but I want to pray over us. So if you would, you don't have to close your eyes, but sometimes it's helpful just to center yourself. And be aware of your feet underneath you, and be aware that you are in the presence of divine love. The scripture tells us where two or three are gathered together, there is Jesus in the midst of them. The presence of the resurrected Lord in the midst of us this morning. But I want to remind you of something else before I pray for you. You are safe. You are safe in the house of God. You are loved, and you belong here. Jesus has set the table for us. Risen Christ, you stepped out of the tomb while the powers of this world still believed they had won. And you did not rise with violence in your hands, but with peace in your voice as you spoke. Forgive us for the ways we have made you small and the ways that we have tied your name to power that looks nothing like your love. Free us from the fear that drives us to grasp for control. Give us courage to trust that your resurrection power is enough, that your life cannot be contained, and that your kingdom cannot be enforced. Teach us to follow you not in dominion, but in humility, not in fear, but in hope, not in silence, but in love's truth. In a world still trembling under the weight of death and injustice, make us your church witnesses to people. May we live as if resurrection is real because it is. He is risen. He is risen indeed. We hope you've enjoyed this week's sermon. If you would like more information about us, visit us online at firstlovechurch.org.