St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes
April 9, 2023● Easter Sunday (Year A)
Gospel: John 20:1-18
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The typical behavior of a movie theatre audience is predictable—people come into the theatre expecting to see the movie they desired and when it’s over, they get up and leave. That’s most audiences in most movie theatres. But the faithful audiences that gather for the mega film box office franchise—Marvel Comic’s The Avengers—are not most audiences. These are the films with the superheroes: Captain America, Iron Man, Black Panther, Spider Man, Thor, and on and on.
The ever-faithful Avengers audiences know those characters by name and their unique and interrelated stories. With each movie in the franchise, the individual character storylines build upon the other and become a larger narrative, of which all of the characters are a part, across time and space. So when an Avengers movie ends, the faithful fans sit and wait. They wait because they know that the end of the movie is not the end. The closing credits give way to the brief glimpse, in the form of a mysterious preview, into what’s to come. There is more to the story; and the story continues.
Our gospel narrative today begins with a disciple of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, whom we know never left Jesus. She was with Jesus on the way to the cross; at the foot of the cross as he was crucified; and now at the tomb wherein his body had been laid. In the hour of Mary’s distress, she would soon learn that Jesus was with her. When Mary went to the tomb she found the stone had been removed. She went to get backup from two other disciples—Peter and John. Recall that John, had been with Mary as they watched a tortured Jesus die on the cross.
Peter and John did some investigating inside the tomb, but did not connect the dots between Jesus’ fulfillment of scripture, that he must rise from the dead, and that he had indeed been raised.
Here we have two of Jesus’ closest insiders—who confirmed what Mary saw, and at the end of their observation, departed for their homes. Insert closing credits for the two disciples.
The tomb was empty and Jesus’ body was not where it was supposed to be. We have the advantage of knowing what Peter and John did not—that the empty tomb was not the end; just wait, there is more to the story.
As the weeping Mary Magdalene stayed behind, Jesus gave her a brief glimpse, albeit initially cryptic, of the continuing story, beyond the tomb, of which she was necessarily apart. Overcome with weeping and unable to make sense of Jesus’ missing body, two angels said to Mary, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She told the angels why she was so distraught and heartbroken, and her weeping continued.
Then Jesus appeared to her, and asked the same question, “Woman, why are you weeping?” Mary’s tears, frustration and her need to have the mystery solved, blinded her from recognizing Jesus standing before her, supposing him to be the gardener, and even suggested that he had carried the body away. The very thing that Mary so desperately sought was standing before her, but she was blinded and caught up in the narrative that she was telling herself. At the very sound of Jesus’ familiar voice calling her by name, “Mary,” turned toward the voice. In that moment, she recognized her beloved teacher—her Rabbouni—who was once again present, up close and personal, with her.
I am reminded of Jesus’ image of himself, in John’s gospel, as the good shepherd who knows his own sheep and they know him by listening to his voice (John 10:14-16). Once Jesus had Mary’s attention, he empowered her to go and tell the other disciples the words he had spoken to her. In the real presence of Jesus, Mary, the first witness to the risen Christ, was forever transformed from a weeping and distraught disciple into an empowered evangelist. Mary’s announcement, “I have seen the Lord,” gives way for us to glimpse what’s to come. For we know, from scripture, that there will be more to the story; and that the story continues.
In a society plagued with domestic violence and little to no love for neighbors, let alone any love for Jesus, people all around us are inconsolably weeping, and they are frightened, confused, distraught and heartbroken. Not too long ago, churches were empty. The pre-existing fears and anxieties of individuals, and of this 21st century society as a whole, were heightened as the gathered body of Christ, the Church, was not where people expected it to be. Even as faithful people seek Jesus, the non-stop distractions of life, and the adoption of the narrative of this broken world, blinds them from recognizing his real presence even as he stands before them.
I am reminded of the AMC movie chain’s ad campaign, featuring Nicole Kidman, which plays after all of the previews. The “We Make Movies Better” campaign’s purpose was to remind movie goers, just coming out of the pandemic, about the enduring magic and exhilaration of the theatrical experience.[1] The now-famous line delivered by Kidman is, “…Somehow heartbreak feels good in a place like this.” Now, I doubt if heartbreak, of any kind, can ever feel good in any place. But, in the sacred space of the gathered body of Christ, we must invite others, and share with them, the narrative of our risen Lord, so that when they bring their heartbreak to this body, they can feel safe in a place like this.
Might we share the narrative with this consumer-focused, “me-centric” world that while the Church can never be everything to everyone, the gathered body of Christ can mean something to, and help to make meaning of this human experience for all people? As we, Jesus’ 21st century disciples, go out into the world announcing the life-saving message of the Gospel, might we empower others to stop “…retelling what happens [in the narrative of their lives] till it comes out the way [they] want?”[2]
In the poem, Understory, by Mark Nepo, Nepo writes, “We try so hard to be the main character when it is our point of view that keeps us from the truth. When jarred by life, we might unravel the story we tell ourselves and discover the story we are in, the one that keeps telling us.”[3]
On this Resurrection Sunday, we rejoice in the emptiness of the tomb. We rejoice that the body of Jesus was NOT where it was expected to be. We shout, “Alleluia! Christ is Risen,” as we await his coming again. And, we rejoice in knowing that God’s never-ending love story for humankind, of which we are inextricably bound, unravels the stories we tell ourselves so that we might discover the story we are in… the holy story that keeps telling us.” Alleluia, Alleluia!
[1] Nicole Kidman AMC Ad: How It Became A Camp Phenomenon (buzzfeednews.com). Accessed April 8, 2023.
[2] Nepo, Mark. The Way Under the Way: The Place of True Meeting. Sounds True Publishing, 2016.
[3] Nepo, Mark. The Way Under the Way: The Place of True Meeting. Sounds True Publishing, 2016.
