Easter Vigil A2023
John 20:1-18
It’s not very often I am up at dawn though, tomorrow, I will have the opportunity. When we rise in darkness, the inky blackness can fool us into thinking it’s still the middle of the night. We check the time, maybe 4:55 am. Yep, it’s morning. But the birds haven’t begun to chatter and sing. We walk to the kitchen and turn on the coffee pot. Outside, no cars drive down the street. Instead, just stillness, enough stillness for prayer in our favorite chair. The empty streets, though dark, are friendly, so we open the curtains and check the time again. 5:08 am and the darkness has begun to wane though we wouldn’t call it “light,” just a less intense night. Two birds greet each other, and soon, a high-pitched cacophany erupts. We can’t believe we ever slept through this. The sky is no longer black but gray-ish blue. With a rush, we realize the light crept in without us even paying attention. The sunrise is still nearly an hour away, but this, this is dawn. The moment of possibility, the moment we recognize: the sun will rise!
Easter is dawn, the moment of possibility, the moment we recognize: the son/sun will rise! And like the dawn of a new day, Easter is not just a moment but the start of something new. Accordingly, in the Christian church, we celebrate Easter not just one day like we do All Saints Day, for instance. We celebrate Easter not just twelve days like we do Christmas. We celebrate Easter for a full 50 days, all the way through the Day of Pentecost. Truly, we continue to live in the season of Easter, stirred up by Pentecost but living in the existential reality of Easter dawn. Easter, that day two thousand years ago, opens up possibilities the world did not know before that day.
Whether we read Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, Christ’s rising is first proclaimed to women and first preached to others by women. Here in the gospel of John, Mary Magdalene visits the tomb and runs to tell Simon Peter and John, the disciple Jesus loved. Mary believes Jesus’ body has been taken, but later, she meets Jesus outside the tomb. She then announces to the disciples: I have seen the Lord!
In a deeply patriarchal culture, Mary Magdalene is suspect by virtue of her gender and because of the demons Jesus had excorcised from her. And as we read in John’s account of that Easter dawn, Simon Peter and John don’t seem to believe her for they run to the tomb to verify her words. Still, the gospel writer is clear: Mary is the one who comes to the tomb first, and Mary is the one who meets Jesus first. The same is true in all four gospels, written by men, written for men who were the only literate people. How can this be?
Peter and James and John and all the rest of the disciples are Jewish, and of course, Jesus is also Jewish. In the ancient world, Jews are strictly prohibited from interaction with Gentiles, with non-Jewish people. Still, the rise of the Christian church just a few months and years past Pentecost is largely among Gentiles, among non-Jewish people, and these Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians share in Christian community with each other. In the book of Acts, God even speaks to Peter telling him to disregard the Jewish food laws that God Godself dictated. How can this be?
Nearly every Sunday by 9 am, you all make your way to 2601 E Thunderhill Place. When you could be sleeping or eating brunch or gardening. You sing and listen, pray and pass the peace. You receive Holy Communion and later drink coffee while checking in with this community. Maybe you take time out of your busy schedule to help plan worship or sing in the choir or go to congregational meetings. Maybe Saturdays find you at the Habitat for Humanity house with hammer in hand and a hard hat. Maybe you remember to purchase two boxes of cereal instead of just one, in order to donate to Kyrene Resource Center and ensure children and their families eat every day. Maybe you regularly share a portion of your financial resources with Esperanza Lutheran Church when you are under no obligation to do so. How can this be? I mean, really, how can this be?
Easter dawn opens up possibilities the world did not know before that day. Easter does not solve all problems, of course. In a way, it creates yet more problems for the disciples. Just when they had accepted the great disappointment that Jesus wasn’t even going to try to unseat the emperor, just when they had accepted that their own people were turning on Jesus and on them, just when they had accepted Jesus’ conviction as a common criminal, just when they had accepted—because how can you not—Jesus’ crucifixion and death, there he goes, rising from the dead! And now their lives are upended… again. What happens next? How will they be sent to serve? Easter dawn does not solve all our problems either. In fact, Easter dawn opens up possibilities that complicate our lives. We will not ever live in a world where Jesus is still in the tomb. And that means death and whatever has come before is not the story we live by. Instead, the dawn has come, and we don’t know what will happen when the son rises. Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.