Easter Day/Year A
April 12, 2020
Jeremiah 31:1-6; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-18
Just a few short weeks ago, we were gathering in the church for our services…we were gathering in the See House for coffee hour, book groups, bible studies, prayer services, choir practices…community groups were using the See House every day of the week….we were visiting people in the pioneers home, we were travelling and making plans to travel, we were attending plays and concerts and movies and children’s programs at their schools…the playgrounds, the streets, the stores…were all filled with people and noise and busy-ness…
Today…our world has become much quieter in many ways…or so, it seems, at times…but, I have also seen how, in some ways…the world has become noisier and louder…
The grief and the worries and the heartache of this time of living in the midst of the Covid-19 Pandemic…has felt unbearably loud and noisy at times with the hearing/reading of the daily news, being updated every day with the statistics of those being diagnosed with the illness, those dying from the illness, new health mandates and orders to follow….it has also been unbearably loud in the silences in the times of waiting and unknowing, too…
But, the other noise, that has been loud and noisy and hopeful, all at once, for me…is when I think about all the people on the front lines, the doctors, the nurses, the caregivers who are hustling and bustling and doing all in their power to love and care for those entrusted to them… or when I think about the grocery stores, the restaurant workers, and all those in our community who are working tirelessly and creatively to find new ways to care for the whole community….
The sounds of new life and new creation and new hopes are bubbling up in the midst of all that has threatened to drown out the Good News of God’s love for God’s people….
People are learning new ways to gather, to reach out to one another, to stay connected to one another, to love one another in ways we had yet imagined…
That’s what Easter Hope reminds us of.
That the noise and loudness of darkness and death do not have the final say.
Easter comes. In darkness and in light. In comes in the loudness and in the quiet.
Our gospel story began in the darkness. An empty tomb.
But, right there in the midst of that realization, that Jesus wasn’t there, in the tomb…and just a few moments later….Mary turns and sees, and hears, that indeed Jesus is there, with her! He has risen…just as promised. He is walking with her…talking with her…
I walk every day down to the church…in the winter…the morning walk is dark…the streets are quiet…the air is cold. I kept hoping for the days when the weather would get warmer, lighter…I kept hoping for the days when we wouldn’t have to worry about shoveling snow anymore..
It seemed liked it was taking forever…
But, gradually, the landscape, the sounds I hear, the smells of early morning have changed…and I am being serenaded every morning now, by the bird songs as I walk…my eyes are feasting on the new flowers that have burst through the dark soil….the sun is already up when I walk…illuminating the path that stretches far ahead of me…
That’s what Easter hope is.
No matter what….spring comes. Summer comes. Fall comes. Winter comes, and spring comes again…Easter comes again, being born anew in our hearts and our lives, every day…new mercies every day. New joys every day. New hopes every day.
That’s what Easter Hope is.
On the last Sunday, we gathered together in the church, on March 15……I left you with these words: God is in the midst of all of this…God has always been with us. God will be with us for the long journey ahead….and I offer them to you again today…
Today, in the midst of Easter morning, with the assurance, that Indeed Jesus is Risen…we can be filled with the loudness and the quietness of this Easter hope that lives for us, and in each one of us…
Alleluia…Jesus is Risen…Jesus is in the midst of all of this…Jesus has always been with us. Jesus will be with us for the long journey ahead…
In this life…and the life yet to come…
Jesus walks with us, talks with us…tells us that we are his own….and the joy we share, as we tarry there…none other, has even known…
Instrumental Hymn after sermon: In The Garden
Words and Music by C. Austin Miles, 1912
Rev Julie Platson, Rector
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
Sitka, Alaska
