Sermon Easter Day 24 April 2011

In the name of God who dances “through the dullness of humanity.” 

Here is our hope:

in the mystery of suffering is the heartbeat of Love,

Love that will not let go.[1]

In Susan Hill’s novel The Service of Clouds, Flora has just attended the funeral of her teacher Miss Pinkney.  Much more than just a teacher, Miss Pinkney saved Flora’s life – nursing her back to health at a time when she was friendless and quite alone.   After the funeral, Flora finds herself returning to a local park, which has been a very special place for her in earlier years.  "Then, [Susan Hill writes] as with the rush of grief, so came the next thing, a devastating, split-second of presence, and awareness.

She was between the high, dark shrubs, out of the sunlight.  A blackbird scuttled in the soil at the holly root, after fallen berries.  The sky was bright, above her head.  Somewhere, on the other side of the water perhaps, a child laughed.  And in that second, Miss Pinkney was beside her, or just ahead, or at her shoulder, unseen but sensed and so absolutely that mere sight was quite unnecessary.  The sense of her, the simple presence, made Flora stop dead, her hand flying to her mouth, made her say aloud, "Oh.  Oh, so you are ..."  And then, for a time out of time, they stood together, speaking what was not spoken.  The vividness, the certainty and clarity of the moment which was less than a moment and was a lifetime, was absolute and imprinted on her heart and mind and memory forever, so that she never questioned or doubted it afterwards - nor spoke of it, save once.   She did not look for meaning, reason, explanation, and neither understood nor tried to understand.  That it had been was sufficient, then, and later.”[2]

“The stories of the resurrection appearances” Rebecca Lyman writes “are not philosophical arguments, but rather affirmations of unbroken relationships within divine reality.” There are times in our lives, when we, like Flora, discover a shimmering connection with the mystery of life that overcomes our fears, our denials, our betrayals – and even death itself.   These are the times that convince us that light is stronger than darkness, love is stronger than hate, life is stronger than death.  Today we celebrate this power of light, love and life.

“I like to think of creation and resurrection” Lyman says “as this immense energy that moves and illuminates our ordinary life rather than verbal propositions to be affirmed or denied. Doctrines do not satisfy us; life in God does….

Mary Magdalene goes to the garden seeking her teacher, and finds not a new revelation,” not a new teaching, not a new creed, “but the One she loves. Only something so ordinary as the sight and sound of your lost friend could be this holy.”  Today we approach the Easter story seeking that Holy Other.  “We have come looking for nothing else. Love in its incredible tenacity and mysterious appearances walks with us in our grief[s] and [our] skepticism.”[3]

All the way through Lent, we have acknowledged that this pathway is challenging.  It’s no easy Sunday afternoon stroll; it’s not easily achieved with an Easter Egg and a good holiday.   It’s about learning another way of relating – a costly way – but one which is life-changing, leading to heart-felt hallelujahs.   The Easter message is clear:  if we choose to embrace in our everyday lives reconciliation, forgiveness and non-violence, we will find the power of Love and Hope.   We’ve seen this marked so clearly on the faces and in the lives of people:  people like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, people like Ghandi and Aung Sun Su Xi, people like Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King – and of course, for Christians, supremely in Jesus of Nazareth – people who will not let the deathliness of vengeance, weaponry and abusive powers overcome them.    In the garden, early on that first Easter morning, the women, arrived with hearts full of grief and empty of hope – but they leave with hearts filled with joy, knowing that the Divine Presence has not left them alone - knowing that Hope, Healing and Love cannot be defeated by pain, sorrow and death.

Wendell Berry, in his poem Manifesto invites us into a practice of resurrection – throughout our lives – so that we too may know “the vividness, the certainty and clarity of the [Easter] moment.”[4]  Some excerpts from Berry’s poem:

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
....So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it. ...

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
...Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts. ...

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
....As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go.
Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.[5]

And so today, we practise resurrection so that we will know the full, abundant and flourishing life, which Jesus promises.  We will practise resurrection: forgiving and loving - dancing through our dullness, celebrating with signs of new life, baptizing a baby, remembering our own baptisms, singing Hallelujahs, seeing everywhere in “our bloody and blessed world” [6], the face of the divine mystery that is Love – Love that will not let us go.  Hallelujah!

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[1] Shirley Murray, “Christ is Alive” Alleluia Aotearoa 15

[2] Susan Hill, The service of clouds, 1998 p.147.

[3] Rebecca Lyman, “Ours the Cross, the Grave, the Skies” in http://www.journeywithjesus.net/  Easter Day 2011

[4] Susan Hill

[5] Wendell Berry (b. 1934) Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/675

[6] Rebecca Lyman