“Going Ahead…to Galilee”

Colossians 3: 1-4; Matthew 28: 1-10

FPC; 3-23-08

 

          The two Marys have come to the tomb to mourn the death of Jesus.  They also have come to mourn the death of hope.  They were there when the stone was rolled over the tomb, sealing the opening, sealing and locking in their own despair. 

          On Friday, the foundation of their lives had been shattered; they were left with an uncertain future.  No wonder Matthew includes the detail that these two women were frightened.   I would have been frightened, also.       

          They come to the tomb to mourn. 

          When they arrive, a great earthquake also arrives.  This earthquake is not your average earthquake.  This powerful force of nature helps proclaim the good news of resurrection; the good news that the power of death is no match for the power of the Almighty, the Omnipotent One.

          As Agnes Norfleet suggests, “The earth itself that has spun under the enormous and exhausting weight of death by violence, greed, poverty and disease quakes with new life and hope now that a greater power is on the loose.  Matthew’s proclamation of resurrection is huge, loud, and globally good news.”[1] 

          That good news has echoed across the centuries in all parts of the globe-in foreign communities and in our local communities, in both glad and sad times. 

          This past week, the community of Sanford received the sad announcement that Dr. William White had died.     We probably throw around the term too freely, but Bill White really was a pillar in Sanford.    

          I could recite a long litany of ways he served his community, church and the hospital where he was on staff.  I could name the service and leadership roles he filled that lead me to dub him ‘a pillar’.  

          I quaked with sadness when I heard the news. 

          I was saddened to hear of Dr. White’s death because our daughter was one of the over 6,000 babies he delivered during a career that spanned almost four decades.

          When the person who has died was the one who physically brought your daughter into the world and was the first to greet her, grief is what you feel.         

          But because of Easter, I believe in the wondrous mystery that Dr. White is experiencing eternal life, the same eternal life that we profess as truth Sunday after Sunday.    

         The angel said to the women, “do not be afraid; I know you are looking for Jesus; He is not here; he has been raised.”  In Jesus’ resurrection, we experience our own resurrection to life everlasting.  

         But as Barbara Brown Taylor says, [if that is all that Easter means], “then today becomes the day we thank God for what will happen when our lives are over, and Christian faith becomes the faith of those who care less for life than afterlife.”[2]

        The angel does not say that Jesus is going ahead of his disciples to heaven.  Rather, the message of the angel is that Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee.    

        I raise the question that so many before me have raised: “why Galilee?”[3]  Why not Jerusalem, the city that many ardent believers expected to become the capital of the world, a center of power and authority? 

       Why not the palace where Jesus could confront clean handed Pilate and seek revenge? 

       Why Galilee?  Who among the list of “who’s who” would live in Galilee?  No one worth mentioning lived there, except Jesus’ followers; nobody except us. 

       Jesus is going to Galilee where he meets his disciples.  He is returning to the very same people who had turned their backs on him; sinners whose behavior had been woefully despicable and terribly disappointing, deniers and betrayers. 

      Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee and out Galilees, too, wherever we live and work and go to school and play.  That is where he meets us.

     The proof of the resurrection is not found in the message of the angel, “He is not here; he has been raised”, as wonderful as that message is.  The proof of the resurrection is not the empty tomb.  The evidence of Easter is in the appearances of the resurrected Jesus. 

     As Tom Are suggests, it is in the appearances of the risen Jesus where the truth of this day is discovered; it is a truth conceived and nourished in the heart of God.  There, in God’s heart, we find the truth that God loves us with an everlasting love, a love that will not die, a love that puts the risen Jesus in our midst.[4] 

     He appears in the midst of his disciples where they are in life, Galilee, back at work, back to the 9-5 grind, back to the problems and the temptations of the world, life’s sad moments and life’s celebrations.   

    The risen Jesus comes to his followers, comes to us, and gives the gift of God’s love.      

    The man standing before me was wearing shirt and pants stained by grease, the proud badges of those who are mechanics.  Ours was somewhat of a chance encounter.

     “My mother died last March”, he said to me.  “So, it was about a year ago that she died?” I said, stating the obvious.  “Yes,” he said, “I remember being with her the day before she died.  I told her that one day we would be together again.”  I responded: “The good news of Easter is resurrection to eternal life.”  He agreed.  Then he went on and said: “No matter how many poor decisions I made, no matter the trouble I was in, my mother always loved me, never abandoned me.” 

     After hearing that, I thought to myself that that also is the good news of Easter.  “No matter the decisions we have made, the risen Jesus comes to us.”  “No matter how woefully disappointing our behavior has been, the risen Jesus comes to his followers in their Galilees.  There, in the Galilees of life, God’s undying, relentless love is showered upon us.

      Back a few weeks ago, my mother and I were talking about Easter.  She recalled a funeral service that Dick Hobson, a former, longtime minister of First Presbyterian Church of Sanford, had conducted.  The funeral was for a person who had died tragically.  The family and community were devastated and the banners of death were flapping in the faces of those who had come to the cemetery to mourn. 

      My mother said to me, “I’ll never forget what Dick said.  He said: “Always remember that God is always on the side of life.” 

      So, I say to you: “Always remember: “God is always on the side of life, life eternal and life here and now.”

      Jesus goes ahead of us to the Galilees of our lives.  There we will see him.  Alleluia!  Amen!