Based on the Gospel - Mark 16:1-8

Following a tragedy you often see people flocking to the site bearing bouquets of flowers to leave as a tribute to those who have died.  We witnessed it when the Columbia space shuttle broke up during re-entry.  People left floral tributes and flags outside the space centre.  They gathered together to honour, to remember and to pray for those who died.  They were looking for comfort; there is comfort in coming together to share grief and pain.   

Consider your own reactions to tragedy.  Following 9-11, for example people flocked to local churches to light candles and to spend some time in prayer.  When we heard of impending war we came together to pray for peace.  Most of us have a need when we face tragic moments in our lives to  seek community, to come together.  We may not know what to do about the situation, but we want to do something.  We seek the solace of others.  We seek the courage and strength that comes from community.  It helps us in the grief process.  It helps us to see where God is in our pain and to know that others are feeling as we do.   

On that first Easter morning a group of women came together.  They had suffered a terrible loss with the death of their beloved leader.  They had seen his body taken down from the cross and laid hurriedly in the tomb.  There had been no time to mourn.  There had been no time to prepare his body for burial.  In their minds they knew what they wanted; they knew it would never happen. They wanted so much to hold him once more, to feel his gentle touch, to hear his voice.  They had a need to be together; they had a need to be doing something, anything.   

And so they bought spices and headed to the garden to anoint his body.  They knew that this visit to the tomb was useless.  They spoke about it in hushed tones as they walked to the garden.  They had watched yesterday as a large stone had been rolled into place across the entrance of the tomb.  They knew they would not be able to move it aside.  And yet they went.  They needed each other’s companionship. They needed to be doing something.  They went filled with all of the emotions we feel as such times – fear, disappointment, uncertainty, doubt, grief, guilt, pain.   

They arrived at the tomb only to find the stone had been rolled away.  You might think that they would be relieved, but the fact is it terrified them even more.  Even when they realized that the stone had been rolled away and that the tomb was empty that terrible sense of fear remained.  The message of the young man at the tomb did nothing to change it.  They knew that these were dangerous times.  They didn’t dare tell anyone what had happened. 

If our experience of Easter is bunny rabbits and chocolate eggs we will not understand their reaction.  If we are here this morning to shout alleluia and to see people we have not seen since Christmas we will not be prepared for what the women experienced.  But if we have suffered loss we will understand only too well.  Easter is about disappointment.  Easter is about loss.  Easter is about failure.  Easter is about guilt and grief and pain and doubt.  It is about a loss so deep and profound that all we can think about are the obstacles in our way.   

Every person’s life contains immovable stones.  They stand in the way of meeting our goals.  They make it difficult to achieve personal holiness.  In every human undertaking, raising a family, pursuing a profession, we encounter problems.  Resentment, fear, difficult relationships, sickness can all be huge stones in our lives.  We in turn can have many different reactions to those obstacles.   We can hope our problems will disappear.  We can pretend there are no problems.  We can get discouraged.  We can form a committee.   

Or we can head to the tomb, and trust that God will roll away the stone.  But like the holy women we may find that even when the stone is removed the fear and disappointment are still there – unless we can understand clearly the message of the emptiness of the tomb.   

The resurrection is the cornerstone of our faith.  It was difficult for the first disciples to believe it.  Fear and uncertainty got in the way.  It is difficult for many today.  The “how” continues to defy us.  We want proof.  And the fact is that we have to prove the resurrection of Christ for ourselves.  Oh! We can’t do it by finding historical evidence or through contemporary analysis.  We can’t do it for anyone else.  But the wonder and awe of faith is that we can do it for ourselves, by living and acting on the basis that it is true despite our feelings or emotions or scientific evidence to the contrary.  We do it by experiencing Christ in our lives.   

The holy women were living in a Good Friday world, but Easter came for them.  It made a difference to their doubt, grief, guilt, pain and fear.  It can come into our Good Friday world as well.  Resurrection does not depend on me, on where I am, on my feelings.  I can run away in fear.  I can misunderstand what is happening.  But when I stop running, then I see the face of Christ in those around me.  Then the new dawn appears.  Then I know the risen Christ.  I feel a sense of astonishment at the sheer goodness of God.  Those are moments to treasure as moments of grace in my life.  Then I can say with certainty,

 Christ is risen, alleluia!

The Lord is risen indeed, alleluia!