Easter Sunday
March 23, 2008
The Reverend Ann Van Dervoort
Practicing Resurrection!
“I’ve seen the Lord,” cried Mary Magdalene, as she reported what Jesus had told her to her fellow disciples. Can’t you just picture the excitement, the joy and the relief! “I’ve seen our Lord!”
Here Mary Magdalene has witnessed the most extraordinary event in all of Christian history---and the other two missed it! Apparently, there was not enough action, so they went home. They went home!
Actually, I find this rather comical, whether it was supposed to be, or not; but that is not my point. My point is that Mary Magdalene was not expecting anything extraordinary, nor were the others. She was only doing what any good and faithful woman would do---she went to mourn and to pay respects to her dear friend. It was ordinary; it was expected.
Yet, in the midst of doing what any of us might do today, and because she waited a few extra minutes—perhaps hours—we don’t know—she experienced the miracle, the extraordinary. After so much agony, she was surprised by joy!
“Do we celebrate the joy of the resurrection enough?” This very fertile question was asked in our Tuesday morning bible study last week. It seems like we give our all on this glorious day----and we do! We affirm life with the beauty of the spring flowers. We affirm life with every drum beat! We affirm life with every alleluia we sing! We affirm that “HE IS RISEN!” And then we seem to forget.
What happens to us after Easter Sunday? And why is the Sunday after Easter called “Low Sunday”? (Often clergy assign that day to their students to give them practice!) That is pretty sad, isn’t it? The crowds have all gone home---just like the disciples. Not enough action? Not enough excitement? Your guess is as good as mine.
So, what can we do after Easter Sunday? How can we continue to affirm life? How can we continue to practice resurrection in our ordinary day to day lives, because this is what we are called to do? Easter is just the icing on the cake, so how do we cut it and dig right in with a fearless faith in life?
Here, I would like to share a story:
This past Thursday evening I was invited to witness an event at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital honoring three extraordinary women.* Two of these women had overcome great discrimination during a time when women were not only discouraged to become physicians, but also often found themselves in classes with all men who were less than hospitable--- at that time. If they indeed graduated, they were often harassed, and expected to work for very little pay.
Yet, in spite of it all, these two women have become known all over the world for their research, their knowledge, and for the thousands upon thousands of children’s lives they have saved. Out of what at times must have seemed like death, these courageous women brought joy, hope and healing. And as a result of their actions, another woman whom they mentored is now also well-known all over the world for her courage to pursuit healing and life, bringing hope to so many other children.
HOPE, HEALING, LIFE! THIS, MY FRIENDS, IS PRACTICING RESURRECTION!
These three lives are not so extraordinary when we realize that they are examples of the power of relationships, mentoring, and mutual support by colleagues, friends, and most of all, family. After all, is not the whole gospel message really about how to live with one another in caring and respectful relationships, with love and without fear?
Certainly, one does not have to be a physician to be about life. To be about life is how we live from day to day with one another. We are called to be the tangible evidence of the resurrection miracle in our present life experiences, embodying Jesus in our daily lives, spreading hope and bringing about life in all that we pursue.
So, “How do you do what you do?” I was asked recently. This goes back to that important first question: “Do we celebrate the joy of the resurrection enough?” Do we sing ALLELUIA enough from Monday to Saturday? How can we all begin to practice resurrection every day, so we can do what we do, always affirming life?
Let’s think about this together.
For starters, I believe we have to hang around. Mary Magdalene did, in spite of the pain. The three women I spoke of did, regardless of the constant roadblocks. We have to hang around, for we never know when an extraordinary opportunity to witness and to participate in resurrection might occur.
Secondly, we need to love one another with a passion, and be passionate about the work we are called to do. The giving of ourselves to help relieve the burdens of others is a model of vocation that God gave us.
Third, we need to take seriously the needs of suffering people and offer ourselves to the healing of the world.
Fourth, we need to pray for and constantly practice PEACE.
And last, but not least, in good times and in bad, we need to laugh a lot! Our staff does this on a regular basis, and the halls are constantly echoing. We are called to be sons and daughters of God, living generously, with love and laughter!
In one of Eugene O’Neill’s famous plays** about the resurrection of Lazarus, the crowd that was gathered asked him what it was like in the tomb—what did he see, what did he hear, for they were not only afraid of death, but also of life. And he replied:
“There is only life! I heard the heart of Jesus laughing in my heart-----And my heart reborn to love of life cried, YES!! And I laughed in the laughter of God.” (Lazarus Laughed)
So, let us go and do likewise!
Amen.
*Dr. Sarah Sell
Dr. Mildred Stahlman
Dr. Katherine Edwards
**O’Neill, Eugene, Lazarus Laughed, (The Plays of Eugene O’Neill, Random House, p. 279, 1955.)
