Scripture Readings: Acts 20.34, 37-43; Colossians 3.1-4; John 20.1-9
“While it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away, so she ran off to Simon, Peter, and the beloved disciple and told them.” – John 20.1-2
Our world is global now. Our story of creation is much longer and more involved than Genesis describes, a process that unfurls over 13.7 billion years and continues today. Theologian John Haught suggests, “We should no longer think of God having a plan but instead a vision that aims at bringing into being a community of love.” It calls us to participate in co-creating with God.
We recognize we live in and because of God’s generous creativity; we see Jesus’ death as the profound self-giving love at the heart of the universe. We see Jesus’ act of self-giving as life-giving, as gift, as grace and vision and power for becoming a community of love. We recognize the Holy Spirit endows us in Jesus with the capacity to transcend ourselves and become more than we can imagine. We recognize the Spirit endows the whole universe with the capacity to transcend itself toward ever new forms.
Mary Magdalene sets in motion the Easter gospel when she goes to the garden to visit Jesus’ tomb. The time is the dawn of a new and unending day. Death proves not the end for Jesus though fear, cruelty, power, and violence have had their way with him as they have had their way in our world today. The One who begins life and sustains life raises Jesus from the dead to new life — alleluia.
Mary Magdalene runs to bring Peter and the Beloved Disciple to the empty tomb. The Beloved Disciple, who is deliberately not named so we can all identify ourselves as beloved disciples, enters the empty tomb, sees, and believes. This Easter gospel calls us to come, see, and believe God’s glory revealed in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, the vision and promise of our own life with God.
Easter testifies to the power of God’s love
Jesus’ resurrection testifies to the impossible coming to be
Every dawn testifies to the giver of our lives, the Holy Spirit,
Calling us into song like the birds,
Calling us into deeper roots like the bulbs
Calling us with Gerard Manley Hopkins to recognize Easter is a verb,
What Jesus has done for us we must do for one another
Welcome Christ to easter in us,
To weave with our love each day a community of love in our world.
What new life will you keep on cultivating in the Easter season?