Reverend Ref +

EASTER VIGIL

The strife is over, the battle done, the victory of life is won. Alleluia!

Today is a new day, and that is a good thing; because the last few days have been kind of rough. We shared a final meal with a friend. We betrayed and deserted that friend. We stood at a distance as he was lynched, and we watched him die.

But that isn't the end of the story, it's really only the beginning. In the early morning light, two women approached the tomb where Jesus was laid. Matthew doesn't say why they were going to the tomb. Maybe they needed a sense of closure. Maybe they needed to confirm what Jesus said about the resurrection. But one thing is sure, it was dangerous business.

Have you ever wondered why they went so early? Jesus was executed as a criminal. The crowds had turned on him, and they were turning on his followers. Peter, remember, was challenged three times. He denied Jesus every time because there was the very real possibility that he would have been lynched alongside Jesus. These were not the days to be proclaiming your allegiance to Christ.

The women couldn't do anything on the Sabbath, so they waited. And when morning dawned, they made their way under cover of the early morning light and snuck towards the tomb. They had no way of knowing that a contingent of soldiers would be waiting for them. The day before, the chief priests had asked Pilate for guards to protect the tomb from rabid disciples who might steal the body. At best, they would have been run off; at worst, they might have been executed as collaborators.

At the noonday service earlier today, I said that we needed to take some time and redefine "normal." Our teacher, friend and Lord is dead and buried and the world goes on as normal. But if that's the case, if the world continues on as normal, then Jesus fails. What Jesus asked us to do during his earthly ministry, what Jesus is asking us to do now, is to love your neighbor, care for the stranger, welcome the sinner, feed the hungry, and respect the 'other' (whomever that might be). In short, Jesus is asking us to redefine "normal." In the business world, that means a paradigm shift. Or maybe it means that Jesus moved the cheese.

Some people, however, have a hard time with change. Whether that is a small change -- I will never buy a laptop computer because I don't like the small keyboards; or whether that is a big change -- like shifting your world view in order to put God at the center of everything you do. Redefining "normal" isn't easy.

Some people need help redefining normal. When we read through the gospels, there are many stories of people wanting a sign from Jesus in order that they might believe. We might be tempted to ask, "What was wrong with them? Why couldn't they just believe?"

The most recent example of this was during the Passion when passers by said, "He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe." But how different are we? How many times have we said, "I'll believe it when I see it?"

What would have happened had the angel not been there? The tomb would have been empty, certainly. Would the women have believed that Jesus had been raised, or would they think something else? Would they even be allowed to look into the tomb? Was the angel the sign that the women needed to go out and proclaim the good news?

I can't answer most of those questions, but I can tell you that the angel wasn't the sign; the angel was the confirmation. The women followed Jesus because they believed him. They believed he could heal people; they beleived his message of love and hospitality; they believed that, through him, a person could get to know God on a totally different level. The angel wasn't rewarding them for their faith, but was saying, "Look, what you believed is true."

The women run off back to the men "with fear and joy." Fear and joy. Fear because, well, they had just seen an angel, and those are seriously scary beings. Fear because maybe they weren't sure if the guards would chase them down. Fear because now they had to redefine "normal" for the world.

Joy because what Jesus had told them was true. Joy because death isn't the end of life. Joy because they get to be the first to share the good news.

Going back to that old hymn, the strife really isn't over and the battle really isn't done. We have enough strife and battles in our everyday lives to keep us busy for quite some time. However, the victory of life is certainly won. Death is not the end of it. And that's a good thing.

Having experienced a meal, a betrayal, and a death, we now know that life wins. Life Wins! And that should make us shout "Alleluia!"

So, go forth from here. Tell the world the good news of Christ's resurrection, and redefine "normal."