This is the sermon I prepared for Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Beatrice, Neb., for the Easter Vigil, Saturday, April 3, 2010.
+ + +
Readings
Genesis 1:1–2:2
Exodus 14:10–15:1a
Ezekiel 37:1–14
Isaiah 4:2–6
Romans 6:3–11
John 20:1–18
+ + +
Prayer
Stir up in us, O Father, the gift of your Holy Spirit, so that we may see your Son, risen and reigning as Lord of all. Amen.
+ + +
Message
It reads like testimony,
because that is what it is.
Our Gospel is the account of the Passion’s witnesses,
those who had lived through the events of this Holy Week.
It is their testimony and telling
of what they knew to be the truth.
Listen to what this evening’s Gospel says:
+ Mary Magdalene sees that the stone has been removed.
+ The disciple who outruns Peter sees the linen wrappings lying in the tomb.
+ Peter sees those same wrappings and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, rolled up in a place by itself.
+ The swift disciple sees and believes.
+ Then Mary sees two angels.
+ Mary sees Jesus, but mistakes him for the gardener.
This is the testimony of the eyewitnesses of the resurrection.
And then, as Jesus talks with Mary,
he calls her by name,
and her eyes, that had seen only a man,
are opened to see who he really is,
to see that he is Jesus, her Teacher, and her Lord,
to see that he is not dead, but alive.
And then he sends her to tell his brothers—
his companions, his disciples—
the good news that he is risen.
This is the moment the mission begins.
Our risen Lord sends his believers
to tell others the good news,
to announce the defeat of death,
to proclaim the victory of God,
to testify to what they had seen and heard.
So Mary goes from the garden,
returns to the disciples’ homes, and tells them,
“I have seen the Lord.” (John 20:18, NRSV)
And from this eyewitness testimony of one woman,
the message spreads and grows
across cultures and lands and ages
until today one third of the world’s people,
two billion believers,
say along with Mary, “We have seen the Lord.”
Our risen Lord Jesus Christ comes to us,
just as he came to Mary.
He gives us the same mission,
to go and to tell what we know to be true:
We have seen the Lord.
We have seen him, our Lord, the Word of God,
hidden, but working, in the creation of this world.
We have seen him, our mighty Lord,
in the powerful presence of the angel of God
who stood guard over Israel in its escape from Egypt.
We have seen him, along with our ancestors in the faith,
in the words of the LORD God that bring life to dry bones.
We have seen him, the branch of the LORD,
making Mount Zion a garden for all of God’s people.
And we see him here and now.
We see him in the baptismal washing and the Word that give us life.
We see him before us in the reading and proclaiming of his Scriptures.
We see him in the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation.
He is here. He is risen. He speaks to us.
He calls us by name. He sends us with a message.
And so we say to all people, “We have seen the Lord.” Amen.