“Living the Resurrection”

John 20:1-18

II Kings 2:1-15

A sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley

Easter Sunday

April 16, 2006

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

 

 

 

It’s good to be here on Easter Sunday with all of you.  We get to re-imagine again what it might have been like on that first Easter morning.  We can think about the visit of Mary Magdalene and some others to the tomb, finding it empty.  We hear about the foot race between Peter and the other disciple, who run around looking for what might be different about this morning.   They take off and we have Mary Magdalene by herself having a conversation with a gardener who just happens to be the risen Jesus. 

They talk and Jesus tells Mary to spread the gospel to those who might be willing to hear it.  And then the disciples hear the story, and we hear the story, too.  We are recipients of the story because of Mary Magdalene. 

If you have been here for the entire Lenten season, you experienced the story of Jesus and Mary Magdalene through the eyes of theologian Jane Schaberg, quasi-contemporary feminist and muse Virginia Woolfe, our resident UBC dramatic translator Gayla Marty as well as the rest of the major and minor actors in the story. 

The drama began in the abandoned dig at Migdal, the supposed home of Mary Magdalene, taken care of by a Palestinian family.  We heard of the meager and looted excavations and watched a family celebrate a Palestinian meal, not unlike the one we had here this past Thursday evening.

The next Sunday we heard the ancient texts that give Mary Magdalene a prominent place and intimate knowledge of Jesus and his ministry.  We saw in this scene how Mary Magdalene appears in the canonical gospels ostensibly only at the cross and the empty tomb.  We saw how the church fathers transformed her from an apostle to a prostitute in order to minimize her influence and discredit her.  We saw the tension between her and Peter for the leadership of the early church.  Guess who won?

The third week, we went into France where we saw Mary Magdalene revered and conflated with other Marys: Marie Solame, Marie Jacobe, possibly even others.  What was clear there was that Mary Magdalene served as the patron saint of people from all walks of life.  She was an evangelist, a healer, a visionary, an ascetic, the supposed bride of Jesus, and to some yes, even a reformed prostitute.  

On the fourth Sunday, Mary Magdalene, Jane Schaberg and Virginia Woolfe had a heart to heart about theology, life, saying the things that are important and breaking with tradition—liberation often has a painful price.

On the fifth Sunday, the UBC children treated us to their own take on Daniel and the lion’s den.  They called it Danielle and the Lion’s Pit.  We considered the apocalyptic literature that surrounds the visions of the Son of Man or the Human One.  We imagined that what Daniel and even Jesus considered the Human One was not one single individual but the collective community that puts into practice God’s purposes.  This means that all of us have the capacity to be the Human Ones inasmuch as we continue to do the work of God.

Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, we remembered the role that Elijah played in the visions for a new community and the hopes for a Messiah.  We remembered how every Seder meal holds a place for Elijah in hopes that he will come and set things right.  The people treated Jesus like Elijah on Palm Sunday, but when he didn’t fulfill the formula of militarily overthrowing Roman rule, they turned on him, crucifying him as either a blasphemer or an insurrectionist on Good Friday.  But before he got there, he shared a meal with the disciples and reminded us all that great things can and should happen over meals.

This Sunday, we have the story of Elisha to help us flesh out the Easter story.  Why do we do all of this?  Jane Schaberg said it well: “The Christian Testament’s narratives of the empty tomb and of an appearance to Mary Magdalene are in many ways like the site at Migdal.  They too are our necessary ruin, one of many.  They have been looted, dug at abandoned, endangered.  Many luxury hotels have been built on them.  They are a site from which many have been excluded.  But we can climb the fences, walk on it, dig and sift and treat it with respect, even foolishly imagine buying it and owning it. Underneath it lies part of our history.” (Schaberg, 2004:353)

Let’s look briefly at Elisha.  Elisha was the apprentice of the great prophet Elijah.  He wanted to carry on his work.  He was even audacious enough to ask Elijah for a double portion of his power so that he could do even more amazing things.  Elijah said he would grant him the double portion if he was to see him ascending.  That’s just what happened in today’s scripture that Anne read a few moments ago. 

Now imagine, if you will, that Jesus actually was Elijah.  Who would be Elisha?  The one who never strayed from the cross who remained faithful even at the tomb.   The one who saw him raised for the first time.  The one who first reported his resurrection to the disciples and by extension to all of us.   

            Mary Magdalene. 

She is the one who received a double portion.  She is the one who did not doubt.  She is the one who did not deny.  She is the one who did not betray.  If we are to believe some of the Gnostic extrabiblical writings, she is the one who saw things clearer than any others. She is the one with intimate knowledge.   She is the one with special grace.  She deserves our respect, our devotion, our attention.  As Virginia Woolf mused, “She is the one who understood too completely.”

            But if Mary Magdalene is to be resurrected in any real sense of the word, it can only be in respect to how we live as a resurrected community.  Mary Magdalene and even Jesus’ resurrections won’t mean anything unless we are resurrected in some way shape or form. 

            How do you live your resurrection?  What portion of your life gives witness to your resurrection?  Think about that.  Pray about that.  Long for that kind of commitment on this Easter Sunday.  Sisters and brothers, Easter is the time when we remember the resurrection and the longing that comes from it and the hope that exudes from it.  When I think of resurrection, I think of people taking their faith seriously enough that they are willing to ask of it the hard questions: What did it mean back then?  What are the texts saying to me?  To whom are the texts written?  To whom are they not written?  Might God have more light and truth to spring forth from the words of the other communities of faith?  What does the resurrection mean to me?  How does it manifest itself in my life?

            I was interested to see the Governor’s conference on violent crime meeting behind closed doors at the big house on Summit Avenue this past week.  There were mayors and cops and politicians there.  As more than one person said, it took a couple of white kids getting murdered for anyone to notice.  But one person conspicuously absent from that meeting was Don Samuels.  The Rev. Don Samuels, the American Baptist Minister turned City Council person from north Minneapolis who said that all persons should be treated with dignity and that no violent death will go unmourned.  For the past three years, he has stood vigil when countless people were gunned down in North Minneapolis.  He said that the community needed to mourn these deaths and that he would not rest until there was peace and justice in Minneapolis.  So it was odd that the governor chose not to invite Rev. Samuels into the big house to talk about the problems.  Odd—or predictable…Predictably, Rev. Samuels instead held court where he always holds court—out on the street.  He spoke with reporters and gave them his vision for peace happening when people are respected and given living wages and economic opportunities and decent schools.  The governor later appologized to Rev. Samuels.  And what I saw was a person living the resurrection.

            I mention this because all of the truth does not reside in the big houses and the big institutions.  All of the truth does not even reside in the church.  Much truth does, but not all truth.  The church is our best attempt to seek God and mostly we do it pretty well.  But institutions can get messed up with politics and with looking good and making people feel comfortable.  There is something about resurrection that breaks through even the fortresses of our church buildings and makes new things possible. 

            I am so thankful that UBC has embraced this Lenten Odyssey on the Resurrection of Mary Magdalene.  For it is really a resurrection of all of us.  It is the resurrection of a community that is not afraid of asking the hard questions.  It is a resurrection because it goes in unpredictable ways that make us pause and have to rethink our priorities.  It is a resurrection because if we cause people to think and feel and even reconsider parts of the story, then the larger story takes on a more intense and worthy and worthwhile meaning. 

That is a resurrection.

            Sisters and brothers, in a little while, this marvelous Easter service will end and many of us will go off to our family reunions and eat too much candy and gorge ourselves at sumptuous feasts.  It’s all a great and important thing to do.  But think about how you might live the resurrection as the conversation swirls around full bellies. 

Think about how you might proclaim the good news to a world in need. 

Think about the actions you might take in response to the audacious claim that the tomb is empty, that Jesus is risen, that we are to be the purveyors of the Good News, we human ones, we receivers of double portions, we keepers of the story, we visionaries and messengers of God. 

If you can find one way to live the good news, to be the good news, each of us, and we take each of these beautiful strands of cloth and weave them together then we create a tightly woven cloak of destiny, of hope, of peace, of vision where all people are welcomed, all faces have value, all lives are considered holy, all attention is given to making things right between us. 

If we can create even a portion of such a garment, then Elijah, Elisha, Jesus, Mary Magdalene and all of us will live together in this new movement known as the Good News.  That’s what we celebrate on Easter, not just the resurrection of Jesus, but the passing on of the mantle of the Good News to all of us so that we can pass it on to others and see the way to a new tomorrow.

            May it be so with all of us.

            Amen.

 

 

References are from Jane Schaberg’s book The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene: Legends, Apocrypha, and the Christian Testament.  2004.  Continuum Publishing, New York, London.