NATURE
Scripture Lesson: Matthew
28: 1-10
Dr. Matthew Brown
Easter
What an amazing time of
year! Three weeks ago we were donning
our down, bracing for that cold, wet, wind that goes straight to the bone, and
muttering something about moving to
Three weeks ago, the walk from
the car to the office, or school, or grocery store seemed far too long, an
eternity passing as our fast shuffling feet pulled us toward that next source
of heat. But this week that same walk
seemed far too short. We wanted to
linger in the fresh outdoor air and look upon pear blossoms and budding blooms
of tulip poplar.
I’ll admit that I’m a sucker
for that rich green carpet-like grass that almost glows in early spring,
staining mowing shoes and emptying mower gas tanks. Perfectly manicured, crisp, clean edges
around the curbs. It’s the kind of lawn
that screams Lawn Service!
Oh, but how vanity is
satisfied and pride is massaged if you achieve it without professional help or
underground irrigation. I had a neighbor
in Morganton who actually had a brush on his Simplicity mower so that his lawn
had the striped appearance of a major league ballpark. The ironic thing is that looking out my front
window, I was able to see and enjoy more of it than he did, while he was stuck
with suffering through another spring looking at my little crabgrass heaven.
The clouds and the rain today
do nothing to dampen our love for this glorious time of year when we rejoice in
the greening of God’s good earth.
The rites of spring. People tentatively emerging from their winter
hibernation to catch up with old neighbors and meet new neighbors; opening a
door or window to let the old stale air out and the new fresh air in; actually
feeling not just the need but the urge to exercise, if only for a day or two;
fertilizer spreaders; garden spades; warmer weather; longer days; the robin’s
song; Spring break; egg dying; chocolate bunny buying; new dress outfits;
baseball mitts. It is what we look
forward to; what we expect.
The celebration of Easter
tends to get mixed in with all of these rites of spring because; we tend to
connect all the signs of new life popping up around us to the message of the
resurrection. But truly, Easter bonnets
and basket bearing bunnies have no actual connection to the message of that
first Easter morning. Easter is
something entirely different.
Often at this time of year
you’ll hear stories about new life. In
written devotionals and sometimes in children’s sermons you’ll hear sweet
stories seeking to relate the Easter story to the crocus coming forth from the
ground or the caterpillar emerging from the cocoon as a beautiful
butterfly. The rites of spring. The greening of the earth. Sweet stories. But to be honest, they are closer in relation
to the ancient fertility cults than they are to the message of Easter. Though they share a common calendar, the
processes of nature should not be confused with the events of Easter dawn.
Barbara Brown Taylor reminds
us that spring is entirely natural. Buy
a daffodil bulb in the winter and it looks like nothing in your hands - a small
onion, maybe, with its thin skin and scraggly roots. If you have any experience
with bulbs, however that does not worry you.
You know all you have to do is wait.
Come springtime it will escape the earth and explode with color, a
yellow butterfly of a blossom shedding its cocoon. As miraculous as it is, it is completely
natural.
Resurrection, on the other
hand, is entirely unnatural. When a
human being goes in the ground, that is that.
You do not wait around for the person to reappear so you can pick up
where you left off - not this side of the grave, anyway. You say goodbye. You pay your respects and you go on with your
life as best you can, knowing that the only place springtime happens in a
cemetery is on the graves, not in them.
The prophet Isaiah once said that God would be doing a new thing and in
the darkness before dawn on that first Easter morning, God rendered Isaiah’s
prophecy the understatement of all understatements. He is not here; for he has been raised. It was not natural. It was not anything one would expect. The earthquake that coincided with it in
Matthew’s gospel was certainly more predictable than the resurrection
itself.
O, there are certainly other
accounts in scripture of people being brought back to life. Elijah, Elisha, and Jesus transformed the
mourning of distraught parents into exultant joy by restoring the breath of
life to their children. Jesus had called
forth his friend Lazarus from the tomb and out he walked, still wrapped in his
mummy’s costume. But the child of the
widow of Zarephath, the son of the Shunammite woman, the daughter of the
synagogue leader and ol’ laughing Lazarus himself would face illness and death
again. Yet on that Midwestern Sunday
morning before
When Spring’s blooms turn
brown, gardeners will go about cutting what they call dead heads off their
perennials and then wait for nature to work its magic again next March. But listen to this vision in Revelation, a
vision of a day that the resurrection of Jesus foreshadows and ensures: God himself will be with them; he will wipe
every tear from their eyes. Death will
be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more... Did you hear that?
Death will be no more.
Peter says that, God has
given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ form the dead, and into an inheritance that imperishable, undefiled, and
unfading...
I don’t know about you, but
when I look in the mirror, that’s not what I see. Imperishable, undefiled, and unfading... I hate to burst your bubble, but there’s not
a plastic surgeon in the land who can promise that. Even plastic cracks. Resurrection is most unnatural.
Frederick Buechner
contrasts resurrection to the widespread thought that there is some spark of a
spirit within each individual which cannot die and that therefore, life after
death is as natural a function of man as digestion after a meal. The Bible instead speaks of
resurrection. It is entirely
unnatural. Man does not go on living
beyond the grave because that is how he is made. Rather, he goes to his grave as dead as a
doornail and is given his life back again by God (i.e. resurrected) just as he
was given it by God in the first place, because that is the way God is
made. Resurrection is not about the
humans’ indomitable spirit, it is about God’s
unfathomable love.
The Psalmist foretells the
truth of Easter morning, the stone which the builders rejected has become the
head of the corner. This is the Lord’s
doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is to say that when the
Mary’s stumbled through the darkness toward the tomb that morning, it was not a
trip to be compared to our journey to an airport where we fully expect the
plane to arrive, the door to open, and the people to walk out. Well, hello Uncle Phil! Airport reunions are common, often touching,
and entirely natural. Mary and Mary were
not like those who stand in the terminal hallway - waiting, looking for their
party to arrive.
They did not travel to the
tomb in expectation. They traveled in
grief. Though the grave may be the place
of our saddest memories, there is something that pulls us there. We can’t explain it but it is as natural a
phenomenon as the compulsion to drive by a house you used to live in. How many children through the years have
groaned at the thought of a parent saying it one more time, Son, that’s the
house where I was raised. Memories lead
us to the places of our youth and grief leads us to the broken places in our
hearts. Going to the grave that morning
just seemed the natural thing to do and sorrow seemed the natural emotion for
the moment.
Grief is expected and
natural, inescapable even.
I think of the Marys on that
day and I think of Jane, a friend, a thirty six-year-old mother of two young
children who expressed the sorrow of the day of her husband’s funeral through a
letter. She writes:
Dear Graveside Service,
You are today. So is the funeral. I dread all this. I know it is going to be a long day. You begin at dawn.
Sleep is evasive these
days. Andy is gone. There is a hole in the bed beside where I
lie. It keeps me awake. Sometime during the night, it began to
rain. This morning when I got out of
bed, it was still raining. It’s silly
but it seems appropriate. Today we bury
Andy’s body. God is sad.
Mom and Dad drive the three
of us to the cemetery. When we arrive I
see the traditional green funeral tent over Andy’s grave sight. There are some people milling around. Dad parks the car. At least the viewing is over. This cannot be more painful than it was. I can hope anyway.
These emotions are familiar
to many gathered here today. You know
they are real, raw, and entirely natural.
But God was not satisfied to
let the story end there. And so, in the
darkness before dawn on that first Easter morning, he broke the rules of
nature, raising Jesus Christ from the dead.
Mary and Mary, doing the natural
thing in the natural environment of a garden tomb would experience that which
was most unnatural and their world and our world and Jane’s world would never
be the same.
Death is natural. Grief is natural. The hope that is the Gospel is
unnatural. It is a gift that only God
can give and it is this gift that would enable a widow, far too young, in the
midst of her grief, to write this powerful word of promise to the husband who
died. She writes, I, Jane, keep you Andy
in my heart. I keep you there, not in
anger over your death, not in bitterness that you died so young and not with
regrets for a relationship unfulfilled.
I keep you in my heart free from worry for I know you are safe, healed,
and held by God. That is the unnatural,
God-given hope that is the resurrection.
So thanks be to God who, in breaking all the rules of nature and beyond
all our expectations, grants us the words and the voice to proclaim: Jesus Christ is risen! He is risen indeed.
Amen.