EASTER SERMON by the Revd. Diana Hoare

John 18 : 1-18

What an amazing and glorious time of the year spring is! After the cold dark, closed, dead months of winter, suddenly nature explodes into life again. The miracle of new life, of rebirth after death, is everywhere all around us whereever we look. Buds beginning to swell on dark twigs, green grass shoots bursting out of the brown growth from last year and spring flowers exploding like fireworks in the hedgerows, fields and gardens. Crocuses, daffodils, snowdrops, and daisies. Colour, light and life surround us as we walk through the beauty of the Shropshire landscape. And how glorious was the garden which Mary Magdalenee found herself in! Can you imagine it? Exotic flowering trees - I always think of magnolia trees, their heavy glorious flowers delicate pink, veined and luminous in their abundance and glory. I always imagine the garden in today's reading bursting with jewels like flowers and filled with the glorious fragrance of lilies and hyacinths. And in this glory Mary had a terrible shock. She has arrived to find the enormous heavy stone which had sealed the tomb rolled away. We can imagine her agitation and confusion as she ran as fast as she could to Simon Peter and the other disciples. They do not know where Jesus has been taken. The disciples bend down and see the linen wrappings. In their panic and confusion they see what is in front of their eyes but they don't see any further. They go away trying to understand with their minds what they see with their physical eyes. We are told that the other disciple who reached the tomb first saw and believed but they are struggling to understand with their minds what has happened.

Bur Mary stays outside the tomb weeping. She stands quietly, feelingly, in the glory of that garden. She stops and is just being in her weeping. The sun shining all around her, the beauty of the flowers, the glory of that morning. And as she bends forward too look into the tomb she sees the angels. She has stopped and from the glory of the garden she sees the glory shining brightly in the tomb. What an incredible sight that must have been to see two angels in the tomb. Not one but two, one at the head and one at the feet of where Jesus had been lying. How immense and incredible that would have been - the light of two angels in such close proximity and in the confined space of the tomb. The glory must have been completely dazzling . The glory within. And she shares with them her trouble and distress as they ask her, "Why are you weeping?"

In our wounds are our glory. Mary's pain and tears and grief are something all too familiar to me in my life. Our human lives are brim full of all kinds of pain and my response is often to weep. As we allow the grief to wash through us and overflow into the tears we weep so we can experience transformation. Out of the deepest grief can also come the most profound glory . Mary's eyes are blinded with tears. Have you ever had that experience - your eyes full of tears and as you half open them and let in the sunlight the tears are transformed into diamonds as the brilliant light sparkles and dances amongst the tears? It must have been somthing like that for Mary. As she is so blinded by her tears she cannot recognise her beloved Lord and master for whom she is weeping.

She turns to him and when he asks why she's weeping she thinks he's the gardener and she asks him if he has moved Jesus’ body. Her grief, her emotion, her feeling, her tears have blinded her eyes so she can't actually see but her heart is awake, wide open. As Jesus speaks her name in the familiar tone he always used with her, the ears of her heart recognised Him immediately. If we can allow our hearts to be open and feel the feelings that are arising instead of using our heads to dismiss them or understanding them, we will recognise and receive the glory which is God. And so it was for Mary. From her stillness and silence in the glorious garden she received the glory of the angels in the tomb and from her wounded feeling and open heartedness she was able to receive the glory of the Risen Living Lord whom she loved so completely and passionately.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the reality for us all of eternal life are completely central to the Christian tradition. The light of the star of Bethlehem shines at the heart of the cross - where the horizontal and the vertical meet is the very heart of our Lord Jesus Christ. The glory of the resurrection lies at the heart of our darkness and death and despair. In the midst of life we are in death and in the midst of death we are in life. Life is eternal and love is immortal and death is only a horizon and the horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight. The paradox which is the glory of the cross lies at the very heart of our faith. It gives us strength to make sense of our human-ness in the context of Christ's divinity.

From the glory of the Easter garden to the glory of the tomb to the glory to be found in our woundedness to the glory of recognising the Risen living lord in our very own lives. The Easter story is one of unlimited Glory and abundance if we see and hear with the eyes and ears of our hearts rather than limiting ourselves to understanding it with our minds and our logic.

Risen Lord Jesus, as Mary Magdalene met you in the garden of the Resurrection so may we meet you today and every day. Let us hear you speak as you spoke to her. Let us recognise you as you show yourself as the Risen Living Lord. Let us feel renewed hope in our hearts and the joy of the resurrection in every moment of our lives. Amen