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The Great Vigil of Easter April 15, 2006 Alleluia, Alleluia, the Lord is risen! “Are we there yet?” “How much farther?” “Are we there yet?” I’ll bet there is no one here who has not either uttered those words, or answered them, perhaps with some exasperation. “Are we there yet?” –the plaintive cry of a child on a journey that seems to have no end. During Lent, we’ve been on a metaphorical journey as we traveled in our gospel readings with Jesus towards Jerusalem. At times this journey, too, has seemed interminable, and perhaps you, as I did, had moments when you felt like saying, “Are we there yet, God?” And if this journey felt interminable for us, imagine what it was like for the disciples traveling with Jesus during his ministry, struggling to understand what it was all about. I wonder if at times they, too, might have felt like asking Jesus, “Are we there yet?” We have a distinct advantage over the disciples because we know what the final destination of our journey looks like, and tonight we joyfully celebrate our arrival at that destination—the resurrection of Jesus. We’re finally there, and we celebrate our arrival with bells and music and flowers and happy shouts because we know that the end of the journey is Good News, Jesus has triumphed over the cross, he is risen from the grave, he has defeated death, and in this glorious mystery lies our salvation. As hard Lent can be, as wrenching as the journey to Jerusalem, to the crucifixion, with Jesus is for us, we at least have a map with the end clearly marked. How very different the end of the journey must have looked to the disciples. After a triumphal entry into Jerusalem they saw their beloved teacher arrested, demeaned, humiliated and finally nailed to a cross to die. They saw his battered body wrapped in burial linen and laid in a tomb, a tomb sealed with a heavy stone. Defeated and demoralized, believing that this was literally the end of the journey, the disciples scattered. So it is that we don’t hear the news of the resurrection from the ones who should have been most prepared to proclaim it. Hand picked by Jesus to travel with him, to minister with him, to be instructed by him, in the end it seems as though the twelve nonetheless have missed all the signals. And so, at the tomb we don’t find the twelve--not James, not Andrew, not Peter, not John—not any of them. They are nowhere to be seen. Instead, we find women at the tomb—Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary”. Lots of speculation has been made about why Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were at the tomb. Some have argued that it was because it was their role as Jewish women to watch the tomb for three days to make sure that the person had not been accidentally buried while still living. Others note that it was the task of women to mourn and that the visit to the tomb was part of the mourning. But the argument I find most compelling is this: perhaps the women were there because, unlike the twelve, they hadn’t missed the signals. Perhaps they were there because they remembered that Jesus had told them more than once that he would be crucified and then would be raised on the third day. Perhaps they were there because they trusted Jesus’ message. Perhaps they were there to see Jesus. Whatever the reason for their presence, there was plenty to see while they were there. An earthquake shook the ground and an angel appeared to show them the empty tomb and to announce to them that Jesus indeed had been raised. And as Mary Magdalene and the other Mary attempted to flee, both in fright and with joy, Jesus himself appeared. And so it was that these women became the unlikely messengers, the ones who say “Jesus is risen, he is risen indeed” as they point to the real end of the journey. Of course, this real end of the journey is not just an end, it is also a beginning. Just as Easter marks the end of the somberness of Lent and the beginning of the joyous celebration of new life in God, so too does Jesus’ crucifixion, death, and resurrection mark for us the ushering in of the Kingdom of God—the kingdom that Jesus preached during his ministry and that we are called to live into, the kingdom with its paradoxical “already but not yet” character. It marks the beginning, yet again, of our lives in Christ, the lives we are initiated into at our baptism, and that we nourish each week in the Eucharist. It reminds us that although we’re there, we’re not really there yet. It seems fitting to me that such unlikely messengers as Mary Magdalene and the other Mary are the ones who announce the resurrection, who point us on our way towards the Kingdom of God. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were on the fringes of Jesus’ ministry, they weren’t part of the inner circle, and as women they had no real status in the community at large. Yet through their faith, through their openness to new possibilities, they were present at the tomb and they were able to serve as guideposts for others to the resurrected Jesus, to the new reality. Just as the two Marys were unlikely messengers of the resurrection, so too do we encounter Jesus through unlikely messengers today—through our children, through the marginalized, through strangers, through those who are sick and suffering. Tonight we celebrate the end one journey and the beginning of the next. We celebrate the joy of the resurrection and we take on the task of enacting God’s kingdom in this world. As we shout our alleluias may we also be watchful for those unexpected messengers who help us proclaim: Alleluia, the Lord is risen!
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