Lingering In The Resurrection

John 20:1-18

A few weeks ago, I met with some preachers at Arby’s for lunch. We all talked with one another about what we were doing for Easter but what we were all really doing was fishing for new angles in proclaiming the resurrection story.

The resurrection of Jesus is the life of the Church! Yet, I think if you asked most preachers, it’s not our favorite day of the Church year. Even though the crowds are bigger, Spring has arrived, and the day is filled with hope and promise, Easter is a preacher’s most fearsome Sunday. Why? It’s because we’re trying to speak convincingly and clearly about something we don’t understand.[1] How does one preach about something like the resurrection that is so difficult to comprehend?

You all know that I love Christmas. And I’ll take Christmas preaching over Easter preaching any day of the week. Christmas is a lot more tangible. It’s about a birth and most of us have held a new baby. Yet, how many of us have held onto someone raised from the dead? At Christmas we have a manger, hay, wooly sheep, and parts for everyone in a Christmas play. There’s so much to latch onto at Christmas. But Easter is a different story. There’s not much to latch onto. Elusive angels stand in a cemetery and give instructions no one can understand. There’s an empty grave. Everyone is bewildered and many are crying in grief. Do you see the challenges here?

A few weeks ago I was wondering and wrestling with what I might say on this Sunday. As I was waiting for my light-bulb moment when the grand idea for 2007 would come to me, guess what happened? The light bulb for my work light burned out. Talk about your ominous signs. Since I didn’t have any spares…and ideas weren’t coming…it was off to Wal-Mart for a new light bulb and hopefully inspiration.

When I got to Wal-Mart there were regular light bulbs, but there was also a CFL display of a new-fangled light bulb. CFL stands for compact fluorescent light and these goofy-looking new light bulbs are supposed to use 75%-80% less electricity than regular incandescent bulbs. They come in all shapes and sizes but these are the coolest looking ones. Yeah, they cost more, but they’re supposed to last about 10 years and can you imagine the dollar savings if we changed all our light bulbs to these?

When I got home, I started researching these bulbs (mostly because I didn’t have a good sermon idea yet) and found that if one of every 100 million homes in America would swap out their normal bulbs for one of these CFL’s, the energy saved would eliminate the equivalent pollution of 1.3 million cars on the road, save enough electricity to power a city of 1.5 million people, or close two power plants. Now imagine if these light bulbs really do catch on and everyone buys them. These things could be a real and simple solution to some of our world’s energy problems.[2] Who knew that a simple thing, like a change in light bulbs, has the potential to save us all?

So how am I connecting this to the resurrection? Well, perhaps it’s the simple aspects in the resurrection story that contain the real power for us. Could it be that the real-saving power in this story is from something as simple as changing a light bulb? Maybe it’s something seemingly insignificant in this story that can make a real impact on our lives? Don’t ask me to explain to you what Jesus looked like to Mary, why she didn’t recognize him, or why the angels seem insensitive with their question of, “Woman, why are you weeping?”[3] Those bigger questions of the resurrection are God-things. You’ll have to get those answers from God because I don’t want to touch them. But there are some simple things in the story that do make a lot of sense to me and I want to remind you of one of them.

One of the constants in all four Gospel accounts of the resurrection is Mary Magdalene.[4] She represents a whole community of people, from her day and our own, who want to know where Jesus is.[5] Who among the millions of people in churches today throughout the world wouldn’t want to have an answer…a real answer…to the question of, “Where is Jesus?” We want to know. We want to know where Jesus is when loved ones die, when life doesn’t turn out like we plan, and when expectations go unmet. Where is Jesus?

In John’s account of the resurrection, Mary Magdalene, Simon Peter, and the disciple whom Jesus loved are all at the tomb. They all are startled to find that the stone has been moved, the body of Jesus is not there, yet the grave clothes still are. There’s evidence Jesus was there, but he wasn’t there now. Use your imagination to wonder what they were thinking. What would you have thought?

John tells us that Simon Peter and the other disciple look things over, and then they leave. They go back home. John says the “other disciple” left in faith. We’re told that Simon Peter just left. Maybe they plan on resuming a normal life…whatever that might be…maybe they just need some down time to think about what’s just happened. Whatever their plans or intentions were, they were not at the cemetery anymore.

Mary Magdalene, on the other hand, sticks around the cemetery. She doesn’t leave. Sure she’s weeping and wondering where Jesus is just like everyone else. She’s probably desperate and very hurt too. Yet, her simple act of lingering allows her to catch a glimpse of the resurrection.[6]

There’s something for each of us to learn in Mary’s action. Once today is over, many of us preachers will breathe a sigh of relief that we’ve survived another Easter. Folks who only come and worship around Christmas and Easter will go back to what they normally do on Sundays. Many church folks will move on too. The Easter parades are done. The cantatas have been sung. The regular rhythms of church life will resume. Perhaps it shouldn’t be that way.

Perhaps Mary Magdalene’s act of lingering is instructive for us. Maybe if we hang around long enough, we’ll catch a glimpse of the resurrection too? You can call it what you want: stamina, courage, stubbornness, anger, faith, or dogged determination…but lingering through questions is often how we eventually come to catch a glimpse of the resurrection life Jesus promises. It sounds so simple doesn’t it that lingering might prove to be so revealing? As simple as…well…changing a light bulb.

If you’re here today in darkness, doubt, hurt, and disappointment, hang around a while and wait for Jesus to show up in your life. If you’ve always packaged the resurrection in a certain way, perhaps Jesus wants to show you a new “light bulb”…just by lingering…that will grow your faith in ways you’ve never imagined. If you’ve always been one who’s quick to move on once something’s done, maybe lingering and waiting for Jesus to reveal himself is God’s call upon your life.

I don’t know what I’m going to say about the resurrection this year. If any of you hang around long enough and Jesus shows up, I’d love to have some new ideas.

Amen

[1] Some of my thoughts here are adapted from Kimberly L. Clayton’s article, “The Easter Texts: Getting Hold (or not) of Easter,” Journal for Preachers, Volume XXX, Number 3, Easter 2007, pp. 3-7.

[2] See Charles Fishman’s article, “How many light bulbs does it take to change the world? One. And you’re looking at it.” Fast Company, September 2006, pp. 74-83. Also see “The Jesus Bulb,” Homiletics, March-April 2007, pp. 52-56, which develops some Easter thoughts that I adapt in this sermon.

[4] See John 20:1; Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1; and Luke 24:10.

[5] Barbara E. Reid, “Resurrection Happens! Exegesis: John 20:1-18,” Lectionary Homiletics, April 8, 2007.

[6] Kimberly L. Clayton’s article, “The Easter Texts: Getting Hold (or not) of Easter,” Journal for Preachers, Volume XXX, Number 3, Easter 2007, p. 4.