Sunday, April 9, 2023 - Easter Day
/Easter Sunday
John 20:1-18
The Rev. Canon Joann Saylors
“I have seen the Lord!”
I can’t really preach a better sermon than Mary Magdalene’s on that first Easter morning. Short and memorable and to the point, and maybe the truest sermon ever preached. Mary, the Apostle to the Apostles, starts here. She doesn’t say, “Christ is risen, the Lord is risen indeed,” as joyful as that is, but “I have seen the Lord.” Mary isn’t making an abstract statement of belief but offering her own experience to those who are struggling to go on. Creeds speak truth, but resurrection is truth you can see and share every day.
“I have seen the Lord!”
We can think it and say it in our own lives. Not by standing on a street corner or a crowded coffee shop and yelling it into the faces of unnerved strangers, or by putting John 3:16 on a poster to hold up and wave during a football game. God doesn’t call us to evangelism as coercion, or extortion, or, for that matter, as certainty beyond doubt. God does call us to share Good News based in relationship and in the reality of what’s actually happening in our lives.
To say “I have seen the Lord” is to point out resurrection in the midst of ruin; to find new life when all that seems visible is death; to offer love in the face of hate; to live in decency and goodness despite the vitriol and viciousness often encouraged in our world. Because resurrection is not only the promise of life after death, even though that would be more than enough. Resurrection also offers the assurance that the life-giving love of God will always move the stones away. And while we see tombs all around us that hold the deaths of despair, anger, judgment, and fear, God continues to roll the stones away that keep us from truly living. “I have seen the Lord!” are the words which push away the stones that confine and constrain us, so that all life might be lived with dignity and regard and respect.
The promise of the resurrection was made real when God raised Jesus from the dead. The resurrection is also real and certain in the world around us now. “I have seen the Lord” insists that the ways of love will win over the ways of despair. “I have seen the Lord” confirms that the truth of kindness can be heard over the shouts of vindictiveness and rage. “I have seen the Lord” witnesses to the fact that there is another way of being in the world — a way of being, shaped by resurrection, that embodies anything and everything that is life-giving. It is a way of being that is so counter-cultural, so demonstrative of mercy, so exemplary of the truth of Easter, that when we model it, others will listen, watch, wonder, and say, “Wait a minute. Did I just see the Lord?”
It’s not that the truth of the resurrection needs our works in order to convince others. The resurrection is true regardless of what we choose to do or say. But maybe it will be more true for each and every one of us if we can walk out of church this morning and be willing to say “I have seen the Lord.” If we find the places where we can say, “I have seen the Lord” in our lives. If we watch for those who might need us to say, “I have seen the Lord” because they cannot, after seeing only the walls of their tombs for too long.
The truth is that the resurrection of Jesus matters for our future, but matters even more for the here and now, for our own sakes and for the sake of others. Jesus matters for the sake of the world.
I have seen the Lord. In the offers of support after a hard medical diagnosis,
in the sacrifice of missionaries’ vacation time to serve others in need, in a family choosing to forgive someone who has done them harm, in a teenager courageously standing up to speak unwanted truth. I have seen the Lord, at work in my own life and the lives of others, in times of joy and in times of deep sadness. I have seen the Lord here, where we gather around his table, and where we build community. I have seen the Lord in hospitals, in schools, in libraries, in lines at the store. I have seen the Lord in the faces of others and in the games of children.
Anywhere people care for one another, anywhere people work for peace and reconciliation, you too can see the Lord. I promise you this because Jesus promises this. When you look for the Lord, you will find him.
Jesus has risen. So let’s go forth in joyful proclamation. Shout it today and say it again tomorrow and say it whenever you can. Who have you seen? I have seen the Lord! AMEN.