Jesus is Risen in You.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedWe have been in John's Gospel all of Lent.
And as you have walked with me
you know that we have seen
that this book is one of the
most complex
and multifaceted pieces of literature
in the Western world.
It is a profound
story
with layer
upon layer of detail.
In some ways
it is an epic poem.
And in tonight's gospel
we see a piece of that poetry.
Two weeks ago
we were standing at another tomb.
It was the tomb of Lazarus.
And Jesus looked at Martha
and declared what we now know:
I am the Resurrection
and the Life.
He who believes in me
shall never die.
And Mary came out
from sitting with her relatives
and she had come into agreement
with the religious spirit
that would take Jesus to the cross.
And he wept.
And now,
this same Mary
is at the tomb.
A different tomb,
the tomb of Jesus.
And she is weeping.
And Jesus looks at her,
and says
"Why do you weep?"
John reverses the script
and Jesus
is now consoling her for her grief.
This is one of the many threads in John,
how Mary was redeemed,
restored,
and now
the witness
to the Resurrection.
And the former prostitute
becomes
the evangelist
to the Apostles.
A year ago I was invited to attend
the British Commonwealth
Prayer Gathering.
I have been to a lot of prayer
initiatives and events.
And like so many,
there is a speaker after speaker
who confesses the sins of the past,
slavery.
The colonial system,
freemasonry,
and endless injustices.
There seems to be this belief
that if we just confess the right sin,
God will save us from the mess that we are in.
And after an hour of this,
the Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London
stood up.
Of course there was a pause
because he was different than all the others.
And we wondered what he would say.
"You do not understand Christianity."
"We are not sinners,
and we are not called to constantly dredge up sin.
Jesus Christ rose from the dead,
and he trampled down death by death,
and we are not called to live under sin and death.
We are called to go live in the resurrection.
You are called to not look at the past.
You are called to look to the future,
and build something new
because you are a new creature."
We aren't called to look at the past.
We are called to live in the resurrection life
of Jesus Christ.
As I said yesterday,
the work of the cross is complete.
And when we pick up our cross
and die to our old lives and choose to live
a new resurrection life in him,
the Holy Spirit,
the same spirit that raised Jesus
from the dead,
gives us life.
And that life in us
makes it possible
to live a new life in this world.
And Mary ran to the disciples,
and the disciples ran to the world.
And their message built a new civilization.
Don't look back at the past.
Don't look at the blood stained path to the cross.
Don't look into the empty tomb and sit in the cold.
Let Jesus
in you
live
and that resurrection life
can change and transform you from the inside out.
Alleluia,
Christ is Risen,
the Lord is Risen indeed. Alleluia.
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