Easter Sunday
Preacher: The Rev. Heidi Haverkamp
Preached on: April 24th, 2011
Audio:
No recordingScripture Text:
John 20:1-18
Sermon:
My friend Bradley is a big Star Wars fan, and he’s also an Episcopal priest, and he’s made sure his three kids know both realms very well. Once, Bradley’s wife Katie was working in the kitchen while one of the movies was on in the other room and their oldest son Isaiah, who was about four, was watching. She heard someone say, “May the force with be you.” And Isaiah said: “And also with you!”
There’s a lot of spirituality in Star Wars, actually, spirituality that doesn’t sound foreign to Christian ears. Yoda, the Jedi teacher, says: “Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
There’s even a sort of a meeting-at-the-tomb scene in the old Star Wars movie “The Empire Strikes Back.” The hero, Luke Skywalker, walks into a horrible hole in the ground that’s full of the energy of the “dark side.” Inside the cave he meets and fights Darth Vader, his enemy. He defeats Vader but when Vader’s mask falls to the ground it melts away and suddenly Luke sees his own face there, lying on the ground. Luke confronts the Dark Side by fighting it and in the end, he has to face the darkness that’s still in himself.
When you think about confronting something like “the Dark Side,” what do you think of? Maybe your deepest fears, your most painful secrets, or the horror of the violence and cruelty human beings can do to each other in this world? What does the gospel story tell us that looks like, in contrast to the story of Luke Skywalker? Not that the Star Wards story is wrong; but what does the story of Jesus tell us about facing down evil?
In the gospels, the crucifixion is the place where God has faced down the dark side for us. We don’t have to face it alone. There is no great battle we need to fight. God faces down death, torture, evil, and wickedness for us in Jesus. And Jesus doesn’t fight with a light saber, he fights with love and by giving up his own life in the face of that evil. He fights, and he fights in a way that it seems like he’s given up!
Instead of “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering,” Jesus says to us something like, “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them… There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:15b & 18).
And so what do we find when we look into the tomb and face down the worst? What happens when Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb in the gospel of John? The stone is rolled away. And the tomb is empty.
What would you find if you rolled away the stone covering up everything in your own life that seems secret or awful or wrong or dead? The gospel tells us that if you roll your stone away, if you open up the festering things in your life to the sun of God’s love, you’ll find an empty space. Not an awful warrior waiting to do battle with you, not a dark, creepy space filled with bugs and snakes, not a craven, phantom image of yourself. You’ll find an empty tomb. You’ll see some angels, who may ask, “Why are you crying?” And you’ll turn around, and Jesus will be standing behind you, looking over your shoulder, into the tomb. He’ll ask you, “What are you looking for?”
Whatever you were looking for: proof of your unworthiness, dark shadowy hopelessness, someone to fight with, a mask to wear… what you’re going to find in the empty tomb is the deep, overpowering, undefeated power of God’s love for you.
“God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them… There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”
Last night, at the Easter Vigil downtown, Miranda, Christopher, Erika, Rosie, and Karen proclaimed just that when they were confirmed and received into the Episcopal communion. In just a few minutes, we’re going to baptize two little boys, Ian and Chike, and their parents and godparents will proclaim the same thing. Love wins instead of fear. Life wins instead of death. God wins instead of human failing.
And we will all be invited to join them and say that we, too, turn away from evil; that we, too, put our whole trust in the grace and love of God in Christ; and that we, too, will seek to love and serve others; that we, too, will respect the dignity of every human being; that we, too, choose love instead of fear, and resurrection instead of death.
Christ is risen! Amen.
