Bill Stroop Sermon, "God in the Silence" Great Vigil of Easter Sermon, Year A, 22 March 2008

A few years ago, Nassim Taleb wrote a book called, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. Taleb is an ex Wall Street options trader, who is professor of the sciences of uncertainty at the University of Massachusetts. In his book Taleb makes the claim that human beings are ‘hard wired’ to see the world as structured and predictable even when there is no structure; we claim comprehension even when there is none. Any of us who has taught in a classroom knows this all too well. After presenting a lecture on a difficult subject, we ask if there are any questions – knowing that there should be several – and the students just nod back as if they’ve understood every syllable.

But in many ways, Taleb is right about how human beings hold onto certain preconceived notions or make predictions based on assumptions that may have no basis in fact. “For example, until the 18 th century, no one had seen a swan that was anything other than white; whiteness was an intrinsic part of swan-ness – it was an unquestioned belief. But then mutant black swans were spotted in Australia, and in an instant observers had to change radically their understanding of what it was to be a swan.”[1]

The writer of Matthew’s Gospel doesn’t tell us why the two Marys went to the tomb that morning. Perhaps they went there because they just wanted to be near Jesus. They probably experienced the same feeling many of us have had when someone we knew passed away – particularly under tragic or unexpected circumstances. It is what drove students, faculty, family and friends to leave flowers at the make-shift memorial for the students who died in the February shooting at Northern Illinois University.[2] Our grief expresses itself in a need to be close, and to remind ourselves that our loved one is gone.

When they arrived, an earthquake attended by an angel caused the stone to be rolled away from Jesus’ tomb. The angel told them to look inside. I imagine they were so bewildered they didn’t know what to expect. But instead of seeing the shrouded body lying on the carved stone shelf and smelling the mustiness of dew clinging to the cold stone walls of the burial chamber, they saw an empty tomb. They went to the tomb expecting to see a white swan, but they encountered a black one.

It’s a remarkable story. So remarkable, that some people – including many faithful Christians – have trouble understanding it. Christians – including those of us sitting in this church tonight – have different ideas about the person of Jesus and his resurrection. But we have, in some fashion, come to the understanding that in the person of Jesus, God had made Godself real to human beings. Jesus became God incarnate, and there was no way that God was going to remain sealed up inside that tomb. Over the course of time, Christians realized that when they love as Jesus loved, and when they love the ones whom Jesus loved, namely, the least of God’s children, the person of Jesus becomes very much alive in them and in the world. Jesus lives!

The last line from our story from Matthew says that as the two Marys were running to tell the disciples what the angel had said to them and what they had seen at the tomb, and extraordinary thing happened. Jesus suddenly met them. Jesus greeted them. Somehow, Jesus became manifest to them in a way that they could comprehend, and they took hold of his feet and worshiped him. In that moment, Jesus became the incarnate God to those two women.

Truth be told, none of us can say with any certainty at all what happened on that first Easter day. We can talk about the effects of developing a belief in Jesus as the incarnate God, and in the incredible power of God’s love. We can talk about the power it produces, and the transforming changes it can bring about. We can talk the effects of it, but we can only guess about its factual beginning.

The resurrection of Jesus is something beyond human comprehension. It is beyond time and space and therefore beyond our ability to express accurately in words. But, like the two Marys and Peter, all we can do is stand in awe of the effect of the thing called resurrection, and come to a sense of belief in its reality.

Among us are two families who have come to an understanding of the mystery, the power, and the meaning of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and to be baptized into the Christian family – into our community. They have heard that mysterious call from the cross and from the tomb that speaks to the power of resurrection. They have said, “yes” to that call.

The effect of the resurrected Jesus on the women, the disciples and the rest of us who came after speaks to the transforming power of God’s love. From the very beginning Baptism describes an action involving the use of water that causes a profound transformation in the persons Baptized. St. Paul wrote with the understanding that Baptism provides a way to participate in the very death and resurrection of Jesus. Through the symbolic use of water, and in the presence of the Christian community, Charles Jackson and Michael Rowan will emerge from the water of Baptism as new creations, incorporated into the Body of Christ. And all of us will renew our commitment to Christ and the Church and promise to support one another along our Christian journeys.

One thing is clear. Although the resurrection itself is a mystery, the power of the resurrection is something that can be felt by everyone who has been touched by the gospel story. It is the power of the gospel that can reach us today just like the angel reached helped the two Mary’s feel the presence of the resurrected Jesus.

The experience of gathering as a community to bless and welcome newly baptized members and then to share in the Eucharistic celebration with them is part of the tradition of the Great Vigil and Easter morning. It is the time when we as a community feel the presence of the incarnate God still with us even though we killed him and buried him once. We gather together and use ordinary water, oil, bread, and wine to create something extra-ordinary: a community united spiritually through him, and with him, and in him; a community that sees the love of God to be so powerful that even death cannot contain it. We are empowered by that love, a love that knows no boundaries of time or space. A love that will reach toward us, and sustain us especially when we least expect it, when we experience those moments of the cross; times when we endure the betrayal of friends, the loss of loved ones, physical agony, fear, loneliness, and hopelessness.

God is with us in those dark moments, when we least expect it. That is the message of Easter: God comes to us when we least expect it. But God comes. And for that I say, thanks be to God!

1 When Israel went out from Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,

7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the LORD,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.' This is my message for you." So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

Almighty God, who for our redemption gave your only- begotten Son to the death of the cross, and by his glorious resurrection delivered us from the power of our enemy: Grant us so to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his resurrection; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. or this O God, who made this most holy night to shine with the glory of the Lord's resurrection: Stir up in your Church that Spirit of adoption which is given to us in Baptism, that we, being renewed both in body and mind, may worship you in sincerity and truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

[1]Money Week accessed 20 March 2008 at http://www.moneyweek.com/file/29252/what-swans-can-tell-us-about-markets.html.
[2] http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2008/02/18/victims_of_campus_shooting_mourned/

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