Turn, Turn, Turn
John 20:1-18
Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen indeed!
Today is a glorious day - a day of new beginnings and new starts.
Today is a day where hope springs eternal!
A day of openings and reversals.
A day where we are given a clean slate, there is no more weeping and in addition we sing as one hopeful community.
It is a day where righteousness triumphs over evil.
And I have read that today “marks the long-awaited transition from the harshness of winter to the glory of (a New England) summer” and there is an “unmistakable message that where we’re heading is better than where we’ve just been.”[1]
Today is a new day, a day to turn things around.
Yes friends today is opening day at Fenway Park, where the Red Sox will play the New York Yankees at 8:05pm and surely righteousness will triumph over evil. There will be no more weeping, because there is no crying in baseball. The faithful will gather and sing as one, the words to Sweet Caroline and Dirty Water. Today there is a clean slate, hope springs eternal, and there is an “unmistakable message that where we’re heading is better than where we’ve just been.”
These are the words of Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory writing an article he called Opening Day Blues, where he laments the decision for opening day to be transformed to an opening night. Apparently the columnist prefers the light over the dark.
But today the Red Sox are not the only game in town, for there is another Opening Day that occurred. These are the words of the Lord, from John, the columnist who writes this; “very early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and found it open. She saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance and so she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"
Jesus – the Messiah – the Christ – the Living one - the Son of God - the Prince of Peace - the Lord of Life could not be contained. The thought of a mere tomb containing and restraining the resurrected Christ is nothing to cry about. The righteous one has triumphed over evil by bearing the burden of our sins, dying and rising again so that we might all sing out as one faithful community:
Christ is Risen. Christ is Risen indeed!
The columnist then reports about a race where the runners sprinted as if they were at the end of the Boston Marathon, rather than rounding the bases. John says:
3So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10Then the disciples went back to their homes.
Looking at the replay, we see that John reaches the tomb first, balks and only looks inside. Simon Peter catches up, passes him and goes right into the open tomb. John finally goes in, sees the evidence and they believed – but what? They believed Mary’s report that Jesus was missing and did not yet understand that Jesus had risen from the dead.
They turn around and go back home. Seeing but not yet understanding, that which is going to change their life very dramatically. This occurrence, very early in the morning light at the open and empty tomb, is going to transform their life and all of those who come to believe in Jesus throughout the years. What is ahead will be very different than what was. It is a moment of turning, transformation and conversion, no matter if that conversion for someone happens dramatically, slowly, once or many times throughout their life.
While the word used in John for turning around describes a physical turning around - a very different kind of turning was just beginning. It really was opening day in our faith – for the Christian faith looked very different than the religions that had come before. The servant Christ invites us to come into a new relationship with our Creator and to be sustained in life by the Holy Spirit. In Greek this change is called metanoia and its spiritual implication means a conversion, transformation and a new start. Hope springs eternal and the resurrection makes opening days with God possible. Every day is a new day. Martin Marty says that metanoia “implies a 180-degree turning,” [2] and I believe than an authentic transformation and turning towards Jesus means a head and heart response. It is never forced on someone else. In the Gospel story, this turning is the first of many turns and transformations.
The columnist continues: Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"
"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him."
Mary weeps at yet an additional loss. She had watched her Lord and Teacher praised, then beaten, bruised and crucified all within one week. And now his body was missing.
We also have those weepy moments in our life. Times of confusion, of loss and of fear. Moments when the tears seem to be gushing up from a place inside our soul – from a place so deep that we didn’t even know its depth.
But Mary don’t you weep!
4At this, Mary turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."
16Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).
17Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Mary’s physical and spiritual turning was a metanoia moment. A moment of transformation, conversion and the beginning of many turn-a-rounds for those who decide to walk with Jesus as friend, companion and Savior. And the most beautiful and comforting thing to me in this scripture, is that Jesus looks at all of us the way that He looked at Mary. I don’t’ always understand it , but I have felt His comfort. He sees through our tears, knows our deepest needs and joys, and calls our name. It is an amazing grace that is offered to all. Those Easter turning moments have many names: conversion, transformation, God moments, awakenings, a new start, an opening day. The unmistakable message on Easter morning is “that where we are heading with Jesus is better than where we’ve just been without Him.”
Nothing is impossible with God. Sometimes we try to contain the concept and work of God in our own theological little box. But if you feel that you have it all figured out then your God is too small! God cannot be contained. God is bigger than we can figure out in our heads – try as we might. The work of God to redeem us through Jesus Christ could not be contained in the tomb, how could it be contained in our heads and our own minds. Everything was blown wide open on Easter morning and nothing is impossible. Many years ago J.B. Philips wrote a book called “Your God is Too Small” which challenges us to think through our assumptions about God. He says we try to “train and tame and label” God to our own likening and when we do then our God is too small.
We have a witness to the power and grace of an uncontainable God. In January Bill Arrington suddenly came within two hours of death when he was rushed to Mass General with a severe and aggressive bacterial infection. There was a lot of inner weeping and flowing tears for his family, friends and loved ones. Yet Bill is here today to be a witness to the power of God in his life.
God had something more for Bill to do, and about a month later he and I had a conversation and prayer about his experience, God and his faith. His experience was a transformational moment and it turned his life around. Bill said that whatever he thought he knew about God and had figured out – was way too small. God was bigger than he could have ever imagined and he said this:
God has promised in scripture that He would take faith the size of a grain of mustard seed and make it into a mountain. I am living proof of that, as he increased my faith ten thousand fold. I thought that I had faith until God tested me with this experience, NOW I know what faith is. I still find it hard to believe that God would use one of his miracles to cure me. I am just an ordinary person and I have never accomplished anything extraordinary. It all just goes to prove to me that God is not finished with me yet, and He has things left for me to do. I look forward to discovering what those things are and accomplishing them in His name and for His glory.
Bill Arrington.
We do not always understand how God works. There are stories of miracles and there are stories where healing did not seem to occur - but in all cases the work of God cannot be contained within our own mind. We don’t know what happened inside the closed tomb between God and Jesus on that early morning – but we do know that the redeeming, loving, and saving work that began on Easter morning continues in our lives today. Try as I might I cannot figure it all out, but I came, came to, and came to believe in the resurrected Christ and can’t imagine journeying through my life without Him.
Today hope springs eternal. The relief pitcher has been called in for the save.
Keep the faith for Christ has risen!
Christ has risen indeed!
Amen.
Rev. Deborah J. Blanchard
[2] Martin E. Marty, “John 20:1-18, ” ed. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Feasting on the Word, Year C.,Volume 2 (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press,2009)p374.
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