This sermon was preached on the 20th of April 2025, Easter Sunday, in the Anglican Parish of Kalamunda-Lesmurdie.
Texts:
Hearing the Resurrection Gospel, proclaiming it, it’s hard not to weep with joy and awe. It’s hard not to let one’s voice crack and break. Love permeates every verse of Saint John’s telling of the Resurrection.
Consider the love and care of Mary Magdalene for Jesus. Jesus was her rabbi, her master, her friend. And he died. He died, most horrifically.
And yet, her love for Jesus did not end with his death. She was steadfast. She witnessed his burial, and later she returned to his grave in order to be with him, in order to mourn.
Those of us who have loved someone who now lies dead, we understand.
Now consider the relationship between God, and humanity. God, Holy and Triune, created us all, making us in their own image. And then we sinned. We turned away from God, and toward ourselves. We spurned and rejected our Creator. We sundered ourselves from God. And so, death began.
And yet, the love of God for humanity did not end when we turned away; it did not end when death entered into the world. God was steadfast. God remembered us. God returned to us, born of the Blessed Mary, in the person of Jesus Christ.
When Mary Magdalene thought that the body of Jesus had been taken away, she wept. She wept out of love. And then she saw the gardener, and he spoke: “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?”
Mary looked for Jesus: “tell me where you have laid him.”
And then Jesus spoke a single word: “Mary.”
As Saint John Chrysostom sung:
O death, where is thy sting?
O Hell, where is thy victory?
Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead, is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Ever since humanity fell captive to sin, we have searched for God. We have felt an aching emptiness, an estrangement. We have searched for God – and God has searched for us.
Mary stood before the gardener, and He called her by name. And then she saw that the gardener was her dear Lord Jesus, with her once more. God incarnate, God with us, Emmanuel, stood before her, risen again.
As they spoke, the long awaited restoration of the relationship between humanity and our Creator was made real, present, and tangible, embodied by Jesus, embodied by Mary.
And so we have good news – the greatest news! Humanity has been restored. We have all been restored by God’s grace, through God’s abundant love for each of us.
The pain of our breach with God has been healed forever. We have no more cause for worry, or fear, or doubt, because we know in the deepest sense – the very deepest sense – that the words of Julian of Norwich are true. All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.
Good news should be shared. And so Jesus commissioned Mary to be his messenger, his apostle – the apostle to the apostles. Mary was the first to share the Good News, and many more soon followed, in their tens, hundreds, thousands, millions, each bearing the light of Christ to the world.
And now that is our task, our privilege, our joy. And so, when you go forth from this place and out into the world, share what you have seen. Bear with you the light of Christ. And share gently, and sensitively.
I have met many people who seek after meaning in the world, who describe themselves as being spiritual, but not religious. Some have been hurt by the Church, or have seen others hurt. I have listened to people who fear our faith, because they worry that it will impose itself upon them, and some of who they are will be lost. They fear that we will impinge upon their wholeness.
And so when you share the Good News, remember that Jesus, God incarnate, spoke softly, gently, and with love that morning in the garden. He spoke gently when he called Mary by name.
Jesus saw Mary Magdalene through resurrection eyes. He saw all that she was, all that she was made to be. He saw Mary restored, resurrected, whole.
And as Jesus saw Mary Magdalene, so Jesus sees you. Jesus looks upon you – Jesus looks upon every person – with total love.
And Jesus loves you, not disregarding for your particularities, your diversity, your uniqueness, but with total regard for those things, with total regard for who you are, who you have been made to be.
None of us is inherently broken. None of us is inherently wrong. We have all been made in God’s divine image: we all have dignity, and worth. And nobody you will meet, nobody with whom you might share the Good News, is inherently broken or wrong, either.
Let go of judgement. Share the Good News that God looks upon every person with love.
Share the Good News that God seeks us out, calling us gently by name.
Share the Good News that Christ is Risen, and all life is liberated!
And so, let us cry Alleluia together!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!