There is a crack in everything.
It is Easter! It is the day of an empty tomb and eternal promises. It is the day of a heavy stone rolled away from a grave. It is the day of hope and faith into human darkness, despair and death.
It is Easter! It is the day of yellow daffodils, majestic lilies and green hope.
And what a joy and relief to celebrate Easter today with you finally back I the pews and with you with us virtually, - as we too need a resurrection to life and hope and faith.
Last year we celebrated Easter too, as Christians have done since the very first Easter Morning when Mary Magdalene, Mary and Salome came to the tomb of Jesus. But as everything this past year, last year’s celebration of Easter was unusual and different, as we could not gather in our churches, and we truly could not imagine how the coming weeks and months would unfold.
Since March 2020 we have collectively been in the darkness of fear and anxiety, isolation and hardship, virus and passing’s. And now in April 2021, it feels like there is a crack…
Like the late singer and poet Leonard Cohen sang in “Anthem:
“There is a crack in everything.
That is how the light gets in.
The birds they sang at the break of day
Start again, I heard them say
Do not dwell on what has passed away
Or what is yet to be.
Ring the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack, a crack in everything,
That is how the light gets in.
That is how the light gets in….”
This day, this Easter, feels like there is a crack and the light is getting into our darkness and despair.
It feels like the Easter Egg is hatching, like the sun is rising for the first time, like the air is blowing fresh and promising, like a heavy burden has been lifted from our shoulders, and like a heavy stone has been rolled away.
We feel like life has been given back to us. Slowly, cautiously, but still promisingly we hope and pray that life will be less restricted, less fearful, less masked and distanced…. And more like we long for and need.
We feel grateful, hopeful, and we embrace the day with hope and faith.
The Easter Gospel as told in Mark, is short and precise and earthshattering. When Mark tells the story about Mary, Mary and Salome paying a visit to Jesus’ burial site in the early morning, there is no indication that any of them were thinking about resurrection. It may have been the very last thing on their minds, having just witnessed the tragic and dramatic events of Jesus’ arrest and death.
They were worried as they went, talking about that big boulder, that big stone at the entrance of the tomb. But as they poked their wearied heads inside the tomb, a man in a white robe interrupts their grief to say: “I know you are here for Jesus of Nazareth. But her is not here. You need to go and do something with your grief. There is a good life out there in front of you. Go now and tell the disciples yet tell the entire world: that Jesus has been raised, and he is a head of you. “And the women went or rather they fled from the tomb, frightened, confused and amazed….
This past year, I have witnessed families linger much longer than usual, not sure what to do when the committal ceremony at the gravesite was over. Because of Covid, we have been gathered at gravesites for smaller private ceremonies, as as we could not to as we usual do and need to do: to gather in our beautiful church for memorial services, gather in the hall for funeral coffee or lunch, gather in a restaurant, gather in a private home…. Instead, mourners have been lingering at the gravesites, standing for the longest time, saying little and unsure of where to go next.
Just like Mary and Mary and Salome that first Sunday as they were approaching their grave and confined by their grief.
Then, Mary, Mary and Salome were met by this vision of a white man with hopeful words and directions.
We and all mourners are met by the words of Jesus and the promise of God: You are thinking about the one you have lost. But be mindful of the future. There is something ahead. And you need to step into the future with confident hope and faith. And know that Jesus is already ahead of you… in this life and in death.
This is what we long to hear and need to hear on this Easter Morning. This is what we long to hear and need to hear here in the aftermath of a long dark year.
That there is life. There is light. There is love. There is more. There is an open door. There is a crack in everything, that is where the light gets in. There is a rolled back stone that gives us access to an unimaginable faith and unbelievable hope.
So, look up! Look ahead! Look with faith.
Sometimes we as Christians tend to read the Bible mostly as a book of the past. It certainly contains stories and revelations from the pat, but the purpose is always forward, never backward.
As humans we like to look backwards, as it seems safer and more manageable. We look back to the past on what has been, because it seems easier to preserve the past than to try to understand an unknown future.
We are drawn to the rearview mirror, the faith of tradition, to the warm memories of our childhood church and faith. And yet, the God of Easter is the God of today and tomorrow. The God always walking ahead of us, always urging us to look up and look ahead, always leading us into life, hope, and the future.
As Jesus kept saying:
o Look at the birds of the skies and the lilies of the filed, and do not worry about tomorrow
o Keep you hand on the plow and do not look back
o Keep on knocking on doors, seeking and you will find….
o Do not look for me in the past or in the grave, look for me in the present and the future and in hope.
It is Easter. And today we proclaim what we believe in, what we hope for, and what we love.
As s good Lutheran college said: “What is Easter all about? The long answer has filled volumes of thousands of years. The short answer: love. Like everything else we say and do in the church, if we are following Christ, this day too is about love. Not our love for God, primarily. That might follow. But God’s love for us. Not because we earned it, but because God loved and loves the world and humanity and creation.”
Granted, we all have our doubts. We all have our reservations, but we all have that crack of faith too. The crack of faith that lets light and love in.
That is why we gather today. That is why you found your way to this Virtual Service that breaks down the barriers of social distancing and lets us spiritually connect and wordship. That is why you are here in church for the first time in so long.
Faith is the reason why we are here today.
We are here to listen to the story that reassures us that light is always stronger than darkness, that life is always stronger than death. That hope transforms our lives, hopes and days.
Easter is not just a Sunday to remember; what happened that glorious mysterious first Easter morning when the women came to the tomb; it is even more a time to live and breathe.
Easter is something we live and breathe.
Take a deep breath. Take one more. And take one third deep breath. Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Easter is not just something that happened once a long time ago, it is something that happens now. Among us. Within us. For is. Easter is a song of faith for today and tomorrow.
Easter is the crack that lets the light in.
Easter is a song we sing today. Because we believe, we hope, and we love. We are Easter People. And we gladly proclaim today: Christ is risen. AMEN.