“Rebound” (John 20:1-18)

Ya gotta have hope.

On that first day of the week after the crucifixion I think it would be safe to say that the disciples and followers of Jesus were hungover . . . hungover by their frustration, mourning, anger, and guilt . . . they weren’t in their right minds as they struggled with the reality of what all had taken place.  Jesus was gone.  It was hard for them to wrap their minds around it.

Thus, they were stunned when one of their own, Mary Magdalene, came running to them proclaiming that someone had removed the body of Jesus from the tomb.  Running to the tomb, Peter and two other disciples look for themselves and see that the body was gone.  This did nothing to ease the pain of their hangover as they returned to tell the others.

Yet Mary stayed behind, weeping.  Weeping for the death of Jesus.  Weeping for the stolen body.  Weeping at the hope that was dashed, the promise that was unfulfilled . . . mourning for the one she loved.  As she weeps in her sorrow and anguish, she encounters two angels . . . and, then a stranger.  She asks where they have taken the body of Jesus.  And, the stranger says her name, “Mary.”

In the way that the stranger says her name, Mary recognizes Jesus.  He’s alive!  With a message from Jesus, Mary returns to where the disciples are gathered and tells them, “I have seen the Lord!”

As we witnessed in the powerful events from Palm Sunday to the crucifixion, we see a powerful and popular movement being born and coming into its own.  There was hope, great hope . . . things were changing.  Then there was that fateful night . . . from celebration to betrayal . . . arrest and trial . . . beatings . . . nailed to a cross . . . and, finally death.  The death of Jesus . . . the death of a movement . . . the death of hope.

And we see the disciples . . . the followers of Jesus . . . run and hide.

As Mary shared her experience and Jesus’ message, I am not too sure that the disciples believed her.  Easter is getting off to a great start.  It ain’t looking too good.

I guess that’s what happens when two ripples collide.  There is a great crashing of two strong forces, and one would assume that the greater of the two wins and moves on.  Yet, I am not so certain because sometimes what happens is another ripple is created . . . a new ripple depending on how each rebound from the initial collision.  Rebound means “to spring back on or as if on collision or impact with another body” or “to recover from setback or frustration”.  How the disciples and followers of Jesus respond, and recover will determine the fate of the movement . . . will restore or destroy the hope.  It is up to them and whether they have the resiliency to rebound.

Well, as I said, from what we heard this morning, things are not looking too good.  The disciples and followers of Jesus do not jump up and down in great joy and celebration at the news that Mary shares.  From what we are told they did not run out into the streets proclaiming that Jesus was alive . . . after all, they had seen the empty tomb where Jesus’ body had been stolen, and Mary was Mary—a female . . . what do women know?  Easter wasn’t getting off to a great start despite the good news from Mary.

Thankfully, Easter is more than just a day in the life of the church year . . . it is a whole eight-week season!  Because of this we are going to have the opportunity to listen to, study, and witness how those early followers of Jesus rebounded to embrace the promise and hope of Jesus’ message and witness.  It starts out a little rough as we are seeing this morning, but as we move forward, we see the promise beginning to be fulfilled.

Rebounding is important in life . . . how we respond to those situations and crisis in our lives that set us back is important.  Do we get up off the floor when we have been knocked down or do we lie there in defeat?  Once we get up are we going to run or stay and fight?  How we act in the face of a setback or a frustration.  Is it the end, or the beginning?

I guess that is a choice we all have to make.  Sometimes we just need a little encouragement . . . a slice of hope.

As my children grew up, I did what a lot of parents do . . . I got into coaching.  Throughout my children’s years I coached soccer, basketball, track, and cross country teams that they were on . . . I even did it for a couple of years after they had all grown up.  Coaching is tough and humbling.  Trust me, I had my rear-end chewed out many times by parents over those years.  Teaching and getting a bunch of kids to learn the skills necessary to do a sport is not easy.  But that is the job of a coach to help kids learn the skills, learn the game, and give them the confidence that they can compete and win.  The coach’s job is to give the kids the chance to win once the game gets started.  The coach can’t win the game . . . that is up to the kids.  By the time the coach lines up his or her team to play the game, those kids should know what they can do and how they should do it.  From that point on it is the job of the coach to encourage his or her team . . . to help them to believe . . . to believe that they can do it, that they can win.

It is amazing to see what a little encouragement can do.

One year we were able to take a group of kids, in a school that had never qualified a team to state, who had never won a district championship, and have them finish in the top ten at the state cross country meet.  These were not stupendous runners, but they were solid.  As the year went on, as we taught them and encouraged them, they continued to improve until they were one of the best teams in the state.  When they lined up at the starting line, they believed . . . they believed in themselves and their teammates . . . and, they did it.  All it took as a little encouragement.

Mary received that encouragement in her encounter with the risen Jesus.  From that moment on, she believed.  Nothing was going to stop her . . . she believed whether or not anyone else believed.  She becomes the ripple of the new movement . . . the start of something big.  She embraces the promise, re-discovers the hope.  She believes and the story is just beginning.

Yes, as we celebrate this Easter day, we are at the beginning of the story . . . the story of hope . . . of promise . . . of getting off the floor when we have been knocked down and believing.  Believing in what Jesus has taught us . . . what Jesus has demonstrated to us . . . believing that we have been prepared, that we are ready, and that we can go out into the world and share the love of God through what we say and do.

That is the promise of Easter . . . that we can rise up from our setbacks and frustrations . . . that we can make a better day.  Easter is God’s way of encouraging us.  Encouraging us that we are capable of overcoming whatever barriers we might face. 

Easter is a symbol of hope . . . of our hope in God . . . of God’s hope in us.  In this time in our journeys as God’s children . . . in this time of pandemic . . . there is hope.  We have come to the tomb . . . we have heard our name called by the Risen One . . . there is hope!  We can do it . . . we can do it because, like Mary, we believe.  We have rebounded.  That, my friends, is the gift of Easter.  Amen.

"Ripples" (Matthew 26:14-27:66)

It started out simple enough.  A cough . . . a complaint about a headache . . . simple things that happen probably millions a time a day.  But who would have thought that something so simple . . . so unassuming . . . would be the cause of a pandemic that is sweeping across the world?  Not me . . . probably not you.  Yet, that is how it happened.  All it took was one infected person . . . one stone in the great pond of humanity . . . to ripple across the world and putting everyone at risk.  It is a ripple that has change all our lives.

Think about it . . . a ripple.  In life there is something called the “ripple effect”.  The “ripple effect” is a situation in which one event produces effects which spread and produce other effects.  For the past couple of weeks our lives have been touched by a ripple.  The COVID-19 pandemic is a ripple.  From a tiny microscopic virus that one cannot even see with the human eye, a ripple has been set into motion radiating it waves across the world until no one can escape its presence in his or her life.  It has touched everyone’s lives.  It has changed all our lives.  There is no escaping the ripple.

It seems as life and history are filled with stories of ripples.  The story of Jesus is a ripple story.  Think about it . . . a simple baptism sets it all into motion.  A ministry that gets to the roots of God’s desires . . . love for the Holy One, love for others . . . that starts out simply enough—person to person as Jesus go about sharing God’s love wherever he encounters others.  And, it grows.  We read the gospels how as Jesus continues to preach, teach, and heal the crowds of believers grew.  As it continued to grow it made some nervous . . . the religious and political leaders were taking notice and it was making them uncomfortable.  But it continued to grow as Jesus swept across the landscape.

It grows to such a point that we see on this Palm Sunday that it is marked with a parade into the city of Jerusalem . . . a happy, joyous, hope-filled celebration of Jesus and what he represents.  The ripples have grown into a movement and would soon come smashing into another ripple . . . a more ominous one.

This ominous ripple set into motion long before Jesus was being marked by a parade too.  In stark contrast this parade was more somber and serious in its presence.  It was not a parade of celebration, but a message.  As the Roman governor Pontius Pilate marched his soldiers through the streets of Jerusalem it was not meant to be a celebration but a reminder of who was in control during this time of gathering to celebrate the Passover . . . Rome!  And, Pilate did not want the people to forget.

These two ripples were course for a collision as the lives of many were about to be changed forever.

Which brings us to our reading this morning.  We witness the collision of these two ripples as they come banging together.  We see how the one side represented by the religious and political powers react . . . the time has come to get rid of Jesus and to stomp his movement once and for all.  Judas agrees to betray Jesus.  Jesus is arrested . . . he bounced around as he tried by the religious and political authorities . . . and, he is condemned.  Condemned with crucifixion. And, we see him die on a cross.

From the shouts of Hosanna to the final scene of Jesus dead on a cross we also witness the collision from the other ripple.  We see the disciples abandon Jesus . . . first, Judas betrays him . . . they fell asleep while he was praying in the garden . . . they ran when he was arrested . . . Peter denied knowing him . . . and, they stood in the shadows—hiding—through the trial and crucifixion. 

Remember, the “ripple effect” is a situation in which one event produces effects which spread and produce other effects.  As the two ripples collide, a new ripple has started.  It will slowly radiate out and it would change the world.  Even today, that ripple is felt among those who call themselves the followers of Jesus.  But we don’t want to get to ahead of the story . . . we will save that for next week.

We should not view the disciples and other followers in a bad light.  No, I think that their reactions and actions were very human in a time of great fear.  They did what anyone would do in a threatening situation in order to survive . . . fight or flight.  Apparently, they saw the folly in staying to fight, so they ran.  They ran for their lives.  And who could blame them? They did what they needed to do to survive.

Remember, as the two ripples collide a new ripple begins.  What we witness in the reactions and actions of the disciples and followers of Jesus is only the beginning of what is to happen next.  Out of their fear they will find strength, they will embrace a purpose—a renewal of love of God and others, and it would ripple across time and generations until we too have felt its ripple.

From something so simple we get a ripple . . . a ripple that changes our lives forever.  Whether or not those changes become permanent will probably come down to us as individuals and as a collective whole.  We have had our moment of fear, though that fear is still real today . . . but, we have had our reaction to the crisis upon us through this COVID-19 pandemic.  As our reactions have subsided, we have begun to act instead of reacting.  We are stepping out of our fear to discover our strength of faith as the followers of Jesus.  We have begun to embrace our belief in a God that never abandons us.  And, we have started to reach out to care for our neighbors and others.  We have discovered that we are a family—God’s family—no matter where we are in the world . . . we are brothers and sisters created in the image of God and loved by God.  We have come to realize that we are in this together and we’ve got each other’s backs. 

The ripple has changed us . . . it has changed us for the better.

I read this quote this week about a person asking a rabbi after a natural disaster how to explain such a tragic act by God.  The rabbi responded that the disaster was an act of nature.  Then he said, the act of God occurred when people stepped up to help each other.

To love one another . . . this is the change we are living as we continue to follow the stay at home and social distancing orders.  We do it for each other so that we may all come out in the end safely.  We reach out to family, friends, and neighbors through phone calls, social media, and even good old letter writing to check up on one another.  We do it by remembering to purchase gift cards from local restaurants to help keep them afloat when people are not eating out.  We do it as we shift our prayers of “why” to prayers of concern . . . not only for ourselves, but all of God’s children everywhere.  We do it as we surround those who have to work so that we may all live . . . the medical people, law enforcement, all those who work tirelessly to protect and serve . . . with prayer.  We love one another.

A ripple . . . a change.  Will it last?  Will the effects of this ripple change our old normal into a new normal?  I hope so.  I share this quote from last week about this idea: “Nothing should go back to normal.  Normal wasn’t working. If we go back to the way things were, we will have lost the lesson.  May we rise up and do better.”

As this ripple continues to break upon us let us embrace the lessons we have learned.  Let us continue to reach out in love to care for others.  We are early in this story that we are living, but the opportunities are huge.  It is a part of the story started long ago . . . the never-ending story.  We are writing our chapter . . . may it continue to be a revelation of God’s presence in this time of pandemic.  May our ripple change the world.  Amen.