St. Patrick: Intimacy with God

And Jesus Called Her By Name, Year C March 31, 2013

Episcopal Church of the Ascension The Reverend Dr. Howard J. Hess

I. Introduction. We believe that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb of Jesus between 3 and 6 am on Easter morning. According to John, “it was still dark.” Darkness and light are central metaphors of John’s Gospel. For example, Jesus said: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (8:12). Nicodemus and Joseph of Aramathea who had first come to meet Jesus in secret at night, then later came to Pilate in the light to request Jesus’ body after his crucifixion (John 10:38-42). Yet here it is that faithful Mary Magdalene came to the tomb in the dark of the night. We can only imagine the profound desolation Mary felt as she made her way out of the dark city to the garden tomb. At that time, the place where Jesus was buried was outside the walls of Jerusalem. What must she have been thinking? What must she have been feeling? John doesn’t tell us that, only that Mary Magdalene came to Jesus’ tomb while it was still dark.

II. Together, we have just experienced Holy Week. We have seen the altar stripped and all the Christian symbols taken from the chancel. We have frequently been in darkness this week – in our Tenebrae, Maundy Thursday, and Easter Vigil services. And I must say that occasionally this particular week in East Tennessee has seemed especially dark to me. There have been cloudy days, abundant rain, and nippy temperatures. The sun often has been obscured by clouds.

This Holy Week has been somewhat dark for me for another reason. I want to share a personal experience this morning. Recently, I have had symptoms of a disease that is similar to one that runs in my family, the disease from which my sister ultimately died more than twenty years ago. I had hoped my symptoms would subside, but they did not. So, just days before Holy Week, I began my medical odyssey to determine what was wrong. With the guidance of an extraordinary and compassionate physician, diagnostic procedures were ordered that would provide us with significant clarification. Many of you have been through this kind of process. And you know that the fear we often feel in such situations can intensify as we begin to address a problem. Before I go any further, I believe some reassurance is in order. Diagnostic procedures have not confirmed my worst fears. The results indicate, that basically I’m a healthy guy who is going to be living for a good long time.

But here is the part that I want to share with you. While alone in a small room, waiting for a significant procedure, I was hooked up to a blood pressure monitor and saw that the numbers on the monitor were climbing steadily, along with my anxiety. I began to pray the Jesus Prayer: “Jesus, Son of the Loving God, have mercy upon me.” This is an ancient breath prayer, said multiple times, breathing in and out as we pray. While I was praying, in my mind’s eye I saw Jesus. And I heard Jesus say to me: “Do not be afraid; I am here with you, Howard. Whatever happens, we will go through it together.” When I glanced over at the monitor, my blood pressure readings had dropped significantly.

III. Why have I shared this experience with you this morning? I hesitated to share it. But for days, God has encouraged me to include this in today’s sermon. This is how I understand why God might have been nudging me to do so. The Easter Story of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dark place of the cross to the place of an empty tomb and the light of new life is not and has never been a story about Jesus alone. Let me repeat that: The Easter Story of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dark place of the cross to the place of an empty tomb and the light of new life is not and has never been a story about Jesus alone. Nor has it been a story only about Mary Magdalene, John, and Peter and the others who knew Jesus and mourned his death. Yes, it became their story, but it is our story as well. Mary Magdalene went into a dark place. John’s Gospel tells us that she went there alone, and that there, she met the Risen Jesus. It wasn’t clear to her at first that she was going to encounter anything more than a dead body. Even after Peter and John came and saw that the tomb was empty, Mary Magdalene continued to weep . . . until she encountered Jesus.

At first she didn’t recognize him. In fact, she thought him to be the gardener and asked if he had taken Jesus’ body away. Then, “Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’” He called her by name, and the light of the Easter encounter shattered the darkness. “She [Mary] turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabonni’ (which means Teacher.)” In the Cambridge Bible Commentary, A.M. Hunter writes: “It [this] is the greatest recognition scene in history – epitomized in the word, Rabboni, an Aramaic word [that is] a stronger form than rabbi and means ‘My Lord.’ Since in Jewish literature, it [Rabboni] is a title generally reserved for the Divine Lord, we may have here a confession of faith comparable to the coming one by Thomas” (1975, p. 186). We can comprehend that Mary’s recognition of Jesus’ identity and his Resurrection all took place as she heard him call her name. Think about it, how many of us can vividly remember and would recognize how our mother and father called our name. Or how many of us have been able to differentiate the cry or the voice of our own child from among the voices of others? And Jesus called her name: “Mary.”

IV. The Currency of the Easter Story. I know that there may be some here this morning who doubt the veracity of the Easter story. If it were only a story about a one time historical event occurring approximately 2000 years ago, I would be hard pressed to “scientifically prove” to you the accuracy of John’s account. What I can tell you, however, is that the story of Jesus’ Resurrection is true. How do I know this? Through my faith and repeated experience that Jesus Christ is constantly taking me – and you -- from dark places into the light. The Resurrection is not a one-time event. It occurs over and over again in our lives as Christian believers. Sometimes we would like to have the movement from darkness into light occur more quickly, and frankly, often we don’t want to be in the dark places at all. I understand that! As human beings, we would like to control all aspects of our lives, but we all know that that is not possible. Therefore, the very best resource we have when in the dark places, such as the dark place of fear I experienced this past week, is the ongoing presence of the living Resurrected Jesus Christ.

V. Conclusion. But do know this. Coming to faith is a process. It may involve faith-generating events, but faith, just like trust, develops over time. Fr. James McPolin writes: “The religious experience in this [the 20^th chapter of John] is the ‘coming’ of the risen Christ to his disciples . . . and the disciples respond in faith – they ‘believe.’ . . . But this faith is not a sudden, once and for all response, for it is the gift of the risen Jesus and it grows through the experience of his absence, through fear and doubt” (pp. 252-253). Today, this is our Easter gift to one another – to know and to proclaim that in the undulating patterns of light and darkness in our lives, the risen Lord Jesus Christ is fully present. I encourage us all to listen in those places for the voice of Christ, to hear him as he calls our names, and to know that nothing –“neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in [the Risen] Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 8:38).

Alleluia. Christ is risen.

(Response): The Lord is Risen Indeed. Alleluia.