FIRST DAY

March 27, 2016

Easter - 8:30am

Genesis 1:1-5

John 20:1-29

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

The poetry of the first verses of Genesis says that the creation of light is the beginning of injecting some order into chaos - to bring some perspective into a universe that is taking primordial shape.

Light is not created to eliminate darkness, but to be it's companion.  We all know that it is equally impossible 'to see' when surround by either complete darkness or blinding light.

It is the gentle combining of light and dark that allows for shadows to emerge - for colour and perspective and beauty to become known.

It is dark when Mary Magdalene begins her Sunday morning journey.  The light of a new day creeps over the horizon as she walks to the place where Jesus body was laid on 36 hours earlier.

Here life was in chaos.  She had no delusion that a few rays of fresh sunshine at the start of a new week would change that.

But she never imagined it could get worse... Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.

#409VU "Morning Has Broken"

Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. ... She turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Mary's eyes were filled with tears.  The salt and water clouded her vision, but her other senses allowed her to recognize Jesus.  It was her ears that first discovered a familiarity in the one she had assumed was a gardener.

It was the memory of her name being spoken with deep compassion that opened her eyes and she wanted to reach out and embrace the wonder of this new day.

She ran and told the others: I have see the Lord!  A couple of them ran back to see Jesus in the garden for themselves, but all they saw was an empty tomb.

Mary's full story was still too much to be believed.  Hope was not stronger than grief... yet.

As the day ended - as the flickering light of lamps and cooking fires replaced the steady light of the sun - the disciples of Jesus remained shut off from the world.  They were (literally) locked up with the darkness of grief.

Let there be light!

Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘peace be with you.’  ... He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’.

Into the darkness and chaos of grief, the group of disciples experienced easter resurrection in their midst.  Like Mary, senses other than sight made it real for them.  Their ears heard Jesus speak words of peace and spirit.  And more than Mary did in the garden, their hands could touch resurrection.  They felt it in their hearts and on their fingertips.

At the beginning of existence, the ancient poet imagined that the first day emerges in light... and chaos is set aside.

On the first day of a new week, Jesus' closest followers had the chaos of their despair disbursed by the one they would come to call "The Light of the World".

Our place in the universe has us on this spinning globe with its regular cycles of day and night - seasons and years as we spiral through space with the star whose light makes our lives possible.

As we roll into new days, the familiar light and warmth greets us and we are reminded of the wonder of the cosmos God has made and the special mystery that is the life we live.

Like Mary, Peter, John,

Thomas and the others, we open our God-given senses to this first day of a new week.

I believe that one of the messages of easter is that there is nothing old in our midst this morning.  Even that which is familiar exist fresh in this new light.

Hear again... Jesus greeting us with a peaceful welcome.

Feel a fresh spirit blowing among us and through us.

Touch this new day with wonder and awe.

Every new day is fresh.  In fresh light, all hope and promise is possible.

We are an Easter People.

Christ is Risen.  Hallelujah.

#88MV "Over My Head"

Blessings for a new day...