Richard Bollman, S.J.

EASTER VIGIL: C 2007

Luke 24:1-11

This story of Easter centers on three women.

They are remembered explicitly by name:

Mary Magdalene and another Mary who was James' mother, and Joanna.

These are the women who stayed on to the end: all the way from Galilee.

They were at the burial, noted the place of the tomb,

and realized that those who managed the burial,

in a hurry to finish before the Sabbath began,

had neglected to do the proper anointing.

So we meet them in their devotion to what’s proper, and their love of Jesus.

Probably that morning as they walked

they might have talked about all that had been going on,

how Jesus had been finally betrayed and executed

by some of those closest to him, but mostly

by a sinful system of religion and politics, powerful forces,

the powers that be, that run the world.

As women, a group without much power in the nation,

they’d have been sensitive to this.

Probably they too felt betrayed, angry that this could happen,

that nobody was able to save the situation.

What they find in the tomb is more than just the empty slab,

the word about Jesus risen.

They discover also that the powers of this world have been overturned.

The government’s decision,

the religious authorities’ intentions–overthrown:

and it didn’t happen by a new act of violence or rebellion.

It happened through the power of God

accomplishing something for Jesus.

I think they would have understood this right at the start: God intervened.

And as they take this in: he is not here, he is alive, right now,

they would start to remember

that they already heard this from his own mouth.

He had looked ahead and seen the end, had been willing to talk about it.

And he did not suggest that they all run and hide, or stockpile some swords.

So at this point, something about Jesus became very clear to the women.

They remember him now as a man of holy trust,

a believer who held a deep conviction

that the justice of God was stronger than the manipulation of human systems.

It’s like Jesus saw all along that the problem is not Rome,

the problem is not the Jewish law or the Sanhedrin or the lawyers.

The problem is the human heart, the violence that can be hidden there;

the problem is the set up that disqualifies some people, yes,

the inequity we get used to,

but really it grinds you down

and gets inside and inspires people to lash out in return,

and Jesus stood his ground against that temptation.

What will that mean for us? This relocation of the problem,

tht we’re in it all together: it’s not just us and them.

What a new way of trusting the power of God in the world.

Will anybody ever believe women who lay this out, who teach this truth?

I like to think they might have taken a little time together,

perhaps looking for a quiet home they knew,

the house at Bethany, for example,

a listening ear, a little water, a breathing spell.

And to some extent these women especially might look back

and find how it all makes sense to them.

All along Jesus had been suggesting a change in priorities,

a new authority and immediate trust

of God’s way of life, coming up, very near,

what he called the Kingdom. It was so clarifying, so compassionate.

How good it had sounded, something they didn’t know they wanted.

And here it is happening, the word is made real

and they themselves are now witnesses to something God has done,

something they have not learned from books,

but have felt in their souls and heard with the ears of experience.

This still goes on, this direct learning from experience,

from the word and the stories.

I think God did something at this AMOS meeting we held last week,

about 300 people wanting to raise the issue of jobs for blue collar folks

in the contract to build The Banks downtown.

Lots of tension: certainly the powers in the city

did not want the meeting to happen,

they do not like pressure. I half suspect this is why the event itself

was not reported in the papers.

But some of them did come, and finally

all the singing and praying and the strategy in putting the question at all, encouraged change, a new arrangement in the Banks Working Group,

agreement between City Council and County Commission,

and that did get reported.

These are scary things for me; I hating getting close to the fire.

I think of these Elect here, who have learned the story

in their own lives of change and choice:

all that God did for Jesus still happens.

How he trusted God,

and how he took his stand not with the violent

but with the prophets who had faith and vision from the beginning.

You Elect who are stepping into the water tonight

have listened and believed and you enter the place of trust

the water of something new, passing through from the old.

You will all be anointed with a spirit of courage and wisdom and power.

And I know you have already seen how this is changing your life

and your view of the world, looking to God’s way of response

cutting across the old boundaries of blame and revenge.

It’s our call now to live this same life.

After all, he is risen; he is not here. But we are here.

I've always thought a powerful Renewal Program for any parish

would be to post over the doors some Sunday,

"He is not here; he is Risen . . . Remember what he said;

you are the witnesses."

What a Rite of Dismissal it would be!

And at first there’d be fear, and astonishment,

and then small communities would form,

a sense of the Kingdom coming real,

and a new courage about facing the world that we live in.

Until finally we met him on the road for real,

or at the dinner table or meeting room,

the powers of this world overturned, surprising times:

and then we’d come back, Sunday after Sunday,

to tell our own stories to one another.

This is what happens, doesn’t it.

Thanks be to God for you who make us realize it again, you Elect.

Thank you for your faithfulness and courage.

May your witness be a grace to everybody.