April 12, 2009
(The Sunday of the Resurrection,
or Easter Day)
Do You Know Who I Am?
By
The Very Rev. Terry White,
Dean
Acts 10:34-43 • Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 • 1
Corinthians 15:1-11 • John 20:1-18
(From
The Lectionary Page)
Alleluia! Christ is risen! In the Name of the Living God . . .
The rain was falling in sheets, the wind was fierce, the lightening flashed frequently, and the thunder rumbled loud and long. It was clear that there was no way I was going to be able to take my scheduled flight home. The television monitor in the airport was tuned to the Weather Channel which showed a solid wall of storms between where I was and Kansas City. There was much yellow and red on the radar screen, indicating how intensely impressive the storms were. As my fellow travelers and I watched the TV screen, the monitors displaying arrivals and departures all changed in the blink of an eye. Virtually every flight was now delayed or canceled.
Some 100 of us waiting in the area near our gate heard the ticket agent officially declare that our flight was canceled. We were instructed to form a single line at the desk in order to make alternate plans. Surprisingly, the crowd more or less formed such a single line in rather orderly fashion. People’s spirits would reasonably good, as if we all decided to deal with this adversity in as mature a way as possible. The whole group behaved well, except for one.
A woman older than I, smartly dressed, would have no part of our single line. Talking on her cell phone, pulling a wheeled carry-on bag, she made her way to the ticket counter. Paying absolutely no attention to those in line, she stood before the counter, interrupted the agent who was talking with another passenger and said loudly, “I need to get on another flight, now.”
The agent, experienced in dealing with all sorts and conditions of passengers, smiled kindly and replied, “Mum, I am currently helping this passenger. If you would kindly get in line, I will help you after I have helped those in front of you.” She then resumed helping the first person in line.
The smartly dressed woman was unfazed and more determined. Though I was well away from the counter, I heard the disgruntled passenger, in a louder voice still, say, “Excuse me, but I need to change my flight NOW.” And before the agent could speak two words in response, the woman added, “Do you know who I am?”
Now that is one of those phrases that is like fingernails on a chalkboard. The ticket agent’s expression changed almost imperceptibly, but there was a slight enough change of countenance to signal that the gloves were now coming off. The ticket agent stated matter-of-factly that there were fifty or sixty people in line ahead of her and that someone would help her once everyone else had been helped.
The would-be-passenger closed her cell phone, put both hands on t eh counter and stated that this was unacceptable and a second time said, “Do you know who I am?”
Without missing a beat, the ticket agent took the intercom microphone in hand. We then heard this announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention. I need your assistance. There is a lady at the ticket desk who does not know who she is? Can anyone help her?”
Do you know who I am?
John’s Gospel account of the morning of the Third Day begins with Mary Magdalene arriving early at the tomb. She discovers the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. She runs to tell Peter and the disciple Jesus loved that "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."
In response, all three run back to the tomb. The beloved disciple gets there first, looks in, but does not yet enter. Peter arrives second, looks in, and enters the tomb, now followed by the beloved disciple. Peter notices the details, the burial wrappings and cloth and how they were arranged. The unnamed disciple is more intuitive, he looks and leaps to faith, “he believes” the text says. We all come to faith in our own way. You and I are no different than these first believers.
Mary comes to believe in her way. She stays in the garden, while the other two run off to tell others. Suppose that Mary stays because she is looking for more. More details, maybe? We are all detectives at heart. Perhaps she is looking for footprints in the soil to determine how many people may have carried off the body, or for pieces of burial cloth strewn about that will provide more evidence of theft.
On the other hand, maybe she stays because she is looking for some time, some time alone to make sense of this, to deal with competing emotions.
You and I experience competing emotions at the grave of someone we love dearly. We ache with loss, we feel lonely, we may be angry, and yet we also know that our loved one is at rest, they live with God and will rise again, but the emotions are still complex and strong and often we need time.
Mary, like many of us, is looking for more, looking to make sense of life and death and resurrection. In this Gospel text Mary is searching for an experience of the Risen Lord that convinces her of the resurrection.
And she is given that experience. The Risen Lord comes to her. But what happens first? She does not recognize Jesus until she hears her name. The unspoken question here is: Don’t you know who I am?
Throughout the centuries the Church has wrestled with this reality. We seek God, we seek the risen Lord around us, we look for ways to believe more deeply, to have experiences that strengthen our faith. And God is faithful and comes to us. But we do not always recognize God. Sometimes we construct obstacles. And there are times when we cannot see because we are not open to the myriad ways God is present in the world. We are robbed of life-giving encounters with the Risen Christ because we narrowly define who God loves, how God works, who God works through, how God is worshipped, or where God is found.
The Lamb of God is always in our midst asking: Do you know who I am? I have destroyed the sting of death. Death is not the end, but now is the gate to eternal life in heaven. This enemy has been destroyed. Live each moment confident in my love, and look for me in all things, for I am not bound by the grave clothes I was wrapped in. Serve me in all people.
In the movie Evan Almighty, Evan is selected by God to be a modern-day Noah. He has to build an ark, grow a white beard, deal with animals, the whole bit. After his wife has had enough and heads for her parents home, while having a bite to eat in a restaurant, she unknowingly has an exchange with God in the form of the waiter. They have a brief conversation about knowing God and God’s will, and the essence of their talk comes down to this single sentence: If a person prays for courage, do you think God gives them courage, or does he give them opportunities to live courageously?
If you and I are looking for an experience of the Resurrection, should we not look for opportunities to bring life out of death?
If we are to encounter the Risen Lord who washed the feet of his disciples and said this is how you are to love one another, should not feeding the poor, caring for the homeless, and eliminating the causes of hunger and homelessness become our priorities?
If the new life of resurrection is what we really crave, must we not become committed agents of eradicating prejudice, abolishing social stigmas, and building an inclusive church and society that values and respects all people of good will?
Jesus says, If you don’t know me, let me tell you a bit about myself. I love you, I went to the cross for you, and I have taken up my life again that you may know the fullness of God’s love and joy. You will especially find me in the people and in the places where resurrection is most needed.
Like Mary, each of us seeks the meaning of resurrection. Often, like Mary, we do not recognize the Lord right before us. But there are those glimpses, those glorious moments when we see him plainly.
I have been blessed this Holy Week by the witness of fellow believers, who facing their own mortality, have kissed the cross upon which their Savior himself died.
I have been blessed by the faith of those on the margins of society, who don’t easily fit in, who have had their feet washed and washed the feet of others.
At the altar rail those with means and those who are struggling, those with great influence in the world and those who are often victims of things over which they have no control, have all knelt side-by-side to receive. the Bread of Heaven.
Together, all of us, saints and sinners, have walked the way of the cross because we believe that the way of the cross is in fact the way of life. Christ Jesus died and rose for us all. We must do a better job of loving one another and expressing that love in generous and courageous ways.
There is resurrection all around us. We are sent to find it. And find it we will.
That lady back at the airport ticket counter, who didn’t know who she was? Guess who I got to sit next to on my flight home. (Come to think of it maybe she’s here this morning!) Despite that fit of selfishness and self-importance, she did find her way home. And that too is a part of the Easter story, finding our way back home to God, and back home to the mission and work God has given us.
The Day of Resurrection. This morning the Risen Christ calls us all by name, and, calls us to seek and serve him in all people, near literal and figurative tombs of all kinds that new life might coarse through the world. Look for the Lord. Believe. Know who Jesus is.
Alleluia. Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed. Alleluia.
Enough of death. Enough of decay. Let us become the Resurrection.
