4-21-19 Easter Sunday “Name Calling”

4-21-19 Easter Sunday    “Name Calling”

   Dale Carnegie once said that there is nothing sweeter to a person’s ear than the sound of their own name on the lips of another. Well, like everything, I think that depends on the context as to how sweet the sound. As a child - and sometimes as an adult - I’ve always known I was in trouble when my middle name was invoked. I’ve always just been “Jay,” or sometimes people would speak my name as a quick, “JD,” like in the initials. But when I heard my name spoken in full, in all of it’s nonsensical glory, J-A-Y D-E-E, JAY DEE!  then I knew I’d better either change my tune or head in the other direction as quickly as possible, because what was coming would be anything BUT sweet!

   David Lose tells the story of how he used to sing a song to his young daughter Katie that included her name, and that whenever he sang it to her, whether she was joyful or whether she was sad and crying, the song would always eventually coax her to stop crying, to wipe away her tears, and would elicit what he called a “full blown grin of recognition and delight.” But rather than this simply affirming Carnegie’s idea, Lose goes on to say the he believes that, in    

“hearing her father or mother call her by name, Katie was reconnected to her family, rejoined to those who loved her, and in this way remembered who she was by remembering whose she was – our beloved daughter. So that even when grasped by the seizures of willfulness and insecurity that seemed so frequently to plague a two-year old, when called lovingly by her name Katie was freed from the hold of her confusion and found her way back to the world. And what she came back to was, really, a whole new world, one where, at least for the moment, her old fears and hurts had been banished, replaced by a sense of belonging and contentment and security that showed itself in that grin of delight.”

   Now, today is Easter Sunday, and for some preachers that’s an invitation to try to pack a year’s worth of teaching, instruction, evangelism and whatever else they can pull from their bag of tricks in order to reach those who are lovingly referred to as the “C and Es,” those who only come to church on Christmas and Easter. But I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to present a dissertation of a sermon on the meaning of Easter, the theological significance of the resurrection, the opposing ideas of a physical versus a spiritual resurrection, or what significance any of this has on what we think of as salvation. And I do that because I’d like for you to all stay awake if possible. And if we can accomplish that, I’d like also to keep you engaged. 

   Our reading today from John is a different telling of the Easter story than that given by the other Gospel writers. While the others talk about the group of women who went to the tomb on Easter morning, in John’s version it’s only Mary Magdalene.  She, alone, leaves early to go to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body - hastily placed in the tomb only two days before. This is personal for her - Jesus was personal for her.

   She arrives at the tomb to find the stone rolled away from the entrance. John doesn’t tell us that she looked in or entered the tomb, but we assume she must have because he tells us that she “ran to Simon Peter and the other disciple…and said, ‘They have taken the Lord from the tomb and we don’t know where they’ve put him.’” Interestingly, she says “we don’t know where they’ve put him,” when John records only her presence at the tomb. But I digress. A footrace ensues between Peter and the other disciple - we assume it is John - and when they arrive they alternately look into and then enter the tomb to find the grave clothes neatly folded where Jesus’ body had been placed, but no Jesus. And John writes, perhaps about himself, that the “other disciple ‘saw and believed,’ but that he ‘didn’t yet understand the scripture that Jesus must rise from the dead.’ So, if he didn’t understand the scripture, we’re left wondering, what it was he believed. But again, I digress. 

   Peter and John say nothing and leave to return to where they were staying. Mary remains outside the tomb, crying. As she cried, she bent down to look into the tomb and she saw two angels dressed in white sitting where Jesus’ body had been. And the angels say to her, “Woman, why are you crying?” And she explains to them that someone has taken the body of Jesus.  And as she said this to them she turned to find someone standing there, who asks her the same question, “Woman, why are you crying?” and then “Who are you looking for?” 

Ah, now there’s $64,000 question? 

   “Who are you looking for?” She thought she knew, but in the midst of her grief, in the midst of her tears, that which was right in front of her was also lost on her. Distraught and exhausted, still mired in the trauma of all that she had witnessed in just the last week, she was unable to recognize the person she sought, even as he stood before her. 

   And then it happened. “Mary,” Jesus says, calling her by name, penetrating the shroud of her grief to grasp hold of her and draw her into a whole new world. And as Lose describes this moment, 

“It’s hard to imagine all the emotions that must have coursed through Mary in that moment; and yet, while the text doesn’t give us many clues, I have a feeling that after just a heartbeat she responded, at first with a shy smile, wiping away the tears soaking her cheeks, and then broke into a grin of recognition and delight, breathing ‘my teacher.’” And having been called by name, having been reminded not only of who she is, but whose she is,  Mary is sent to the other disciples to tell them what she has seen."

   And Mary’s message may be the truest sermon ever preached. She doesn’t speak the creedal statement, “Christ is risen, he is risen indeed,” but simply “I have seen the Lord.” You see, resurrection is not some third-person confession, it’s a first person event, a real life experience - I have seen the Lord. People don’t need to hear a debate about the historical accuracy of the event or that resurrection is a creed of the church, we need to know that it’s a truth that we can witness in the here and now, that we can experience on a daily basis, and that if experienced, can be the seed of transformation that we need in our lives and in our world. Called by name, Mary is invited to a new understanding of who she is, and whose she is. 

   Each of us received a name tag when we came in. 

If you didn’t do it then, I invite you to write your first name on that tag and put it on. We’ll sing a verse of a song while you do that:

[“SOFTLY AND TENDERLY JESUS IS CALLING” DURING THIS]

Softly and Tenderly Jesus is calling, 

calling for you and for me;

see, on the portals he’s waiting and watching, 

watching for you and for me. 

Come home, come home; you who are weary come home;

earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling, O sinner, come home!

   Now, I invite you to take just a moment, and turn to another person, and simply look into their face and say their name out loud. And then repeat that the other way, speaking the name of the one who spoke to you. And if you see someone sitting alone, move to them so that every one has the chance to hear their name spoken to them in this time. 

   You see, Easter isn’t some broad theological treatise upon which to expound once a year and then store it away with all the plastic eggs. Easter is personal. 

We all need the invitation, the encouragement, the promise that we can say, “I have seen the Lord” in our own lives. This doesn’t mean that we have to find the tallest mountain, the busiest street corner, or the jam-packed mall and yell it out for every passer-by to hear. It doesn’t mean putting John 3:16 on a poster to hold up and wave during a football game. It doesn’t mean evangelism as coercion, competition, certainty, and beating the other down. To say “I have seen the Lord” is to point out resurrection in the midst of ruin; new life when all that seems visible is death; love in the face of hate; decency and goodness when that which is vitriolic and vile and vicious finds only more and more followers.

   For the resurrection to be personal, you and I must love as Jesus loved. E. Stanley Jones, in his book Gandhi: A Portrayal of a Friend, tells the story of his first encounter with Mahatma Gandhi. Jones asked him, “What would you, a Hindu leader, tell me, a Christian, to do in order to make Christianity a normal part of India?” Without hesitation, Gandhi responded with clarity and directness.

• “First, I would suggest that all of you Christians begin to live more like Jesus Christ.  
• Second, practice your religion without adulterating it or toning it down. 
• Third, emphasize love and make it your working force, for love is central in Christianity. 
• Fourth, study the non-Christian religions more sympathetically to find the good that is within them, in order to have a more sympathetic approach to the people.” 

The great Hindu leader said, “Your faith doesn’t need to be changed; it doesn’t need to be added to or subtracted from; it needs to be lived as it is.” 

   It needs to be lived. Our faith needs to be lived. Because, in the end, resurrection is not only the promise of life after death, which would be enough, but also the assurance that the life-giving love of God will always move the stones away. Tombs are just that -- containers for the dead. And while we seem rather content these days with such spaces -- those dead places that fuel corruption, deception, racism, sexism, suspicion, rejection, marginalization, misogyny, judgment, and fear -- God continues to roll those stones away that keep life at bay. And when the stale air of decay meets God’s breath that breathes into, inspires new life and the possibility of hope and peace, death truly is no more.

   The late Dr. Peter J. Gomes, Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard, extends this message to each one of us today. He wrote,

“…the resurrection is a continuing event which involves everyone who dares be involved in it. Easter is not just about Jesus, it’s about you.  Jesus has already claimed his new life. What about you?  Easter is not just about the past, it’s about the future.  Your best days are ahead of you.     The proof of the resurrection is in your hands and in your life.”

   So, take a moment and just take a breath. And then speak aloud your own name…

NAME, you are a beloved child of God. Again.

NAME, with you God is well pleased. Again.

NAME, Jesus invites, “follow me.”

   To live the resurrection we must be involved in the resurrection.  To be involved with the resurrection, you and I must be “all in” followers of Jesus.             That is, we must identify, not only with Jesus but, with the people with whom Jesus identified. That means we will have to identify with the poor and oppressed, the marginalized and forgotten, and with the super-religious.  Identification and relationships are essential to being “all in”. We have to have personal contact with people who suffer as well as celebrate.      So that might mean doing something like:

• serving meals, serving in the pantry, or visiting the sick and lonely.
• assisting those who are physically or mentally disabled,
• befriending a neglected child or tutoring in a school,
• leading an outreach of our church into the community to engage with the people in our neighborhood.

   These actions are ways we can identify with the people with whom Jesus identified. As we do, we can discover the humbling joy of receiving more than we give.  Through identification with persons and involvement in their lives, we can become the living proof of the resurrection.  

   To be involved with the resurrection, you and I, must not only love like Jesus, be “all in” followers of Jesus, but we must listen to the witness of those who have been with Jesus themselves. Mary’s testimony, “I have seen the Lord,” insists that the ways of love will win over the ways of hate. “I have seen the Lord” confirms that the truth of kindness can be heard over the din of ruthless, callous, and vindictive rhetoric. “I have seen the Lord” gives witness to the fact that there is another way of being in the world -- a way of being that is shaped by resurrection, that embodies anything and everything that is life-giving, a way of being that is so counter-cultural, so demonstrative of mercy, so exemplary of the truth of Easter that others will listen to you, watch you, wonder about you and say, “Wait a minute. Did I just see the Lord?”

   Not that the truth of the resurrection needs our action for verification. 

Not that the truth of the resurrection depends on our witness to convince others. Not that the truth of the resurrection relies on our willingness to speak words of life into conversations intent on destruction or our determination to free those captive to the deaths that our culture, our world, perpetuate. The truth of the resurrection is true regardless of our testimony. But maybe, it will be more true for each and every one of us if we can walk out of church on Easter morning and be willing to say “I have seen the Lord,” be willing to look for where we can say, “I have seen the Lord” in our lives, or imagine those who might need us to say, “I have seen the Lord” because they cannot. And why can’t they? Because they have known the walls of their tombs too long.                    True resurrection is the truth that the transformative resurrection of Jesus indeed matters for our future, but even more so for our present, and for the sake of the present of others.

   Maybe the greatest proof of the resurrection is seen in the transformation of our living.  We don’t even have to say much when we are loving one another as we have been loved. But we do need to listen for the ones who know Jesus personally, for the ones who have taken the time to listen, in the midst of all that goes on around us to distract us, for Jesus to call their name.            Because he calls all of us, you see, but we have to listen. That’s when we’ll hear, see, and experience the power of the resurrection. That’s where we’ll claim the new life.  So this Sunday, my prayer for you is this: That you will listen, and that when you do you will hear Jesus, softly and tenderly calling your name, and that it will lead you to an Easter transformation. May it be so! 

Amen.