SERMONS

The Reverend Angela Ying

John 20

Imagine yourself in a garden.

What do you see?

What do you hear?

How does it smell?

What’s in the garden?

Mud, water, fruit, stones …

Is there anyone in the garden with you?

I am thinking of a garden — one that goes back a long time ago.

When God planted a garden…

brought forth new life in the midst of the garden, a river would flow out to water the garden and branch out into four more.

God breathes on each creature and says “Live!”

God placed “adam” which is Hebrew means “earthling” or “be-ing” — in the garden.

God placed “eve” or “life” — in the garden.

Earthling “Adam” and life “Eve” walk in wonder all through the garden.

God has great plans in the garden.

Great plans — but earthling and life hid from the presence of God.

Afraid.

Full of fear.

God said, “Where are you?”

God looks for them, for us, for be-ing and for life, and sends Adam and Eve to go from the garden into the world.

Plan B.

God still has great plans in God’s garden.

God tells the Exodus people who have wandered in the wilderness for forty years to unlearn oppression, as they enter the Promised Land:

“The land that you are about to enter is not like the land of Pharaoh and his empire, from which you have come…

But the land you are crossing over is a land of hills and yes, valleys, watered, not by you, but by rain from the sky …. where the eyes of God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year” (Deut. 11:10-12).

And again, even in a land flowing with milk and honey — the people are afraid.

Plan C.

God still has great plans in God’s garden.

God calls Isaiah and the prophets to warn the people that without God, “you shall be as a garden without water” (Isaiah 1).

After the northern and southern kingdom of Israel and Judah fall into the hands of Assyria and Babylon, the people go into exile — again.

Still having great plans in the garden, God calls Jeremiah, the prophet amidst his lamentations who proclaimed to those in exile that “the people will come and sing … and be radiant over the goodness of God…their life shall become as a watered garden” (Jeremiah 31:12).

And then calls Ezekiel, who spoke words of renewal as if it already is so, to a people being desolate and crushed by hardship.

“That which is desolate has become as the garden of Eden; and the waste and ruined towns are now inhabited … God rebuilds the ruined places, and replants that which was desolate” (Ezekiel 36:35-36).

God still has great plans in God’s garden.

Amazing that God does not give up on the people — does not give up on us.

Plan D.

Jesus.

The new Adam.

Jesus’ life and teachings would speak of the garden of God as in his parable of the mustard seed.

You know how small a mustard seed is? Tiny little thing.

What is the kin-dom of God to be compared? It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree and the birds of the air made nests in its branches (Luke 13:18-19).

Jesus not only spoke of the garden of God, Jesus took his disciples “to a place where there was a garden.”

Are you starting to make the connection here?

Jesus often met with his disciples in the garden.

He prayed in the garden (Mark 14:36). The Garden of Gethsemane — for those with inquiring minds.

The disciples, on the other hand, fall asleep (Mark 14:37-41).They cannot keep their eyes open.

As in, I know Yoga Nidra is good for me, and yet, every time I lie on my back with open arms, instead of staying awake and aware, I fall asleep.

It is in the garden where Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, brought the chief priests and Pharisees and Roman soldiers to arrest Jesus.

And when a servant to the high priest insists Simon Peter is one of Jesus’ disciples whom he saw in the garden with Jesus — Peter denies it three times.

In the gospel according to John, “there is a garden in the place where Jesus was crucified (on the cross), and in the garden there is a new tomb in which no one has yet been placed.

So, the people placed Jesus in it.

Which bring us into the garden this Easter morn.

We want to be in control. But God surprisingly has something more wonderfully planned in the garden.

It is that way for Easter. The resurrection of Christ – Christ’s great uprising – is God’s way of getting our attention – of getting us thickheaded but good hearted people to LOOK, LISTEN and LIVE. 

As the late Harvard College minister, Peter Gomes shares “Easter is confrontational; you are hit in the face by it.”

Early on the first day of the week – the stone in front of the tomb in the garden had been rolled away!

Mary Magdalene, and in the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke – the women, are preoccupied in the garden with their own thoughts. They are worried more about the stone and who would roll it away — having learned to live life more out of worry rather than out of wonder.

More out of fear than out of faith?!

Afraid.

When Mary Magdalene saw the stone to the tomb removed, she ran to tell Peter and John, the other disciple whom Jesus loved.

The two men sprint in the garden. Though Peter finishes last, he is the first to go into the empty tomb.

His courage prompts the other disciple to go in.

But Mary remains in the garden outside weeping.

The heavy load of witnessing Jesus nailed on a cross had been too much to carry and now this. Only after the two disciples leave does Mary dare to look in.

Notice that all three disciples look in the empty tomb, and each sees something different!

That’s Easter!

Peter sees the linen wrappings lying there, rolled up. John bends down, and what he sees causes him to believe though he does not understand it all. Mary bends over and sees two angels.

Three people. Three ways of seeing, which is why they need one another, and we need each other in community, for no one ever has the whole story.

The angels ask Mary Magdalene, “Woman, why are you weeping?” Turning around – she sees Jesus standing there, but she does not recognize him. In other words, she does not really see Jesus.

Jesus asks her the same question the two angels do: “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?”

Jesus nor the angels tell Mary Magdalene “Do not weep or please, stop weeping.” It is amazing that they do not attempt to stop her from weeping, as if our tears for the world show our love for one another. Mary needs to weep for the world before she can see — again.

For Easter calls us to look not in the usual, business as usual, dead-end spaces in our lives for the one who is life-giving.

Our lives are filled with fear as we continue weeping – so much so that we cannot see beyond our own perspectives to the one who is standing right in front of us in the garden — calling us to look, listen, live.

For Mary it is no different.

Easter is about taking another look. A second look — a different look — a whole new look, again, which is Life.

Easter is about the God who graciously dares to interrupt our private grieves, our personal agendas, our bitter memories, our unimaginative expectations, our tightly held fears to show us a New Way!

It is about the God who makes certain we do not always get what we ask for –– believe it or not — because God LOVES us.

Sadly, I start getting use to the stones in my life that when they are taking away, by the grace of God, I still stumble looking for them.

The God of Easter says, “Look, the stone is no longer there!” Will I believe? Will you believe? Do we dare, as Mary Magdalene, believe?

There was a man named Jack walking along a steep cliff one day when he accidentally got too close to the edge and fell.

On the way down he grabbed a branch, which temporarily stopped his fall.

He looked down and to his horror saw that the canyon fell straight down for more than a thousand feet.

He couldn’t hang onto the branch forever, and there was no way for him to climb up the steep wall of the cliff.

So Jack began yelling for help, hoping that someone passing by would hear him and lower a rope or something.

Help! Help! Is anyone up there? “Help!”

He yelled for a long time, but no one heard him. He was about to give up when he heard a voice.

“Jack, Jack, can you hear me?”

“Yes, yes! I can hear you. I’m down here!”

“I can see you, Jack. Are you all right?”

“Yes, but who are you, and where are you?

“I am the Lord, Jack. I’m everywhere.” 

“The Lord? You mean, GOD?”

“Yes.”

“God, please help me! I promise if, you’ll get me down from here, I’ll stop sinning. I’ll be a really good person. I’ll serve you for the rest of my life.”

“Easy on the promises, Jack.

Let’s get you off from there; then we can talk.” “Now, here’s what I want you to do. Listen carefully.

“I’ll do anything, Lord. Just tell me what to do.”

“Okay…  Let go of the branch.”

“What?”

“I said, let go of your branch.” Trust me, do not hold on…. Let go.”

There was a long silence.

Finally Jack yelled, “Help! Help! Is anyone else up there?!”

It is so much easier to hold on than it is to let go, and let the God of Easter catch us by surprise.

Have you heard the saying that the older you get the harder of hearing?

Lately, I have been wondering if that is true. I realize that hearing aids are sold predominately to those over 70 and yet, I wonder …

Why is it that adults have to only speak louder, as in increase one’s volume, when they are in the presence of an elderly person, and yet, they need to repeat and I mean, repeat themselves any number of times, when it comes to speaking to children, particularly, one’s own children.

It is not just, “Come here.”

It is “Come here. Come here. Come here, here, here, here!”

Perhaps, there is no age limit when it comes to the God who calls us to look, listen, live.

Mary Magdalene knew the gift of listening. Healed of seven demons herself, she could empathize with the poor, hungry, homeless and those unjustly treated. Her very tears remind us that the great injustices of the world have not completely numbed, hardened her heart, or made her grow indifferent.

She can still weep for the world.

When Mary Magdalene is in the garden, she mistakens Jesus for the gardener. Why is it that it is not until she can listen to the sound of a name – her own name, “Mary!” that she recognizes the gardener is no stranger, rather, Jesus, the risen Christ.

Over thirty years ago, baseball Hall of Fame, Hank Aaron made history with homerun #715. What many do not know is that as he grew closer to breaking the legendary Babe Ruth’s record, Hank Aaron began receiving death threats and hate mail.

On the day Hank Aaron hit the record homerun and was running around the bases into history, he encountered unexpected company between 2^nd and 3^rd base.

Two men had jumped out of the right field stands and caught up to Hank Aaron from behind. Already unsettled by the death threats, yet not letting them sidetrack him, Hank Aaron was initially startled.

Yet, hearing the sound of his name, he found two over exuberant fans that just wanted to congratulate him in a great moment of celebration.

The God who calls us to look, listen, live – again.

Desmond Tutu in his book “God Has a Dream” remembers the horrific apartheid in South Africa.

People had known separation and apartheid for so long.

Only after the people learned to listen to one another did the process toward reconciliation and transformation begin to occur.

It was a painful process, he writes.

But if you listen carefully, one hears how a person entering the booth can emerge on the other side a totally different person.

Tutu shares about the first election: “the black person went in burdened with all the anguish of having had his or her dignity trampled underfoot and being treated as a nonperson – and then voted – saying ‘My dignity is restored. My humanity has been acknowledged.’ She emerges a changed person – a transformed person.

The white person went in burdened by the weight of guilt for having enjoyed many privileges unjustly — voted and emerged on the other side a new and different person.

For they now realize what we have been trying to tell them for so long – that they would never be free until we all are free.”

As we learn to listen again, we begin to wipe the tears from each other’s eyes because we are not our brother’s and sister’s keeper. Our Easter faith teaches us that you and I are our brother’s brother and our sister’s sister.

As one friend shares: “Work as if you don’t need the money, love as if you have never been hurt, and dance as you do when nobody is watching.”

In other words, live as if every moment God gives you in life — counts!

A couple went to a very busy and popular restaurant that did not take reservations. When they got to the front they were told it would be a 45 minute wait. The couple was in their nineties. Graciously, the husband said, “My wife and I are in our nineties. We may not have 45 minutes!” They were seated immediately.

Life begins for us Christians when we open our eyes, our ears, our lives and realize that we do not have to die in order to Live. You and I can live life while we are still alive. Imagine that!

So when you wake up each morning, look in the mirror and pinch yourself to see if you are still alive – Rejoice! When you get up in the middle of the night, and stumble on your way and hurt your toe – don’t swear – say “Thank God! I am still alive; I can still feel.”

Albert Einstein said: “There are only two ways that you can live. One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is a miracle. I believe in the latter.”

And the miracle is this. When we cannot see Jesus and can only hear our name, God calls us. When we stand, as the disciples hiding in fear behind locked doors, God calls us. God knows we not only need to see Jesus in the crucified hands and pierced feet of all the people of the world, but hear his words.

Words we shared with one another this morning.

“Peace be with you.”

“Receive the Holy Spirit”

“Forgive”

If you do not forgive others’ sins against you, as Eugene Peterson writes, “What are you going to do with them?” (from “The Message” by Eugene Peterson).

Mary Magdalene and the other disciples discover on that first day of the week, that they now have a far greater and more difficult task than hold on to their fears. 

That is — to rise above one’s deepest wounds, where our faith in the uprising of Christ breaks us open from our chains of feeling hopeless, despair, fear and resentment and instead, calls us to bear witness to life.

God comes back.

God still has great plans in the garden…

Imagine yourself in the garden?

What do you see?

What do you hear?

How does it smell?

What’s in the garden?

Mud, water, fruit, stones …

Is there anyone in the garden with you?

There is! The uprising of Christ Jesus who comes back and breathes on each one of us, and says, “Live!”

Jesus says, “Do not hold on to me” Go and say to your brothers and sisters in the world, Rise up too … and … LIVE!