Homily for Easter Sunday (Year C)
April 21, 2019
Holy Trinity, Tabor – 8 AM
St. Francis of Assisi, Fisher – 10 AM

Focus:              The Resurrection changes everything
Function:         Run to the tomb.

---

Happy Easter!

The early Christians had a greeting that they shared with each other.
One would say: Alleluia!  The Lord is Risen!
And the others would reply: Alleluia!  He is risen, indeed!

Alleluia!  The Lord is Risen!
R:\ Alleluia!  He is risen, indeed!

Resurrection: rise again; raising up

Resurgence: increasing or reviving after a period of little activity.
re – again
surgere – to rise

Resuscitate – to breathe new life into a body that was dead.

Resurrection – not just life but “new life” – “changed life” – “restored life”

…

The Resurrection changes everything!

Jesus had new life but so did those disciples who ran to the tomb.
How could anything ever be the same again?
How could they not speak of what they had seen?

For them, Resurrection led to mission. So too for us.

They were witnesses to the Resurrection.
So are we.
Their story is our story – it has been passed down to us.

What have you seen and heard?
What have you looked upon?

Perhaps we need a resuscitation of our belief in the Resurrection.

Perhaps we need to come again and see the tomb,
to go to that place where we think we know what we will see…

Death
Finality
No change since the last time I was here
That same unmovable stone blocking the entrance

Brothers and sisters, come to the tomb.

Come and see the place where he was laid

Come like Mary Magdalen,
Mary who went to the tomb expecting one thing but finding another,
finding that it all had been true.

Come to the tomb and you will be astounded at what you find, or rather at what you don’t find.

Run to the tomb

Run like Peter and run like John
Run at the news that Mary brings,
Run at the news that seems too good to be true,
at the news that strikes fear into your heart,
fear at first that someone has stolen his body,
but also fear that it could all be true;
not a servile fear but a fear that is wonder in awe in the presence of the living, indeed the LIVING God.

Run to the tomb.

Run to the tomb and see for yourself.

See the stone rolled back.
See the burial cloths there.
See the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.

Run to the tomb and you will find that Jesus is not the only One to be resurrected,
to be given new life,
to be raised to new life.

Run to the tomb and you will find new life…
Run to the tomb and you will find new hope…

Last week we watched the burning of the 800 year old Notre Dame Cathedral.  I visited there three years ago.  The Cathedral contains a reliquary, and inside the reliquary is the Crown of Thorns.  THE Crown of Thorns that Christ wore on Good Friday.

We have all of these relics, these remains from the crucifixion, that remind us of the promise of the empty tomb.

When the fire was discovered, the chaplain of the Cathedral ran inside and rescued the Crown of Thorns and the Blessed Sacrament.

Even in the midst of that Cathedral that became a fiery tomb, there is the promise of rebuilding, or new life, of resurrection.

Run to the tomb.

Run to the tomb and you will become a witness of these things…
Run to the tomb; see and believe.

Run to the tomb and then run from the tomb
Run to Peter and to John and tell them what you have seen

My brothers and sisters, the Resurrection changes everything.
And we are the witnesses.

Come to the tomb.
Run to the tomb.
See for yourself.
Then run back to the others.
Tell them what you have seen.

Alleluia!  The Lord is Risen!
R:\ Alleluia!  He is risen, indeed!