Of Tears and Telling


Introduction

St. Mark’s on the Campus Episcopal Church, Lincoln, Neb., celebrates the Holy Eucharist on Tuesdays at 12:30 p.m. The parish’s rector, Father Jerry Thompson, asked me to lead worship on Tuesday, April 26, 2011. This is Tuesday of Easter Week.

Readings

Acts 2:36–41
Psalm 118:19–24
John 20:11–18

Homily

When we are weeping,
our tears cloud our vision,
our grief weighs down our hearts,
our sorrow rests heavy upon our shoulders.

In our sadness,
we do not see clearly,
whether we mean with our eyes
or with the eyes of our spirits.

The world around us turns misty;
the clarity of God’s purpose fades;
we do not know what to do or where to turn.

And so, like Mary of Magdala,
we rest in the rote motions of our days.
We occupy ourselves and fill the hours.
We walk the dog,
make the bed,
and pull the weeds.

Mary was broken by the burden of her loss.
Not ready to move on,
not knowing what to do,
filled with pain and grief,
she stood outside the tomb of her rabbi and she wept.

Then the angels and the stranger all asked her,
“Woman, why are you weeping?”

They knew why.
But we believe they also knew she needed to know for herself.
And so they asked,
and so she answered.

I miss him. He is gone. He is dead,
and I cannot let go, move on, begin anew.

The response she receives is what exactly she needs—
reassurance and a reminder.
The Lord calls her by name,
he reveals himself to her,
he gives her a mission in his name,
turning her from one who grieves
into one who proclaims to others
the message of his resurrection.

And she does what he commands.
She goes to her friends and says to them,
“I have seen the Lord.”

Mary of Magdala is the one in this gospel
in whom we see reflected our own images.
We share her feelings of loss,
we can see ourselves in her confusion,
and by the blessings of the Spirit,
we receive the same mission from our Lord.
He calls us to go to our brothers and sisters
and tell them the Good News.

Thanks be to God
that Mary did what Jesus told her to do.
Because of her faithful obedience,
the message of our Lord’s resurrection
did not die in the garden unspoken and unheard.

She passed on what she received.
And those who heard her then told others.
And so on until the message came to you and to me.
And now the mission is ours.

To whom is our Lord sending us?
Who needs to hear what we know to be true?
By his grace, we will find the ones we need to tell,
“The Lord is risen and we have seen him alive!” Amen.


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