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April 8, 2007 - Easter Day
The Very Rev. Dr. Brian Baker
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
(congregation responds) The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
But that’s not all. Easter is not just about Jesus rising from the dead. Easter is about *us* rising from the dead. And it’s not just about us rising from the dead when our bodies stop and we’re buried in the ground; Easter is about us rising from the dead right now. Right here.
I don’t know about you, but I know that I, and a lot of the people I know, are wounded. We are broken. There is a part of us that is dead, in a tomb of loneliness, of anxiety, of fear, sadness, grief, despair. The walls of this tomb are strengthened by all of the “if only’s,” and the “what if’s.” There is a piece of us entombed there, that is wounded and in bondage and can’t live freely.
Of course, we don’t let other people know that. This tomb is sealed shut with a heavy rock made of all the masks that we wear- “Life is beautiful all the time!” and, “I’m just fine.”
The mystery of Holy Week is a mystery in which Jesus enters the tombs of our lives, to find the broken and wounded pieces of us. Jesus calls us out of those tombs; Jesus invites us to live resurrected lives, whole lives, right now.
If there were any place where we should be able to take off the masks, to be who we really are, it should be right here, in church. We should be able to take off our masks, to lay them on the altar, and to offer up our brokenness, our woundedness, and let Christ heal us and bring us into the fullness of the Resurrection. That is what this Easter mystery is all about; that is why we are here.
I have a very hard time understanding this mystery. I have a hard time getting it in my head. The only thing I can really do is approach it from the level of my heart. I can approach the mystery in church, in the holy sacraments, in meditating on the story of the resurrection, and in prayer.
What I want to offer this morning, an Easter offering, is a story. It’s a story that I encountered about ten years ago that helps me approach the mystery of Resurrection—my resurrection. It’s a story written by a man named Walter Wangerin, Jr. The title of the story is “The Ragman.” I invite you to sit back and let this story speak to you.
(transcriptionist’s note: “The Ragman” is a copyrighted work, and may be found on the author’s website at: http://walterwangerinjr.org/new_web/publish_details.php?id=21&t=review
Synopsis: The question of what is “important” work in the world is shown to be paradoxically upside-down in the Ragman’s story. He takes on others’ rags, others’ wounds and scars and tears, and although it seems at first that his compassion will lead him to only death and sorrow, his love resurrects them all. The observer of this miracle asks for, and receives, this resurrection as a free gift. The Ragman, the Christ, is as ready to help us now as he was two thousand years ago. We only have to ask.
~end transcriptionist’s note)
Offer up your masks, your wounds, your brokenness. Let the Ragman dress you; the Christ resurrect you; right here, right now.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
(congregation responds) The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
…and so are we. Amen.
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