Spring Has Sprung -- Meaning What?

PROPERS:          2 EASTER, YEAR C    

TEXT:                JOHN 20:19-31    

PREACHED AT ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL, MAGNOLIA SPRINGS, ON SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2022.

 

ONE SENTENCE:        The magnificence of the resurrection is foreshadowed and promised to us in the world around us.

 

            We are in two of the most glorious of seasons – and they testify to one another.

 

            Spring – the season after the vernal equinox.  Flowers bloom, birds sing and nest, all around us is evidence of new life.  It is even more evident to those of us at St. Paul’s Chapel because of the diligent and faithful work of our junior warden, Max Maxwell, and his co-workers.

 

            We anticipate the coming of spring.  It is as dependable as the calendar.  We do not doubt it.  We await its coming. Seersucker suits and pastel dresses abound.

 

            We also have another, somewhat concurrent season.  The first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. Easter Day, and the great 50 days of that season.

 

            Even though it comes once a year, and even though it has roots 2,000 years ago, we wonder.  What does it mean?  Can it really be true?  A dead man rising from the grave?

 

            It is source of doubt for many.  People say, “I think Jesus is a great teacher and example, but I cannot go as far as the resurrection.”  It goes against our scientific world view.  It is a stumbling block for many.

 

            Think back to that first Easter Day.

 

            As today’s gospel tells us, on that first Easter evening, the disciples were cowering in a locked room – fearful for their own lives.  Luke’s gospel tells us that just about that time, two men were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a distance of some six miles.  In each account, a newly-vivified Jesus appeared. The worlds of those people were never the same.

 

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            I think we would all agree that the miracle unfolding before our eyes this spring comes from the Great Creator.  The cycle is written into the genetic code of each plant, creature, and being.  The cycles of the earth – of plant and animal – are part of the miracle of creation.

 

            Which raises a question:  If God placed his imprint on something as routine as spring, how could he notadd that mystical, but marvelous, touch to human life?

 

            The movement can all be traced back to that cloud-enveloped moment on Mt. Tabor.  Jesus and his “executive committee” (Peter, James, and John) experienced the Transfiguration on that mountain top. We recall that moment to this day on August 6 each year.

 

            It shed light on what was happening already and foreshadowed God’s work to come. It highlighted the annual cycle of renewal that was already taking place. And more: God was in the process of transfiguring all creation – and his work would bear witness to it in days to come.

 

            It was only a short time later that Lazarus was raised from the dead… and Jesus, too, walked the earth with renewed life.

 

            God is in the business of transfiguration – from brokenness to wholeness, from alienation to reunion, from war to peace, from oppression to freedom, from death to life. And even though there are ample signs to the contrary – Ukraine being an excellent example – the work is ongoing.  God’s hand continues to move throughout history.

 

            Perhaps we need to look deeper.  Maybe that will come in the years, decades, or centuries ahead.  My good friend, Tim Jones, who is a priest in Wales, says we may be defining life and death inaccurately.  He may be right.  But I believe this, we do not yet know or understand the mysteries of God’s realm.

 

            We do know this through our eyes of faith: As the author Frederick Buechner wrote, “Resurrection means the worst thing which happens to you is never the last thing.”