Easter Sunday - 2022

<p>John 20:1-18</p> <p> </p> <p>There is so much chaos in today's scripture passage.</p> <p>We don't like chaos.</p> <p>We like our scripture to be neat, straightforward and tidy</p> <p>Just how we like our schedules and our plans for the next great thing</p> <p>Just how we like ourselves, smart and on top of things</p> <p>Just how we like God, predictable and in control       /</p> <p> </p> <p>But on this Easter morning, in the story of Jesus' resurrection</p> <p>Our likes are challenged as we're thrown into chaos and unknowing</p> <p>We zoom in on Mary Magdalene and enter the messiness of her reality</p> <p>Friday she witnessed the horror of the crucifixion of her friend, her teacher</p> <p>Her beloved</p> <p>He was cruelly crucified and discarded</p> <p>Saturday she honored the Sabbath as best she could</p> <p>Perhaps out of a chaotic mixture of obligation, fear, devotion and desperation</p> <p>And this morning, while it is still dark, she leaves her home for Jesus' tomb.</p> <p>Mary Magdalene, from whom seven demons Jesus cast out</p> <p>Mary Magdalene, Jesus closest companion</p> <p>Mary Magdalene, who's been up all night with blood-shot eyes and tear-soaked bed sheets</p> <p>She's like us, wanting to create order in the midst of chaos</p> <p>She’s like us, preferring to control situations</p> <p>She has been waiting to <strong>DO</strong> something about this mess</p> <p>So, she plows through her grief-laden, exhausted, and fearful fog</p> <p>And goes to the tomb</p> <p>Alone</p> <p>In the dark</p> <p>An act of resistance with great risk,</p> <p>To anoint Jesus' body.  /                  /</p> <p> </p> <p>When she arrives she sees that things aren't as she expected</p> <p>The stone is rolled away</p> <p>So she runs to get some others - and they run to see... out-running each other</p> <p>All this running adds to the chaos of this early Sunday morning</p> <p>They run full-out and find the tomb empty</p> <p>With the burial cloths left behind</p> <p>We glimpse the perspective of "the other disciple" - who wasn