Drama, Drama, Drama

Easter Sunday

April 16, 2017

Jeremiah 31:1-6; John 20:1-18

            I don’t know about you, but my Holy Week was rough. It was a hard week. There was one night when I chose my son’s bedtime story and I picked Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. 

No, the whole week was not rough. It had wonderful high points of time with friends and family, supper shared together on Maundy Thursday, and good work done with the people of God. And it had some low points, it had some rough spots. Rather than a more average sine wave of normal ups and downs [move hand in sine wave], it was more like this [exaggerated sine wave]. The ups were higher and the downs were lower and when things vary that greatly all in one week, it adds a little more stress, it makes it a little harder, because we’re not quite so even-keel, where we’d like to be. Yet even for all of our own drama, the truth is Holy Week has enough drama of its own. And we should not let our drama upstage Jesus’ drama.

            There’s a reason we read the Passion of Christ on Palm/Passion Sunday. And we read part of it again on Maundy Thursday, the part about betrayal. And we read it again on Good Friday, reading all the way through the sealing of the tomb. Did you notice that? They sealed it more than usual. The authorities didn’t want the disciples to steal Jesus’ body and be able to claim that he’d risen from the dead because his body was missing. So, they didn’t just roll a stone in front, but also sealed the stone. And they posted guards, who kept watch along with the women. Talk about drama. We don’t need to add any of our own. Rejection, betrayal, abandonment, suspicion, fear, grief. Frustration, lack of choices, fear of deception, fear of theft, imposters, mocking and taunting, death. Jesus lived through hell for three days. Hell on earth followed by the grave. No, we don’t need to add our own drama.

            Then we get the drama of that first Easter morning! The women go early in the morning to the tomb and there are all kinds of surprises. No guards! The stone is rolled back! There are angels! And… Jesus’ body is missing! Then Mary talks with the gardener, and it turns out the gardener is Jesus! Resurrected, in the flesh! Not a zombie, not a ghost, not as if he’d faked his death and had been hiding out to collect on the life insurance. He was really dead. And now he was really alive. Remember the Apostle’s Creed: He descended to the dead. Some traditional versions say he descended to hell. On the third day he rose from the dead. We believe in the resurrection of the body. Jesus sends Mary to go tell the rest that he is alive again, that he has triumphed over death. Can you picture it? It sounds a lot like a soap opera. Drama, drama, drama.

            Beloved, there is no drama you are going through that God is not there. There is no drama you are going through that God cannot redeem. There is no drama you are going through that there is not hope. That’s the good news of Easter. That’s why we are Easter people. Because Jesus defeated even death, we can face tomorrow. Heck, we can face today. We can face the next hour. We can face the next two minutes. We can face the next doctor’s appointment. We can face the next phone call with bad news, the next news cycle, the next whatever. The next drama. Because Jesus has already gone through all this. And not just gone through it, but broke the power of death. Broke the power of drama. Broke the power of fear. You don’t have to get caught up in it. Yes, it can feel huge. Yes, it can feel overwhelming. But Jesus’ drama broke all dramas. Whatever you’re going through is not the be-all-end-all. Jesus did that. There is no longer life and death, the end, but life and death and new life! So, calm down for a second. Take a deep breath. Pay attention to Jesus. Your drama is not the end. Every drama has death of some kind, and that death is not the end. Jesus broke the power of death, so that we can laugh and say, so what? Or perhaps a little more compassionately rub a shoulder and say, yes, it hurts. But it’s not the end. This loss is not the end. Thanks to Jesus, thanks to Easter, there is new life!

Where? Well, beloved, there is no drama you are going through that God’s people have not already gone through and God is constantly speaking words of comfort and love to God’s people. My Easter surprise this year was learning that there is an alternative Old Testament lesson for Easter Sunday and that was the Jeremiah passage we read. Listen to these words of life: “At that time, declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.” When is this time? Well, Jeremiah was prophesying and writing while God’s people were in exile. They were in the wilderness. They’d just endured a lot of drama and loss and change and grief and death. And God says, I will be your God, and you will be my people. Moreover, God says, I see you. You found grace, unconditional love, in the wilderness. You survived the sword. You long for rest. You found grace in the drama. You survived the drama. You long for rest. Does that speak to anyone here?

And then God speaks of unconditional, everlasting love. “I have loved you with a love that lasts forever. And so with unfailing love, I have drawn you to myself.” God’s people have been unfaithful. God’s people have not kept their promises. We have not kept our promises. We were among those who sent Jesus to the cross, who chose a criminal named Barabbas over Jesus and shouted “crucify him!” along with the crowd. We got caught up in our drama and lost sight of God. Yet God never lost sight of us. God never loses sight of you. And while we humans are “once bitten, twice shy,” God is not. God stays faithful. God stays with you. You may reject God, but that does not make God more hesitant to love you! God still loves you fully and unconditionally, no matter what.  That’s why God sent Jesus.

You see, exile is not the end of the story. Wilderness is not the end of the story. Rejection is not the end of the story. Death is not the end of the story. Drama is not the end of the story, nor does drama end the story. Got it? To keep reading from Jeremiah, “Again, I will build you up, and you will be rebuilt… Again, you will play your tambourines and dance with joy. Again, you will plant vineyards… and then enjoy the harvests.” New life. Death is not the end. Jesus defeated all the different things that hold us captive. No matter how elaborate your drama, it’s not the end and it’s not the final word on your life. Again, I will build you up. Again you will dance with joy. Again you will plant and get to eat the fruit. Again. That’s the promise from God. That’s the hope that Easter brings. That’s what it means that Jesus broke the power of death.

Grace came first, grace in the wilderness, grace in the drama. Unconditional love, when we least expected it or deserved it. Prevenient grace, God’s everlasting love that comes before we even know we need God. It helps us survive. Because we are survivors. It helps us keep going. Because this drama is not the end. This is a new beginning. Thanks be to God.