In the Name of God:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Easter Sunday is the greatest day of the church year . . . and it is the only one that is determined by the moon.  Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox.  That may sound complicated but there’s a good reason for it . . . it ties Easter – our celebration of new life – to the greening of the earth . . . the bursting forth of new life all around us.  Christ is risen and the whole earth comes to life.  It’s a beautiful connection that helps to renew our faith in the creative power of God. 

But, as the preacher Barbara Brown Taylor points out[1], it’s also a misleading connection.  Buy a daffodil bulb in the winter and it looks like nothing in your hand . . . maybe a small onion, but not a very promising one.  But if you know about bulbs, that doesn’t worry you . . . you know that in the spring it will escape the earth and explode with color . . . a yellow butterfly escaping its cocoon.  It always seems to be a bit of a miracle to me . . . but we all know that it’s perfectly natural.

Resurrection, on the other hand, is completely UNnatural.  When a human being goes into the ground, that’s that.  You don’t expect the person to reappear next year, so you can pick up where you left off . . . not on this side of the grave, anyway.  You say good bye.  You get on with your life as best you can . . . knowing that the only place spring time happens in the cemetery is on the graves . . . not in them.

That’s probably what Mary was doing . . . going to Jesus’ grave to say good bye . . . or at least to TRY to say good bye . . . to convince herself of his death.  But in the dark, as she approaches the place of his burial she begins to sense that something is wrong . . . she smells the damp earth, the cold rock from inside.  The stone has been rolled away from the opening of the tomb!  Who has stolen his body?  Have the Romans taken it away so that no one can venerate it . . . so that this grave cannot become a place of pilgrimage . . . and a source of potential revolt?  Jesus’ body was all Mary had left . . . and now someone has taken it away.

So she runs off to tell Peter and the disciple Jesus loved, who run to see if she’s telling the truth.  But once they’ve satisfied themselves, they leave Mary alone there . . . by the empty tomb.  If they tried to persuade her to come with them, she refused.  She is determined to stay . . . she wants nothing . . . she knows nothing but Jesus.  She’s like an abandoned puppy who’s lost her master and stays rooted to the spot her master left her, not knowing what else to do.

Even angels have no affect on Mary.  Once she works up her nerve to look inside the tomb, she sees them sitting where Jesus had been lying.  “Why are you weeping?” they ask her.  “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”  Angels . . . ANGELS! appear to her and still, she has nothing on her mind but Jesus.

It doesn’t seem to occur to her that these two might have been the ones who took Jesus’ body . . . but then, she doesn’t seem to be thinking very clearly.  She’s in shock . . . confused, frightened, grieving . . . she has only one thing on her mind so when she bumps into the gardener she doesn’t even see him.  Maybe HE’s the one who has stolen the body!  “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away.”

What is she thinking?  If he HAS stolen the body might he not be dangerous?  And if he IS willing to give it to her . . . what’s she going to do . . . carry the body by herself?  She is NOT thinking clearly . . . but the gardener doesn’t seem to mind.  “Mary” he says to her.  And she turns to stare at him.  “Rabbouni!” she shouts, “My teacher!”

“Do not hold onto me,” he warns her, “because I have not yet ascended to the Father.”

Now, if you think about it, it’s kind of a strange thing to say . . . the text says nothing about her touching him or even moving toward him.  Unless Jesus is reacting to her words, “My teacher.”  Maybe he hears something in her tone of voice . . . maybe he hears the longing to have him back the way he was before . . . so that they could go back to the way they were before . . . so that life could go back to the way is was . . . before.

“Rabbouni!”  But that was his Friday name . . . and here it is Sunday . . . a whole new day . . . in a whole new world.

He is not on his way back to her and his friends.  He is on his way to God . . . and he’s taking the whole world with him.  Maybe this is why in all of the other Gospel stories about the Resurrection we’re told not to be afraid . . . because new life is frightening.  It is unnatural.  To expect to find a sealed tomb and instead to find one filled with angels . . . to look for the past and to find the future . . . to search for a corpse and to find the risen Lord . . . this is all very UNnatural.

Death is natural.  Loss is natural.  Grief is natural.  But the great stone has been rolled away this happy morning to reveal a very UNnatural truth.  God has planted a seed of life in us that cannot die, and if we can remember this there is NOTHING that we cannot do . . . move mountains, banish fear, love our enemies, change the world.

The only thing we canNOT do is hold onto Jesus.  He asks us to please not do this.  Because he knows that we would rather keep him here with us than let him take us where he is going.  Perhaps it would be better if we let Him hold onto to US.  Perhaps we should let him take us into the dazzling presence of God, who is not behind us but ahead of us . . . every step of the way.

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