Easter Sunday: Feast of the Resurrection

"Then the [Beloved] Disciple went in. He saw and believed" (John 20:8)

I received in my email "inbox" this week, the Presiding Bishop's Easter Letter to the Episcopal Church. She began by recounting her conversation, just before Ash Wednesday, with Zache Duracin, Archbishop of the Episcopal Church in Haiti. The Archbishop had decided that the Haitian Church would not observe Lent this year. Clearly, the people of Haiti had suffered more than enough. And they probably didn't need to impose any added suffering, however minor. A meatless Friday, or giving up a minor pleasure like chocolate, would almost certainly seem trivial in the light of all the death and destruction around the Haitian people. But the biggest reason for not observing Lent, Bishop Zache said, was that the Haitian people needed to practice saying, "Alleluia." Truly, truly, it would take a lot of practice for the Haitian people to enter into Easter in the spirit of the Resurrection.

The Presiding Bishop goes on to say that we all need to "practice Resurrection…We are not born with the ability to insist on resurrection everywhere we turn." That's an interesting word choice, "insist." But we live in world where, all around us, life is born. And in the best-case scenario, that life grows, then slowly declines, and finally ceases. Resurrection is not so obvious. According to Bishop Katherine, "It takes the discipline and repetition that forms an athlete – in this case, a spiritually fit Christian. We practice our faith because we must – it withers and atrophies unless it's stretched."

Easter Sunday confronts each of us with what Bishop Katherine calls, "an immense stretching exercise." Perhaps the very idea of a man as dead as dead can be coming back to life seems so impossible as to be laughable. Perhaps the possibility of Resurrection brings you back here on this Sunday, to be reassured that the spring means more than just another round in the cycle of life and death. You want to believe. Perhaps you come here regularly. You've heard and you believe that 2,000 years ago, a man was killed, buried and yet is alive. And you still hope to share in the new life, someday. You just wish you could see it a little more clearly right now. Whatever has brought you here, I think that for all of us, practicing resurrection can be an immense stretching exercise.

Think of how immense it was for at least two of our characters from John's Gospel that first morning of the Resurrection. Mary Magdalene is so overcome with grief that first she assumes the theft of Jesus's corpse. Then when Jesus stands before her; something – eyes drowning in tears, panic at the thought of her master's body taken away – something keeps her from recognizing Jesus right in front of her. Peter is proof positive that fools rush where angels fear to tread. But at least his shame at having denied his Lord doesn't keep him from hurrying to his burial site. He sees the burial cloths neatly folded in one place, the head cloth in a different place. No one stealing the body or moving it to a different place would have gone to the trouble of unwrapping the burial cloths. But something – a mind clouded by guilt perhaps – keeps Peter from drawing the logical conclusion.

It is the Beloved Disciple who sees and believes, without seeing the risen Jesus. Somehow, he has practiced resurrection enough to recognize it. He has stretched himself enough to believe it. He sees the cloths neatly folded. He remembers that when Lazarus came out, he was still wrapped in his burial cloths and had to be unwrapped on Jesus's order. Lazarus was resuscitated, only to die again. But no human burial custom could contain the resurrected Son of God. The Beloved Disciple remembers, he sees, and he believes, without need the vision that Mary would need.

How had he stretched himself? What practices or exercises had strengthened his spirit to know resurrection when he saw it? Remember his name? Well actually, we are never told his name. He is only referred to as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." According to Christian tradition, this "beloved disciple" was one of the 12 chief Apostles, John. But for the author of this Gospel, his position in the hierarchy meant nothing compared to the fact that Jesus loved him. Now Jesus made it clear that he loved all his disciples. And surely anyone who followed Jesus loved him as well. But it's also true that in any relationship, we all bring at least some psychological "baggage" to that relationship. Peter had a need to be in charge. And Jesus met him where he was.

But this beloved disciple did a better job of practicing resurrection before the Resurrection because of his love. He was able to avoid projecting his anxieties onto Jesus. He was able to lay his own personal agenda aside and truly listen to Jesus. When Jesus said something that threatened to "push a button," the Beloved Disciple did not react out of fear or defensiveness. He remained open to Jesus in his mind, his heart and his soul. It was he, alone among the men, who was brave enough to stand with Jesus at the cross. He had listened to Jesus with an open mind, and thus could remember and trust his promise of resurrection, however impossible that seemed. And having stretched his heart and mind, the Beloved Disciple saw and believed.

I doubt that any of us are as spiritually fit as the Beloved Disciple. We all need to stretch ourselves beyond our preconceptions of what it means to be a Christian. We all need to stretch ourselves beyond the fears that keep us from responding to the Good News with trust and openness. We all need to stretch ourselves beyond the personal agendas that we would confuse with the Gospel. We all need to stretch ourselves beyond the doubts that leave us crouching in our shell with no hope. But there's no special exercise you have to learn to practice Resurrection. All you have to do is love. The Beatles sang that All You Need is Love. And that's true enough. But Love is something you have to do. It's something you have to practice. Helping those who can't get around as easily as they used to is practicing love. Feeding the stomach and souls of the hungry is practicing love. Learning with each other to be better disciples is practicing love. And practicing love will strengthen the eyes of your heart and mind and soul to recognize resurrection when you see it.

Exercising resurrection isn't easy. We will get discouraged at times. We will fall off the wagon at times. But that's alright. Some years ago, a breakfast cereal commercial began with the jingle, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life," which means that every day is first day of the rest of your life. I think the cereal company was trying to say that it's never too late to start exercising and eating right. Well, today, Easter Sunday, is the first day of the rest of your everlasting life. Never think it's too late to take the first step of practicing resurrection. You have forever to get it right.