Most of us weren't alive yet for the pandemic of 1918, when only 2 million people in the United States had telephones (it was invented in 1910) and there was no radio or TV (the first ever radio broadcast was by KDKA in Pittsburgh of the 1920 elections returns, and TV was 30-plus years away). Any social isolation would have been nearly total then, except for newspapers and letters; now we have phones with calling and texting and video, and email, and Facetime, and Facebook and Zoon and Instagram--and I am certain I am forgetting any number of communication methods. We have radio--or the equivalent of radio, and my goodness do we have TV--24/7 TV, including multiple cable news channels to keep us perpetually informed if we so desire. That stated, for those of us who celebrate Easter, this is an Easter unlike any that most of us have ever experienced. We are used to the largest Sunday worship attendance of the year, with beautiful lilies decorating the Sanctuary. We are used to extra choir anthems, with energy and joy, and extra instruments playing. We are used to more voices singing hymns of God's triumph over death--love more powerful than death--the victory of the risen Christ. We don't get to have that joyous assembly of community worship together with each other this year. It already has been strange not to gather to worship, and not to gather for the celebration of Easter is even stranger. And yet, this year our Easter may be truer to that first Easter than the way that we usually celebrate. Because we know the story--for the past 2100 years or so we've known the story; we've known who won, and live in an ongoing discovery of what that means in our lives (none of us has it fully worked out; none of us fully lives it out, if we're honest). As the hymn "Easter People, Raise Your Voices" reminds us, "Every day to us is Easter". I plan on us singing that hymn the very first Sunday we can again be together in worship, by the way. Because it is indeed true. We know the story, we seek to live the story in the ways it impacts our lives, and it means that every day is a rejoicing in God's love and grace being more powerful than anything that would challenge that--sin, wrong, evil, even death. But that first Easter, they didn't know that. On that first Easter, we read in John's gospel (John 20:19a): "When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear . . .". They were self-isolating. There was something they were afraid of, and they had no idea what was going to happen. By the evening, they had heard (as John's gospel tells the story) what Mary Magdalene and Peter and John had told them, that the tomb was empty and that Mary had claimed to see Jesus. But how was it possible to believe that? It had all gone so far off of the rails at the end of the week that they were still trying to sort out what had happened. And now this? Who had any idea of what to believe? With what they had been through--and the fearful unknown of what might possibly happen next--well, no wonder they were practicing social distancing from any situation that could threaten their lives. We can relate to that so much more profoundly this Easter than we ever could before. We are living in fear of an invisible virus that is killing people all over the world, and right here. We are told by people who know about these things that the best way to stay alive is to lock ourselves in, not go anywhere unless we absolutely have to. We don't know when this will be resolved--we don't really even know IF this will be resolved, although we trust and hope and are reassured that it will. The rest of verse 19 gives the hope: "Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’" The Risen Christ was with them. He gave them peace. His rising from the dead--his victory over complete and utter defeat, life over death--gave them new life, a new hope, a sense that the real and genuine fear they were deeply in the midst of would not continue to be their prevailing life reality. It took some time to comprehend what had happened--and to comprehend it to the extent that they could convey it to others. But they got there, and they turned the world upside down. The world was different as they lived in that peace, with the hope that the Risen Christ gave them, and with the new life--and the new way of living life that Jesus had been showing them and teaching them--being transformational for their own lives, and the life of the world. The Risen Christ is with us too, in our time of being locked in. He brings peace to us, too, as well as the hope that it won't stay like this, that we won't have to live in fear. And we have a bit of an advantage in that we already know of life-transforming power, and peace that passes understanding and is more powerful than fear, and hope that promises fulfillment. With the Risen Christ with us, when we are able to come out from being locked in, we too can live transformed lives, for ourselves, and to transform the world.
John 20:1-20
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’ 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to their homes. 11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ 14 When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ 16 Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ’ 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her. 19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.