Year C Easter Vigil 2022 An Idle Tale

 Easter Vigil, 16 April 2022

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“An Idle Tale”

Collect: O God, who made this most holy night to shine with the glory of the Lord's resurrection: Stir up in your Church that Spirit of adoption which is given to us in Baptism, that we, being renewed both in body and mind, may worship you in sincerity and truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Romans 6:3-11

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Luke 24:1-12

On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

Perspective is Reality. What we think we see is what we see. If we think someone a fool, we do not give them the benefit of the doubt and whatever they say is foolish. We see what we think we see. We hear what we think we hear. We are conditioned to try and make sense of all the sensory input coming at us. In the flurry of so much, our brains jump to the most logical conclusion, and often, far too often, we stop with our understanding, our preconceived notions, instead of what truly is there before us.

The women who headed to the graveyard knew what to expect. Jesus had been quickly prepared to get him in the tomb before sunset. Wrapped in a shroud and placed in a newly hewn tomb, they expected to find his body, beginning to decay, so they brought spices to cover the stench and wait for the natural processes to take place over the coming year. A year or so later, the bones would be gathered up and put in a stone box just big enough to stick in the leg bones. This ossuary, as the box was called, would hold all the bones of the dearly departed, and then the tomb can be reused. That is why the Scriptures emphasized this was a new tomb, with a movable stone for later use.

Reading the text for tonight, what struck me was all the emotions surrounding the event. We see the preconceptions of these dear women caring for the Lord’s body, so horribly broken by whip and cross and awaiting mortification.

The beginning of the dawn had just started, the sun not yet peaking over the hills surrounding Jerusalem. When they arrived, though, things were not as they expected. The stone was already rolled away. What could be the meaning of this?

PERPLEXED. 

The first emotion mentioned is that they were perplexed. What they thought they knew was not there. The notions were being shattered, their bubbles burst. 

Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James (probably James the Less, by the way) and others had gone together in Luke’s version. Imagine the glances, the inquisitive and curious sounds, the whispers wondering what is going on. And then in peering in, we arrive at the second emotion.

TERROR.

There, where they expected the shrouded corpse there are two men, dazzling in their raiment standing beside them.

"Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again."

How could this be? How could it not? The two messengers, we can call them angels as the Greek word we use for angels, angelos, is merely messenger, they reminded the women what Jesus had prophesied. He said as much that he would be handed over, killed, and three days later he would rise. Why do they look for the living amongst the dead? Why do we still?

And then they REMEMBERED.

Think of how you feel when the word that was on the tip of your tongue comes back. Think of when the nagging thing you could not remember slips back into your thoughts so it can be accomplished. Think of when a promise made that had slipped your mind, and suddenly you are receiving that which had been said, and that forgotten joy floods your soul. Think on all of these and multiply them by a thousand.

Excitement, exuberance, JOY. Unimagined JOY comes flooding in. And in the overwhelming emotion that came from remembering, they ran to tell those who are counted as the apostles, those 11 left of the 12. And even here, those who were supposedly closest to Jesus, we see again that their perceptions shaped their reality. They saw death and could not see anything more. The phrase here says so much, “But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”

AN IDLE TALE. Utter nonsense. Poppycock. The disciples could not imagine it so it was ridiculous, and the women were dismissed. 

St. Paul talks about the foolishness of our story to those who do not understand in I Corinthians, Ch. 1:

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Tonight we have been walking through the whole salvation story, from creation through to Easter. The fingerprints of God are all over it if we look for them. For those of us with faith, our preconceived notions have slipped away and with new eyes, eyes of faith, we can see.

Peter in his grave emotional state, especially since his tripartite betrayal, held on in hope. If this “idle tale” is even possible, his utter self-abasement could be relieved. He ran, he ran in hope that they were right, he ran in hope that there might be chance that what he had done might yet be forgiven, he ran wanting to see if Jesus could truly be alive.

Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

AMAZED. 

Have 2,000 years jaded our ears? Are we still amazed that the “Idle Tale” could be true? Could it be? Could it truly be? 

Tonight we gather to say yes. Yes, the foolishness of the world is the truth of the Risen Lord. Tonight we baptize children into the faith we hold, dying to self, and rising to new life in him. I invite you this night, not to just a mental acquiescence,  but to a conversion of heart, and soul, and mind. I invite you, me, all of us to be AMAZED.

Friends, our Joy is contagious. In our hurting world focused on wars and inflation, in famine and disease, will we make the choice to be Amazed despite the world considering our tale to be idle? Is it really, and we show it more than we ever say it, the Greatest Story Ever Told? Tonight we have heard that story from beginning to New Beginning. Will we be idle or will our tale? We may be the only Bible some people ever read. What do they see? Amen