Easter Sunday (April 8, 2012)

FULL TRANSCRIPT OF FATHER SWANN'S HOMILY FOR EASTER:

Starting on that first Easter Day a series of “strange things” began to happen. “God has raised Him to life again,” the disciples declared, as they interpreted those happenings.... It is as if Jesus’ life of caring and his fundamental message that God is love were written on a document. Then by raising Jesus from the dead, God has, as it were, stamped the document with His great seal. He ‘ratified it’ and declared...This is utterly TRUE!” Let’s look at this a little more carefully.

From Scripture we read: “On the first day of the week, at early dawn the WOMEN took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb-- BUT-- when they went in they did not find the body.” These same women-- Luke identifies them as Mary Magdelene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and others-- are the ones who “trembled” before the ‘incandescent holy beings’- without running away, and were the first to witness the empty tomb of Jesus.

By the way- these were the same brave souls that watched Jesus die his agonizing death, and who followed his lifeless corpse to mark the place where it was entombed by Joseph of Arimethea.
We might ask a “legitimate” question- where were the men? Where were Jesus’ disciples-- his closest disciples--- Peter, James and John-- the “pillars” of the community?? Where were Thomas, and Matthew, Andrew and Philip? Had all of them “scattered” like frightened sheep after Gethsemane and Golgotha? Had they left Jesus when he needed them most?

They all knew that if a criminal was executed-- so should be his accomplices. So the disciples fled the scene, seeking no more than to ‘save their own skins. Obviously, the Apostles were not anticipating Jesus’ resurrection. He was dead and entombed. They, like the other Jews-- looked for a distant “corporate resurrection” at the end of time. Obviously- something “very dramatic”- something very “new order” has occurred.

Reginald Fuller, a New Testament scholar has said that even the most “skeptical” of persons- must admit that something mysterious - an “X” factor- must have occurred to get the Christian movement going. Think about it, How did any kind of “beginning” flow out of such a disastrous end--- let alone a “beginning” that would change the face of the world. How did this Jesus-- executed as a heretic-- come to be known as “Lord?” How could a condemned criminal and a disavowed prophet- end up being proclaimed as “Savior?” How could he be called “the Son of God.?” Lastly-- how could this group of “boneheads” -the Apostles- this frightened hiding bunch-- emerge from this event-- proclaiming not only the Gospel of Jesus-- BUT- Jesus himself as the Gospel?”

The “X FACTOR”-that changed history-- is of course- the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Jesus was “really” dead-- and the Father “really” restored him to life. Scripture makes it clear that Jesus’ body in his post resurrection appearance-- was not merely “resuscitated”- after all--- it was three days later and a body would seriously deteriorate, but was in some way “transformed.” That is the reason that Christ was not always ‘recognized’ at first sight, and could appear and disappear in surprising ways.

Paul, after spending three years in Arabia to “sort out” his Damascus Road experience- returned to Jerusalem to spend 15 days with Cephas and James. It was from them and from his “Damascus Road experience”- that Paul received the “Christian Formula” on the resurrection. Paul could proclaim that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and after the resurrection he appeared to Cephas and the twelve. And then appeared to more than five hundred at one time.

Paul could further proclaim: “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” If Easter is merely a “wonderful event” that happened a long time ago- the way God worked once – but not since—then the resurrection has little relevance to our lives today. But Easter means more: It is a ONCE-AND- FOR-ALL-TIME TRTH.

In the Easter event, the “Resurrection Principle” is disclosed. IN CHRIST ALL IS MADE ALIVE. Whatever “tomb” that you might be in. Wherever you expect “deadliness” and have given up “hope,” Christ can ‘raise you up – for the “power” that took Jesus through death and beyond gives us the capacity to triumph over all the forces of creation. AS we live by this assurance of “Christpower,” we come alive in hope. That is what Easter Life and Easter Love are all about.

If you leave this Easter celebration and think that Jesus was simply “a great teacher,” then you will have “missed the point” of this great feast day of the Church. For on this day we gather NOT to remember something Jesus taught. WE are gathered today to remember that God raised Jesus from the dead as the first fruits of a new creation.For all that, THANKS BE TO GOD- ALLELUIA CHRIST IS RISEN. Amen.