The
sermons for Maundy Thurs, Good Friday, and Easter have interwoven the stories
from the hundred loonies given to members during the month of January. Each person was to take their loonie and use
it to further God’s mission in the world. To date 36 stories have been written
in the book, others are awaiting the opportunity to give them. God’s mission continues every day, unfolding
before our very eyes.
The Gospel according to Mark greets us
with women going to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. The tomb is empty – the story ends with the
women being simultaneously ecstatic and terrified. “They said nothing to anyone.”
That’s it, that’s all.
No appearances of Jesus in the garden,
on the road, or cooking breakfast.
The end of the story is a letdown – it
wouldn’t win a Pulitzer Prize. The ending does, however, end in such a way as
to leave us curious, wanting more, and imagining what happened next – in the
ecstasy and terror – and silence.
Sunday’s
and Seasons, an
Augsburg resource, suggests that the reading from the Gospel of Mark is “an invitation to dwell in the silence, and
to interrogate our noise.” We make a lot of noise during our Easter
celebrations: the organ played with full stops, the choir in exceptional form,
joyous Alleluias at the top of our voices, giddy giggles after Easter breakfast
and the popping of champagne – finally a Sunday with a church teeming with
people – no weather incidents, the ice receding to create parking on the street,
and the silence of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday left behind.
Today’s celebration is in great
contrast to the services of the past two months. Those services were quiet and
intimate gatherings of the faithful few who could walk or be dropped off.
Circumstances gave us pause to reflect on the simple, with the intimate sharing
of quiet prayer and personal stories, and participating in communion as one
table. Many of you were unable to get here, let alone park. What did you miss? Your answer is probably a
simple one.
Easter stripped of the extras (the
festivities, the hymns, the joy, and people) we are left with only the basic
story – the simple truth: Christ has died.
Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
The women woke on the third day and
went to anoint their loved one. It was
right and salutary. It was a gift. It was a way to express love and
appreciation. In the gift was respect, a
remembrance of the past, and a hope for the future. We took anniversary loonies
into the world as gift, where the gift was invested in hope to be resurrected
in the future:
*a donation will be placed in the
public gardens change box to maintain this beautiful public space
* vegetable seeds will be planted in a
community garden, with the harvest to come back to the church to share
*a loonie was given to a parking metre
that had run out of time
*a contribution was given to a
collection for a co-worker facing surgery and medical expenses
Christ has died. Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.
Risen and come again – the possibility
that resurrection is not a onetime static occurrence became real to us and in
the world through loonies that will keep on giving and spreading Good News to
more than one person:
*two loonies bought used books from the
First Baptist book library helping their outreach programs, the book to be read
will be passed on to a person working security night shift
*four loonies were used to purchase 4
toques at the Salvation Army store, supporting Salvation Army community outreach
programs, with the toques going into boxes for the Mission to Seafarers
And perhaps the best part of the
Easter story from members of Resurrection is that terror – fear- doesn’t
paralyze us from sharing the Good News. Mark’s Gospel ends with the words,
translated from gk, they were afraid for…
but, the ecstasy (a better translation
of the gk, than amazement as we heard read) has us act in hope. We set fear aside and shared whence our
giving grows – acts of love were intimate moments without noise or fan-fare –
just the passing of a simple truth:
*The witness to a nice waitress who
heard the story of our church, and that the loonie will bring a blessing.
*The witness to a homeless man at
McDonald’s who gets a breakfast every Monday.
The happiness expressed when he was chosen –special- as the recipient of
a church coin.
*The witness of:
“My
husband and I decided to put our loonies together as not much can be done with
one, not even a coffee – One day I was in line at the drugstore when someone
ahead of me was paying his power bill with a cheque and the clerk told him he
was short $1.97. I put my hand in my pocket and there was the two loonies. The
clerk asked him if he had the extra, he had no money. I passed him the $2. He said I can’t pay you back. I said no need
–and told him our church was 100 years old and we were given a loonie to give
away. He thanked me and said maybe it’s time I went back to church. I invited him to come and told him it was a
warm place to get out of the cold. I
asked God to bless him. He offered to carry my parcels home (I declined) – he
was so thankful. When he left the clerk told me she had goosebumps because in
all her years of work she had never witnessed anything like that happen. It certainly made my day. We don’t need a big amount to help someone in
need. – only to be aware – and be ready.”
The anniversary loonie project resurrected
in us a focus, a re-focus, to the simple truth:
Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come
again.
Christ came again and again for us: in reflection about what to do with our coins,
in prayerful consideration, in the importance of gifts regardless of the size.
It was resurrected in us that giving affects us as much or more than the
receiver. Christ has risen in our changed perceptions of others. Christ has
died and Christ has risen in the movement through terror to action – some of us
were pushed outside our comfort zones – asking people their names, listening to
other’s stories, and daring to enter the lives of others by setting ourselves
aside. Christ will come again as we have
become observant of street people, musicians, those in the service industry,
those living on the margins, seeing how far “welfare state” money doesn’t go,
and seeing places to grow happiness, joy, and hope.
Resurrection simply happens – the
truth of Easter explodes – when we are ecstatic and terrified, amazed and
afraid – yet, remaining open to possibility, actively watching for opportunity
to love our neighbour, and in the blink of an eye blossom a moment of joy.
Christ has died. Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.
The simplicity of this truth changes us,
speaking to our hearts and consciences.
We invested in those around us. In fact we freely added of our own money,
treasures, and resources – and we added compassion and love.
The news did reach the disciples and
Peter that Jesus had gone ahead of them to Galilee.
The story was told, lived, and shared
through the lives of followers through the centuries.
It is resurrected in our own day, in
our everyday lives – experienced in ecstasy and terror.
This morning we are left in the middle
of a story, one without an ending, they
were afraid for …(dot, dot, dot)
Go and live the dot, dot, dot embodied
in the simple truth: Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.
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