Resurrection is an Earthquake
This Easter feels like no other Easter that I’ve experienced.
There are no lilies. There is no brass ensemble. I’m standing alone in the Scattering Garden. There are no crowds.
It is not just Easter that feels UNFAMILIAR. Every PRESUMPTION about the world, every ROUTINE, everything that I tend to call NORMAL feels SHAKEN and OUT of PLACE.
(I did my second grocery run this week, and I felt like I was in another world.)
And then I realized: This Easter is actually NOT unlike every other Easter.
It’s a lot like Matthew’s Easter. This might be more like the first Easter than I thought.
Two women—both named Mary—went to look at the tomb. Their whole world felt like it had been shaken. And, suddenly, there was an EARTHQUAKE. And it wasn’t just a feeling anymore; they were shaken, indeed!
In the Gospel of Mathew, the RESURRECTION is nothing SHORT of an EARTHQUAKE.
* * *
We need an EASTER that SHAKES. We need a RESURRECTION that BUSTS open new possibilities. RESURRECTION shakes EVERYTHING to it’s core…even DEATH.
Matthew gives us an Easter without brass…there are no lilies. He gives us EARTHQUAKES and SASSY angels and FAINTING guards.
* * *
I know that we have turned resurrection into a belief or a doctrine. We’ve turned it into words. But I don’t find that satisfactory. I need to be SHAKEN. I need to feel the RESURRECTION in my bones and never be the same.
I need RESURRECTION to welcome me into a new world. I need to be SHAKEN and GIVEN a new DIRECTION.
* * *
Before resurrection was a belief, RESURRECTION was an EARTHQUAKE.
The question is not: Do you BELIEVE?
The question is: Have you been SHAKEN?
* * *
I haven’t been in an earthquake. I have heard they are quite strange.
One of my most vivid memories of first grade, though, was being trained on what to do in the event of an earthquake. I was at Stewart Elementary school in the northern suburbs of Cincinnati. Southwest Ohio is not known for its seismic activity. There was a media frenzy around an earthquake prediction.
The scientific community wasn’t on board, but the prediction sold newspapers. There was a lot of HYPE. At a moment’s command, everyone in my class was instructed to jump under our desks. We put our heads between our knees, and our arms over our heads.
Even as a six-year old, I was accustomed enough to FIRE DRILLS and TORNADO DRILLS. Those make sense. You ESCAPE or your FIND shelter.
There seems to be no escaping an earthquake; you just dive under a flimsy desk. And I know that is supposed to protect you from falling structures, but the SHAKING itself is UBIQUITOUS.
There is no ESCAPE; there is no QUARTER from the RESURRECTION.
* * *
I know a fellow Midwesterner who was in an earthquake in California. She was with her friend in a hotel conference room setting up a display. She heard a deep rumbling sound. The hotel was shaking. Something must have exploded.
Her friend—a veteran of these things—knew better. As soon as it hit, she yelled: Get in the door frame!
They huddled there for a short time and the rumbling soon stopped. We have to get out of the building now, said the California native. This isn’t over. They ran outside in time to see the sidewalk roll towards them.
Later, she reflected: “I have been in tornadoes, tropical storms, and a blizzard or two. Nothing was as disconcerting as those three minutes.”
In a follow-up conversation this week she added these words: “Until now. Until now.”[i]
* * *
Maybe, I have been in an earthquake. Every time I say these words: “He was crucified, died, and was buried; the third day he rose again from the dead.”
It is an EARTHQUAKE.
STOP worrying about BELIEVING those things, and simply be SHAKEN by them.
* * *
“The foundations of the earth do shake,” writes theologian Paul Tillich. “May we not turn our eyes away; may we not close our ears and our mouths! But may we rather see, through the crumbling of a world, the ROCK of ETERNITY and the SALVATION which has no end.”
What happens in you when everything is SHAKEN?
* * *
Well, here’s what happens to the women at the tomb.
They step into a whole new world. Something BUSTS open. In the resurrection, an old world abates, and a new creation is here.
There is a whole new world in the resurrection:
breaking into to our TEMPORALITY,
breaking into our EXCUSES,
breaking into our DESPAIR,
breaking into our TOMBS
And SHAKING….SHAKING…SHAKING…until all of that is EMPTY.
The women were given a new direction. They were headed to LOOK at a tomb…to EXAMINE their own LOSS and FEAR. But it is all EMPTY.
“He isn’t here. He’s been raised from the dead…just as he said,” an angel tells them.
In Matthew, they aren’t bringing spices and oil. Rather, they were just coming to LOOK, to REMEMBER, and to GRIEVE. After being SHAKEN by RESURRECTION, they are re-routed.
They are re-routed from sorrow to joy. They are re-routed from despair to hope. They are re-routed from worry to worship.
Resurrection gives us a new direction.
* * *
The women hurry away from the empty tomb, to tell the disciples what had happened. But, look, who finds them first but Jesus?
They grab his feet and worship him. It’s a strange detail that I’ve noticed before. (It’s not social distancing—maybe that’s why it jumped out.)
It is a simple act—an expression of immense longing—in the midst of an aftershock.
They did not sing with brass and buy lilies. The brass may not resound today, but the earth is shaking. The whole creation resounds with the resurrection of Jesus. And that’s just what we need.
* * *
There has been a lot of shaking this year that just might resemble that first Easter.
A seminary classmate posted a video of Facebook of her neighborhood cheering and clapping, and banging pots and pans.
It happens every night at 7:00 p.m. on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. [ii]
It is for all of the healthcare workers—trying to defy death and bring hope. It is for solidarity. It is for the groaning of creation.
She describes it as antidote to the constant sirens.
Her bishop stands outside the Cathedral every day banging a pan.
* * *
My friend Denise preached here a few years ago. She shared the type of Easter service that she was longing for this year.
A lot of churches have been trying to worship with live video conferencing during this time—we are trying that with communion today.
Instead of a sentimental Easter, her vision of worship this year is everyone signing into Zoom, and just BANGING pots and pans for five minutes.[iii]
Five minutes of SHAKING and QUAKING.
Five minutes of HOPING and RESISTING.
Five minutes of DOXOLOGY.
That’s it! Nothing else!
Resurrection is nothing short of an earthquake.
Endnotes:
[i] Thanks to the Rev. Amy Miracle at Broad Street Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Ohio.
[ii] Thanks to the Rev. Posey Krakowsky who serves the Church of the Ascension in the City of New York.
[iii] The Rev. Dr. Denise Thorpe describes this in a ZOOM webinar title “Joy is Work of Improvisation” on April 8, 2020 hosted by the Ministry Collaborative. Denise’s commentary was influential on several parts of this sermon.