Easter senses

A sermon preached at Faith Episcopal Church on Easter morning, 2006.

Blessed, blessed Easter to you. We are not together today because of something that happened nearly two thousand years ago. We are together today because of something that is happening now, in every moment. Easter is a perpetual event. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, that mystery in a darkened cave outside of Jerusalem, was the beginning of Easter. Jesus’ battered and broken body was made new. Easter is the eternal sharing of that newness. It has no past. It has no future – no time that has never been, no time that waits to be. In Easter all is the present, now is eternity.

Eternity is like one of those brain teaser paintings by M.C. Escher. Is the water flowing up or down; are the stairs ascending or descending; is the spiral flowing inward or outward? The answer to all of these drawings is an “ Easter yes! ”

The nowness of Easter is our hope. The timelessness of the Risen Christ is the ultimate healing strategy for the world. It allows us to live God’s future in our present. In that kind of hope, no despair is lasting, no fear is unquenchable; no injustice is permanent. That ’s the good new of Easter. The spark of newness is always available in this mysterious present. Alleluia to that!

If we are not here today because of something that happened in some other time, we are also not here because of something that happened to someone else. I love the image of the moment of the resurrection as God’s presence and power and love pouring into the cold body lying in the tomb to the point that it overflows and spills out over all creation. The love is too great to be contained even by Jesus. All of creation is made new. We too are resurrected.

Meister Eckhart, was a 14^th century German theologian and mystic wise man. He said “ Though we are all God’s sons and daughters, we do not realize it yet.” I wonder if that is because we think the resurrection happened a long time ago to someone else? Is there something we simply haven’t figured out, something we haven’t found yet?

A beautiful answer comes from Jean-Pierre de Caussade – another wise mystic from another time and place – 18^th century France.

“What is the secret of finding the Treasure? There isn’t one. The Treasure is everywhere. It is offered to us every moment and wherever we find ourselves. All creatures, friends or enemies, pour it out abundantly, and it courses through every fiber of our Body and soul until it reaches the very core of our being. If we open our mouths they will be filled. God’s activity runs through the entire universe. It wells up around and penetrates every created being. Wherever they are, it is there also.”

Caussade, Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Avila and all of the great mystics of the Church throughout the millennia have given us the wisdom of finding God in all things. We have been given all we need to experience perpetual Easter – our physical senses and the Divine image within us as the intent to use them to apprehend God. Easter is every moment made new and holy, every moment is resurrection when you expect to find God in it. Every simple moment is worth an alleluia.

Years ago, I don’t even remember when except that it was fall, I was driving through one of the less than lovely parts of Indianapolis and looked up a street with run down houses and broken down cars when my eyes were riveted to a most gorgeous flaming scarlet maple tree. It was perfect in shape and in that moment it was as if the sun were pumping rhythmic light that danced in the leaves. Suddenly the poverty and decay receded from view. The tree was so magnificent and I realized that God, the artist, will strew beauty at will. The gift of that maple tree opened my eyes to how precious and worthy of beauty is every person and every corner of this world because God is present in it all. It was autumn but it was Easter.

Psalm 34 says “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Have you ever stood in a vegetable garden in August and sunk your teeth into a deep red tomato from the vine? I have and that flavor – or at least its memory has helped me through many a winter salad with nothing that resembles a red tomato in it. The taste of that product of pure summer must have been what God had just sampled when he said “ … and it is good.” Only nature can produce that flavor. God is in the things the earth gives us to eat and even more so when we share them at a table with others. The taste of real bread and wine always makes me wonder why we use such pale substitutes here at God ’s table. Open your mouth and let it be filled with the Easter sweetness of God.

Have you ever had the experience of visiting some place in which you spent lots of time during your childhood? The musty smell of an old attic or a closet with your grandfather’s favorite sweater hanging in it will take you back to that time immediately. Marcel Proust wrote in The Remembrance of Things Past of the power of scent which speaks of the eternity of Easter

“The past still lives in us …[it] has made us what we are and is remaking us every moment! … An hour is not merely an hour! … It is a vase filled with perfumes, sounds, places and climates! So we hold within us a treasure of impressions, clustered in small knots, each with a flavor of its own.” Breathe in the perfume of God.

When I was laid low a few weeks ago with the Martian Death Flu, Max – the Church Dog – decided that I needed him to sit on me as I lay suffering on the couch. When I gave up trying to make him move I realized that he was a very wise creature. The warmth and weight of him began to feel like a prayer and it felt like love. It was healing touch and I was grateful.

Max was responsible for the last sensory joy also. On Tuesday as many of us gathered for the first Seder supper ever held at Faith. We were enjoying all of ritual food and wine and fellowship and connecting to our story through this Jewish tradition. We were boldly singing one of the songs which we could do because it was set to the old Jewish tune “Clementine” when Max ran into the center of the room with his squeaky toy and joined in. The song and the squeaking and the laughter proved to be a perfect chorus of creation. I’m pretty sure I heard God exclaim, “Now, that was good! ”

The message of Easter is this – having flooded creation, God is hiding in plain sight in everything, every person, brother or sister, every moment, despairing or triumphant. Approach the ordinary moments of life as if you have been drawn near to God. Touch the painful past in an Easter present and the way to heal it will be found. Touch an ominous future in an Easter present and the wisdom to change it will be given to you. Surrender to the resurrection and by living for others you will find more joy, more hope and more love than you ever knew existed. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!