NOTES ON THE READINGS

Old Testament Reading: Isaiah 65.17-25

Isaiah’s prophecy of ‘new heavens and a new earth’ can lead us to believe that the present creation is dispensable. But the lyrical vision is full of the longings of present-day created beings: the longing for health, for peace, for stability, for harmony. Dreaming, praying and working for that reality now is what fits us to live in God’s new creation. This is not an other-worldly spirituality but an embodied, sacramental one. The earth is the Lord’s.

New Testament Reading: 1 Corinthians 15.19-26

Paul describes the resurrection of Jesus as the first fruits that enable trust that the harvest is coming. Jesus’ resurrection is a ‘fact’  of the coming triumph of God on behalf of all creation. It stands against the ‘fact’ of death, so obvious, so unavoidable in the bruised and broken creation we have made around us. Those who live in hope because of the resurrection of Jesus can see again the seeds of the kingdom all around and love the world with the tenderness of the one who raised Jesus from the dead.

New Testament Reading: Acts 10.34-43

Peter responds to God’s boundary-crossing grace in calling Cornelius to faith. The encounter makes Peter rethink his own calling to be a witness to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The risen Jesus does not appear to everyone, Peter muses, but only to those who had accompanied him in his mission, and whose vocation is to witness. The good news is not forced upon people; it is transformational for each person who encounters it. 

Gospel: John 20.1-18

John’s account of the finding of the empty tomb famously has several different kinds of ‘seeing’ going on: the Greek uses different words but all are translated by ‘seeing’ in English. First Mary and the beloved disciple note what’s in front of them: no stone, linen wrappings; then Peter comes and notes a bit more and starts to wonder what’s going on; then the beloved disciple sees and believes. Peter and the beloved disciple see in a way that allows them to take the next step, but Mary is left weeping until she sees Jesus himself. No other kind of seeing will do for her. But once she has seen the Risen Lord, she becomes the first apostle.

Gospel: Luke 24.1-12

When all the male disciples ran way from the crucifixion scene, the women stayed, heartbroken but determined to minister to Jesus to the very end. They watch where his body is laid and then come back to anoint it for an honourable death, not the death of a criminal or outcast. Their sorrow is almost too deep: they cannot believe that Jesus is risen; that seems to them terrifying nonsense. Hope is not always easy if we have accustomed ourselves to despair.

Sermon outline for Luke 24.1-12

Introduction/illustration

• 2024/2025 – gloomy times for the planet; breached the 1.5 degrees of warming; severe weather; war, loss of life and destruction of habitat and culture in many places.

• May feel a bit as though the only thing we can do is mourn for our world and take part in its funeral rites.

Main section

• (Could say something about the role of women in Luke’s gospel. Cf. Luke 8.1-3, All gospels agree that women were witnesses of the resurrection. We can assume they were also in the Upper Room at Pentecost)

• The women at the tomb – full of love and faithfulness, but empty of hope. Assume the ‘Jesus-mission’, and their part in it, is all over. They honour Jesus in the only the way they can., but that’s the end. They have been courageous, watching where his body was laid; stuck it out when the male disciples ran away; planned ahead – they have the necessary things to anoint the body. Expected it to end badly? Didn’t really hope for change?

• Are they afraid of hope? Angel has to remind them about this part of Jesus’ teaching. Remembered teaching on death, but not on resurrection? 

• The resurrection of Jesus is not A miracle but THE MIRACLE – part of one whole miracle – incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Parallels the ‘miracle’ of  creation  ‘from nothing’. Tells us about God:  self-giving, creative and recreative. God tells the world what it is in the beginning, and how it will end – all in God’s hands.

Application

• Are we afraid to hope? Think it’s naïve, unrealistic? 

• Called to live now in the everyday miracle of faithful love, not giving up on each other or the world, even when we don’t know what we can do. Do what we can, like the women at the tomb. Rewilding projects; recycling etc. That’s not negligible.

• Called to preach the good news, even in the face of catastrophe: the world is God’s; only God knows its beginning and its end. We know the world is beloved – God made it, God the Son comes to live in it, the Holy Spirit breathes life through it. So we are called to love it – the everyday miracle; and wait and work and watch and pray.

Resources

St Francis of Assisi The Canticle of the Sun

Most high, all-powerful, all good, Lord!
All praise is yours, all glory, all honour
And all blessing.
To you alone, Most High, do they belong.
No mortal lips are worthy
To pronounce your name.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through all that you have made,
And first my lord Brother Sun,
Who brings the day; and light you give to us through him.
How beautiful is he, how radiant in all his splendour!
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Moon and Stars;
In the heavens you have made them, bright
And precious and fair.

All praise be yours, My Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air,
And fair and stormy, all the weather’s moods,
By which you cherish all that you have made.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Water,
So useful, lowly, precious and pure.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
Through whom you brighten up the night.
How beautiful is he, how gay! Full of power and strength.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Earth, our mother,
Who feeds us in her sovereignty and produces
Various fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through those who grant pardon
For love of you; through those who endure
Sickness and trial.
Happy those who endure in peace,
By you, Most High, they will be crowned.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Death,
From whose embrace no mortal can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin!
Happy those She finds doing your will!
The second death can do no harm to them.
Praise and bless my Lord, and give him thanks,
And serve him with great humility.

• St. Francis of Assisi and His Canticle of the Sun | Franciscan Media

• ‘Why the story of rewilding is a story of hope’

           Rewilding Britain | Think Big. Act Wild.

• https://thechurchoftheholysepulchre.com/stone-of-anointing/