On Thursday, while doing some much needed tidying in my office, I found this wild little sheep with my name on it. There ended up being a whole herd of sheep from some children’s moment that neither Cyndi nor I remember stashed away in a pile that includes notes from a continuing ed program about capital campaigns, an order of worship from a friend’s installation service where I preached, and a certificate from a boundary training program that I attended in 2015. If there’s anything I’ve learned from conversations with real shepherds, they wouldn’t be surprised that the sheep got somewhere unexpected. They are prone to wander. That’s why both humans and dogs get deployed to keep track of them.

     One of the staff chaplains at the hospital where I did my chaplaincy training often complained about any sentimental reading of sheep metaphors in the Bible. He’d say, “Have you ever had sheep? They’re terrible!” Then he’d go on to outline the ways they get into things they aren’t supposed to and have far too little regard for their own safety. It bugged him when people used the word “sheep” to mean “someone who is easily convinced to follow a leader.” He said that sheep are never that easy.

     In her commentary on today’s reading, Laura Holmes says that when we see or hear “very truly” at the beginning of a reading, we should understand that phrase as a connector to the story that comes before our reading. In this case, it was a story I preached on a few weeks ago, about a man who had been born blind. Jesus healed him. The man’s community had assumed that his blindness was due to something either he or his parents had done wrong and were very suspicious of Jesus’ action. They even pushed the healed man out of community. Jesus promptly invited him to become a disciple and follow him. There were Pharisees, who had been suspicious of Jesus, listening to him talk to the man about belief. They wondered aloud if they had misunderstood Jesus. “Surely we are not blind, are we?” Jesus responds to them, reminding them that disability is not a consequence of sin. But their disbelief continues to keep them from building the relationship with him that they could have.

     In her commentary on John, Karoline Lewis points out that they aren’t literally blind, they are unable to understand his origin and identity. And this is the disruptor of relationship between them. According to Lewis, in the Gospel of John, “to remain in sin” means to not be in relationship with Jesus. While belief is rooted in relationship, sin is rooted in disconnection. This whole shepherd/sheep/gate discourse is preached to, according to Lewis, the newly connected healed man, the already-connected disciples, and the disconnected Pharisees. Jesus will use a whole new set of metaphors to help people understand who he is.
He’ll shift them from talking about blindness and sight, and into talking about sheep and all manner of ways of keeping them safe, with the gate/door and the shepherd being two identities in particular that he assumes to describe his own mission. The door isn’t intended to signal exclusion. It is to signal protection. Lewis points out that in John 18, Jesus will be the gate or door that stands between the disciples in the garden and the soldiers who are coming to arrest Jesus. The gate is put there for protection for the vulnerable. Relationship with Jesus comes with care and protection from the powerful.

     As I talked about with Thomas, another story from John, intimacy is a key feature in Jesus’ ministry. Even in the metaphor about the sheep: They feel safe and gather together when hearing the familiar and trusted voice of the shepherd. In another part of the reading, there’s a gatekeeper who recognizes the shepherd and, in that recognition, opens the gate. In her commentary, Lewis points out that even the part about knowing the sheep’s names is a sign of intimacy that will be reproduced at both the raising of Lazarus and Jesus’ own resurrection. When Jesus calls out Lazarus’ name, he comes out of the tomb, alive (11:43). In chapter 20, Mary recognizes the resurrected Christ when he addresses her by name.

     Jesus, in John, wants a life abundant for humanity. As Holmes notes in her commentary, gates and doors aren’t just for keeping people out. They are also for giving access. John is clear that Jesus intends to give people access to an abundant life. Part of the role of the shepherd to make sure the sheep have all that they need. Clean water, enough forage to remain healthy, care when they are sick, protection from predators, a community of other sheep for joy and companionship. There are seven big miracles in John, and I think it would be fair to read six of them as reinforcing an abundant life: water is turned to wine at a wedding, an official’s child is healed, a man is healed at Bathesda, he fed the 5000, he healed the man born blind, and the raising of Lazarus. Jesus perpetually invites people to be in relationship with him as he opens the door to a pasture full of life.

     Holmes also notes that their a long history within the Bible of leaders being referred to as shepherds. Moses and David were called shepherds of their people. Different prophets might call a leader a good or bad shepherd based on how well they were living into the covenant. Any leader who does not protect his people “death-dealing” forces is a bad shepherd. And, as Holmes says, their actions “go directly against the life that the gate leads to.”

     Very often in the Gospel, people hearing Jesus don’t understand him, and that is true in this story, too. The layered meanings of metaphors drawn from their daily lives as people dependent on sheep and shepherds for survival are still a challenge, as is often true of Jesus’ teaching. In the back half of today’s reading, Jesus attempts a slightly different angle to help the man, the Pharisees, and the disciples understand. He says, “I am the gate.” I am the portal into abundant life. I am the invitation into relationship. I will offer salvation.

     The man born blind offers an example of what salvation looks like: disabled person who has been blamed for his disability and marginalized in his birth community finds new community, its own kind of healing, while following Christ. This man who had begged for survival won’t have to beg anymore. He will have food and people who care for him and safety that he did not have before. Lewis calls this “pasture and protection.” According to John, Jesus tends to the needs of life in concrete ways. So, too, will we, the on-going body of Christ.

     When we speak of salvation, it shouldn’t be in amorphous, spiritualized terms. It should be in terms of pasture and protection. When the Gospel of John claims that God love the world, that means that God will tend to well-being of this world and the people within it. The church, as the sheep and the livestock guardian dogs in training, will be about that business of loving as well. In times when we are called to abandoned those who struggle, remember that Jesus feeds his sheep and so should we. In times when some shepherds are not trustworthy, may we look to the Good Shepherd to see what loving leadership looks like, and emulate it. When we hear of salvation, may we remember that this comes in community, not isolation. As I was reminded while I cleaned this week, you never know where you’re going to find the sheep. Let us make sure they can find the way to safe pasture.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
​Laura Holmes: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fourth-sunday-of-easter/commentary-on-john-101-10-7
Karoline Lewis, John: Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014).

    While I was thinking about today’s scripture, a phrase from a poem popped up in my head: “touch the face of God.” I rooted around in my mind a bit and remembered that it came from a poem Tasha had framed and hanging on her wall when we were dating. It is “High Flight” by John Gillespie McGee Jr.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, - and done a hundred things
you have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
high in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
my eager craft through footless halls of air ....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
where never lark, or even eagle flew -
and, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
the high untrespassed sanctity of space,
put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

     McGee, a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force, sent these words in a letter to his parents, who had been Christian missionaries. He was a pilot and clearly inspired by his time spent in the air. This poem, in particular, he wrote after a high-altitude test flight. Unfortunately, before he even made it to battle in World War II, he died in a mid-air collision while training.

     I am grateful to McGee’s parents for sharing his poem after his death. It is a lovely meditation on feeling close to the Divine why doing something fairly extraordinary. While I personally don’t enjoy flying very much these days, I can certainly remember a measure of awe the first times I flew in my early 20’s. Particularly when hearing the testimonies of those who have flown in high altitude, I can see where one might equate the extraordinariness of that kind of flight, where one comes close to that which is beyond our Earth, to an encounter with the Divine. It is interesting to compare that kind of awe-inspiring encounter with today’s Scripture, in which two disciples encountered the Divine in a manner far more mundane... a walk to a neighboring village.

     During Eastertide, we usually spend some time in the stories of Jesus encountering his friends for the first time after the resurrection. We also end up skipping around in the different Gospels, too, as they don’t all share the same post-resurrection accounts. This one is in Luke. A little refresher on Luke as we haven’t been here in a while: Luke has Mary’s side of the birth narrative, where she sings that great song about God bringing down the powerful from their thrones and lifting up the lowly. It is also the Gospel where Jesus declares parts of Isaiah to be his mission statement (Lk 4:18-19):

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
To bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To let the oppressed go free,
To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

     Luke is Gospel where the Sermon on the Plain includes blessings for the poor, the hungry, and those who mourn as well as a list of woes to the rich and powerful. It is a Gospel where Jesus shows us a vision of God as one who is directly invested in the everyday well-being of humanity. Even as he was being crucified, Jesus offered mercy to a man being crucified next to him.

     Like the Gospel account of Matthew, Jesus’ women friends are the first disciples to witness the empty tomb and preach on the resurrection. They run and tell their friends that Jesus has risen, but, in a far too familiar pattern, the men don’t believe the women. Well, except for Peter. He went to the tomb to verify it was empty. When he saw that this it was, he believed the women and was amazed. Unlike Matthew, though, Jesus does not appear to the women when they are on the way to the men. The first people to witness the risen Christ are his friends walking to Emmaus.

     Margaret Aymer points out that Luke, which begins with everyday people receiving visits from angels, visits that continue through to the Resurrection, is dedicated to showing “the inbreaking of the holy, to visions of angels, in the everyday affairs of life.” It is good to be reminded that one does not need to fly into orbit to encounter God. We can simply walk down the road. We just might not realize how close to the divine we are at first. These two disciples didn’t. They thought that they were simply talking with a wise and kind stranger.

     These disciples, though they needed extra teaching about the nature of the Messiah from the stranger, had learned two lessons well: share what you have and take care of people. So they invited the stranger to stay with them. The Spirit must have inspired them to take this action, because their hospitality and care prepared them to receive what happened next. The stranger was sitting down to eat and drink with them. He reached out to bless the food, and in that moment, they recognized who he was. While Peter needed to see the empty tomb in order to believe the women, these two disciples needed to see Jesus sharing a blessing to do the same.

     Last week, I spoke of the Gospel of John’s understanding of belief as a relationship bolstered by intimacy. This story in Luke is similar. As Aymer points out in her commentary, it is the intimacy of the table and a shared meal that helps the disciples believe. I think it may be through on-going everyday intimacies that we continue to meet Christ to this day. Rev. Lillian Daniel, Conference Minister of the Michigan Conference, shared a story recently of some strangers who helped her in a particularly Christ-like way.

     In her daily devotional entry, “Shelter in a Storm,” Daniel relates a recent travel mishap. She was not in high altitude training. She was just trying to get home to Michigan on a night full of stormy weather. She ended up partway there, in Houston, late enough at night that the food court was shutting down. Hundreds of other travelers were stuck there, too, with everyone trying to get a new flight or a hotel room. Exhausted and a little desperate, she asked what she calls her “UCC church family” if anyone knew anyone in Houston, Texas.

     Within ten minutes, a colleague had a lead. They had lived in Texas and reached out to friends. Within an hour, two strangers were at the airport to pick Daniel up. They took her to their house and got her into a safe and snug guest room before midnight. Daniel had no idea where her luggage was, so they reached into the collection of toothbrushes they had amassed to send to Back Bay Mission with their church. As Daniel writes, “These people were already preparing for guests, just not in their own house, but all those toothbrushes told me they cared.” The hospitality didn’t stop there.

     Daniel says, “The next morning, they took me to their church where we shared the experience of hearing a strong sermon, moving music in a minor key, the sweetness of cookies, and the beautiful bitterness of a cup of coffee on that dreaded Time Change Sunday—but I had already received the gospel of the good Samaritan when two strangers picked me up in the rain.” The Good Samaritan is another story in Luke 10, by the way. It turns out that strangers, both foreign and divine, do a lot of good in this Gospel.

     It is interesting to me that Daniel references the Good Samaritan in this devotional, which was actually written to reflect on Romans 15:7: Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. And, here I am, bringing it into conversation with the Emmaus Road story from Luke 24. It turns out, welcome and care are a pathway to the Divine in lots of the Bible. They are pathways to the Divine for us, too.

     Rev. Daniel finished her devotional with, “Good to meet you, First Congregational of Houston, and if you ever get stuck in Michigan, we’ve got you. In a world of suffering, the good news is worth sharing.” May we answer the call to help stranded strangers and take the risk of speaking to people we meet along the road. May we see Christ more clearly in the sharing, be it toothbrushes and a meal. May we pay attention to the burning in our hearts. It is a reminder that we, too, can see Jesus again.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Lillian Daniel: https://www.ucc.org/daily-devotional/shelter-in-a-storm/
The poem "High Flight": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/157986/high-flight-627d3cfb1e9b7
About the author of "High Flight": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-gillespie-magee-jr
Margaret Aymer: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-of-easter/commentary-on-luke-2413-35-11

John 20:19-31 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

Jesus Appears to the Disciples 
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Jesus and Thomas
But Thomas (who was called the Twin[a]), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

The Purpose of This Book
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may continue[b] to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

     “The first launch attempt for Artemis II is today!” This excited text message came through mine and Tasha’s group chat on April 1st. It was not a prank. It was from our friend Cherie, who has worked as part of the science team on the mission. Knowing people who have fun space- and space-adjacent jobs is one of the perks of being married to a geologist who studies meteorites. Cherie, who has sat at our dinner table and played with our dog, is also Cherie who helps astronauts practice moonwalks here on earth to prepare for future landings in space.

     Our friend Juli, who has been to this church, is the curation lead for the science team, making plans for the on-going care and handling of future lunar samples and teaching the astronauts geology. Sarah is a painter whose work adorns our office wall. She also happens to be the lunar science lead. Barbara, who I’ve done amazing and terrible karaoke with, is the sample integrity lead for Artemis. My wife, who has loved space since she was a child, usually pays close attention to NASA missions. This one has been particularly special because some of our dearest friends and Tasha’s long-respected colleagues have been a part of making it happen.

     From planning the mission to constructing the ship to the 9 day, 1 hour, and 32 minutes that Artemis II was in space, it has been clear to me from just about every piece of communication that I heard and read that this giant team of people, in ways both practical and poignant, respected each other and loved their jobs. Just a few minutes of observation of the live feed from Houston made it clear that we were watching thoughtful professionals, who did their jobs consistently and competently, but also with an intimacy born of many, many hours of shared labor. It was so lovely to hear the gratitude and appreciation this team had for each other and for the missions that came before them.

     I can’t speak to the science. But, I can speak to some moments of love and care that I witnessed. The flight crew hid dehydrated scrambled eggs around the cabin for each other on Easter. Everyone in space and on Earth cried together when the crew in Integrity asked that a “bright spot on the moon” be named for Commander Reid Wiseman’s late wife Carroll. The astronauts spoke regularly of the spiritual traditions and ethics that grounded their work, as well as the curiosity and care that carried them into space on behalf of all of humanity. Astronaut Christina Koch said, “With this burn to the moon, we do not leave Earth. We choose it.” The four people in space, who ate maple cookies on the literal far side of moon, and the crew on Earth, who played them wake up songs each day, were one team, and told us that all people on Earth are one team, too. With the world watching, they showed up for each other again and again and again. It is no wonder that many of us who witnessed this competent, capable, and kind group of professionals do extraordinary things together were deeply moved.

     On social media, I saw people who generally don’t care much about space exploration call them “our emotional support astronauts.” Artists and poets have been writing about, drawing, painting, and embroidering moments from the Artemis mission, moments that were transmitted hundreds of thousands of miles through space into our hands and hearts. I’ve seen pilot Victor Glover’s words about this era of world-wide division repeated countless times, “...trust us, you look amazing. You look beautiful. And from up here, you also look like one thing. Homo sapiens is all of us, no matter where you’re from or what you look like. We’re all one people.” This is a word so many people have been longing for a leader, especially from our country, to say.

     I have also seen far too many people, at least on social media, spreading conspiracy theories about this mission. In a world where people use AI to craft all manner of false images, it is easy for some to dismiss the new images from Artemis as fake. Some people even see this mission as one in a long line of cons going back to an original staged moon landing. This is one of the dangers of the destruction of a shared sense of reality that many politicians have used to prop up their careers. Suspicion of the government, both reasonable and unreasonable, has created a void that people will fill with all manner of ideas and explanations.

    It is disheartening for me to see this twisting of healthy doubt into something destructive and alienating. It is not the doubt of our friend Thomas, who just needed to hear and see the same thing as the other disciples so that he, too, could believe in the Resurrection. It is a mix of contrarian antagonism and opportunistic fearmongering that treats paranoia like a game. For those whose brains cannot help fearing the missions to space, I have a lot of grace. For those who manipulate that fear and misunderstanding for their own gain, I have much less.

     You might have been surprised that I would speak so kindly of Thomas’ doubt. I have been persuaded by the scholar Karoline Lewis’ argument that, in John, the Gospel where “seeing is believing,” that is it not inherently problematic for Thomas to ask for proof of the Resurrection. His friends had a pretty wild story, after all. All of them together had seen Jesus killed. All of them, aside from Thomas, had seen him after he had risen.  Even with the recent memory of Lazarus being raised from the dead, Thomas, in his grief, was not prepared to believe that Jesus had also risen based only on what he heard. The disciples believed because they saw. Thomas will need to do the same.

     Jesus’ first words to the disciples and to Thomas is the same: “Peace be with you.” Lewis notes that in John, a primary gift of the Spirit is comfort and presence in challenging times. There is a quiet intimacy in receiving the Spirit in this Gospel. This post-resurrection appearance hinges on the intimacy of the relationship between Thomas and Jesus, an intimacy born of hours of shared labor. When we remember that intimacy, we really understand the power of the moment when Jesus invites Thomas to see, and feel, that he is real. “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not be unbelieving but believe.”

   When the astronauts came close enough to the moon to make out features with their naked eyes, they described being mesmerized. Wiseman said of that moment, “it's just everything from the training, but in three dimensions and absolutely unbelievable. This is incredible.” They never stepped foot on the moon, but they were in awe of it when they saw it close up. Scripture doesn’t actually tell us that Thomas touches Jesus. It does tell us that, in seeing Christ in close proximity, he believed.

     Lewis argues in her commentary that the word “belief” in the book of John is primarily a word about relationship. Thomas’ belief is restored based on the power of his relationship with Jesus. Lewis argues that this story really isn’t even about doubt as we understand that word in modern English. She says that the word that gets translated for us as “doubt” is probably better read as “be unbelieving,” which here, means be disconnected or out of relationship. Artemis II has shown us a present-day example of healthy, aligned, and gracious relationships, relationships that enable a group of people to do something extraordinary that not one of them could have done alone. In helping Thomas believe, Jesus is restoring that kind of relationship. None of the disciples will be able to carry on after the Resurrection alone. They need Thomas and Thomas needed them. Faith in Christ is a team effort. Thomas needed to be restored to the team.

     Karoline Lewis writes of the Resurrection appearance to Thomas: “Life, especially abundant life, is dependent on the reality of multiple expressions of connectivity and belonging... Even God was not alone in the beginning, because the Word was with God.” I am carrying these words into the next week with me. I’m also carrying the words of NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya, “If you can’t take love to the stars, then what are we doing? That’s why we send humans instead of robots sometimes. That’s why we have that firsthand witness.” Our scripture for today ends with a note that the Resurrections signs were collected and shared to help the next generation of believers come to know Christ. Let us give thanks to the ones who have born witness and shared their testimonies so that we, too, may believe. May we remember that our actions can be signs of Christ’s love, too. We don’t even have to go to the moon to do it. We can start right here with the relationships that we have inherited from Christ, building out the Body of Christ into a future that we can’t yet imagine.  Let us remember that we cannot see what the future holds unless we take the risk of working together in the present. In the coming weeks, may we be confident that we do brave and impossible things together out of love.
​
Resources consulted while writing this sermon
It was challenging to round up sources for all the things I read this week from Artemis II. Here is a good list of resources for the things I mentioned in the sermon:

• Easter Sunday in space: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/artemis-ii-astronauts-easter-eggs-sunday-near-moon/

• A press conference when the astronauts are in space: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/nasa/space/2026/04/09/548562/artemis-astronauts-press-conference-space-moon-nasa/

• Press conference after their return, "What makes a crew:" https://www.msn.com/en-us/science/general/artemis-ii-return-what-makes-a-crew-christina-koch-artemis-ii-crew-share-remarks-after-journey/ar-AA20Bt6T

• Easter Sunday in space: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/artemis-ii-astronauts-easter-eggs-sunday-near-moon/

• What they will miss: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70dr45dj1lo

• CSA Jeremy Hansen talks about what he's learned from First Nations Elders: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DW66PmPjos9/

• About Carroll: https://people.com/artemis-ii-astronauts-moon-crater-named-mission-commander-late-wife-11944176

• An article about the launch: https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/01/science/live-news/artemis-2-nasa-launch

• Amit Kshatriya's remarks on why we send humans to space are in this article: https://spaceq.ca/nasa-managers-outline-artemis-2-reentry-and-address-propulsion-issue-ahead-of-splashdown/

Karoline Lewis, John: Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014). 

     It is almost funny to witness the fear of the guards. They remind me of those goats that seem to pass out when they get scared. One minute, they’re up, doing regular goat stuff. The next, they hear a loud sound or see a predator and topple right over, legs straight out, muscles stuck so tensed that, at least for a little while, neither fight nor flight is an option. That’s how I imagine the guards looking, stiff legged and silly, unable to intellectually or spiritually handle what is happening in front of them. These men, probably some of the same men who had gleefully participated in Jesus’ state sanctioned torture and execution, have been rendered powerless in their fear. They don’t even get to witness the glory that has overcome their violence.

     There are some people who do get to witness. They have been consistent witnesses all along, even when not being named. As Cheryl Lindsay points out in her commentary, we’ve spent a lot of the last week hearing about Judas, Peter, Barrabas, and Simone of Cyrene. The 12 disciples are mentioned as a group, as are the violent soldiers. But, there are also women whose presence is only intermittently described. Just before the Last Supper, a woman anoints Jesus with expensive ointment, preparing him for what is coming next. The next time women specifically are described in the book Matthew is after Jesus’ death. “Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee (Mt. 27:55-56).” This is an acknowledgement of the care they provided Jesus before death. They, alongside a man named Joseph of Arimathea, would be the ones who would tend to his body after.

     The soldiers are at the tomb only to cause problems. There’s all manner of rumors floating around and the Roman state co-conspires with local people who are threatened by Jesus. They have grown paranoid in the wake of the destruction they have wrought and believe people will move Jesus’ body to make it look like he was raised from the dead when the conspirators were sure he could not be. Imagine having to wade past the violent people who killed your friend in order to just visit his tomb? The women, who have been tending to Jesus all along, are willing to take the risk to go to the tomb, even under threat of violence.

     Mary Magdalene and another Mary went to the tomb, and heaven and earth protect them from the soldiers. There is an earthquake, said to be from the divine power of an angelic visitor who “was like lightning and who’s clothes were white as snow...” you know, the kind of white that makes it hard to see clearly. Seeing and feeling that angel’s power is what causes the soldiers’ fainting goat impression. As Matt Skinner notes in his commentary, “Nothing is ever certain during an earthquake. Nothing is stable. Everything totters.” The soldiers totter. The women do not. The angel says what angels say in the Gospels, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said.” The angel invites them to look with their own eyes to see that Jesus, who had been sealed in the tomb, is no longer there.

     If you have heard this story before, it can be easy to forget that it is supposed to be strange and dramatic and basically impossible. A dead person is alive! A glowing angel has shown up wrapped in lightning, riding an earthquake! Rome, the greatest power in their understanding, has lost! That’s right! Rome, who had taken their nation, who had given them a puppet king, who breathed violence across their homeland and regularly strung up people on crosses just to show how powerful they were, that Rome had lost! Conspirators who worked with one of Jesus’ closest friends... they lost, too! Death! Death lost on that day! This is a wild and weird story meant to show us, as Matt Skinner says, “No one and nothing will obstruct what God is doing.” What God is doing will include a new assignment for the women.

     In her commentary, in describing the Marys faithfulness, says “The women take the alternative path set by Jesus, and they follow him. They follow him from town to town. They follow him to the cross. Then, they follow him to the tomb.” The angel will tell them where they should go next. “Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ ” As we would expect, they follow the new path set before them, in fear and in joy. Because how else would you feel at this unexplanable moment? They ran to tell the disciples (in this case, it’s not just the 11 remaining men of the 12... it’s a big mixed-gender group of followers).

     In the midst of their haste to do what has been asked of them, they meet Jesus along the way and they worship him. He affirms them and encourages them, saying “do not be afraid; go and tell my siblings to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” J. Andrew Overman, in his notes on Matthew, reminds us that in going to Galilee, the people are returning to their homeland as well as place where Jesus began his ministry with them. They aren’t running and hiding. They are reconnecting with the place where they first came to know Christ, and where they will begin their next steps as the new Body of Christ, guided by his Spirit.

     I read in Salt Project’s notes on today’s scripture, and they offer up the idea that Easter Sunday isn’t the end of Lent, it is the beginning of Eastertide. That is to say, Easter is best understood as a new beginning of Christ’s mission. This is a commencement that is sending out the first preachers to share the Good News that will then be shared further and further and further. There is still danger at hand. As Matt Skinner notes, those soldiers are gonna wake up, and “Rome never runs out of crosses.” The next stage of the kingdom, that unfurling into the world, doesn’t need to slow down. It needs to keep going. The poet Lucille Clifton captures the vibrancy of this moment well in her poem “spring song”:

the green of Jesus
is breaking the ground
and the sweet
smell of delicious Jesus
is opening the house and
the dance of Jesus music
has hold of the air and
the world is turning
in the body of Jesus and
the future is possible

     There are powers and principalities at work trying to create a future far from the love, justice, and healing that Christ demands. Their hope is that we will be convinced that is the only future possible. They are trying to put the seal on the grave of that which threatens them- affirmations of the dignity of trans people, truth-telling of our nation’s history, reparatory actions to address racism of both the past and present, the leadership of women. May we hear the story of Christ’s resurrection and know that the seal can always be broken and that the purveyors of violence can be rendered powerless. May we be like the women and follow Christ to what we think is the end, and like them, may we come to understand that new life with Christ is just beginning.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
​More information about fainting goats: https://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/fainting-goat.htm
Cheryl Lindsay: https://www.ucc.org/sermon-seeds/sermon-seeds-they-left-the-tomb/
Matt Skinner: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/resurrection-of-our-lord/commentary-on-matthew-281-10-14
Salt Project: https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/4/6/dawn-salts-lectionary-commentary-for-easter-sunday
You can find the Lucille Clifton poem here: https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/4/12/three-poems-for-easter-joyce-kilmer-marie-howe-and-lucille-clifton
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