Easter Sunday

Can you imagine the scene?
On that first Easter Morning?

When the Sabbath was over,
Some women went to the tomb.
They wondered how they would anoint Jesus’ body.
How would they roll away the heavy stone in front of the tomb?
Surely they couldn’t do it themselves.

But they went anyway.
Because it was important.
And when they arrived at the tomb,
They saw that the stone was already turned.
Someone had rolled it back.

Carefully,
They crept into the tomb.
They were nervous.
Because the stone was rolled away,
They were afraid of what they would find.

And what they found,

Was something that they never expected.
Some random guy, wearing a white robe,
Was hanging out in the tomb.

The women were scared.
They didn’t know what to think.

And the guy said to them:
APRIL FOOLS!!!!

I’m obviously kidding.
That’s not EXACTLY how the story goes.
But tomorrow IS April Fools day,
And Really….
That’s kind of what Easter felt like at first.
If you REALLY think about the story.
It can sometimes seem like some sort of trick or joke.

It’s absurd.
It’s crazy.
You’d have to be a FOOL to believe it at first.

And we’re lucky, because we know how the story ends.
We know that Jesus will later appear to the disciples.

But we don’t get that part in the story that we read today.

Instead,
Today’s story ends unsettlingly:
With the women running from the empty tomb terrified, unsure,
Unwilling to tell anyone else about it,
And maybe even wondering if it’s a silly trick.

This is Mark’s version of the story:
And it’s perhaps the most confusing and strange of all of the Easter stories in the
Gospels.
Because of that, it’s actually the perfect one to read on this Easter day: the day
before the famous “April Fools Day”

Because for those women at the tomb,
That first Easter morning had to have felt like a joke:
Like an April fools trick.

And which part seems the most foolish?
The part where they really believed that Jesus was the messiah?
The part where they really thought he would save himself from the sort of death
meant for a common criminal?
The part where He’s no longer dead, but fully alive?
Or the part where the women were supposed to leave the tomb,
WITHOUT Even seeing him,

And tell everyone else that He’s not dead anymore?

It all seems pretty crazy.
Pretty foolish.

A friend of mine (who is not a practicing Christian)
Likes to ask me questions about church and my job.
He once asked me in a text message:
“Would you get in trouble,
if you linked the Resurrection and April Fool’s Day in an Easter Sunday Sermon?”

He might have meant it to be funny.
And it is funny.
But not because it’s heretical or wrong.
It’s funny Because it’s SO true:
That the resurrection can seem like an April Fool’s day trick.

My friend probably didn’t realize that even a priest might consider how foolish
the resurrection sometimes seems.

And actually, that’s a huge part of the point:
That God would do something so absurd,
So incredible,
(Something ALMOST as incredible and absurd as God putting on human flesh and
becoming one of us)

Something SO unheard of,
That at first glance it seems absolutely foolish:
Maybe even like a joke.

And that’s not even the end of the parallels.
Not only did that first Easter seem like an April Fools Trick,
There’s also a really old Christian tradition:
Where Jesus’ followers literally considered themselves to be “Holy Fools:”
Or “Fools for Christ.”
(google it!)

The idea originally comes from the words of St. Paul in his first letter to the
Corinthians.
Paul says, “Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age,
you should become fools so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this
world is foolishness with God.”
And later: “We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are
week, but you are strong.”

It’s the classic upending, overturning, and disrupting power that Jesus brings to
the world:
Paul describes thisidea where what seems (to humans) to be foolish:
Might (In God’s eyes) be real wisdom.

Something like the resurrection of the dead,
Which to this world seems like a trick or a joke,

Might actually be the truest, deepest, most significant reality.

It’s like all of those crazy contrary,
Almost Riddle-like statements that Jesus says throughout the Gospels:

Where the first become last, and the last become first.
Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for
Jesus’ sake will save it.
The least among you is the greatest.
The greatest among you will be your servant.
All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be
exalted.

The foolish become wise, and the wise become foolish.
The Dead receive LIFE.

Because of what God has done,
Everything is flipped around.
The holy fools are really the ones who are truly wise:
Because they see the truth in Jesus.

From the early ages of Christianity,
The spiritual “Fool”
Was the one who followed Jesus:
Who upended the social order:

Who refused to accept the common social rules of hypocrisy,
Brutality, and a thirst for power and riches.

The Holy Fools did this because they believed in God’s ability to turn everything
around.
They believed that there could be something different:
Something better than the grief, pain, and suffering that this world seems to hold.

The Holy Fools were really the wise.
They rejected the cares of the human world,
And imitated Jesus,
Sometimes even enduring mockery and humiliation.
(which is part of why they called themselves “fools.”)

Just as Jesus on the cross,
Endured the mockery and humiliation of the crowds,
He appeared to be the fool.

But because of what God has done,
Everything is turned upside down.
The foolish Christ,
Becomes the saving wisdom of the whole world.

In all of those up-ending riddle like statements that Jesus made throughout his
life,

His great finale disrupts everyone’s expectations,
As the biggest, truest, most famous riddle of all:
Where his own death destroys death.

So it turns out,
April Fools!!

The joke’s on death.
Death has been made the real fool:
Forever, and for Every ONE.

Linking Easter with April Fools, makes all the sense in the world,
As Jesus through his life, death and resurrection
Disrupts and upends all of our expectations.
With the greatest April Fool’s joke of all time,
A joke so great,
That it wasn’t even a joke at all.

Instead,
The most seemingly foolish thing,
Was also the thing that’s most true.

The most seemingly foolish thing
Was also the thing that’s going to save us all.

Amen

Announcements

Upcoming Events: 

Book Study: The Fruits of the Spirit  Chapter: Faithfulness, all are welcome Sunday, April 21 after the service ~Contact: Marian 920-716-9934 or Jan 920-716-5757

Bishop Visitation April 7th