April 4, 2024 • 60 mins
Join us as we journey through the transformative power of love and resurrection, drawing inspiration from the Easter narrative.
Mary Magdalene's unwavering love and her poignant vigil during Holy Saturday serve as our backdrop for a conversation about enduring hope and love's capacity to transcend even the grave. Imagine standing before an empty tomb, grief-stricken and yet on the cusp of a miraculous discovery. Through Mary's eyes, we explore the depths of heartbreak and the dawning of understanding, as love persists beyond death's veil. This chapter of the Easter story invites us to consider the transformative power of love and the promise of new beginnings,
Finally, as we recount Mary Magdalene's witness to the resurrection, we uncover the universal message of love's inclusivity and its challenge to see each other as a cherished family under God. Her actions not only speak to the miracle of the risen Lord but also to the everyday miracles that grace our lives. Let's remain open to love's transformative nature and celebrate the ways it is manifested, remembered, and honored, as we, like the Apostle Thomas, learn that love finds a way, even behind our own locked doors.
This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church you can donate at https://www.firstlovechurch.org/giving
In the service of LOVE,
Pastors Dennis and Heather Drake
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the First Love Church podcast.
This is a collection of Sundayteachings inspired by the
Revised Common Lectionary andrecorded weekly in Ocala,
florida.
Death around us tells lies andsays things like things will
never change.
I have good news beloved, yes,they will.
Yes, they will.
As we encounter the resurrectionthis morning, as we come back,
(00:23):
I'm asking that the Holy Spiritilluminate us.
We enter into mystery thismorning and, whether you knew it
or not, you entered intomystery through even the singing
of songs In the very beginningof the world, in the beginning
of the cosmos, when God iscreating everything and love
sets out.
In fact, in the Proverbs, ittalks about the spirit of God
(00:46):
that was with God when God wascreating and it says that she
was there as the architect byhis side, and it says that God,
that love, hovered over chaosand created something new.
That's so encouraging for mebecause I see a lot of chaos.
I see chaos in our world, I seechaos in relationship, I see
(01:09):
chaos in myself, and it is aninvitation Holy Spirit, spirit
of love and resurrection, comeand hover over this and create
something beautiful.
I am excited to be in yourpresence this morning and as I
looked around this morning, asI'm singing, I'm thinking to
myself this truth For many of us, we have already been in
(01:31):
death's tomb in all kinds ofways in ways through addiction,
in ways through broken choices,in ways through our own paths.
And there is a resurrection,kelly.
He is risen, yes.
So many times he drags us fromthe grave and says Love is here,
(01:53):
beloved.
I'm so excited that yourpresence is here with me this
morning and that you wouldexpect and that you would allow
the Holy Spirit to expand yourimagination and your presence.
Before we get any further, incase you are nervous or anxious
about something, I want to easeyour fears.
We're going to have HolyCommunion at the end.
So if you came here going,where's the communion?
(02:15):
Where do I just get my timewith Jesus?
I want to tell you be patient,because we're saving the good
stuff till the very last.
We're going to enter intomystery.
We're going to enter intosomething that is so incredibly
sacred and it is, for us, aremembering.
I'm grateful that you're here.
I'm going to read a text thismorning, but I'm going to ask
(02:37):
that you would allow spirit toillumine you.
Maybe you've heard the storybefore, but let me tell you it
again, and let me tell you anexpanded version, let me tell
you a version that maybe hasbeen glossed over.
And let me speak to you, toyour own heart of love.
Let me speak to you of thingsthat you already know, that
(02:59):
spirit has already been tellingyou.
And let's, together, allow theSpirit to expand our capacity to
love and to receive love, ifyou would close your eyes with
me just for a moment, andtogether we are grateful for
(03:22):
breath, the breath that sustainsus.
All-loving God, creator, god,god of new beginnings, who burst
forth from the tomb, who spoketo Mary Magdalene in the form of
(03:43):
a gardener, who appeared behindclosed doors in the disciples'
need.
Send now your Holy Spirit intothis place.
Fill every heart with yourmercy, touch every mind with
your grace.
Reveal yourself to those whobelieve in the seclusion of
(04:06):
their own thoughts.
Pass freely through everyemotional and mental barrier,
just as you appeared to thedisciples, unhindered by locks
and deferences.
Allow our breathing to be yourbreathing.
Fill us now with the peace ofyour Holy Spirit.
(04:26):
Relieve us all of fear.
Open our eyes that we may see.
Open our ears that we may hear.
Open our hearts that we maylive.
Bring the scriptures to lifewithin us.
Allow us to participate in thetelling of the story alongside
(04:51):
your disciples.
Amen, amen From John's Gospel.
Early Sunday morning, while itwas still dark, mary Magdalene
came to the tomb and found thatthe stone had been rolled away
from the entrance, and she ranand found Simon Peter and the
(05:15):
other disciple, the one whomJesus loved, and she said they
have taken the Lord's body outof the tomb and we don't know
where they have put him.
Peter and the other disciplesstarted out for the tomb.
They were both running, but theother disciple outran Peter and
reached the tomb first and hestooped and looked in and saw
(05:38):
the linen wrappings lying there,but he didn't go in.
Simon Peter arrived and wentinside and he also noticed the
linen wrappings lying there,while the cloth that had covered
Jesus's head was folded up andlying apart from the other
wrappings.
Then the disciple who hadreached the tomb first also went
(06:00):
in and he saw and believed, foruntil then they still hadn't
understood the scriptures thatsaid Jesus must rise from the
dead.
Then they went home.
If you stop there, beloved, youmiss.
(06:22):
You miss so much.
We're going to read on in thestory, but I want you to hear
the story from this incredibledisciple, this Mary Magdalene,
who stays, and I want to remindyou that the spirit of God stays
(06:42):
with you.
You cannot depart from love'spresence.
Love is with you, love isalways with you.
But I ask that, if you readthis story with me, as you
imagine it in your own life, ifyou would pay a moment attention
to the fact that she stays.
She stays, perhaps, in grief.
(07:08):
Yesterday is Holy Saturday,where there's just nothing.
I love that for us, becausesometimes that's what it feels
like inside Nothing.
Nothing has changed.
A great tragedy has happenedand I am the same and the world
is the same and nothing ischanging.
And Holy Saturday holds thatfor us.
We celebrate Good Friday, wherethere's this tragedy, this
(07:28):
heartbreak, this loss.
Mary is one of the followers ofJesus, one of the apostles, one
of the disciples, and she hasput everything in her belief
that he will be the one tochange everything, the world,
that he is the Messiah.
And then he is killed bypolitics, by fear, by
(07:51):
misinterpretation of things.
He is killed by his owncountrymen.
He is killed by people whodon't understand what love
really is.
Imagine for a moment heartache.
I don't know if any of you haveever experienced it?
I'm suspect that you have.
But I want to remind you thismorning that Easter, no matter
(08:14):
where it finds you, if in deepgrief, if you're the people who,
just you know, decided this isthe end of it, I want to tell
you that love is here to tell abetter story, a bigger story, a
more hopeful story.
So the boys go home and Marystays.
We don't know why she stays.
(08:36):
I think it's because she loveshim and love is her home, loves
him and love is her home.
She stays in love.
She stays in the presencebecause beloved love is eternal.
Love does not stop once yourbody is no longer here.
Love goes on and on and on, andlove calls to us even beyond
(09:03):
the grave.
Mary was standing outside thetomb, crying, which is
appropriate when your heart isbroken.
Don't let anyone tell you youcan't cry, beloved.
Tears are a form of prayer.
Tears are a way that we holdour own grief with honor.
Allow yourself the freedom tocry If you are heartbroken,
(09:24):
beloved weep.
And as she wept, she stoopedand looked in and she saw two
white-robed angels, one sittingat the head and the other at the
foot of the place where thebody of Jesus had been lying.
Up until this point she hadn'tgone in.
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She went to the tomb thismorning, to this garden place.
I love that it tells us thatshe's in the garden.
It reminds us of the otherpoetry in the story that tells
this is how this whole thingstarted, in the garden.
So here she is in the gardenagain and she has gone there
expecting to find Jesus, to findthis one that she loves,
(10:07):
separated from her.
And when the stone is rolledaway, it is grief upon grief.
It is almost too much to bear.
But she never actually goes in.
She runs and gets the boys andsays come and see, this is
what's happened.
(10:27):
Now they see, they have theirown encounter.
They believe or they don'tbelieve, but whatever happened,
they just went home.
They left Mary there with hergrief.
Maybe you feel like that'swhat's happened to you.
You've been left with yourgrief.
Love is coming for you, beloved.
(10:49):
But she bends and she looks inand she sees angels.
Now, I don't know how long theangels were there.
Perhaps they came as soon asshe bent and looked in, but
maybe they were there the wholetime.
As soon as she bent and lookedin, but maybe they were there
the whole time.
Maybe in your life there aremessengers of love and
(11:10):
resurrection and promiseeverywhere.
Maybe we just have to bend tosee them.
Dear woman, why are you crying?
The angels asked her.
Why are you crying?
The angels asked her.
I've heard this story toldbefore and it is almost
(11:35):
sometimes told like youshouldn't be crying, like get
over it, be done with this.
By now, the angels of heavenare asking, and I want to tell
you that's not their tone, thatis not what it is.
It is this invitation of wouldyou like to share the pain?
Why are you crying?
And her response because theyhave taken away my Lord and I
(11:59):
don't know where they have puthim.
They have put him.
It's a terrible thing that deathdoes to us, that robs us of our
sight, that we cannot see thosethat we've loved.
(12:31):
She hasn't seen before and sheturned to leave and she saw
someone standing there.
It was Jesus, but she didn'trecognize him.
Sometimes grief will cause usto not see love when it is right
there in front of us andsometimes, in some ways, maybe
(12:56):
the God and the Jesus that youfollowed feels like is
unavailable, unavailable,beloved.
Stay in the garden long enoughso that love can reveal itself
to you anew.
She saw Jesus and she did notrecognize him.
(13:20):
Dear woman, why are you cryingAgain, she is asked, because the
weeping does not stop.
The weeping does not stop onceyou've seen angels.
The weeping does not stop evenonce you've been given the
message of angels, because thegrief is still present, the loss
is still real.
Dear woman, why are you crying?
Jesus asked her who are youlooking for?
And she thought he was thegardener.
(13:42):
I love that.
And she thought he was thegardener.
I love that the transfiguredChrist, this transcendent one,
could be mistaken for thegardener.
I think it's one of the reasonswhy gardening is such a holy
enterprise.
Very often we need to have dirtunder our own fingernails before
(14:05):
we can see what love actuallylooks like the promise of
resurrection.
If you have taken him away,tell me where you've put him and
I will go and get him.
I ask for a moment that youwould imagine with me what it is
like to imagine that the bodyof the one that you love has
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been taken.
Don't worry about it, it's okay.
We'll talk about why thathappened later, but just tell me
where he is and I will go gethis body.
You don't have to defendyourself, just show me where he
is, mary, jesus said, and sheturned to him and cried out
(14:52):
Rabboni, which is Hebrew for myteacher, when love spoke her
name In the silence, in thepractice of silence, I encourage
you.
Love calls for you.
Love speaks your true name,your worthiness, your
(15:21):
belovedness, your part in thestory that love is telling him.
It doesn't tell us a whole lotabout what happens yet, but by
what happens here I know whathappened.
She saw him and she recognizedhim.
I don't imagine she knew whathad happened, but how is it that
(15:45):
he was in front of her?
She put a death grip on him.
She was not going to let thisgo again.
It happened the one time.
It's not happening again.
Love was going to cling, lovewas going to hold so tightly to
what she knew.
And the first thing that Jesussays after this and I imagine
they embraced I imagined it wasnot, it was not, don't touch me,
because I'm holy.
It was loves, I have found you.
(16:06):
I can't even imagine howamazing this is.
And Jesus says don't cling tome.
Where in your life is thereclinging, maybe to a
representation of God that nolonger exists?
Maybe to a path or to a way.
Maybe there is an invitation toa transcendent life, to a Jesus
(16:30):
that is beyond the boundariesof this mortal life, for a Jesus
who lives forever.
And the beauty of this is thatis an invitation to us to give
up our clinging, our clinging toour way of doing things, our
clinging to our plans, ourclinging to what we know.
And Jesus' encouragement to usis love opens love's hands.
(16:51):
Don't cling to this form.
I haven't yet ascended to theFather.
Jesus returns to God, andthere's other scriptures that
tells us that Jesus ever livesto make intercession for us.
If you want to know what Jesusis up to right now, it is up to
(17:13):
intercession for you and I.
And when you don't know what topray, pray whatever Jesus is
praying for me.
May that be true.
Whatever Jesus is praying formy family, may that be true.
Whatever Jesus is praying forthe politics, may that be true.
Whatever Jesus is praying formy family, may that be true.
Whatever Jesus is praying forthe politics, may that be true.
Whatever Jesus is praying forwhomever, may that come to pass.
Don't cling to me.
(17:33):
Jesus says I have not yetascended to the Father, but go
and find my brothers and tellthem.
Please do not miss that part ofthe story and in fact I just
won't let you miss it.
Jesus looks at a woman, hisbeloved friend, his disciple and
apostle, and says go tell theboys First of all, go find them.
(17:55):
And I don't.
This is like a life's problemfor me, beloved.
The boys scatter, they justlike leave before the work is
done.
They like they do a little bitand then they're going home and
I'm like it's not done.
I'm not done.
Crying Love is not done.
Winning Death is still lying.
Don't go home.
We pause here for a moment tothank you for joining us today.
(18:16):
If you're finding this episodemeaningful, would you take a
moment to share it with a friend?
This podcast is made possiblethanks to the generosity of
people just like you.
If you would like to supportthe ongoing work of First Love
Church and the continued work ofour podcast, visit us online at
firstlovechurchorg, remindingyou to like, follow and
(18:39):
subscribe.
Stay in the garden, stay in thisrenewal, stay in this hope.
Allow love to expand what youeven thought love was possible
of.
Go and tell my brothers Firstof all, find them.
I just do not miss that.
Jesus did not send the boys tofind anything.
(19:03):
Jesus sent a woman to find theboys and then to tell them.
This is essential now becausewe still live in a world of
hierarchy.
We still live where, all overthe world, people are put into
categories of greater than orless than.
And Jesus has showed us thatlove removes every category,
(19:26):
that love calls us all beloved,that love calls us all home and
back to our truest selves.
And so Jesus is absolutelypracticing something that
culture would not have done.
But he said to his belovedfriend, his beloved friend, find
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the boys, round them up, let'sgo boys, come out of your houses
and come back to love and tellthem I am ascending to my Father
and your Father, to my God andto your God.
And the message here, if youread it, is Jesus is telling
Mary tell the whole world we'refamily.
Tell the whole world that it'sno longer my God, it's our God.
(20:12):
Tell the whole world that lovehas escaped beyond the
boundaries of our mortality andhas brought us into newness of
life.
This story has so many otherstories woven into it.
Matthew and Luke and Mark havealready been written for years,
and John still writes a story.
And he writes the story and hesays things over and over again,
(20:35):
reminiscent of the storytelling.
He tells us it was dark andthen he brings us into the light
.
For many of us, in our griefthere is still darkness.
Into the light.
For many of us, in our griefthere is still darkness.
And it's okay for you to weep.
In fact, it says in fourscriptures, it mentions she's
crying four times.
This crying is acceptable.
This crying is part of yourhumanity.
(20:57):
This crying is essential forhealing and transcendence.
And the spirit this is what theapostle tells us the same
spirit that raised Jesus fromthe dead, lives and dwells in
you and in me, and when wegather together, it is that
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spirit.
It is love spirit, it is thespirit of possibility.
What would it look like if thekingdom of heaven were actually
here?
What would it look like if wecould love each other without
hierarchy, with us all coming tothis understanding, my God and
your God.
It doesn't say my God if you doeverything that I do, my God if
(21:40):
you confess these things, myGod if you read this certain
book.
But it is this understandingthat if you follow love, you
will end up at the feet of Jesus, because love is coming for you
, beloved and love in thesilence will speak your name.
Mary was in the garden and shewent looking for the corpse of
(22:04):
her beloved.
Mary was in the garden and shewent looking for the corpse of
her beloved and what she foundwas the living God who called
her by name.
What she found was a living God, beloved.
Love calls us into living, intotrueness, into life more
abundantly.
Mary gives us such a beautifulentrance into what it looks like
(22:24):
to follow.
You say I don't know.
She didn't tell me what to dowith my life, but she does.
In fact, she shows us in theway that she lives, in her
practice of generosity, in herpractice of including.
(22:47):
Mary Magdalene found thedisciples, which in a sense, is
a miracle.
Let's talk about that just fora hot moment, because I grew up
in a faith tradition wheremiracles were a big thing, and I
am still a miracle believer.
I want for miracles, but I wastold that miracles were huge
things like the Red Sea parting,like fish being multiplied so
(23:12):
that over 12,000 people can eat.
That's a big thing.
But I want to tell you miraclesare all around us, every single
day.
Miracles are everywhere ifwe're trained to see them and
the Holy Spirit invites us intothis.
Mary Magdalene found the otherdisciples.
She went and found that whichwas lost, that which had turned
(23:33):
around, and went home.
This is a miracle, right there.
Have you ever lost anything?
Have you ever tried to findsomeone who didn't want to be
found?
She did, and she told them thisI have seen the Lord, and then
she gave them his message.
This is the hope for all of us.
(23:54):
This is my witness.
This is your witness.
Where have you seen love?
Where have you allowed love tosee you?
Where have you sat in thepresence and allowed yourself to
be held in the loving embraceand in the gaze of Jesus?
I have seen the Lord.
Now, I also want to remind youthat this is her interpretation.
(24:17):
So before someone tells youthat, you know you shouldn't say
anything because that's yourinterpretation.
They have their own.
This is my witness.
This is what I have seen.
I have seen love, and love thatis greater than death.
That's hopeful, because all ofus will see death Until that
(24:38):
final day when death isabsolutely destroyed.
We will all see death, and thatis a difficult thing for us to
even think about, comparing ourlives and our loves.
Where is love?
What do you do with it when youhave all this love and no one
to put it on?
You grieve, and the Spiritallows us to expand our capacity
(25:01):
to see death not as final butas a passageway, to see death as
something that we recognize,that we go through.
But there is something so muchmore.
Sawyer agrees with me thismorning he has so much
resurrection to speak of.
(25:23):
Cs Lewis said pay attention tothe ones who are so fresh from
God.
They have not forgotten all ofthe glories.
And so when we gather togetherin God's house and among us are
children and among us are thosewho have gone much further down
the path and there are thoseamong us.
Maybe you don't even know whyyou are among us.
Maybe you were dragged here bysomeone who found you in your
(25:43):
house and dragged you here likeMary did with the brothers and
she said I have seen the Lord, Ihave seen love, and I want to
tell you about the message thathe's my God and he's your God
and he's our God, and love isthe way.
Love is the way.
This is what resurrectionreminds us of, if there are
(26:07):
areas in your life this morningwhere you see deadness, where
you see things that are withouthope, beloved.
Resurrection is coming, newnessis coming, new life is being
created here.
She went to tend to the bodyand what she found was the
(26:29):
living Lord.
Sometimes you come to church onSunday mornings and you're here
to attend to your body, tobring ourselves into ritual, to
remember, to remind ourselves ofour truest identities, ones who
are loved by God, and this isthe truth that our witness calls
other people into family.
When we come and we do thesethings together, we tell a story
(26:52):
, whether you even know it ornot.
It's been 45 years since I haveseen my grandmother, since I've
heard her voice, since I watchedher radical hospitality.
I was 10 years old.
You know, 10 year olds, theyshould not be trusted with a lot
(27:15):
of I don't know anything.
They should just be loved.
They should just be loved, notrust.
But I was 10 when mygrandmother died, and I will
tell you, though I cannotremember a lot of what she said
to me directly, my life has beenmarked by her devotion to
(27:38):
Christ, by the way that sheopened her home and said
everyone is welcomed at thistable.
She would come home from workas a nurse long hours on your
feet, and she would begin tomake supper for whosoever would
not just for our family whoeverwe had all brought home for the
(28:02):
day.
I was thinking about this lastnight as I was remembering her
and I was thinking when shewould carry laundry, she would
always sing songs.
And it bothered me as a10-year-old because my
grandmother would start allkinds of beautiful songs but she
never knew the words, and soshe would go to da-da-dee-dee
and I would be like, well,that's not the word.
Now, did it matter that sheknows the word?
As an older person, I realizenow we're going to forget the
(28:24):
words.
But what was happening when shecalled those words, those songs
, those melodies intoremembrance?
It was bringing her back intothe presence of love.
I saw my grandmother's devotionto the church, the church that
had not always been good to her,but this church, this body of
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Jesus Christ, her saying this iswhere I come to remember this
communion that I come to have,and this is for us an indication
.
Why do I bring that up?
I have not seen her, I have notheard her in years, and yet it
still encourages me.
Beloved, people are watching you, not out of judgment, but to
see how you will respond to thewitness of love.
What does it look like for allof us to follow the way of Mary
(29:10):
into the way of anointing, whereit says that she knew who this
Jesus was and it was at greatexpense.
Personally, she anointed himand she didn't stop just there.
Here she is, his body is deadand she's still coming for more
outpourings of love.
This beloved friend is aninvitation for all of us to come
(29:34):
back, to return to love.
Here she has.
Every night after theresurrection they go home.
I don't know what they do.
They're not sleeping.
I just know that Because whenyou have that kind of heartbreak
, you are not resting, she's noteating, but she is returning to
love.
She is returning to love andthen we see what love does.
Love returns to her and this isthe hope for all of us, this is
(29:58):
the hope for the world.
This practice of returning tolove, as many times as love, has
failed.
You do not abandon love.
Do not go home.
Stay in the garden and wait forlove.
Wait for the love of God tocome and speak your name and say
(30:19):
here, round up everybody andtell them I am going to my
father and to your father, to myGod and to your God.
This is what we do when wepractice holy communion together
.
We say my God and your God.
Love has heaped up a feast.
(30:41):
Here is this incredible ritualand maybe you didn't even know
what you were doing with it.
It has been years since I'veheard my grandmother's voice,
but I can still remember herbreaking bread and passing the
cup.
I can remember her stirring abig pot of soup.
(31:02):
She was sure the miracle was inthe pot of soup, because that
could go much further than anyother kind of.
There were lots of stews insoup because you could make that
into a lot for many people.
And this hope for all of us aswe prepare our own hearts to
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meet love's feast, to come tothe table, to reimagine our life
with love at the very center.
We talk about this frequentlyhere, but this is your weekly
amnesia therapy this at thetable of the Lord.
You come back and you arereminded you are loved, you are
(31:46):
holy.
The spirit of God is with usall and love speaks our name.
And love reminds us that we arehere for a purpose.
And the purpose is that lovewould return, that love would
grow, that there would besomething more.
(32:06):
We listen and we respond to theinvitation of this apostle who
said to us do not give up onlove.
Love is coming for you Now.
Maybe you're at a place in yourlife where you're like I don't
(32:26):
have the strength to wait onlove, I can't even stay here in
the garden.
I want to remind you thatThomas, the apostle Thomas,
misses one of the firstappearances of Jesus and he says
I can't do it, I cannot evenimagine what it would be like.
And so Jesus appears to Thomasbehind locked doors.
(32:48):
So do not fret, beloved.
If your heart cannot stay openfor this, love can appear behind
locked doors.
We hope you've enjoyed thisweek's sermon.
If you would like moreinformation about no-transcript,
Welcome to the First Love Church podcast.
This is a collection of Sundayteachings inspired by the
Revised Common Lectionary andrecorded weekly in Ocala,
florida.
Death around us tells lies andsays things like things will
never change.
I have good news beloved, yes,they will.
Yes, they will.
As we encounter the resurrectionthis morning, as we come back,
(00:23):
I'm asking that the Holy Spiritilluminate us.
We enter into mystery thismorning and, whether you knew it
or not, you entered intomystery through even the singing
of songs In the very beginningof the world, in the beginning
of the cosmos, when God iscreating everything and love
sets out.
In fact, in the Proverbs, ittalks about the spirit of God
(00:46):
that was with God when God wascreating and it says that she
was there as the architect byhis side, and it says that God,
that love, hovered over chaosand created something new.
That's so encouraging for mebecause I see a lot of chaos.
I see chaos in our world, I seechaos in relationship, I see
(01:09):
chaos in myself, and it is aninvitation Holy Spirit, spirit
of love and resurrection, comeand hover over this and create
something beautiful.
I am excited to be in yourpresence this morning and as I
looked around this morning, asI'm singing, I'm thinking to
myself this truth For many of us, we have already been in
(01:31):
death's tomb in all kinds ofways in ways through addiction,
in ways through broken choices,in ways through our own paths.
And there is a resurrection,kelly.
He is risen, yes.
So many times he drags us fromthe grave and says Love is here,
(01:53):
beloved.
I'm so excited that yourpresence is here with me this
morning and that you wouldexpect and that you would allow
the Holy Spirit to expand yourimagination and your presence.
Before we get any further, incase you are nervous or anxious
about something, I want to easeyour fears.
We're going to have HolyCommunion at the end.
So if you came here going,where's the communion?
(02:15):
Where do I just get my timewith Jesus?
I want to tell you be patient,because we're saving the good
stuff till the very last.
We're going to enter intomystery.
We're going to enter intosomething that is so incredibly
sacred and it is, for us, aremembering.
I'm grateful that you're here.
I'm going to read a text thismorning, but I'm going to ask
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that you would allow spirit toillumine you.
Maybe you've heard the storybefore, but let me tell you it
again, and let me tell you anexpanded version, let me tell
you a version that maybe hasbeen glossed over.
And let me speak to you, toyour own heart of love.
Let me speak to you of thingsthat you already know, that
(02:59):
spirit has already been tellingyou.
And let's, together, allow theSpirit to expand our capacity to
love and to receive love, ifyou would close your eyes with
me just for a moment, andtogether we are grateful for
(03:22):
breath, the breath that sustainsus.
All-loving God, creator, god,god of new beginnings, who burst
forth from the tomb, who spoketo Mary Magdalene in the form of
(03:43):
a gardener, who appeared behindclosed doors in the disciples'
need.
Send now your Holy Spirit intothis place.
Fill every heart with yourmercy, touch every mind with
your grace.
Reveal yourself to those whobelieve in the seclusion of
(04:06):
their own thoughts.
Pass freely through everyemotional and mental barrier,
just as you appeared to thedisciples, unhindered by locks
and deferences.
Allow our breathing to be yourbreathing.
Fill us now with the peace ofyour Holy Spirit.
(04:26):
Relieve us all of fear.
Open our eyes that we may see.
Open our ears that we may hear.
Open our hearts that we maylive.
Bring the scriptures to lifewithin us.
Allow us to participate in thetelling of the story alongside
(04:51):
your disciples.
Amen, amen From John's Gospel.
Early Sunday morning, while itwas still dark, mary Magdalene
came to the tomb and found thatthe stone had been rolled away
from the entrance, and she ranand found Simon Peter and the
(05:15):
other disciple, the one whomJesus loved, and she said they
have taken the Lord's body outof the tomb and we don't know
where they have put him.
Peter and the other disciplesstarted out for the tomb.
They were both running, but theother disciple outran Peter and
reached the tomb first and hestooped and looked in and saw
(05:38):
the linen wrappings lying there,but he didn't go in.
Simon Peter arrived and wentinside and he also noticed the
linen wrappings lying there,while the cloth that had covered
Jesus's head was folded up andlying apart from the other
wrappings.
Then the disciple who hadreached the tomb first also went
(06:00):
in and he saw and believed, foruntil then they still hadn't
understood the scriptures thatsaid Jesus must rise from the
dead.
Then they went home.
If you stop there, beloved, youmiss.
(06:22):
You miss so much.
We're going to read on in thestory, but I want you to hear
the story from this incredibledisciple, this Mary Magdalene,
who stays, and I want to remindyou that the spirit of God stays
(06:42):
with you.
You cannot depart from love'spresence.
Love is with you, love isalways with you.
But I ask that, if you readthis story with me, as you
imagine it in your own life, ifyou would pay a moment attention
to the fact that she stays.
She stays, perhaps, in grief.
(07:08):
Yesterday is Holy Saturday,where there's just nothing.
I love that for us, becausesometimes that's what it feels
like inside Nothing.
Nothing has changed.
A great tragedy has happenedand I am the same and the world
is the same and nothing ischanging.
And Holy Saturday holds thatfor us.
We celebrate Good Friday, wherethere's this tragedy, this
(07:28):
heartbreak, this loss.
Mary is one of the followers ofJesus, one of the apostles, one
of the disciples, and she hasput everything in her belief
that he will be the one tochange everything, the world,
that he is the Messiah.
And then he is killed bypolitics, by fear, by
(07:51):
misinterpretation of things.
He is killed by his owncountrymen.
He is killed by people whodon't understand what love
really is.
Imagine for a moment heartache.
I don't know if any of you haveever experienced it?
I'm suspect that you have.
But I want to remind you thismorning that Easter, no matter
(08:14):
where it finds you, if in deepgrief, if you're the people who,
just you know, decided this isthe end of it, I want to tell
you that love is here to tell abetter story, a bigger story, a
more hopeful story.
So the boys go home and Marystays.
We don't know why she stays.
(08:36):
I think it's because she loveshim and love is her home, loves
him and love is her home.
She stays in love.
She stays in the presencebecause beloved love is eternal.
Love does not stop once yourbody is no longer here.
Love goes on and on and on, andlove calls to us even beyond
(09:03):
the grave.
Mary was standing outside thetomb, crying, which is
appropriate when your heart isbroken.
Don't let anyone tell you youcan't cry, beloved.
Tears are a form of prayer.
Tears are a way that we holdour own grief with honor.
Allow yourself the freedom tocry If you are heartbroken,
(09:24):
beloved weep.
And as she wept, she stoopedand looked in and she saw two
white-robed angels, one sittingat the head and the other at the
foot of the place where thebody of Jesus had been lying.
Up until this point she hadn'tgone in.
(09:44):
She went to the tomb thismorning, to this garden place.
I love that it tells us thatshe's in the garden.
It reminds us of the otherpoetry in the story that tells
this is how this whole thingstarted, in the garden.
So here she is in the gardenagain and she has gone there
expecting to find Jesus, to findthis one that she loves,
(10:07):
separated from her.
And when the stone is rolledaway, it is grief upon grief.
It is almost too much to bear.
But she never actually goes in.
She runs and gets the boys andsays come and see, this is
what's happened.
(10:27):
Now they see, they have theirown encounter.
They believe or they don'tbelieve, but whatever happened,
they just went home.
They left Mary there with hergrief.
Maybe you feel like that'swhat's happened to you.
You've been left with yourgrief.
Love is coming for you, beloved.
(10:49):
But she bends and she looks inand she sees angels.
Now, I don't know how long theangels were there.
Perhaps they came as soon asshe bent and looked in, but
maybe they were there the wholetime.
As soon as she bent and lookedin, but maybe they were there
the whole time.
Maybe in your life there aremessengers of love and
(11:10):
resurrection and promiseeverywhere.
Maybe we just have to bend tosee them.
Dear woman, why are you crying?
The angels asked her.
Why are you crying?
The angels asked her.
I've heard this story toldbefore and it is almost
(11:35):
sometimes told like youshouldn't be crying, like get
over it, be done with this.
By now, the angels of heavenare asking, and I want to tell
you that's not their tone, thatis not what it is.
It is this invitation of wouldyou like to share the pain?
Why are you crying?
And her response because theyhave taken away my Lord and I
(11:59):
don't know where they have puthim.
They have put him.
It's a terrible thing that deathdoes to us, that robs us of our
sight, that we cannot see thosethat we've loved.
(12:31):
She hasn't seen before and sheturned to leave and she saw
someone standing there.
It was Jesus, but she didn'trecognize him.
Sometimes grief will cause usto not see love when it is right
there in front of us andsometimes, in some ways, maybe
(12:56):
the God and the Jesus that youfollowed feels like is
unavailable, unavailable,beloved.
Stay in the garden long enoughso that love can reveal itself
to you anew.
She saw Jesus and she did notrecognize him.
(13:20):
Dear woman, why are you cryingAgain, she is asked, because the
weeping does not stop.
The weeping does not stop onceyou've seen angels.
The weeping does not stop evenonce you've been given the
message of angels, because thegrief is still present, the loss
is still real.
Dear woman, why are you crying?
Jesus asked her who are youlooking for?
And she thought he was thegardener.
(13:42):
I love that.
And she thought he was thegardener.
I love that the transfiguredChrist, this transcendent one,
could be mistaken for thegardener.
I think it's one of the reasonswhy gardening is such a holy
enterprise.
Very often we need to have dirtunder our own fingernails before
(14:05):
we can see what love actuallylooks like the promise of
resurrection.
If you have taken him away,tell me where you've put him and
I will go and get him.
I ask for a moment that youwould imagine with me what it is
like to imagine that the bodyof the one that you love has
(14:26):
been taken.
Don't worry about it, it's okay.
We'll talk about why thathappened later, but just tell me
where he is and I will go gethis body.
You don't have to defendyourself, just show me where he
is, mary, jesus said, and sheturned to him and cried out
(14:52):
Rabboni, which is Hebrew for myteacher, when love spoke her
name In the silence, in thepractice of silence, I encourage
you.
Love calls for you.
Love speaks your true name,your worthiness, your
(15:21):
belovedness, your part in thestory that love is telling him.
It doesn't tell us a whole lotabout what happens yet, but by
what happens here I know whathappened.
She saw him and she recognizedhim.
I don't imagine she knew whathad happened, but how is it that
(15:45):
he was in front of her?
She put a death grip on him.
She was not going to let thisgo again.
It happened the one time.
It's not happening again.
Love was going to cling, lovewas going to hold so tightly to
what she knew.
And the first thing that Jesussays after this and I imagine
they embraced I imagined it wasnot, it was not, don't touch me,
because I'm holy.
It was loves, I have found you.
(16:06):
I can't even imagine howamazing this is.
And Jesus says don't cling tome.
Where in your life is thereclinging, maybe to a
representation of God that nolonger exists?
Maybe to a path or to a way.
Maybe there is an invitation toa transcendent life, to a Jesus
(16:30):
that is beyond the boundariesof this mortal life, for a Jesus
who lives forever.
And the beauty of this is thatis an invitation to us to give
up our clinging, our clinging toour way of doing things, our
clinging to our plans, ourclinging to what we know.
And Jesus' encouragement to usis love opens love's hands.
(16:51):
Don't cling to this form.
I haven't yet ascended to theFather.
Jesus returns to God, andthere's other scriptures that
tells us that Jesus ever livesto make intercession for us.
If you want to know what Jesusis up to right now, it is up to
(17:13):
intercession for you and I.
And when you don't know what topray, pray whatever Jesus is
praying for me.
May that be true.
Whatever Jesus is praying formy family, may that be true.
Whatever Jesus is praying forthe politics, may that be true.
Whatever Jesus is praying formy family, may that be true.
Whatever Jesus is praying forthe politics, may that be true.
Whatever Jesus is praying forwhomever, may that come to pass.
Don't cling to me.
(17:33):
Jesus says I have not yetascended to the Father, but go
and find my brothers and tellthem.
Please do not miss that part ofthe story and in fact I just
won't let you miss it.
Jesus looks at a woman, hisbeloved friend, his disciple and
apostle, and says go tell theboys First of all, go find them.
(17:55):
And I don't.
This is like a life's problemfor me, beloved.
The boys scatter, they justlike leave before the work is
done.
They like they do a little bitand then they're going home and
I'm like it's not done.
I'm not done.
Crying Love is not done.
Winning Death is still lying.
Don't go home.
We pause here for a moment tothank you for joining us today.
(18:16):
If you're finding this episodemeaningful, would you take a
moment to share it with a friend?
This podcast is made possiblethanks to the generosity of
people just like you.
If you would like to supportthe ongoing work of First Love
Church and the continued work ofour podcast, visit us online at
firstlovechurchorg, remindingyou to like, follow and
(18:39):
subscribe.
Stay in the garden, stay in thisrenewal, stay in this hope.
Allow love to expand what youeven thought love was possible
of.
Go and tell my brothers Firstof all, find them.
I just do not miss that.
Jesus did not send the boys tofind anything.
(19:03):
Jesus sent a woman to find theboys and then to tell them.
This is essential now becausewe still live in a world of
hierarchy.
We still live where, all overthe world, people are put into
categories of greater than orless than.
And Jesus has showed us thatlove removes every category,
(19:26):
that love calls us all beloved,that love calls us all home and
back to our truest selves.
And so Jesus is absolutelypracticing something that
culture would not have done.
But he said to his belovedfriend, his beloved friend, find
(19:50):
the boys, round them up, let'sgo boys, come out of your houses
and come back to love and tellthem I am ascending to my Father
and your Father, to my God andto your God.
And the message here, if youread it, is Jesus is telling
Mary tell the whole world we'refamily.
Tell the whole world that it'sno longer my God, it's our God.
(20:12):
Tell the whole world that lovehas escaped beyond the
boundaries of our mortality andhas brought us into newness of
life.
This story has so many otherstories woven into it.
Matthew and Luke and Mark havealready been written for years,
and John still writes a story.
And he writes the story and hesays things over and over again,
(20:35):
reminiscent of the storytelling.
He tells us it was dark andthen he brings us into the light
.
For many of us, in our griefthere is still darkness.
Into the light.
For many of us, in our griefthere is still darkness.
And it's okay for you to weep.
In fact, it says in fourscriptures, it mentions she's
crying four times.
This crying is acceptable.
This crying is part of yourhumanity.
(20:57):
This crying is essential forhealing and transcendence.
And the spirit this is what theapostle tells us the same
spirit that raised Jesus fromthe dead, lives and dwells in
you and in me, and when wegather together, it is that
(21:19):
spirit.
It is love spirit, it is thespirit of possibility.
What would it look like if thekingdom of heaven were actually
here?
What would it look like if wecould love each other without
hierarchy, with us all coming tothis understanding, my God and
your God.
It doesn't say my God if you doeverything that I do, my God if
(21:40):
you confess these things, myGod if you read this certain
book.
But it is this understandingthat if you follow love, you
will end up at the feet of Jesus, because love is coming for you
, beloved and love in thesilence will speak your name.
Mary was in the garden and shewent looking for the corpse of
(22:04):
her beloved.
Mary was in the garden and shewent looking for the corpse of
her beloved and what she foundwas the living God who called
her by name.
What she found was a living God, beloved.
Love calls us into living, intotrueness, into life more
abundantly.
Mary gives us such a beautifulentrance into what it looks like
(22:24):
to follow.
You say I don't know.
She didn't tell me what to dowith my life, but she does.
In fact, she shows us in theway that she lives, in her
practice of generosity, in herpractice of including.
(22:47):
Mary Magdalene found thedisciples, which in a sense, is
a miracle.
Let's talk about that just fora hot moment, because I grew up
in a faith tradition wheremiracles were a big thing, and I
am still a miracle believer.
I want for miracles, but I wastold that miracles were huge
things like the Red Sea parting,like fish being multiplied so
(23:12):
that over 12,000 people can eat.
That's a big thing.
But I want to tell you miraclesare all around us, every single
day.
Miracles are everywhere ifwe're trained to see them and
the Holy Spirit invites us intothis.
Mary Magdalene found the otherdisciples.
She went and found that whichwas lost, that which had turned
(23:33):
around, and went home.
This is a miracle, right there.
Have you ever lost anything?
Have you ever tried to findsomeone who didn't want to be
found?
She did, and she told them thisI have seen the Lord, and then
she gave them his message.
This is the hope for all of us.
(23:54):
This is my witness.
This is your witness.
Where have you seen love?
Where have you allowed love tosee you?
Where have you sat in thepresence and allowed yourself to
be held in the loving embraceand in the gaze of Jesus?
I have seen the Lord.
Now, I also want to remind youthat this is her interpretation.
(24:17):
So before someone tells youthat, you know you shouldn't say
anything because that's yourinterpretation.
They have their own.
This is my witness.
This is what I have seen.
I have seen love, and love thatis greater than death.
That's hopeful, because all ofus will see death Until that
(24:38):
final day when death isabsolutely destroyed.
We will all see death, and thatis a difficult thing for us to
even think about, comparing ourlives and our loves.
Where is love?
What do you do with it when youhave all this love and no one
to put it on?
You grieve, and the Spiritallows us to expand our capacity
(25:01):
to see death not as final butas a passageway, to see death as
something that we recognize,that we go through.
But there is something so muchmore.
Sawyer agrees with me thismorning he has so much
resurrection to speak of.
(25:23):
Cs Lewis said pay attention tothe ones who are so fresh from
God.
They have not forgotten all ofthe glories.
And so when we gather togetherin God's house and among us are
children and among us are thosewho have gone much further down
the path and there are thoseamong us.
Maybe you don't even know whyyou are among us.
Maybe you were dragged here bysomeone who found you in your
(25:43):
house and dragged you here likeMary did with the brothers and
she said I have seen the Lord, Ihave seen love, and I want to
tell you about the message thathe's my God and he's your God
and he's our God, and love isthe way.
Love is the way.
This is what resurrectionreminds us of, if there are
(26:07):
areas in your life this morningwhere you see deadness, where
you see things that are withouthope, beloved.
Resurrection is coming, newnessis coming, new life is being
created here.
She went to tend to the bodyand what she found was the
(26:29):
living Lord.
Sometimes you come to church onSunday mornings and you're here
to attend to your body, tobring ourselves into ritual, to
remember, to remind ourselves ofour truest identities, ones who
are loved by God, and this isthe truth that our witness calls
other people into family.
When we come and we do thesethings together, we tell a story
(26:52):
, whether you even know it ornot.
It's been 45 years since I haveseen my grandmother, since I've
heard her voice, since I watchedher radical hospitality.
I was 10 years old.
You know, 10 year olds, theyshould not be trusted with a lot
(27:15):
of I don't know anything.
They should just be loved.
They should just be loved, notrust.
But I was 10 when mygrandmother died, and I will
tell you, though I cannotremember a lot of what she said
to me directly, my life has beenmarked by her devotion to
(27:38):
Christ, by the way that sheopened her home and said
everyone is welcomed at thistable.
She would come home from workas a nurse long hours on your
feet, and she would begin tomake supper for whosoever would
not just for our family whoeverwe had all brought home for the
(28:02):
day.
I was thinking about this lastnight as I was remembering her
and I was thinking when shewould carry laundry, she would
always sing songs.
And it bothered me as a10-year-old because my
grandmother would start allkinds of beautiful songs but she
never knew the words, and soshe would go to da-da-dee-dee
and I would be like, well,that's not the word.
Now, did it matter that sheknows the word?
As an older person, I realizenow we're going to forget the
(28:24):
words.
But what was happening when shecalled those words, those songs
, those melodies intoremembrance?
It was bringing her back intothe presence of love.
I saw my grandmother's devotionto the church, the church that
had not always been good to her,but this church, this body of
(28:46):
Jesus Christ, her saying this iswhere I come to remember this
communion that I come to have,and this is for us an indication
.
Why do I bring that up?
I have not seen her, I have notheard her in years, and yet it
still encourages me.
Beloved, people are watching you, not out of judgment, but to
see how you will respond to thewitness of love.
What does it look like for allof us to follow the way of Mary
(29:10):
into the way of anointing, whereit says that she knew who this
Jesus was and it was at greatexpense.
Personally, she anointed himand she didn't stop just there.
Here she is, his body is deadand she's still coming for more
outpourings of love.
This beloved friend is aninvitation for all of us to come
(29:34):
back, to return to love.
Here she has.
Every night after theresurrection they go home.
I don't know what they do.
They're not sleeping.
I just know that Because whenyou have that kind of heartbreak
, you are not resting, she's noteating, but she is returning to
love.
She is returning to love andthen we see what love does.
Love returns to her and this isthe hope for all of us, this is
(29:58):
the hope for the world.
This practice of returning tolove, as many times as love, has
failed.
You do not abandon love.
Do not go home.
Stay in the garden and wait forlove.
Wait for the love of God tocome and speak your name and say
(30:19):
here, round up everybody andtell them I am going to my
father and to your father, to myGod and to your God.
This is what we do when wepractice holy communion together
.
We say my God and your God.
Love has heaped up a feast.
(30:41):
Here is this incredible ritualand maybe you didn't even know
what you were doing with it.
It has been years since I'veheard my grandmother's voice,
but I can still remember herbreaking bread and passing the
cup.
I can remember her stirring abig pot of soup.
(31:02):
She was sure the miracle was inthe pot of soup, because that
could go much further than anyother kind of.
There were lots of stews insoup because you could make that
into a lot for many people.
And this hope for all of us aswe prepare our own hearts to
(31:23):
meet love's feast, to come tothe table, to reimagine our life
with love at the very center.
We talk about this frequentlyhere, but this is your weekly
amnesia therapy this at thetable of the Lord.
You come back and you arereminded you are loved, you are
(31:46):
holy.
The spirit of God is with usall and love speaks our name.
And love reminds us that we arehere for a purpose.
And the purpose is that lovewould return, that love would
grow, that there would besomething more.
(32:06):
We listen and we respond to theinvitation of this apostle who
said to us do not give up onlove.
Love is coming for you Now.
Maybe you're at a place in yourlife where you're like I don't
(32:26):
have the strength to wait onlove, I can't even stay here in
the garden.
I want to remind you thatThomas, the apostle Thomas,
misses one of the firstappearances of Jesus and he says
I can't do it, I cannot evenimagine what it would be like.
And so Jesus appears to Thomasbehind locked doors.
(32:48):
So do not fret, beloved.
If your heart cannot stay openfor this, love can appear behind
locked doors.
We hope you've enjoyed thisweek's sermon.
If you would like moreinformation about no-transcript,
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