Pastor Adrianne Meier
9 April 2023 — Resurrection of our Lord
Saint Thomas Evangelical Lutheran Church, Bloomington, Indiana
The Way We Roll
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Matthew 28:1-10
After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 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.’ This is my message for you.” So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
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That first Easter morning was thick with grief. It clung to the disciples like a thick fog. They were disoriented in their grief. Because they couldn’t figure out the way forward, they just stayed put. Some of the woman, looking for a way around the giant bolder of grief, unable to roll with any more punches, found themselves at the tomb.
On this Easter, many of us come, lugging burdens as big as boulders. We cannot lose, with all the Easter joy, that the events of this day begin at a tomb. Yes, today is all about Resurrection joy, but the fullness of that joy comes to us when we first acknowledge what we have lost, what hangs heavy around us, what boulder has shut us into our tombs. We acknowledge these things, trusting that God will write a new story, make a new creation, that God will roll the stone away.
You see, most of us have been told that sure, bad things will happen, but just…roll with it. You can’t let disappointment and grief and pain ruin your life. Houses go up in flames, terminal diagnoses are handed out, lives are lost to injustice, families are left grieving. Just roll with it.
If that is all the “good news” we get, it is so much easier to give up. To assume things are always going to be this way—no matter how many letters we write, phone calls we make, news we read, or tears we shed. We…just roll with it.
When the women went to the tomb, they didn’t expect anything, really, they expected to roll with their grief. To sit in the stunned silence, to just be near to this piece of their own hearts that had been taken from them. They didn’t come certain the world was changed—or that anything had changed. But when they got there, God had rolled away the stone.
You see, Beloved, we may have heard that we need to just roll with it, but this is how we roll—like God has rolled away the stone.
We may know the joy of the story, its powerful ending that is really a beginning. We may know that hope can rise from dead places. That no matter how the world rolls, there’s nothing rolling that stone back now.
This is the way we roll – that God has rolled away the stone.
But when we get to the boulders in our life, the message to roll with it can be so much louder…because we don’t know this ending. But that is where our faith matters. In the face of the burdens and boulders of our day—
This is the way we roll – that God has rolled away the stone.
We do not know what will happen in our state, as our legislators create laws that seek to erase trans and non-binary folks or to weaken public education and vilify teachers. But, we believe that God loves trans and non-binary folks, that education ought be guaranteed for all, and teaching is a holy vocation, so—
This is the way we roll – that God has rolled away the stone.
We do not know what will happen to our planet, as drought and famine descends in Nigeria, South Sudan, and Somalia, record snow in California, violent storms in the Midwest, but we can’t quit fossil fuels, either. But we believe that God is the Author of New Life, and see, is about to do a new thing, so—
This is the way we roll – that God has rolled away the stone.
We do not know what will happen about our culture’s insatiable love of violence. But we believe that God’s perfect love casts out fear, so—
This is the way we roll – that God has rolled away the stone.
We know that grief may spend the night, but joy will come with the morning. We know that Easter is hope beyond death – that those who died will rise, and we will join them in praise around God’s throne. We do not fear grief, but embrace this expression of love, known fully in the light of Christ’s Resurrection—
This is the way we roll – that God has rolled away the stone.
We know the empty tomb calls to us., that the Risen Lord appears to us in one another, telling us to go, to tell, that there we will see God, anew.
This is the way we roll – that God has rolled away the stone.
We know that God is undoing this world’s grief and sorrow and sadness. That God is moving, rolling away the boulders that loom large in our lives. That God replaces hardened hearts with ones that beat, that fill with compassion, that are changed in love’s light. That the God who made the world is renewing it and calls us to lives that restore creation.
This is the way we roll – that God has rolled away the stone.
Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!