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St. Andrew's Church
An Anglican Church • Grimsby, Ontario, Canada
Preached by
Stuart Pike
Rector
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Easter C
St. Andrew's Church, Grimsby
8 April 2007
Luke 24: 1-12
It wasn't long after I went to Uruguay that I met women who were associated with las Madres de Plaza de Mayo: the Mothers of May Square. In 1977, during some of the darkest days of the Dictatorships in Argentina and Uruguay a group of 14 mothers decided to gather together in May Square in Buenos Aires, Argentina to protest the disappearances of their children. They realized that one by one their claims for justice would make no difference to the military government. But together, they might make a difference. They were protesting 15 thousand murders, 80 thousand political prisoners, 1.5 million exiles and, incredibly, 30 thousand people: their sons and daughters, who had simply disappeared. They never found their bodies.
Despite the incarceration of some of these protesters, the movement had begun and every Thursday afternoon at 3:30 P.M. an ever growing number of women gathered, all wearing white scarfs on their heads to symbolize peace and justice. Often they would carry photographs of those who had disappeared. Later they would be joined by children and fathers who would accompany them. They would march resolutely with the same firm and steady pace. This movement grew into the neighbouring countries, including Uruguay, which were all being terrorized by military dictatorships.
It is remarkable that this powerful protest was begun by a group of people who were seemingly powerless. Firstly, they were women in a largely machismo society. And they were for the most part older women - mothers of adult children sometimes widows. They were the ones in their society who were supposed to cower behind closed doors: defenceless and poor.
Many of them were named Mary (or Maria) as is so often the case in Largely Roman Catholic societies. Mercedes Sosa, who is an amazing Argentinean folk singer and political activist who lived in exile for years, sings of "Las Marias del Uruguay" in reference to the women of that country who helped bring down the military dictatorship.
And in today's Gospel lesson we have the story of another group of women. At least two of them were named Mary: Mary Magdalen and Mary the Mother of James, along with Joanna and the other women who were with them.
It appears that while the men are huddled behind closed doors for fear of being taken by the authorities, here were a group of women who get up early and walk to the tomb, carrying the spices with which to anoint Jesus' body. They resolutely march out to carry out their sad task. Yet, when they reach the tomb, they find that Jesus' body is not there! Imagine the depth of their loss at this moment. I imagine they must have felt much like the Mothers of May Square who didn't even have the body of their disappeared children to bury. These Marys and the others are completely bereft and know only emptiness.
Most of us know something of this emptiness. We have come to the empty tomb of loss, disappointment, the death of our loved one, or the death of our hopes and dreams. We have come up empty. We might even have thought that there is nothing, ultimately, but an abyss of emptiness.
There is so much in the world that teaches about ultimate emptiness. We live in a materialistic world which teaches that we can fill up the emptiness inside with things. But, all of us know that material things get used up, or wear down. They don't last. Ultimately all the works of human hands will fall to dust. And so, if we believe the messages of the materialistic world, then we are still left with this emptiness at the heart of it all.
The Great News of the Easter Gospel is that the empty tomb is not a symbol of loss, but of life - a life which cannot be contained in material things - not even in a tomb sealed with a great stone. Jesus has busted out of that tomb and all that would try to contain him.
One Maria who I met in Uruguay told me about how difficult it had been for her to go to Church after her husband was killed during the dictatorship. She and her husband were not great Church attenders before his death. She, at least, had the body of her husband to be buried, but for a long time afterwards, the Church became for her a symbol of her husband's death. It was from the Church that her husband was buried and during the week as she walked by the large cavernous empty Church, she said that it felt like walking by a tomb.
It was only little by little that she came to appreciate that this Church was a centre not only for life, but also for peace and justice. It was the Church which stood up, during the darkest days of the dictatorship, and spoke about justice and life and hope. Many of the clergy were put in danger - and I met some who were tortured because they helped the people organize themselves and to stand against the dictatorship.
And continuing after the fall of the Dictatorship, Maria remained a faithful member of the Church. It was a community of faith which became a second family for her. And the Church taught her that the infinite things aren't things at all but are about spirit and community. Maria learned about Easter truth and about resurrection and she learned how to really live again.
I know some people in this town also have a hard time coming back to their Church after the loss of a loved one. They need to be able to make the turn from death to life, from loss to abundance, from loneliness to community.
Maria learned that Jesus wasn't primarily raised from the dead to bring new life to the dead (though he did do that) - but he was raised firstly to bring new life to the living! The power of Jesus' resurrected life is for us while we yet walk this physical earth and while we inhabit these mortal bodies.
How can we be assured of being raised after we are dead, if we haven't been raised while we are living? And, being raised in this life, we find God's purpose for our lives - a purpose which has to do with companionship and hope, with justice and peace-making, with reaching out our hands to others and then finding ourselves in a great huge family with hands clasping ours, all connected through Jesus' life.
The Marys and other women that first Easter morning new this truth, and that is why thy left the tomb to go and tell the message of new life to the other disciples. The message is too important and life-giving to be kept for just onself.
Being raised in this life and thus, being engaged in Jesus' work, we will find our lives filled - not with things which will crumble to dust, but with relationships and loves and spirits which can never die.
In 1999, twenty-two years after those first 14 mothers marched in May Square, their organization was given the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education. Many of the Mothers of May square have found that their lives have been filled up with their work for peace and their relationships with countless others who have been seeking life at an empty tomb.
Maria of Uruguay and Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of James and so many other Marys and other women have encountered their risen Saviour in their own new lives. The message of Easter is that Jesus is alive for you as well. Alleluia, Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
