RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD

Acts 10:34-43

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

1 Corinthians 15:19-26

Luke 24:1-12

Prayer of the Day: O God, you gave your only Son to suffer death on the cross for our redemption, and by his glorious resurrection you delivered us from the power of death. Make us die every day to sin, that we may live with him forever in the joy of the resurrection, through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

“But these words of [Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them] seemed to [the twelve disciples] an idle tale, and they did not believe them.” Luke 24:11.

Nevertheless, Simon Peter got up and literally ran to the tomb of Jesus to investigate. If Peter had determined, along with the rest of the apostles, that the women’s account of the empty tomb and the words of the angels was no more than an “idle tale,” why did he go running to the tomb? One possible answer is that he didn’t. The last sentence of our gospel lesson (verse 12) telling of Peter’s sojourn to the tomb is not found in some of the oldest and most reliable Greek New Testament manuscripts we have. This has lead many biblical scholars to conclude that it was a later addition to the story. Some commentators suggest that the account of Peter’s going to the tomb was added in order to absolve the “Prince of the Apostles” from unbelief. There might also be a hint of masculine embarrassment over the fact that the news of the resurrection was given first to women, and all the more so in view of the men’s failure to receive it in faith. Peter’s going to the tomb takes the edge off the apostles’ failure somewhat.

Later on, after the two disciples who encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus and recognized him in the “breaking of the bread” return to Jerusalem with their good news, they are told that “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” Luke 24:34. But no mention is made of the women. The gospels are generally long on the words and deeds of the male apostles, but short on episodes involving women. Chalk that up to prejudice, cultural subordination of women or misogyny if you like. The fact remains, however, that when women do make an appearance in the gospels, they leave a powerful impression. In Luke’s gospel, it is Mary the mother of Jesus who first says “yes” to God’s redemptive purpose in her life and the life of her promised child. Mary explodes with the radical and liberating words of the Magnificat that prefigure Jesus’ life and ministry. She is the one who ponders and treasures the events of his childhood in her heart. It was the faith of a Canaanite woman that pushed Jesus to recognize God’s saving purpose and the presence of “great faith” beyond the boundaries of his own nation and people. It was an anonymous woman who anointed Jesus prior to his impending death and understood him better than his closest disciples. Moreover, all four gospels are unanimous in their testimony that the woman disciples were the first witnesses of the Resurrection and the first commissioned by Jesus to proclaim it.

Throughout most of its history the church, led principally by males, has had a propensity for ignoring women. Their voices have been left out of our teaching and theology, their unique gifts have been devalued and taken for granted and the door to full participation and leadership in the Body of Christ has remained closed to them. Nonetheless, they have persisted faithfully and forcefully supporting the church in its mission, calling it to account for its systemic patriarchal oppression and challenging it with their own unique and creative insights. This is a critical part of the Easter story that needs telling.

I am old enough to remember the days when ordination of women was first introduced in Lutheran circles. I can still recall a day during my senior year in college when one of my professors hosted a question and answer meeting for those of us considering ordained ministry. Most of us were male, but there were a couple of women present as well, one of whom posed a question to my professor: “What advice would you give to a woman considering ministry of word and sacrament?” His response was instantaneous and decisive. “Don’t,” he said. “You may graduate seminary with a Master of Divinity degree, but there is no Lutheran church that will welcome a woman pastor. That isn’t happening for a long, long time.” Sadly, the professor was more than half right. Women answering the call to ministry have had to swim upstream against currents of congregational skepticism over their capacity to lead, patronization and abuse from their male colleagues and institutional barriers to positions of leadership within the church. Yet they persisted.

The church still struggles with patriarchy. Notwithstanding profound changes in recent decades that have cleared the way for women to serve in capacities unheard of in prior centuries, resistance remains to the voices, gifts and ministry of women. The church still has a long way to go in dismantling the systemic patriarchy in its midst that has silenced the voices of women and thereby compromised its witness to the gospel. Too often, our preaching, teaching and hymnody tells a story about men for men and to men. The gospels, however much they might reflect patriarchal and hierarchical assumptions, nevertheless tell a different story. They tell the story of the first apostles commissioned to preach the resurrection and how the new creation in Christ first broke into our world through the voices of the faithful women who followed Jesus and supported his ministry. They testify to the truth articulated by St. Paul, namely, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28.[1] The Easter sunrise breaks into our world from a future in which such unity, equality and mutuality is fully realized.

The church, like each one of our lives, is “like a broken bowl” says the poet. Yet we pray that God would “[melt] and remould it, till it be [a] royal cup for” God and a faithful witness to God’s reign of justice and peace. Here is a poem/prayer by Christina Rossetti seeking that very thing.

A Better Resurrection

Source: This poem is in the public domain. Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830 –1894) was an English writer of romantic, devotional and children’s poems. She is perhaps best known for her composition of two Christmas carols, “In the Bleak Midwinter” and “Love Came Down at Christmas.” Rossetti was born in London and educated at home by her mother and father through religious works, classics, fairy tales and novels. The influence of prominent Italian writers filled the home and influenced Rossetti’s later writing. The Rossetti household was open to visiting Italian scholars, artists and revolutionaries. In the 1840s Rossetti’s family faced financial troubles due to a deterioration in her father’s physical and mental health. Her mother began teaching to support the family. At age 14, Rossetti suffered a nervous breakdown and left school. Religious devotion came to play a major role in her life as she struggled with bouts of depression.

Rossetti had three suitors, each of whom she declined to marry for largely religious reasons. Rossetti worked voluntarily in 1859–1870 at the St Mary Magdalene house of charity in Highgate, England, a refuge for ex-prostitutes. She was ambivalent about women’s suffrage, but staunchly opposed slavery in the United States, cruelty to animals and exploitation of girls in under-age prostitution. Rossetti maintained a wide circle of friends, associates and correspondents throughout the remainder of her life during which she continued to write and publish. You can read more about Christina Rossetti and sample more of her poetry at the Poetry Foundation website.

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[1] To be sure, Paul’s pastoral advice concerning the place of women in the church does not always reflect such an equalitarian viewpoint. Paul, it seems, did not always fully comprehend the radical implications of the gospel he proclaimed. But do any of us fully comprehend the gospel’s implications for our lives? Can any of us claim that we have never had to change our minds, never resisted having to confront our prejudices or have never held an opinion of which we are now embarrassed or ashamed? And are any of us so arrogant as to assume that we have reached the pinnacle of understanding such that our descendants will never look back and question our judgment?