Jeff: This morning, as we celebrate the culmination of the greatest act of love in history, we also reach the culmination of our sermon series based on Bishop Curry’s book “Love Is the Way.” And in the concluding chapter of Curry book he writes, “When God, who is love, becomes our spiritual center of gravity, and love our moral compass, we live differently, regardless of what the world around us does.” We’ve learned throughout this book that love is an action. And it is an action we do, no matter what the circumstances around us or what we think the reaction will be. We choose love. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” There is a lot of anger and hate in our world and it can be tempting to return hate for hate. But the way of God is the way of love. And so we must stick with love. We must choose it everyday. Like Jesus, we must choose love even in the face of taunting and pain. We must choose love in the face of betrayal and desertion. We must choose love even in the face of death. It will be hard, but if we learn to choose love in the small things, the great things will sort out themselves.

Bishop Curry presents to us on the final page of his book, an outline for us to follow for choosing love. He writes this: “So don’t give up on love. Listen to it. Trust it. Give into it. Obey it.” It is these four points that April and I want to examine with you on this Easter morning. And Curry’s first two points connect nicely with our Scripture for this morning from 1 Corinthians 15. The first one we’ll look at is “Listen to it.” Listen to love. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul reminds his audience about the good news that he had proclaimed to them. Paul writes, “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” Paul lays out the foundation of faith in Jesus Christ: that he died for our sins, was buried, and was raised from the dead. It is the greatest act of love in history and proof of that love wins.

And Paul writes to the Corinthians to remind them to listen to that story of love. To remember it, which for them would have meant telling the story over and over again. And really, we do the same thing. We listen to love by telling the story of Jesus over and over again. The Easter story is not a new story for us. It is one we remind ourselves of every year. And we do that because it reminds us of God’s great love. And it inspires us to love others. Bishop Curry begins the final chapter with these words, “The way of love is a commitment to seeking the good and well-being of others. When we truly do that, we all are blessed.” As we listen again to the Easter story and consider the amazing thing Jesus did for us, let us recommit ourselves to love. Let us recommit ourselves to seeking the good and well-being of others. That may mean swallowing our pride sometimes in order to let someone else be heard. It may mean keeping our mouths shut even though the perfect retort is at our disposal in an argument. I may mean giving up some of our own comforts in order to provide for someone else’s needs. Whatever love may look like in a particular situation we face, may the love of Jesus inspire us to act with compassion and grace and empathy to our neighbors.

So we listen to love. We also trust love. After reminding the Corinthians about the good news, Paul talks about how Jesus appeared to the twelve and then to a crowd of disciples and eventually to him. And Paul says that even though he is the least of the apostles, he has worked hard to share the love of God. And he implores the Corinthians, whether they heard of this from the twelve or from him, to listen and to trust the message of love. He writes, “Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.” What I hear in that is that the message of the cross and the resurrection is true. The message of God’s greatest act of love is true and it is that message that the Corinthians are implored to trust, whether they heard about it from Paul or from the twelve. It is the message and not the messenger that they are to trust.

Stories are powerful. Paul knows that and implores the Corinthians to listen to the story of Jesus’ love. Bishop Curry says that “stories are the song of the soul sung in the language of life.” When we share the stories of our faith, either stories from the Bible or stories from our own journeys in faith, it is the truth of God’s love that makes an impact. But when we trust that love, our stories reflect it and the world sees it. The struggle comes when we trust in love and we get hurt. It can be hard to trust again. But as Maya Angelou once wrote, we must “Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.” That’s not easy. And we must be careful that we are not trusting the wrong love. But we cannot love others if we don’t trust love…particularly the love of God. When we trust in that love and we tell our stories of love, then we see the impact of love. Bishop Curry writes this: “Stories allow for the communion of spirits. I can’t commune with your spirit without in some sense being changed by it. You can’t commune with my spirit without in some sense being changed by it. Our stories are the song of the soul sung in the language of life. May you listen to love through the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection and may you trust in the love that Christ displayed. And may it speak to your soul in the language of life and may you be changed.

April: I don’t know how I missed it before in all of the times I’ve read this story, but the women went to the tomb knowing full well they would not be able to roll the stone away. Early in the morning while it was still dark, they woke up and went to the tomb with their spices. This was what you did as a woman when you were grieving. This was the job, the next thing, the expectation that would get you up out of bed in the morning when all your other routines and comforts were lost in the fog of grief. Their Lord had died, and while they did not know what to do without him, they knew that they had a job to do. They needed to anoint his body.

And so, the text tells us, they made their way to the tomb that early, dark morning. But then, Mark gives us a curious detail. Mark’s Gospel is short, concise, and to the point. When Mark gives details, they serve a purpose. In verse 3, it says this: “They [The women] had been saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’” They went knowing that they could not do the job they set out to do unless they had help. But, they went anyway. 

They went because they heard the song of love. They heard Love calling out to them to go and tend to their friend and Lord, even when it didn’t make sense and seemed impossible. They heard Love calling out to them on that dark morning, and they gave in to Love. 

Love is calling out to us, too. Will we give in to it and follow? I love the way Bishop Michael Curry says this: “When God, who is love, becomes our spiritual center of gravity, and love our moral compass, we live differently, regardless of what the world around us does. The world changes for the better, one life at a time.”

I am reminded of this verse written by hymn writer P.C. Croll:

Who shall roll the stone away?

Thus the pious women spoke,

As they went at break of day,

While each heart with anguish broke;

Though the way was dark throughout,

Though fond hope was mixed with doubt,

Yet an impulse made them brave—

Holy love led to His grave.

When we are disoriented by grief, or shocked by the ways of the world, or confused by a situation and we don’t know what to do, we are called to do what the women did: give in to love. They got up. They put one foot in front of the other. And even though the task in front of them seemed impossible because the mighty and heavy stone was in the way, they set out to do it anyway. They gave in to love. 

And, a funny thing happens. Mark continues in verse four: “When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.” Just as they wondered what they would do about the obstacle in the way, they looked up and it had already been taken care of. Doesn’t that happen so many times? We worry that something won’t work out, or that we won’t have what we need, and we look up and God has taken care of it. With the obstacle out of the way, the women continue to do what they came to do, but instead of finding the body of Jesus inside the tomb, they see a young man dressed in white clothing. They are told that Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! And they are told to go and share the good news with the disciples. 

Instead, the women are afraid and they run away. Verse eight tells us that they said nothing about the resurrection to anyone. Our Thursday morning group that is studying the book of Mark has been taking notice of how many times Jesus tells people in the Gospel of Mark not to tell anyone who he is. Some scholars call this “the Markan secret.” Jesus tells people to keep his identity a secret, but instead they go and tell the world about this teacher who can heal, teach with authority, and proclaim the kingdom of God. But now? Now that the time is right and this messenger tells the women to tell the good news to others, they are too afraid to do it. They scatter and tell no one. How’s that for irony?

But we know – both from later verses in this chapter from Mark and from the other Gospels that the women didn’t remain afraid. When the reality of the resurrection started to sink in for them, they gave in to Love and they obeyed.

They obeyed Love by telling the others. Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, and she obeyed Love and told the others. The others did not believe her. Jesus then appeared to two more, and those two obeyed Love and told the others. The others still did not believe. They did not believe until Jesus appeared to them himself, and then he gave them the charge to go into the world and proclaim the good news to the whole world.” 

We are here, in this place, celebrating the resurrection because the disciples obeyed Love. They went into the world. They risked their lives to obey Love. And because of them, we heard the good news and had the opportunity to believe.

In the year 400, John Chrysostom preached an Easter sermon that says everything. Every Easter, I read his sermon again and I wonder what my sermon could say that his didn’t already say. He concluded his Easter sermon this way:
Hell took a body, and discovered God.

It took earth, and encountered Heaven.

It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.

O death, where is thy sting?

O Hell, where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!

Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!

Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!

Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!

Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;

for Christ having risen from the dead,

is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!

Friends in Christ, we have gathered here and found the tomb empty. We have listened to love and trusted love. In these days of Eastertide and resurrection, let us also give into love and obey love’s call. After all, Christ is risen – he is risen indeed. Alleluia! Amen!