"The Word That Changed Everything"

Pastor Laura Guy

April 12, 2009

Here's an instant replay of what happened in worship:

We saw a video that told the story of the last week of Jesus' life in line drawings. It ended at the empty tomb.
We thought about how John describes the scene that first Easter morning at the tomb. It is told like a crime story, a mystery, CSI Jerusalem - The Case of the Missing Body. We read John 20:1-18 .
We heard about Peter and the beloved disciple (probably John) and how they were the crime scene investigators. They saw the stone rolled away, and when they looked in the tomb, they saw the grave cloths neatly folded. Why would grave robbers take the time to fold grave cloths? Peter and John left and went home.
We stayed at the tomb with Mary, witnessing her encounter with the angels. Then we saw her encounter Jesus, mistaking him for the gardener. (However we did notice that the Biblical story begins and ends in a garden. Johns says Jesus was there "in the beginning" and Revelation says Jesus is there at the end. So maybe he was not "mistaken" for a gardener at all!).
We noticed that it wasn't until Jesus said her name, "Mary", that Easter happened for her. That was when she saw the truth, she knew he had risen. How will we experience Easter? Are we tomb-gazers who look at the stone and the grave cloths and go home? Or will we linger a moment and talk to the gardener, waiting for him to say the one word that will make Easter happen for us?
We imagined ourselves outside the tomb, waiting for Jesus. We listened in silence for him to speak to our hearts. We prayed for us to become Easter people who share the good news of the resurrection.
We celebrated communion around the table of love.
We baptized two people - Rachel and Kyl - into new life!