KIM O’BRIEN (as Mary):  It has been a horrible, heart-wrenching week.  And over the past couple of days, the silence has been deafening.  Our world seemed to come to an end when our friend, Jesus, died on Friday afternoon.  He had been executed in a ghastly, violent way – executed by crucifixion.  Since that time, the silence had been ear-piercing as our hearts were breaking, so heavy laden with grief.  We had been in such shock we honestly did not known what to do.  Jesus’ body had been buried in a tomb late on Friday afternoon and, because the Sabbath was beginning, we could not even give his body a proper cleansing and anointing, not even a suitable wrapping.  So, today, in the silence of the wee hours of morning and in accordance with Jewish burial customs, some of us decided to go back to Jesus’ tomb and perform the last burial duties with our spices.  We wanted to give Jesus an appropriate burial.  At least that was something we could do for our dear friend.

We got up early and made our way to the tomb in the shadows of early morning, our shadows quietly flitting in and out of the shadows of the landscape as the sun was just beginning to rise.  Now, when any one of us go to a cemetery, we expect to find tombstones and dead bodies.  We expect dead bodies to still be in their graves.  After all, dead people are dead in a graveyard.  And, furthermore, dead people stay dead.  Don’t we all know that and believe that?  I am now thirty-nine years old and, in those thirty-nine years, I have never seen a dead body come back to life.  Anyway, as some of us women decided to break the deafening, grief-filled silence, we arrived at Jesus’ grave expecting to see his dead body lying inside. 

Well, that is not what we saw!  The stone that had blocked the opening of the tomb had been rolled away and, as we walked through that yawning mouth of the open tomb, we found nothing but emptiness.  Our hearts were already empty though filled with grief and breaking apart.  Our hearts could not take much more breaking.  Where was our Lord’s body?  Where could it be?  We were terrified!  Had someone stolen Jesus’ body and if so, why?  Well, in the midst of our fearful, perplexed, anxiety, two men arrived wearing some very luminous clothing.  Light seemed to be cascading all over them.  We were not sure who they were.  Maybe they were otherworldly messengers, we never really knew.  But, they asked us a most startling question.  They asked, “Why are you looking for the Living One in a cemetery?  He is not here but raised up.  Remember how he told you when you were still back in Galilee that he had to be handed over to sinners, be killed on a cross, and in three days rise up?”  Oh!!!  We were stunned!  Those words were penetrating.  They cut through our grief-stricken reality and we began to remember.  Then we remembered what we had forgotten in the depth of our shock and grief.  We remembered our teacher, our Lord, had told us he would be crucified and raised on the third day.  We had not understood what he meant at the time and, truthfully, we could not and did not want to believe his words.  But, when these two men spoke to us, we remembered.  And, we knew Jesus was no longer dead, he was alive – just as he had predicted.  Now bits and pieces of our lives and the stories Jesus had told us were beginning to come together and make sense.  Now we began to understand that what he had told us was really true.  His story was really part of a much bigger story.  His teaching about a new reality, his dream for this world – it really was happening, and his reign was really breaking in on our lives.  Wow!  As we began to understand this, it was transforming our broken hearts, transforming the deadly silence and grief we had been experiencing, and we had to share this news.

PASTOR ELLEN:  Friends, that group of women who went to the tomb on that early morning, went expecting to find death.  And, they were surprised by the greatest of all surprises.  The two men had asked them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here but is risen.”  That news puts everything in perspective.  And the truth of the matter is, we – each one of us – are just as guilty of such a fruitless search as we look for the living among the dead.  We too want to tend to the corpses of long dead ideas and ideals.  We, too, cling to former visions of ourselves, our families, former perceptions of reality and even former perceptions of our church as if all that which is gone might come back to life as long as we tightly hold on to it.  We grasp our loved ones too tightly, refusing to allow them to change, to become bigger, or smarter, or stronger, or who they are really meant to become.  We choose to stay in the tombs of what we know in our hearts to be dead, because it is safe and malleable.  We choose, as communities of faith, to stay in tombs where it is safe because we fear adopting new ideas will take us into the unknown.  We choose to stay in tombs of what we know because moving out into the light of the unknown might mean forming new relationships and living into a new identity.  The words of the unworldly messengers are a challenge to each one of us to stop hanging on to the dead.  Their words challenge us to stop living in our tombs.  Their words challenge us to move into new life.  Their words are reminders to us that the Holy One dwells wherever new life bursts forth. (Feasting on the Word, p.351)

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?  Why are you looking for a reality that was alive in a place where you will only find dead things?  Jesus is not here but is risen!”  How will these words change your story?  Where in the essence of who you are do you hear the call to new life – to come out of the tomb you have been sealed in, the tomb of fear or the tomb of hopelessness or the tomb of dreams that have been lost or delayed?  Where are you looking for the living among the dead?  How are you going to receive this good news that has been handed from life to life, from heart to heart, from age to age for two thousand years – this good news that is now handed again to you?

And, how will these words change the world?  What does this good news, this story, still have to say to a world at war, a culture at odds, and a people in pain?  How will we be sure that other people will hear our story of hope?  The boundless gift of the empty tomb cannot be separated from the words and actions of Jesus.   And, resurrection is not some buoyant, cheerful ideal, unconnected to the real world.  It is an invitation to live as Jesus lived, a doorway to a life in which meals are shared with enemies, healing is offered to the hopeless, prophetic challenges are issued to the powerful, and welcome and embrace are given to all our culture considers “the other.”

On that first Easter morning, when the otherworldly messengers pointed the women out of the door of the tomb into the light of the morning, the silence was broken, and the power of God was no longer unspoken.  The women believed and responded by breaking the silence that had been their reality so they could begin speaking a new truth and proclaiming a new reality.  And, yes, it was the women who were the first proclaimers of the Easter Good News! 

Every day, each one of us writes our story again.  And, as we proclaim and live this new reality, what we say is no less true today than it was on that first Easter morning.  This good news is no less miraculous, no less shocking, no less joyful, no less important, no less hopeful and no less life-changing.

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?  Why are you looking for a reality that was alive in a place where you will only find dead things?  Jesus is not here but is risen!”  Go, run and tell the others what you have heard.  Everything is now different.  He is risen, he is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

As we prepare for Easter, this is the special Good Friday presentation of the Cantata, Once Upon a Tree. 

Boxes.  We are always creating these mental boxes or categories in which we are placing people, assigning labels and then feeling very uncomfortable when people do not fit our assigned boxes.  In fact, some tend to get angry when people do not fit into their perceived boxes.  We do this with all kinds of people, and we are so very, very good at doing this with God.  We are forever boxing God in.  We, who consider ourselves good “church people” regularly try to place God in boxes like tradition or even religious patriotism.   And, we are forever trying to remake God in our image.  We are forever trying to place God’s very self into a box based on our perception of God, one that was usually formed during our childhood education but never develops and grows beyond that early understanding.  Furthermore, we want to make sure other people’s understanding of God fits into the God box we create because we are so comfortable with our perceptions and traditions and we don’t want to find ourselves feeling uncomfortable, especially when it comes to what we say about God.  And, heaven forbid if someone does something outside of the box or something gets changed because we want things to be done the way they have always been done!  Well, I have news for you today!  God is always going to be bigger than the God boxes we create.  God is always going to be shattering those boxes, and God is always going to be pushing us out of our comfort zones. 

As we look at today’s gospel reading, Mary is bumping up against the mental boxes people have created around cultural norms, traditions, and people’s perceptions of the way Jesus should act and respond to various situations and people.  She is bumping up against The Way Things Have Always Been Done while breaking cultural norms at the same time. Today’s gospel story is so familiar to us that it no longer sounds scandalous or uncomfortable to our 21st century ears.  But, in the first century, what happened at Mary and Martha’s house would have been the talk of town.

First, as the story unfolds, Jesus’ feet have already been washed. You see, everyone walked along those dirty, dusty roads in sandals.  The oxen, sheep, horses, donkeys and camels traveled the same roads, so their pungent droppings needed to be washed off sandals and feet as well. Foot washing was a customary part of hospitality, something done before guests entered a house. Mary and Martha would have already made sure this lowliest of tasks had been done before guests even entered their home.

Second, Mary was NOT supposed to be showing up in the dining room at all, unless to serve.  However, just recently Jesus had miraculously raised her brother, Lazarus, from the dead, and Mary was overflowing with gratitude, devotion and love.  So, into the dining room she went, shattering a cultural norm.  To make matters worse, Mary begins touching Jesus as she anoints his feet with perfumed oil.  Now, men and women in that culture were prohibited from touching each other in public; in fact, a man wasn’t even supposed to speak to a woman who was not his wife, mother or daughter.

Well, the scandal escalates as Mary loosens her hair and uses her long, flowing hair as a towel. Because a woman’s loose hair was viewed as too sensual, it was taboo for a woman to even have her hair unbound. We still see this in some religious cultures today – a woman’s hair should not only be bound, it should also be covered.

Finally, Mary uses an extravagant nard worth an entire years’ salary to perfume Jesus’ feet. The writer of John’s gospel describes Mary’s act as an “anointing” of Jesus.  Anointing was reserved for kings, prophets or priests who were called by God for a special task, and such anointing was done by a male priest in Jerusalem.  It was NOT done by a layperson.  It was NOT done in a Bethany home and it was most certainly NOT done by a woman.  Mary is shattering multiple boxes of tradition and culture.

The writer of John’s gospel offers us the outrageous idea that Jesus, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ, is being lavishly anointed for his journey to the cross by a small-town laywoman, who, in a moment of unbridled devotion, seems to shatter every tradition in the books.  Mary obliterates cultural norms and the many categories and mental boxes people have created for Jesus and his ministry.  And, people in the room are pushed WAY beyond their comfort zone.

Well, Judas Iscariot gives voice to the discomfort in the room. He pretends to care about the poor as he publicly shames Mary and tries to put her in her place with his supposed male superiority. Now, if you have ever been belittled, shamed or mocked for any reason, you know how awful and uncomfortable Mary must feel.  But when Judas does this, the real scandal and miracle of the story takes place! Jesus admonishes Judas, not Mary, as one would expect. Jesus puts Judas in his place by saying, “leave her alone!”

Mary will not be denied. In those three words, “leave her alone” Jesus sharply defends Mary and receives her as an equal. Jesus is perfectly comfortable being touched by a woman.  Not only is he perfectly comfortable with this.  He is perfectly comfortable that she does this with her hair down in a room full of men!   Instead of siding with tradition, Jesus joins Mary in breaking down the cultural barriers between women and men, and she embodies the radical equality in the Reign of God.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus shattered people’s perceptions, traditions and all of the boxes they created to categorize people.  All were welcome in his presence.  He was perfectly comfortable ministering to and welcoming all people, especially those considered outcasts – those who were supposed to stay in the boxes marked the fringe of society.

Twenty centuries later, Jesus is still shattering our mental boxes, our perceptions and our traditions.  Who are the outcasts today?  Who, if they joined us at the Lord’s Table, cause you discomfort and the urge to say, “no that just can’t be.”  Perhaps your discomfort rises around people who are gay, lesbian, or transgendered. Perhaps it is with those who don’t speak English or any considered “other.”  Perhaps it is with someone who suffers severe mental illness.  Perhaps your discomfort even rises from small children being able to receive the gifts of God’s very self at the Lord’s Table.  Maybe your discomfort is with the very poor, who, Jesus reminds us, are always with us due to ever present human greed. 

Well, the gospel truth is that ALL are equally welcome at the Lord’s Table and ALL are equally welcome in God’s kingdom.  And, the gospel truth is that God is quite likely going to break open all of the boxes you have created for God’s self, so that you might be transformed and so that you can begin living into the radical equality and love of God’s Reign. 

Yes, God is always going to shatter our mental boxes regarding the way we think things should be because God is always about bringing transformation to us and this world.  As we shall see in just a couple of weeks, God is going to obliterate the most powerful box of all, the box that creates fear and anxiety within us and shapes so much of who we are and the way we live – the box of death.  As Mary acts generously and lovingly and shatters people’s perceived notions of how things should be done, she anoints Jesus for the ultimate obliteration of perceptions, categories and mental boxes.  And, we are going to see that ultimate box destroyed as God conquers death and raises Jesus from the dead!

Heaven rejoices when, with Jesus, we let go of our mental boxes and step into the radical equality and love that is found in the Reign of God.

This is a special musical performance of Do This and Remember Me by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan