Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

When my daughter was two years old,
We went to the sunrise service in our church.
Yes, I am a cruel mother,
But I liked to worship with my faith family,
Before we had to head out to see the grandmothers
For Easter,
So it became our habit to attend the sunrise service.
This church, Advent Lutheran in Maple Grove,
Had suspended above the altar, three crosses,
Which they veiled on Good Friday evening,
And which were unveiled at the sunrise service on Easter morning.
The congregation had some very ingenious and creative men
Who rigged up this veiling device, that resembled a window shade.
which was tied to the altar, so that
On Easter morning, the pastor merely had to snip the fishing lines
Twenty pound test I believe,
And the shades which were over the crosses
would roll up and reveal the crosses once again.
As I said, this particular morning, my daughter was only two years old
And was just beginning to talk.
When we entered the sanctuary, it was dark,
And she had snuggled into my shoulder and closed her eyes.
Just as she was about to dose off, the service started,
And the first thing the pastor did was snip the lines,
Which started the rising of the shades,
And they made a very distinctive sound.
That tsk, tsk, tsk of a window shade flying up,
And my daughter,
Said to me, "Oh, mama, angel wings."
And I thought, Ah, that's what they sound like.
I tend to believe the very young when they speak of God,
Because I figure they have had a more recent experience of Him
And of heaven, and angels, and other things I've always wondered about.

I wonder if that is the sound Mary Magdalene heard
on that first Easter morning So long ago.
Did she hear the rush of angel wings?

There are so many things we don't know about the resurrection.
After all, there were no witnesses to the resurrection,
Only to the results of the resurrection.
The tomb was opened, the stone rolled away,
Not so Jesus could get out, but so that people could look in,
See that Jesus was no longer there, and come to their own conclusions,
Believers opting for he is risen,
Non-believers putting it off as a case of grave robbing.

In John's rendition of the resurrection,
Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb alone
Early on Sunday morning,
Before the sun has come up.
While it was still dark.
The only sound she must have heard
Was the sound of her own foot steps crunching on the gravel path.
She was probably coming to mourn for her lost Savior.
Mary recognized Jesus as her savior long before he was crucified,
Because he had cast out of her seven demons
Which had tormented her all her life,
Until she met Jesus.
He saved her from a life of mental illness.

She knew where he was laid after his death on the cross,
Because she had been in the crowd of women at the foot of the cross.
She had been a follower and support of Jesus in his ministry.
She and a few other women.
And on Friday, when he was crucified,
She was there.
The men had run away and hid.

As she came near to the tomb,
She saw that the stone had been removed.
In John's Gospel, she doesn't look in,
She just immediately runs to find the disciples.
The sound she would have heard again
Was the crunching of gravel along the path,
Only at a much faster pace this time.
She finds Simon Peter, presumably with the disciple whom Jesus loved,
And they, upon hearing that the tomb is opened,
Run to the tomb themselves.
Mary followed along, again hearing the crunch of gravel,
Only made by three feet this time.

Now, running in the first century was a major no-no.
Number one, it's hard to run in a dress like this,
So you have to pick it up, exposing your legs,
One did not show one's legs in public!
In this story, we have Mary Magdalene running,
we have two grown men, Peter and another guy, running,
and we end with Mary running once again.
A lot of undignified behavior.

Peter and the other disciple, having entered the tomb,
Leave the garden, and go home.
Mary is left alone.
She must have heard their footsteps as they left her,
Standing outside the tomb, weeping.
She bends over and looks into the tomb,
And finds two angels sitting where the body had been.
What prompted her to look into the tomb?
Was it the sound of angel's wings?

These angels speak to Mary, asking her why she is crying.
To which she replies because someone has taken Jesus away
And she doesn't know the location of the new tomb.
It never occurs to her that Jesus is risen.
She turns around, and sees Jesus standing there,
Did she hear his foot steps?
But she turns, and sees Jesus standing there,
Only she doesn't recognize him.
And he asks her "why are you weeping?"
Is this not the same question Jesus asks us?
Why are you weeping at the grave of your mother,
Your father, your dear friend?"

With Mary it may be understandable that she would be weeping,
She has yet to believe.
If we like Mary, embrace the risen Lord,
If we truly get it,
There is no need for tears,
For we know that we will meet again.

Jesus asks of Mary another question
That he also asks of us
"Whom are you looking for?"
Whom are we looking for?

And Mary, thinks he is the gardener.
Which, in fact he is,
Not the gardener, the caretaker of this garden,
But the original gardener,
The one who made the Garden of Eden,
The one who still tends and cares for this garden,
As he does for all gardens.
John's reference to a gardener
Causes us to realize that Jesus promise of a new creation
Under his rule and authority has now come to be.
Out of the dirt of this garden,
In front of this tomb, new life in his kingdom.

A new creation has sprung into being,
Out of the earth of this garden,
Jesus will build his church.

Mary, still not knowing, still not understanding,
Asks the gardener to take her to the new burial site of Jesus.
It is only when she hears him call her by name,
That she realizes who is standing before her.
It is Jesus,
And she clings to him, weeping still I am sure,
Because now she sees that he is alive.
Jesus tells her do not cling to me,
For he has more to do.
He needs to appear to the other disciples
He needs to give the Holy Spirit and send out those disciples
He needs to appear to Thomas who is absent at the giving of the Holy Spirit,
He needs to ascend to his father and your father,
His God and your God.
And then he instructs her to go and tell the disciples.

And once again, Mary is running,
The sound of her footfalls on the gravel.
She goes to the place where the disciples are
And announces to them
"I have seen the Lord."
Making her the first apostle
An apostle being someone who has seen the risen Lord
And also the first evangelist,
A person who spreads the good news of Christ Jesus.

Upon her announcement that she had seen the Lord,
I am sure that she was met with silence,
Astonished, shocked silence.
Perhaps a gasp or two may have been heard.
But I think silence predominated.
As some of you know,
I belong to a prayer group who does not pray
so much As we sit in silence,
Listening.
Listening for God to speak to us.
Every week, for twenty minutes,
We hold ourselves in silence.
Sounds crazy, but those twenty minutes
Are the most productive time in my week.
I come away from that time refreshed,
And at peace.
After that period of silence,
Most of my sermons write themselves.
After that period of silence,
I am able to organize my week,
Get my priorities straight,
After that period of silence,
I am calmer, more sure of what needs to be done.
My life line is those twenty minutes of silence.

A few weeks ago, I asked my confirmation class
How much time they spent in silence in a week.
The answer was none.
They have ipods and cell phones,
Televisions and computers
All manner of electronic devices.
And I wonder, who are they listening to?
For God speaks in a still small voice,
To any and all who will listen for his voice.
Often to hear that voice, we need silence.

How sad that most of us are uncomfortable in silence.
How many of us have walked down a lonely deserted road,
In the early morning or the late, late night,
All alone,
And been spooked by the sound of our own footsteps?
How many of us, upon encountering silence,
Become unnerved, and seek to fill that void
With the radio or the television?
How many of us find comfort in silence?

This holiday is a holiday of silence.
Mary didn't hear much as she walked to that tomb,
Or as she ran to the disciples,
Mary didn't hear much from the two disciples
Who had entered the tomb.
The resurrection of Jesus was first met with silence.
All our other holidays are loud holidays,
Angels sang at Jesus birth,
The sound of the rushing wind accompanied the coming of the Holy Spirit,
Shouts of Hosanna welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem.
Sounds of hammer and nails, cries of pain,
Tears of sorrow announced his death.
But silence, except for the sound of angels wings
Were the sounds of that first Easter morning.
No shouts, no songs, no marching feet in a parade,
Just silence.
As the disciples tried to grasp what this morning meant.
Reverent silence,
Stunned silence,
Silence as of the dead,
Silence as of the beginning of creation.

That's one of the reasons I love the Sunrise service.
The silence,
Before the squeals of the children on Easter Egg hunts,
Before the sounds of laughter and love
As the family gathers to share the joy of Easter,
There is a time for the silence,
To ponder what has happened,
And what it means.
A time to understand that because Jesus rose,
We will too.
Because he lives, we will too.
A time to grasp that it is not through our efforts
But through his great and glorious gift.
And when it stinks in,
When we finally understand,
Then all the earth rings with Alleluias.
Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Amen.