Easter (C) Acts 10, 34, 37-43; 1 Cor 5, 6-8; Jn 20, 1-9 Robert P. Waznak, Holy Trinity Parish, Georgetown, Washington, DC, USA

About two weeks ago I got a phone call from a reporter from USA Today who wanted an interview.
Since the story was not about Holy Trinity parish, I decided to go ahead with the interview.
The reporter was working on a story about what preachers say in their sermons on Easter Sunday.
I thought: at last a serious story about the central act of faith in the Church!

But the Passover of Jesus is not an easy story to cover.
The media demand images: something we can see and feel and touch.
But what is there to report or to see of Easter?
Today's gospel reminds us that the story of the Resurrection begins with an empty tomb, with Mary Magdalene who weeps not just because Jesus has died but because she believes someone has taken his body from the tomb.
That is why the story of Easter is presented in the media with Easter egg hunts, wide-rimmed flowered hats, and an occasional shot of the Pope washing feet, carrying a cross, or giving his Easter greetings to the world.

The reporter told me that some ministers said that what they try to do in their Easter sermons is give an explanation of the Resurrection or prove the Resurrection of Jesus.
Some preachers told her that it would take at least thirty minutes to explain and prove the Resurrection.
At that point, I then referred the reporter to the scripture readings we proclaim on Easter Sunday. After all, the first reading from Acts is one of the earliest Easter sermons recorded.
Those preachers who think they have to explain or prove the Resurrection in thirty minutes could certainly take a clue from St. Peter.
It took Peter just one minute to give the kerygma, a Greek word which means the kernel, the kernel of what it means to be a Christian and to believe in the Risen Lord.

In sparse and economical language favored by USA Today, Peter reports what the early Christians believed:
that Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit and power preached, did good things, and healed those gripped by the devil.
Then his enemies killed him by hanging him on a cross but after three days God rose him up and was seen by his followers who now must give witness to Jesus in whose name we have forgiveness of sins.

Notice how Peter does not try to prove the Resurrection or explain it.
Peter doesn't even refer to what Jesus taught but what he did and what God did for him:
God transformed the scandalous death of Jesus on a tree to a glorious Resurrection in which all of his followers share the same power of transformation.
The Resurrection is about Christ and it is about us!

What do you tell a reporter about what to preach on Easter Sunday?
I referred her to our second reading today from Paul's letter to the Corinthians.
Again, Paul is speaking about the Resurrection of Christ but also about our own transformation.
He speaks these lovely words about Christ's Passover in the context of an ugly pastoral problem.
In the Corinthian community there was a man who was living with his stepmother.
Imagine that!
The Corinthians didn't seem to mind this scandal; they even seemed to be proud of the novelty.
Paul uses the image of the old yeast which has the potential to ruin the whole batch of bread to advise the Corinthians to put aside their sinful ways and celebrate with the fresh unleavened bread of Christ.
Once again, the Resurrection is about Christ but also about us!

Finally, I referred the reporter to today's Gospel where there are no explanations or proofs
given of the Resurrection but about the beloved Disciple who had the guts to enter the empty tomb and saw and believed.
Again, the Resurrection is about what God has done for Jesus but also what God has done for us.
The beloved Disciple represents all of us who even in the midst of death are sensitive to the presence of the risen Jesus in faith and love.

It's a pity that Mary Magdalene does get short-changed in the lectionary reading today.
If we read further on in the story, she stays there at the empty tomb and is the first person to see the Risen Lord and is the first Christian to actually preach: "I have seen the Lord!"
Now what do those who believe women shouldn't preach, do with a text like that?
I didn't dare point this out to the reporter.

On Friday morning, I put two quarters into a newspaper stand to get the weekend edition of USA Today.
But guess what?
The story about what to preach on Easter Sunday never appeared.
What happened?
Did I give the reporter too much material to fit into the abbreviated style of USA Today?
Did the reporter's story get bumped because it wasn't jazzy with trivial images of Easter bunnies and hats?
Or did the reporter finally learn that the Resurrection is not something we explain or prove?

The Resurrection is something we celebrate and the best place to do that is at the Lord's table where we confess our broken infidelity and then with eyes of faith, name grace evident in our common lives and share his body and bloodgiven as a source of our own transformation to new life.
The Resurrection of Christ is not just about the glorious event of the past but seemingly impossible transformations that occur in the present because of Christ's power and Holy Spirit. Like the transformation begun in Northern Ireland on this Good Friday, like the transformations taking place in our own searching lives.

There may not have been a story of Resurrection in USA Today but indeed Christ is Risen Today!