{"id":511506,"date":"2000-04-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2000-04-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-06-24T11:46:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:46:34","slug":"the-resurrection-love-which-makes-things-a-mess-great-vigil-of-easter-b-2000","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/sermons\/the-resurrection-love-which-makes-things-a-mess-great-vigil-of-easter-b-2000\/","title":{"rendered":"The Resurrection: Love Which Makes Things a Mess, Great Vigil of Easter (B) – 2000"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When I was a child my parents sent me to Sunday School. And in all the direct and indirect ways that children ask, I asked \u201cWho is God?\u201d This is what my teachers told me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God is omnipotent; that is, all-powerful.
God is omniscient; all-knowing.
God is omnificent; all-creative.
And God is omnipresent; God is all-over-the-place!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you ask me what I think about these definitions tonight, I guess I would say, \u201cnot much.\u201d
It\u2019s not that these ideas are unimportant, but they are minor themes. It\u2019s not that these ideas aren\u2019t in Scripture, but they\u2019re a small part of Scripture. They\u2019re a part of Scripture to which the church has often felt drawn when it\u2019s most afraid to deal with God\u2019s passion. But tonight is not so much about intellect and ideas as it is about emotion. Tonight is less about systematic propositions and more about passion. What we celebrate and proclaim tonight is God\u2019s passion; God\u2019s passionate desire for humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I really like movies. One of my favorite movies is Moonstruck. Towards the end of that movie Ronnie says to Loretta:
Love doesn\u2019t make things nice, it ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We aren\u2019t here to make things perfect. We\u2019re here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts, and to love the wrong people, and die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s what God\u2019s love is like. That\u2019s what all those stories we heard are about. Salvation history is messy. God loves the wrong people; like a boat builder named Noah, or a mixed up nomad named Abraham, or a bunch of Egyptian slaves called the Israelites, or a wild warrior woman named Deborah, and the prostitute named Rahab, who ended up in the genealogy of Jesus. God loves the wrong people, and God\u2019s heart breaks every time the people wander away. Yet still God calls; still God pursues; still God loves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally God comes to us, as God\u2019s beloved (we call that Immanuel\u2013God with us). And even here, even coming to us, even in Immanuel, God doesn\u2019t make things nice. God doesn\u2019t make things perfect, at least the way we think of perfection. God doesn\u2019t take away death. God doesn\u2019t fix the world. Instead, God joins us. God is so passionate about us that God joins us in birth, in life, and in death. Where we would have God take away death and make the world a nicer placer to live (keeping everything calm and cool and peaceful), God joins us in our death. And, scandal of all scandals, God even enrolls us in this mad, passionate, excessive love for humanity. We\u2019re asked to love as God loves; to risk as God risks; to be the way that God comes to others in love. We\u2019re asked to embody God\u2019s love, to give up safety and security and seemliness in favor of witness and service and evangelism. We\u2019re asked to embrace the things that act out God\u2019s passion for humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a silly and somewhat hedonistic song that I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve all heard. One of the lines says, \u201cif you can\u2019t be with the one you love, love the one you\u2019re with.\u201d That\u2019s not what God says. God says, \u201cBe my love. Incarnate, that is, give a body to, my love for everyone whom you meet. Love excessively, passionately. Break your heart, make your life a mess by loving others as I have loved you. Ruin everything and die for love. Have courage. Risk love and remember that I will raise you up at the last.\u201d That\u2019s what God says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Far too often when people talk about the Resurrection they don\u2019t use that word. Instead, they talk about their \u201cheavenly reward.\u201d The implication is that somehow, if I lead a flat, wimpy, doormat kind of life, I\u2019ll get a reward in the next life. That is most people\u2019s theology of the Resurrection. The danger of that idea is, of course, that if you can\u2019t accept the gift of life now how will you accept the gift of life after you die? Resurrection is not a heavenly reward as much as it is an opportunity for courage and risk. Resurrection is an invitation to spend your life passionately for other people; to love others as God has loved you. Your are invited to know that God\u2019s account for loving is never overdrawn. The Resurrection is not some promise of a heavenly reward as much as it is a reality, a spiritual reality about life and love. God will honor them, life and love. We can risk breaking our hearts and loving the wrong people, serving and witnessing, loving justice and mercy. We can take these risks because we know the Resurrection. God honors life and gives it as a gift again and again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a Sufi poet name Rumi who often called God his Beloved. He left instructions with his friends for his funeral. I would like them to be the instructions for my funeral. Maybe they can be the instructions for your funeral as well. Rumi said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I die, lay me next to the beloved.
If he looks at me, don\u2019t be surprised.
If he kisses me on the lips, don\u2019t be surprised.
If I open my eyes and smile, don\u2019t be surprised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By using so many readings, the Great Vigil of Easter takes a sweeping look at salvation history. It therefore invites the preacher to share the good news of the Resurrection within a broad vision of God\u2019s work with humanity. In other words, this liturgy suggests that salvation history implies Resurrection. If we take the Johanine idea that we should be doing what God is doing, then salvation history implies an approach to life and ministry. Therefore, Resurrection implies an approach to life and ministry. This sermon is less an exegesis of a particular text than it is an exploration of that very idea; that Resurrection implies a particular approach to life and ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n