Living Resurrection
Three nails. You should have received three nails last Sunday or today. If you don’t have at least one nail please raise your hand and the ushers will bring you one. They are a little sharp and so for the children we have plastic crosses.
I’d like you to take a look at those nails right now. Nails are not an ordinary gift on Easter Sunday. Nails would seem to belong to Good Friday and the story of the crucifixion – not Easter – right? After all, today is the day that we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Today is the day for Easter eggs, lilies and alleluias.
This is all true. And yet…our Gospel today begins not with an Easter proclamation but with Mary Magdalene weeping as she mourns the death of Jesus. She watched as he hung nailed to the cross. She watched as he was buried in the tomb. And so now, having stayed away on the Sabbath, as the law required, she came to the tomb early Sunday morning – while it was still dark -- to grieve, to weep, to mourn. She learned firsthand that grief is the price we pay for love. But when she comes to the tomb and sees that it is open, her immediate reaction is fear and so she ran.
She ran to the disciples and after she tells Peter and the other disciple, they take off running. They run to the tomb… only to find it empty and with nothing but folded graveclothes as a clue. John writes that one of the disciples believes – but they don’t yet understand. So, they go home. What else could they do?
Mary Magdalene comes back – but she’s not running this time. It’s hard to run when you are weeping. The empty tomb and the missing body just compound her grief. What could she do? She can’t even grieve property.
When angels show up in the Bible, their first words are usually “Do not be afraid.” Perhaps Mary’s grief is too great to make her more afraid – and so when the angels ask Mary why she is weeping, she simply tells them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Her grief has led her to make assumptions – normal assumptions – that what is dead, stays dead and that the dead cannot move themselves. And so she weeps all the more. Then Jesus asks her the same question, “Woman why are you weeping?” Perhaps she is blinded by grief or maybe simply cannot see through her tears but she makes another assumption - that he is a gardener and so she asks if he took the body?
It is only when Jesus calls her by name that her grief-caused fear, anxiety and hopelessness fall away and she recognizes Jesus. Her grief turns to surprise, wonder and joy. Her inaction turns to action as Jesus empowers Mary Magdalene to return again to the disciples. This time, she does not run in fear and grief. This time she goes with faith, good courage and hope. Her fear has been replaced by faith and her anxiety has turned to courage and her feelings of frustration and hopelessness have turned to hope as she proclaims, “I have seen the Lord” and announces the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection. The living resurrection of Christ is GOOD NEWS.
But can we hear it as good news today? Or do we get stuck in fear, anxiety and a sense of hopelessness when the world around us seems out of our control, when bad things happen and when hopes and dreams are shattered. Do we hang on to the nails and only focus on the hurts and pain of our world?
Like Mary Magdalene, we need to remember, and to remind one another, of the transformative power of Christ that leads us from fear to faith, from anxiety to courage, from hopelessness to hope and from death to new life in Christ.
Vicar Sam Wells, an English priest and theologian in the church of England, tells the story of how one man embraced a living resurrection infused with faith, courage and hope.
At 7:48 AM, six days a week, the BBC features a two-minute broadcast by a religious leader about an issue in the news and its theological significance. It’s called “Thought for the Day.” Rev. Sam Wells is one of the speakers.
One day, not long after he had completed his two-minute broadcast, he got a phone call. The minute he answered the phone and heard the man say, “Sam?” - he knew it was a man from one of his first congregations. This man was a firefighter who joined an adult confirmation class that he led and so Sam had gotten to know him and his family well. He assumed there was a problem. He asked:“Is your wife and the family ok?” But his mind was quickly put to rest when the man explained that he heard Sam on the radio and felt the need to call. They spent the next fifteen minutes or so catching up on each other’s life. And then, feeling the press of work, Sam thanked him for calling and they said goodbye.
Less than 10 minutes later, the man called again. This time he said, “I was so excited that you picked up the phone that I forgot to tell you why I called. I’ve got a confession to make.”
“Well,” Sam replied, “I’m in the business. Take your time.”
The man said, “Do you remember your first Easter at St. Luke’s? Two weeks before Easter, at the Sunday service, you gave each one of us three nails. You said, ‘Put these somewhere where you’ll be close to them every day. And on Easter morning, bring them back with you and put them in the font and celebrate what those nails really mean.’”
“How ’bout that,” Sam said. “Tell me about your confession.”
“The truth is, I never brought the nails back”.
Vicar Sam said, “Go on….”
The man said, “When I took the nails home, I knew what I wanted to do. The next day, I took them to the fire station. I picked up my firefighter’s overalls and I sewed each one of them into its own pocket across my chest. And then I gave each one of them a name.
“The first one, the largest one, I called Faith. The second one, the rusty one, I called Courage. And the third one, the twisted, almost broken one, I called Hope. And from then on, for the next 20 years, every time the bell went and we jumped down the chute into the fire tender to go out on a job, I would put my hand on my chest. My hand would cover the pocket with the first nail, and I would say, ‘Be close to me, I need you with me.’ I would move across to the second nail and would say, ‘Give me the strength to do what I need to do today.’ And then I’d find the third, twisted, smaller nail, and I’d say, ‘Help me make it through to live another day.’
“I kept those three nails in my overalls until six years ago when I retired. And when I heard your voice on the radio, I thought it was time to tell you why I never brought them back that Easter Day.”1
On that day, Vicar Sam Wells said that he heard the Gospel loud and clear from that retired fire fighter who had been practicing living resurrection every day. Those nails went from being crucifixion nails to resurrection nails.
I hope you heard the resurrection message too. And so now I invite you to look at those nails again. Pick one and call it Faith. Whenever you are in challenging times, times when you are afraid, or times in which you face the un-known, hold on to that nail and say to Jesus Emmanuel, “God With Us”, “Be close to me, I need you with me.” That’s faith. It takes faith to ask God to be with you.
And now pick up the next nail. This is the nail of Courage. In those times of trial, those times in which it feels like you are at a crossroad, those times in which difficult choices lay before you, pick up this nail and say to Jesus, “Give me the strength to do what I need to do;” and, I would add, the wisdom to do it today. That takes courage.
Finally, pick up the last nail. This is the nail of hope. As Christians, we live in Resurrection hope – regardless of the situation around us in the world or in our lives. I know it is tempting to despair in those times when everything seems to be lined up against you. And yet, Jesus invites us to trust in him, the one who gives us hope even when there is no reason to hope. Jesus gives us hope for today – and all of our tomorrows. Jesus gives us this promise through the Holy Spirit and so we pray, “Help me make it through to live another day.”
Brothers and sisters in Christ, may the living resurrection of Jesus fill you with faith, courage and hope so that you embrace the Gospel Good News of Jesus who “donned the overalls of our flesh and, though we were hard as nails, painstakingly sewed us into his heart that we might be close to him, be safe [through] him, and dwell with him forever.”1 Amen.
Faith-Lilac Way Lutheran + Easter Sunday + April 20, 2025 + Pastor Pam Stalheim Lane
1Samuel Wells, The Three Nails in The Christian Century February 28, 2018