“Thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory forever and ever”

Matthew 6:13; John 20:1-18

“Then the disciples returned to their own homes.”

None of the commentaries I read talked about this line in John

And yet it seems to be a pivotal line to me.

What if this were the end of the story?

What if the disciples saw what they saw,

Believed what they believed and then

Simply “went home”.

It’s like a church I served in the beginning of my ministry.

We had a wonderful dinner one spring afternoon

With incredible testimonies of what God was doing

In the church and in our lives.

It was part of an outreach program to the neighborhood

And we were supposed to then go out to the neighborhood

And simply meet the neighbors and invite them

To come and check out what God was doing

At the church right around the block.

And then someone said:

“This has been great. I really feel inspired but I’m tired.

Why don’t we go home and maybe go out tomorrow

Or the next day when we are a little fresher.”

It seems like that was Peter and John’s story in the Gospel lesson.

That had the long run to the tomb.

They had the emotional trauma of seeing the empty tomb.

Undoubtedly they were wondering

where the body of their good friend Jesus was.

It’s not that they didn’t believe the resurrection

They just didn’t fully understand it.

The text even says: “for as yet they did not

Understand the scripture,

that he must rise from the dead.”

Luckily for the people at the small church in Pennsylvania

There was a young boy who protested:

“You mean we aren’t going to go out and meet people

and tell them about Jesus and our church.”

And so at the insistence of this young boy,

The people did go out and start to witness

To the reality of Jesus Christ in their lives.

They didn’t all go out that afternoon

But they started that day and the church

Grew in the next few years

Simply by sharing the story

And luckily for us and all of Christendom

Peter and John were not the only witnesses on that first Easter

But there was a woman, Mary Magdalene,

Who stayed at the tomb a little longer.

Let’s hear her story and encounter

With the risen Christ.

Read John 20:11-18

Mary encountered someone who changed her life.

Actually she encountered three someones-

the two angels in the tomb and then

the very presence of the Risen Christ.

They met her in the midst of grief-

“Women why are you weeping?”

I invite you to think about times in your life

When you have felt Christ’s presence

In your life.

Often we are most aware of Jesus’ presence when we are

In the midst of times of internal struggle and difficulty.

At our Men’s prayer breakfast we were studying

Paul’s challenge in Romans to present our lives

As well pleasing to God.

Virgil asked us to think about times in our lives when

We had heard the voice of God:

“Thou art my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.”

For me the time was when I was at a low point in my life and ministry

And I was not very confident about my own abilities and even my call

I went to a retreat called “Dark Night of the Soul”

At that retreat the leader Loretta Ross-Gotta,

was like the angel at the tomb for me.

She was the one to first ask me “Why are you weeping?”

At that point in my life I really felt like

They had taken the Christ I knew from me.

And she was also the one who suggested that I listen

To hear the voice of God for me.

And in the midst of that retreat and my own dark night

I heard the word of God personally to me

As they had been with Jesus at his baptism:

“Rob, thou art my beloved son,

in you I am well pleased.”

Sometimes we are aware of Christ in those mountaintop experiences

But even more often we hear and know that Jesus is with us

When we have tears in our eyes and a broken heart

And we hear those words of comfort to us personally:

“Mary, why are you weeping”.

And hearing our name on the lips of Jesus

is enough to resurrect our faith and remind us

that Jesus’ Father is our Father,

Jesus’ God is our God.

Mary’s response on that first Easter morning was to tell the story.

She went to the disciples and announced:

“I have seen the Lord.”

Thank God that she didn’t go home,

But went to share the story of her experience

Of the Risen Lord.

That is our challenge today- to tell someone of our encounter

With the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ.

It is not a challenge to go to the ends of the earth

(That comes later at Pentecost).

Our challenge is simply to share

in our own community of believers that we encountered

the Risen Lord in our midst,

that he has comforted our tears,

and that he assures us that

his Father is our Father,

his God is our God.

And Jesus has even given us a prayer to share that story.

It starts with the words: Our Father who art in heaven

As a way to remember that Jesus’ Father is our Father,

In the middle it speaks of the feeding, comforting and restoring

Ministry of God who is with us in the hunger of life,

The hurts and betrayals of life,

And the temptations and evil we encounter.

And it ends with the affirmation:

“For Thine is the kingdom and the glory and the power forever. Amen

It is an ending that Walter Wangerin says is actually a beginning

It is an acknowledgment of the Triune God

Who is sovereign over all,

Who is glorified on the cross of Christ and

Whose power is the Spirit alive and

At work in the world.

Let us offer that Prayer today as our first step today

In witnessing to the Resurrectd Christ

as we glorify God and enjoy God forever.

Amen