Sermon: Renewed and Set Free! (8:00 AM Contemporary)

It was very early on the day after, the day after the most horrible day of my life. They had to literally drag me away from the tomb and insist that I keep Sabbath as the law requires; though why I did, why any of us did is still a mystery. The rituals, the prayers, the songs, they brought no comfort. They simply reminded me of all the Sabbath times I'd shared with him and now he was gone!

Finally when Sabbath was over I could make my way back to the tomb. So I set out alone. My heart ached as I walked. The pain that pieced my soul was almost too much to bear, the emptiness I felt was like a heavy mantle on my shoulders. Perhaps you've experienced grief and loss like that. As I slowly made my way along the road to his garden tomb, I notice budding plants all around me. "How can that be?" I thought, angrily. "They should be dead! Everything should be dead! New life should not be coming, not when my world had ended." Then it caught my eye, the life struggling to break free of its little tomb, a butterfly ever so slowly pushing through the confines of its chrysalis. I had loved butterflies as a small child. I loved to chase them and watch them fly. They were such beautiful creatures. But seeing a butterfly today seemed like a cruel joke. His God, I know longer wanted anything to do with him, his God must have a merciless sense of humor, to birth a butterfly in the midst of such death and despair.

Well, you know the story of what happened when I reached the garden. The stone was rolled away, I ran to get Peter and John. I thought someone had stolen his body, though I didn't know why or how. They ran to the tomb, went inside and left without a word to me. They were supposed to help me search or at least stay with me to offer some comfort in this new grief. But no, off they ran. It was all too much to bear and I just fell to my knees and began to cry, wail is more like it. I have no idea how long I lay there. But eventually I made myself crawl into the tomb, to see for myself. All I saw was emptiness; horrible, engulfing emptiness broken only by that stupid question, "Woman, why are you crying?"

I was just about to let lose the full weight of my anger when I noticed it, a butterfly; it caught my attention and almost compelled me to turn around. As I followed its flight it landed on the shoulder of a man standing there; "the Gardener", I thought. He asked me the same ridiculous question. What was the matter with all these people? This was a grave, someone had died. Why did they think I was crying?!

Then he spoke my name in accents so familiar that I knew at once who it was who stood there. I ran to him and melted into his loving arms. Alive! He's alive! My heart cried even as my mind reeled. How could it be? I watched him die? But here he is, I can feel his heart beating, so he must be alive! I watched him suffer. But his breath is warming my cheek so he must be alive!

"Mary, Mary, you can't hold on to me." He said laughingly as I clutched him as if my life depended on it.

"Mary, you can't stay here at the tomb," he said as I reluctantly relaxed my tight hold on him.

"Mary you have to go forward, you and the others. There's work for you to do."

Then he reached out his hand to the butterfly that had been flying unnoticed around us. It landed gently and comfortably on his finger. "Do you see this beautiful creature?" he asked.

And I nodded, completely unable to find any words.

"I know you saw her struggling to break free of her chrysalis. But did you know that without letting go of the caterpillar she was, she would never have become what she was intended to be all along, a beautiful butterfly. Without the struggle of trying to break free, without pushing against the sides of her tomb, her wings would not have been strong enough to let her fly. Mary, without my suffering, without my death, without my coming to you again, you wouldn't know the truth of who you are created to become and the depth the power of God's love and you would never fly. Mary, I need you to tell the others. God is not absent in your suffering. Pain and death, evil and hatred, they never have the last word. God does. God is always making all things new. God always makes a way, even when it seems there is no way. There is no darkness so complete that God cannot transform it; no pit so deep that God is not deeper still; no pain so great that God cannot heal it, in God's own time and God's own way. Like this butterfly you must let go of what has been and embrace a future only God can see and then Mary, you will find your LIFE, your True LIFE!"

With that the butterfly took flight and danced gracefully through the air. "Go, Mary, fly on the winds of my spirit, dance on the wings of my grace, tell the world of the power of God's unending love to make all things new."

I don't know where you are today. Perhaps you are fighting against the call to let go of a safe but unfulfilling present. Perhaps you are locked in the chrysalis, tired of waiting and uncertain what the future holds. Perhaps you are struggling to emerge from a painful, grief-filled past. Perhaps you have just begun to test your wings. Perhaps you already know the joy of flight. Wherever you are, wherever you've been, know this you are not alone. The God who is always making all things new with you and you will fly, all of you, on the winds of the spirit, and you will dance on the wings of grace and will know the freedom and the joy of finding your TRUE LIFE!! And when you see a butterfly remember, whether or not you see it, the power of God's love is always bringing new life to you and your world. Christ IS Risen! Dare to trust it! Dare to stake your life on it! And come, fly with me!