Easter is not optimism.

The people in this story are not people for whom hope came easy. They watched their friend die. They buried him. They came back to the tomb in the dark because they didn't know where else to go.

Jeremiah wrote to survivors who had lost everything: the people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness. Not after the wilderness. In it.

That is the world Mary Magdalene is living in when she comes to the tomb before sunrise. She is not coming in hope. She is coming because grief pulls you back to the last place you saw someone.

And then Jesus says her name.

One word. One syllable. The whole resurrection in a single breath.

In this Easter Day sermon from St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Keller, Texas, Fr. Alan explores what resurrection actually sounds like. Not a trumpet blast over easy circumstances. 

A name spoken quietly to someone in the wilderness. To someone who came expecting nothing.

Grace does not wait for you on the other side of the wilderness. 

It meets you inside it.

He is already ahead of you. Already calling.

The Sounds of Holy Week

St. Martin's Episcopal Church

Keller, Texas

Scripture: John 20:1–18