“Meet Me in Galilee” by Marjory Zoet Bankson

April 16, 2017                                           

Easter Sunrise Service at Wellspring

Text: Matthew 28: 1-10

When I was here at Wellspring three weeks ago for the Church of the Saviour discernment retreat, Cheryl Hellner led us in two sessions of “gathered silence.” She began by saying that, during Lent, she had “apprenticed herself” to the pair of eagles nesting at the National Arboretum. Cheryl’s description of watching them protect their two precious eggs through the icey windstorm earlier that month made a deep impression on me. I felt that we, too, were gathered here to protect and nourish the possibility of new life in Church of the Saviour.

Cheryl’s word, “apprenticed,” caught my attention, because it is another word for discipleship. An apprentice is someone who is learning from a master teacher, who commits time and attention to learn basic skills or behaviors of that field. The disciples had apprenticed themselves to Jesus during his lifetime, and now he was gone. What should they do next? That is the question that Mary Magdelene and “the other Mary” carried with them on that dark morning near Jerusalem. Now what?

I suspect they were terrified and traumatized by the events they had witnessed surrounding Jesus’ death. We Protestants don’t dwell on the gruesome details of Jesus’ death, but I know how quickly I pull away from a partially eaten carcass when I am walking around Dayspring. It’s unsettling, revolting, and it leaves me shaky inside. Even watching the eagles tear apart a fish for their two hatchling chicks makes me a little queasy.

Imagine how their terror must have deepened then, when the earth heaved under their feet and lightening rolled away the stone! The tomb guards literally passed out, but the women did not. The angel said what biblical angels always seem to say: Fear not!

This angelic greeting always points to the awesome presence of God, the timeless realm of Spirit. “Fear not!” sweeps away the fight-or-flight response we might be having, and says instead “Wake up! This is holy ground! Pay attention! Prepare to be changed!”

The angel shows them the empty space where Jesus was AND gives them the words to explain what has happened. They are grounded in the reality of the empty tomb and given only the next set of directions: “Go to Galilee. You will see him there.”

In Mark, the earliest Gospel, the women say nothing to anyone, because they are too terrified.

In Matthew, which is probably based on Mark’s Gospel, Jesus actually appears to the women and he himself tells them not to be afraid, but to go and tell the disciples what they had seen.

Luke, probably a later Gospel than Matthew, the women do NOT see Jesus, and the disciples dismiss their message as an “idle tale.”

And in John, written even later, Jesus and Mary Magdalene have their marvelous encounter in the garden, which is a more elaborate telling of Matthew’s account.

In all four Gospels, the disciples are directed to “return to Galilee.” For me, that means go back to the beginning. Remember your first encounter with me. Knowing what you know now, reconnect with your roots in this time between death and resurrection.

Our Story

Let me turn to our story as a part of God’s story here and now, at this time in history. How can we “return to Galilee?”

Last January, Wes Granberg-Michaelson spoke at the Festival Center as part of the Parr Lecture Series. I remembered Wes as the secretary of the New Lands group here at Church of the Saviour in 1975, when he working for Senator Mark Hatfield. Wes “apprenticed himself” to Church of the Saviour and to political leaders like Mark Hatfield (who seemed more plentiful then than they are now). Wes was part of the decision to divide Church of the Saviour into six smaller congregations, and then he went on to become the General Secretary of the Reformed Church of America. In his talk, (you can read the text in the April issue of Sojourners), Wes gave us five principles which I want to share with you as guidance in this time of political upheaval, destruction of people and programs we hold dear.

Doing and teaching go together, so we do not fall into idealized wish dreams and numbing disappointments. The parents of those thriving eaglets at the Arboretum are doing AND teaching: hunting for their next meal while they teach their children how to eat and help them learn how to fly. They are native teachers we might not have expected.

Finally, live in solidarity with all of creation, not just one group or one nation. In the biblical story, we are interconnected with all parts of God’s good creation. In this political climate of division and animosity, Wes reminded us that this mutual belonging to a common humanity is central the practice of Christian ethics. He also reminded us that care for the earth and its atmosphere is part of the stewardship we are called to. Since the discernment retreat, here at Wellspring, I too have “apprenticed myself” to the eagles at the Arboretum, thanks to the video-cam which uses light beyond the eagle’s spectrum. I’m grateful for modern science and technology, and know we have much to learn from native teachers whom God has provided.

And that brings me back to Dayspring as the anchor for our journey together as Church of the Saviour. This is the land we hold together. This is our spiritual home, where we have practiced silence and listened for God to undergird daring, even radical, missions. Many of us have come here “while it was still dark” in our own lives, afraid of what we would hear and yet hopeful at the same time, all because we dare to follow the footsteps of Mary Magdalene toward the tomb, not knowing what we would find.

According to Matthew, the angel appeared as lightening and proclaimed, “Fear not!” to the terrified women. It was an invitation to embrace the death of Jesus and be changed by his life.

“Fear not,” Jesus said, when he appeared to them on the road back to town. “But go and tell the disciples that I will be there, waiting, in Galilee.”

As light fills this room with a new day, let us renew our apprenticeship to Jesus’ way in the world, knowing we have been given this community of brothers and sisters in Christ, and many teachers from the margins of our knowing that we are just beginning to see.

May God grant us eyes to see and ears to hear.

Amen.