Easter Questions

It's hard to start working on an Easter sermon in the middle of Holy Week. The mood of the week is somber and full of struggle. And here I am trying to figure out how to speak in the midst of the Alleluias we have been missing for six weeks!

So as I begin this week, I find that it is the questions around the John version of the story that fill my mind.

• When it says that the beloved disciple saw no body and the linen cloths all nicely folded, and then the gospel reports that this disciple "believed," what exactly did he believe?(or she; there are some scholars who speculate that this person might not have been John, as many suppose, but a woman, even Mary M?) Did this person believe Jesus was alive? Or what?
• What actually happened at that tomb before Mary showed up? We have no witnesses to the actual event of the Resurrection.
  
• Why did only Mary and not Peter and BD (Beloved Disciple) see those two angels?
• Why did Peter and BD just "go home?" after knowing the body was missing? Were they still so scared?
• Why do the angels ask Mary who she's looking for? Don't they know?

Actually that last question is the one that is catching my attention as I think this week. Who are we looking for on Easter? Or what? Nice story? Lots of flowers? New clothes? Great music? Re-animated body? Perhaps nothing at all?

What happens if we stop looking and listen; will we hear our names called? Have we seen Jesus? Can we, do we want to, "announce," like Mary, that we have seen Jesus? Or do we just want to go home, still not understanding?

Quote for this week from Barbara Brown Taylor: Never get so focussed on the empty tomb that you forget to speak to the gardener!"