Easter Sunday!!!

When in coming days I post what 'would have been' our teams contribution to Easter "24" had it gone ahead, you would see that it was a U2 free zone [as that is about creating an experience for a group of young people and leaders using contemporary tunes].

As my Easter has largely been a self created space [with some great conversations, Sunrise and space thrown in]I have broken open the gates and simply chosen what I wanted to hear!!
The above is a fans eye view, not unlike the first night I experienced [and introduced friend Rah to on U2s last Oz visit] before venturing down to the inncer circle onground with Darren 2 nights later!! An amazing show and an amazing song for it's vision of a world lived differently!!

And then there is the original and perhaps most amazing version of all when the U2 'Rattle & Hum' movie doco changes from
black and white to colour at Sun DEvil Stadium Tempe Arizona!!


And here's the thrust of my opportunity to share a Reflection at Warners Bay Foreshore this morning at Sunrise Easter Ecumenical happening!!

Mark 16:1-8
16When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.2And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.3They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”4When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.5As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.6But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.7But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”8So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

THE THING ABOUT GRIEF IS….
It’s JUST LIKE the song OF THAT NAME by the Australian singer Claire Bowditch

It’s like a bundle or a fragment of memories,
Of things you did and didn’t say…
Put back together and held onto with string and old rubber bands…
It’s in that frame of mind that MARY MAGDALENE,
MARY THE MOTHER OF JAMES And SALOME,
Bought spices and went to Jesus tomb…
I take the time to remind us BECAUSE , it’s so RARE we know the WOMEN’S names
The writer of MARK’S gospel, crafts a deliberate and unique story
In more ways than one...
They find the STONE they were concerned about, rolled back…
And instead of finding Jesus body, they encounter a YOUNG PERSON
WHO TELLS THEM HE HAS BEEN RAISED, HE IS NOT HERE…

What happens reminds me of the Ethiopean pratice On Easter Sunday morning,
OF moving around their cities and towns, asking:
“HAVE YOU SEEN THE BODY”? Have you seen the body?

On hearing this news, they fled the tomb,
They were asked to go and tell Peter and those around him
In TERROR and AMAZEMENT,
OR it would be true to say, a mix of TRAUMATISED and ECSTATIC...
AND as one writer puts it, AT THE END OF THE STORY,
You can hear THE SILENCE…
BUT the silence didn’t last too long, Perhaps hundreds of years
before a longer ending or two were added…
One of my peers reminded me of another possibility,
with this abrupt ending to the story,
That it was in fact the YOUNG PERSON whose inspired passion
Saw them telling others…

Either way, It didn’t end there,
Here we stand, In the [warming rays] of the early morning sun,
Caught up in the hope, that Jesus Christ is alive,
Captured by the story of one who stood for grace, justice, love and truth
And who calls us to live out that story, everyday…
We are asked, where we locate ourselves in this story?

Over 2000 years later,
We join with people all across the southern and the northern hemisphere
Repeating the ancient words…

Christ is Risen,
He is Risen Indeed…

I’m talking about HOPE,
That sees what might be, that stands against falsehoods
And knows…ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE,

This is what those who followed Jesus seemed attracted to,
What Occupy Wall St [and perhaps Occupy Jerusalem] were all about
And a summary of who we are called to be in community today,
[I cut out examples of those from the edges we could/should be most able to 'be with' in living out a world of another possibility... indigenous people, those who arrive on boats, the poor, friends and neighbours in pain...]

If we have faith to believe…