Walls

Read: John 20:1-18

 

Easter Vigil - March 30, 2013

The Rev. Kenneth R. Elkin

 

Once there was a wall, a good heavy, stone wall.

It was substantial, permanent, and high.

It looked as though it could stand forever.

It was intended to stand forever.

It was a wall that kept some things in and other things out.

It was so finely crafted that the years seemingly had not much affected it.

Over the years, the purpose of the wall was forgotten; it was just there.

 

Then one morning a tractor-trailer drove up, a bulldozer was unloaded, and suddenly the wall was only a jumbled heap in one corner waiting to be trucked away.

Very soon the land was a playground with swings and bars, jungle-gym and all the rest, a place where a multitude of children played.

 

Once there was a wall,

a wall built to separate the living from the dead.

It, too, was strong, and meant to be permanent.

There was even a guard posted to keep it secure.

Everyone thought that was the end of the matter.

The problems of some and the hopes of others were both locked behind that wall.

No change was expected in that situation.

That's the way things will be, forever....or will they?

 

Suddenly, the wall is torn apart in the power of God and the place of nothingness becomes the place of joy, the joy which the disciples encounter at the dawn of the new era.

 

Once there was a wall.

It was a heavy, strong wall, built high.

It was intended to be a permanent wall.

Its first blocks were laid by Adam;

everyone since him has built it higher,

in order to separate ourselves from God

That's the way it will always be..or will it?

 

But when Christ Jesus broke down that wall of death 2,000 years ago,

it was shown to be flimsy before his power.

The icon of the resurrection proclaims Christ breaking through the blackness of death, knocking aside the walls and the doors that had shut him in, and transforming it into a gateway,

through which he pulls up Adam and Eve, and us.

Christ strides through the walls of our sin and separation from God and each other

and shows us that our dark and private and walled-in corners will yet become the bright and Spirited garden and playground of God's people.

 

Once there was a wall,

but now, Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.  Amen