It's alarming

• Acts 10:34-43 or Jeremiah 31:1-6 •
• Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 •
• Colossians 3:1-4 or Acts 10:34-43 •
• John 20:1-18 or Matthew 28:1-10 These are some of the readings for Easter Day this year, 24th April 2011

what happens at the tomb
is an interesting challenge to the believer
those who go to look for Jesus
flee, in amazement and terror.
They are told by a young man ( who is perhaps an angel)

"Do not be alarmed!"

What ever it is you are seeking
is not here at the tomb, it is elsewhere.

This seems to me (at the very least)

good advice.
We have to move on from the tomb.
We have to get beyond what alarms us.

More than this it is a key part of understanding
what resurrection might be about.

It is certainly about trying to understand
what death is about
and death is often a point where we are
deeply ALARMED.
But it's not the only point at which we get alarmed.

We encounter death in our relationships
in our particular world views.

The message of the tomb would seem to be
that we don't deal with death
by standing at the tomb.

As terrifying and amazing as this might be
(and it was for the disciples)
we are called to go elsewhere.
In this story the disciples are told to go back to the place
where they experienced life
It's called Galilee for these disciples

(I'm going there this year)
but it may go by a different name for you and me.

Where are we experiencing the grave at the moment.
Don't be alarmed!
Go back to where you experienced Jesus
to where you knew true inspiration
and that things were right.

He is not at the point

where we buried the body.
He has gone back

to where he gives you life.