We've been discussing resurrection and so I thought I might resurrect this blog beginning with some stuff from our Sunday Morning Gatherings.

A tale of four gardens.

Heligan

A couple of years ago I went with my family to The Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall. There’s a great story about this amazing place. It started following a devastating hurricane in 1990, when two men exploring the ancestoral home of a country estate in Cornwall called Heligan, found a tiny room under the fallen masonry in a forgotten corner of one of the walled gardens. In this tiny room there was a motto etched into the limestone walls in barely legible pencil which read "Don’t come here to sleep or slumber" underneath were the names of those who worked there with the date - August 1914.

These two men were “fired by a magnificent obsession to bring these once glorious gardens back to life in every sense and to tell, for the first time, not tales of lords and ladies but of those "ordinary" people who had made these gardens great, before departing for the Great War.”

And so on that first Easter Sunday two men came to a little tiny room. After the devasation of the previous 48 hours they look into a dark and empty tomb. These men wake up, they are fired by the magnificent obsession of the Kingdom of God. As they leave, Mary stays, overcome with grief and despair she stays at the empty tomb.

Eden

The relationship between God and humans begins in a garden. The first conversation between God and humans happened in a garden.

God and the first Adam would spend time together in the garden. In the cool of the day God would come, his presence would be there with Adam in the garden.

One day God looks for Adam but Adam is not there. Adam believes a lie and betrays God. The first humans turn away from God in a garden. Instead of the fruitfulness of the garden, the ground now produces thorns and thistles. Death and decay, drought and disease enter the world.


Gethsemane

The betrayal continues into another garden. Whilst the second Adam, as Paul calls Jesus, prays, he is betrayed by one whom he would spend time with together in the cool of the evening.

In the garden of Gethsemane, Judas, a friend of Jesus comes with violent men looking for Jesus in the darkness. Men with weapons come looking for Jesus.

Jesus asks them “who are you looking for?”

And that’s the big question. Who are you looking for?

God came looking for Adam, who hid because he was ashamed.

Men come looking for Jesus, to arrest him and hand him over to be tortured, to have thorns pushed on to his head and to be nailed to a piece of wood and killed.

The Easter Garden

And now in the garden on that first Easter Sunday, a woman comes looking for the dead but finds life.

...She turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" 
 Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."
Jesus said to her, "Mary." 
 She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).
Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.  John 20:14-18

This is the first day of the week. There is a man and a woman in a garden.

John (one of the men who first looked into that empty tomb) is telling the story of the new creation. Throughout his book he has given signs pointing to Jesus. Pointing to the man who would bring reconciliation between God and all humanity. He’s saying in the words of Pontius Pilate, “Here’s the man!” This is the one you are looking for.

Mary stands outside the tomb. If you can imagine it: stand there with her. Feel the loss the grief and the hurt. Stand there and think of someone who is hurting and alone, stand with Mary and identify with the bitterness that she feels.

Then step into the silent tomb. Don’t turn away. Step into the cold dark void.

Hear the question: “Why are you crying?” Why are you crying? What have you lost? What’s been taken away from you? Where does it hurt? Face the truth, feel the pain. Think of the answer to that question that might come from people around the world.

They’ve taken away my Lord, my home, my friend, my rights, my dignity, my brother, my sister, my father, my mother, my children, my dignity, my hopes, my dreams, my vision, my life. Where has the darkness seeped into your life? What’s been taken from you?

Now turn and see who walks towards you. Behold the man. Who is he? He’s the gardener he’s the one who removes the weeds and the thorns. He’s the one who digs up the past and brings fruitfulness. He’s the one that brings life and order out of barrenness and chaos.

Listen as he speaks. Listen as he says your name.

Listen as your healing comes. Listen as you see the light dawning. Listen as the mist clears and you see his face. Look and see the face of the one who has defeated death.

Don’t stand there dumbfounded. This moment won’t last forever. This moment propels you into action. There is work to be done. There is a message to be announced. There is good news to proclaim. The one who was dead is alive.

New creation has broken into this world. The old has gone. Today is the beginning of a new week. The beginning of a new life.