Download When I hear that trumpet sound I`m gonna rise right out of the ground

Easter Day C’10
4 April 2010
John 20.1-18
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
Little Rock, Arkansas
The Rev. Carey Stone
O God of resurrection who brings dead things back to life: Release within us your
mighty power so that the dead places in our souls might live. In the Name your Son
Jesus Christ who defeated death. Amen.
When I think of all the majestic and moving music of Easter I
usually think of some of the great settings of the mass by Bach or
of Handel’s “Messiah” and some of the inspiring hymns like we
have sung here today. This year however I came across a song
written by Brother Claude Ely, an itinerant preacher of the last
century from the mountains of Appalachia. The song is entitled,
“Ain’t No Grave” and it too gets at the joys we celebrate today,
albeit by a different stylistic path. In part the lyrics say:
When I hear that trumpet sound
I'm gonna rise right out of the ground
Ain't no grave
Can hold my body down
Ain’t no grave can hold my body down
But come on – how do we really know that Jesus rose from the
dead and more specifically how can we know that we will be
resurrected?
History bears out that the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth
happened as a matter of fact, but how can the resurrection be
proven? Perhaps the proof is in the experiencing of resurrection
in this life. The author Harry Williams in is book True resurrection
indicated that “If we have been aware of resurrection in this life, then,
and only then, shall we be able or ready to receive the hopes of final
resurrection after physical death. Resurrection as our final and
ultimate future can be known only by those who perceive resurrection
with us now encompassing all we are and do...”1 Because of the
New Life now: {Ain’t no grave can hold my body down}
Mary Magdalene was a woman of great passion but her passion
often got her into trouble. Although Church historians have
accused her of living the life of a prostitute the scripture only
informs us that she was a woman who had had seven devils. What
her demons were we cannot be certain but what we do know is that
they had driven her to a point of despair. Her passions were
misplaced and her life had been a series of dead ends. Death was
beginning to call for her but this was not to be. One fine day she
1 Atwell, Robert, ed. Celebrating the Seasons: Daily Spiritual Readings for the Christian Year (Morehouse Publishing: Harrisburg, PA) p. 235 happened to meet an itinerant preacher from Galilee who was a
carpenter by trade. His words were like none she had ever heard.
His gaze told her that she mattered – really mattered.
As she drew near to him her heart began to race and to burn with a
new passion. But this passion was one that she had never felt.
This passion brought unbridled joy rather than guilt and shame!
This passion caused hope to leap inside her body! This passion
was calling her to new life rather than to continue following the
ways of death.
{Ain’t no grave can hold my body down}
That day she felt the ‘Old Mary’ starting to slip away and a ‘new
Mary’ beginning to emerge.
{Ain’t no grave can hold my body down}
Like a caterpillar changing into a butterfly and freeing itself from
its chrysalis. In this meeting her life was forever changed.
{Ain’t no grave can hold her body down}
Mary had always been passionate but now her passion burned for
her Lord. She became his disciple and began to follow him
everywhere he went and to assist him in ministering to others who
had been just like her, at their wits end on the road toward death.
As we see in our reading today Mary would become the first
witness to the resurrection of Christ. New parts of Mary had come
to life!
There is a large cast of biblical characters who experienced the
New Life of resurrection in this life before they ever tasted physical
death. St. Peter the clumsy and audacious fisherman who turned
coward at the crucifixion became the rock and bold witness upon
which Christ built his church. New parts of Peter had come to life!
{Ain’t no grave can hold his body down}
St. Paul who was first known as Saul had been traveling
throughout the middle east as one of histories first middle eastern
terrorists, hunting down Christians and seeing to it that many
were put to death. But that was not to be the end of his story. He was
struck blind in an encounter with the resurrected Christ on the
road to Damascus. In that encounter the scales fell away from his
eyes and he became the leading apostle in the early Church.
{Ain’t no grave can hold his body down}
In our own day there was a man that grew up not far from here and
he struggled on and off with his own demons. He liked music as a
boy and discovered he had a talent for it. This path would
eventually bring him fame, fortune and a slavish addiction to
drugs.
One Thanksgiving Day, he finally hit bottom. While in a fit of rage
and under the influence of narcotics, he drove a brand new
tractor into the lake. That very day with the grace and help of God,
his devoted wife and her family he turned his life over to God and
he became a new man!
{Ain’t no grave can hold his body down}
Life would not be without future bumps and setbacks along the
way but the overall direction of his life would continue in the ways
of God. He felt deeply for the struggles of the common man and
woman and the injustices of this world. In solidarity with them and
as a rebuke to the oppressive powers this man wore black
everywhere he went and became a messenger of hope to
millions. By now many of you know the man of whom I speak –
Johnny Cash.
Cash died in 2003 but not before he could get one last record
made entitled: American VI: Ain’t No Grave
His cover of Brother Claude Ely’s “Ain’t No Grave” is worth the
price of the album. The song begins with rustic and slow
arpeggios played on a primitive sounding guitar and banjo. Then
comes the sound of foot stomps like those of an old folk or
bluegrass musician and just before Cash breaks his silence the
sound of chains begin rattling as they are drug across a wooden
floor – cold chills went up my spine the first time I heard it and
then Cash’s raspy but determined voice sings the first line:
There ain't no grave
Can hold my body down
There ain't no grave
Can hold my body down
When I hear that trumpet sound
I'm gonna rise right out of the ground
Ain't no grave
Can hold my body down
How can I prove the resurrection really happened? I can’t.
Why do I believe it did? How do I know my body will one day rise
again? Because of the resurrected life of Mary, of Peter, of Paul of
Johnny Cash and several others I’ve actually met.
Ain't no grave can hold my body down! Amen.
Glory to God whose power working in us can do infinitely
more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from
generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus
forever and ever. Amen. -­‐ Ephesians 3:20, 21