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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