Have You Seen the Gardener?

April 20, 2025 John 20:1-18 Have you seen the gardener Easter Sunday Year C Prelude Greeting Prayers at the Easter Garden Leader: Alleluia. Christ is risen. All He is risen indeed. Alleluia. Leader: Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. John 20:15 All: He is Risen Indeed. Alleluia Leader: Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. To you be glory now and for ever. In your great mercy you have given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. By your blessing, may we who have prepared this garden in celebration of his victory be strengthened in faith, know the power of his presence, and rejoice in the hope of eternal glory. Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All Blessed be God for ever. Leader: Risen Lord Jesus, as Mary Magdalene met you in the garden on the morning of your resurrection, so may we meet you today and every day: speak to us as you spoke to her; reveal yourself as the living Lord; renew our hope and kindle our joy; and send us to share the good news with others. All Amen. Leader: Alleluia. Christ is risen. All He is risen indeed. Alleluia. The Lighting of Candles The minister Lighting the Christ Candle says The light of Christ. All Thanks be to God. Acclamation Alleluia. Christ is risen. All He is risen indeed. Alleluia. Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: All he has given us new life and hope by raising Jesus from the dead. [God has claimed us as his own: All he has made us light to the world.] Alleluia. Christ is risen. All He is risen indeed. Alleluia. Once the congregation’s candles have been lit a minister leads the following Acclamation Listen to Easter Prayer When everything was dark and it seemed that the sun would never shine again, your love broke through. Your love was too strong, too wide, too deep for death to hold. The sparks cast by your love dance and spread and burst forth with resurrection light. Gracious God, We praise you for the light of new life made possible through Jesus. We praise you for the light of new life that shone on the first witnesses of resurrection. We praise you for the light of new life that continues to shine in our hearts today. We pray that the Easter light of life, hope and joy, will live in us each day; and that we will be bearers of that light into the lives of others. Amen. This video was produced by United Methodist Communications in Nashville, Tennessee. Media contact is Joe Iovino, jiovino@umocm.org. This video was first posted on March 14, 2017. Extinguish your candle one the light comes Song Christ the Lord is Risen Today UMH 302 A Sermon for all Ages Children’s Sermon Theme: Hope Unlocked. Jesus comes to us even when we are locked in fear behind closed doors. Introduction: Instructions: Designed to be pre-recorded, but can be modified for livestreaming needs. NEED: A set of keys Good Morning everyone, and Happy Easter! I’m so glad to get to share with you all on this amazing Sunday, even though we’re far away. Now, when I say ‘Christ is Risen’ I want you to say ‘Christ is Risen indeed’. Okay, ready? Christ is Risen! [ pause ] One more time! Christ is Risen! [ pause ]. Good. Bible Story: [John 20:1-20]- This morning, we are going to talk about something very special that happened on Easter Sunday. Jesus’s friend Mary Magdalene was going to visit his tomb when she saw that the stone, which meant to keep Jesus locked inside, had been rolled away. Mary was so excited that she ran to meet another of Jesus’ friends, Simon Peter, to tell him what happened. But, unlike Mary who also saw Jesus and talked to him in the garden outside of Jesus’ tomb, Simon Peter and the other disciples did not see Jesus there and went home, locking themselves inside out of fear. Object Lesson: Now, these are my keys. [Take a moment to explain what a few of the keys on your keyring do- car keys, house keys, etc ]. I’m sure your grownups all have keys that do some pretty similar things. A lot of the times, we use keys to protect ourselves and our belongings by making sure that nobody can get inside. Jesus’ disciples probably used keys like these to lock themselves indoors after Jesus’ death. We’ve probably heard people around us say that they feel like they’re locked inside too, right? Have you ever felt that way – like everything in you is squeezed tight? Like there are really big feelings trapped inside of you, locked up in your heart? And sometimes, those big feelings inside of us keep us from being friends with other people, too. They keep us locked away from others. Just like the Disciples, we feel afraid of something that feels like it is out of our control. Jesus, though, does something amazing when we are locked inside our fear. Jesus appeared to those disciples who were locked inside out of fear and said “Peace be with you!”, and they were amazed. Peace means all that wound tight stuff inside us lets go. It means we can rest and feel calm. It means we can reach out and be friends agin.Jesus didn’t have a magic key to open the door and walk inside – he IS the magic key! He simply appeared, and gave them peace. He unlocked all those big, tight, wound-up feelings inside them and made them call and joyful again. Conclusion: Because He was resurrected, we, just like the Disciples, know that we have no reason to be afraid. So don’t be afraid, and don’t feel alone. Christ is risen [ pause ] and He will appear to us(come to us), even when we’re locked behind closed doors and give us peace too. Close with prayer Jesus, thank you for coming into even our scary, locked up places. Help us to look for you when we are afraid or upset. Give us peace inside, and peace with each other. Amen. (Western Pennsylvania United Methodist Church) Scripture John 20:1-18 Sermon Have You Seen the Gardener What is so Good about Good Friday? I think that one of the main points of Good Friday is that it forces us to get in touch with the heart of our faith? Reliving the passion story forces us to ask some serious questions about our faith and to acknowledge our doubts as real. This year, here we watched the movie The Two thieves and. Were able to have an honest conversation about faith and doubt, and God’s grace. When we left on Friday, we all had a lot of questions, but I am not sure that we got a lot of answers. Things have not gotten any clearer this morning. Easter is a mystery within itself. When you think about it, Easter raises more questions than it answers. All we know is that the tomb is empty. Christ should be in there, but he is not. Growing up, I always loved to participate in Easter, but it never really made any sense to me. I loved getting new clothes, getting a new hairdo, dying eggs, looking for Easter baskets, even going to church one time a year was fun – it gave me a chance to put my best foot forward. Even as a church – we go through the ritual of renewal – putting out flowers, preparing special music, making sure the church is a little cleaner, acting on our best behavior for the visitors. We all know the routine, but we are never quite sure of what Easter is really all about, what actually happened. We are all familiar with the Easter bunny, but no one really knows quite what bunnies have to do with Christ dying and being resurrected. Easter is such a mystery, that we don’t even know what date it will be celebrated next year. (April 5th by the way.) Easter is this big question mark in our heads, and yet Easter is the defining moment of our faith. Easter has been shrouded in mystery and misunderstanding from the very beginning of the story. No wonder we are so confused about our faith, and have so many doubts. John 20 is a very familiar story, we hear it every year in some form. We know the part about the women in his life sticking with Jesus all throughout his ordeal. They were the ones who got up early in the morning to make sure that he was properly anointed. They were the first witnesses of the resurrection. John 20 features Mary Magdalene, coming to look for Jesus only to find two angels in the tomb. The gardener asks her why is she crying. I hear this story every year – but it was only this year that I realized that Jesus was present all along – Jesus was the gardener – Mary just didn’t realize it. Mary is so preoccupied with grief, that the miracle that she was looking for was right there in front of her in plain sight, and plain clothes, doing a plain job. How many times in my life, am I stuck in my grief, crying about being alone. Convinced that God is not answering my prayers. God is silent in my life. Caught up in my circumstances, when all along the gardener is present in plain clothes, working harder than ever, I just don’t recognize him or her as God. A colleague tells the story of being at a point in her life when everything was dark. She had lost her job, she was going through a divorce, she had not idea of how she was going to get by in life. She felt that her prayers were unanswered, she started to doubt whether God really cared about her. She started to ask questions about where was this Jesus? If Jesus us the messiah, who doesn’t he come and save her? Is it that he can’t or wont help her out of the situation. (These were the same questions that were asked on Good Friday by the way). Jesus didn’t say anything now, and he often does not say anything now. In the midst of her faith crisis, she started to experience grace in small unexpected ways- friends who bought her food and helped her with her rent. Unexpected checks that came in the mail, opportunities that started to arise. As a person of faith, she realized that the gardener was there in her life taking care of her all along. She just didn’t recognize that it was Jesus. In our minds eye we are expecting Jesus to be the bright spiritual figure dressed in white, and instead he has dirty fingernails and work overalls. He is working miracles, showing grace shedding light while hidden in plain sight. It makes a lot of sense that Jesus would appear in resurrection as the gardener, and that the tomb would be placed in a garden. Jesus is a gardener, like Adam. The story of our faith begins in the Garden of Eden. Before sin took over our lives, God placed Adam in the garden to tend to life. So now Jesus comes to tend to new life and resurrection. Sin drove us out of the garden and away from our purpose. Jesus died for our sins and in resurrection opens the gates for us to return. The world can be a dark dreary lonely place to be. Just living in the world can sometime cloud our vision and distort our expectations. All along the gardener is working to bring us grace. This Easter Sunday I thought it was important for us to spend some time in the garden – looking for the gardener in our life. More Hope than We Can Handle Earlier this week, an old couple received a phone call from their son who lives far away. The son said he was sorry, but he wouldn’t be able to come for a visit over the holidays after all. "The grandkids say hello." They assured him that they understood, but when they hung up the phone they didn’t dare look at each other. Earlier this week, a woman was called into her supervisor’s office to hear that times are hard for the company and they had to let her go. "So sorry." She cleaned out her desk, packed away her hopes for getting ahead, and wondered what she would tell her kids. Earlier this week, someone received terrible news from a physician. Someone else heard the words, "I don't love you anymore." Earlier this week, someone’s hope was crucified. And the darkness is overwhelming. No one is ever ready to encounter Easter until he or she has spent time in the dark place where hope cannot be seen. Easter is the last thing we are expecting. And that is why it terrifies us. This day is not about bunnies, springtime and girls in cute new dresses. It’s about more hope than we can handle. Craig Barnes, Savior at Large, article in The Christian Century, March 13-20, 2002 p. 16. Let us pray…… Song Up From the Grave He Arose UMH 322 Prayer of the Day On this Easter, as on that first day long ago, you come, Steadfast Love, continuing to walk with us on this strange pilgrimage of worry, fear, and loss, showing us the good news of the empty tomb, calling us to run and tell everyone of the new life which is ours. On this Easter morning, as on that early first morning, you wait and watch, Gardener of the seeds of love, hope, and grace you planted deep within us, as we stand amazed at the harvest of hope and life which is handed to us this day as you call us by our names. In those early morning moments, Spirit of the broken hearted friends, you whispered of that love which cannot be held behind the stones of our fears and doubts, of that hope which puts grave clothes into bandages for the hurting, of that grace which turns cartwheels in the gardens of our hearts, even as you whisper them to us. On this Easter, as on every day, your grace, your peace, your love gives us new life and hope, God in Community, Holy in One, and so we pray as we are taught, saying, (Thom Shuman, Lectionary Liturgies) Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Moment (You don’t have to print this) An Offering of New Life Resolutions This can include, or not, any passing of plates or announcements about monetary offering. Friends, you received a cup on your way in today. Those of you who are visitors, this is not just one of those “give a visitor a mug” things… this is new for everyone here. If you consider yourself a Christmas Eve and Easter church-goer, you might be interested to know that Easter isn’t just one day. It is a “week of weeks” and so we will celebrate Easter until the Day of Pentecost, which is another seven weeks! I’m kind of kidding you about being an Easter church-goer, but I do want to invite you to think about traveling on this journey into new life, which we all know takes a bit more than one day to accomplish. We might not consider Easter the beginning of a “new year,” but in many ways, it is a symbolic moment to consider starting with a clean slate. What would you like to move forward away from and into a new lease on life? If you could leave something behind, what would it be? We aren’t going to answer that question right now, but I just want to invite you to consider it this week. Resurrection is not just a story about Jesus; it is a rejuvenation that can happen within us, anytime. Today we are going to bring forward the flowers that are in your cups/mugs and place them on our flowering cross, filling it with more signs of beauty and life and love and fresh beginnings. Song Thine Be the Glory UMH 308 Sending Forth We could just return to our homes, slipping back into pandemic mode, but we will go to rebuild communities, to care for those who are still so lonely. We could stand looking around, wondering if Jesus has left us on our own, but we will turn and, seeing our neighbors, we will call them by name and embrace them with hope. We could keep our lips sealed, not telling anyone of what we have heard and seen, but we will run to tell others, grabbing them by the hands to go and meet the Gardener of grace. (Thom M. Shuman, Lectionary Liturgies) Additional Illustrations My Soul Is Rested Martin Luther King used to tell the story of Sister Pollard, a seventy-year-old African American woman who lived in Montgomery, Alabama during the now famous bus boycott. One day, after walking significant distances daily for several months, Sister Pollard was asked if she wanted a ride. When she answered, “No,” the person responded, “But aren’t you tired?” To which Sister Pollard answered, “My feets is tired, but my soul is rested.” Resurrection living, moving beyond our fears and trusting that God is fashioning a way out of no way, celebrating the promise that a new world is unfolding — this leads us to affirm as well that our souls are rested. We will continue to face all kinds of challenges and struggles along the way; “our feets will be tired,” but our spirits will be strengthened through the presence of the risen Christ. This is the good news we celebrate this Easter morning: There is no tragedy that God cannot redeem, no dream — even the elusive dream of peace on earth — that the God who raised Jesus from the dead cannot energize and advance. Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed! Joel D. Kline, Frightened Out of Our Wits ___________________________________ Yes, There Is Hope In the early part of World War II, a Navy submarine was stuck on the bottom of the harbor in New York City. It seemed that all was lost. There was no electricity and the oxygen was quickly running out. In one last attempt to rescue the sailors from the steel coffin, the U.S. Navy sent a ship equipped with Navy divers to the spot on the surface, directly above the wounded submarine. A Navy diver went over the side of the ship to the dangerous depths in one last rescue attempt. The trapped sailors heard the metal boots of the diver land on the exterior surface, and they moved to where they thought the rescuer would be. In the darkness they tapped in Morse code, "Is there any hope?" The diver on the outside, recognizing the message, signaled by tapping on the exterior of the sub, "Yes, there is hope." This is the picture of our dilemma as we worship this glad Easter Day. Humankind is trapped in a dreadful situation. All around we are running low on hope, and we look for a word from beyond offering it to us. This world in which we live is plagued with war and famine, mounting debt and continual destruction. The more we try to rescue ourselves the more we seem to fall behind. We wonder: Is there any hope? Bill Self, Is There Any Hope? _________________________________ The Easter Formula In April 2002, the well-respected Oxford University philosophy professor Richard Swineburne defended the truth of the Resurrection at a high-profile gathering of philosophy professors at Yale University. Swineburne used Bayes Theorem, a broadly accepted mathematical probability theory and tool to defend the truth of Christ's resurrection. In a New York Times interview, Swineburne said, "For someone dead for 36 hours to come to life again is, according to the laws of nature, extremely improbable. But if there is a God of the traditional kind, natural laws only operate because he makes them operate." Swineburne used the Bayes Theorem to assign values to things like the probability that God is real, Jesus' behavior during his lifetime, and the quality of witness testimony after his death. Then he plugged the numbers into a probability formula and added everything up. The results? There's a 97 percent probability that the resurrection really happened. That's nice to know. It's one more tool in the tool kit of ministry. But the truth is that you and I don't really need that. The church doesn't really need that information. Because we have our own formula. It's the Easter Formula: R+ET+F=LE. The Resurrection plus the Empty Tomb plus Faith equal Life Eternal. That's the Easter Formula. Billy D. Strayhorn, From the Pulpit, CSS Publishing Company, Inc. ____________________________ Graveyard Wreaths If you had been living in the Roman Empire in the first century, you would have noticed a strange custom practiced by the Christians. They would go out to their graveyards with laurel wreaths, the wreaths that had been used in Greek and Roman culture to crown the victors of athletic contests. They would take those laurel wreaths and place them on the graves. If you had asked them why, they would say, "Because we believe that in Jesus Christ we have received victory over the power of death." Mark Trotter, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com I Want to See Your Resurrection Father Basil Pennington, a Roman Catholic monk, tells of an encounter he once had with a teacher of Zen. Pennington was at a retreat. As part of the retreat, each person met privately with this Zen teacher. Pennington says that at his meeting the Zen teacher sat there before him smiling from ear to ear and rocking gleefully back and forth. Finally the teacher said: “I like Christianity. But I would not like Christianity without the resurrection. I want to see your resurrection!” Pennington notes that, “With his directness, the teacher was saying what everyone else implicitly says to Christians: You are a Christian. You are risen with Christ. Show me (what this means for you in your life) and I will believe.” That is how people know if the resurrection is true or not. Does it affect how we live? King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com ____________________________________ We Believe You I ran across a beautiful story recently about a woman named Rosemary who works in the Alzheimer’s Unit of a nursing home. Rosemary and a colleague named Arlene brought the residents of the home together one Good Friday afternoon to view Franco Zeffirelli’s acclaimed production Jesus of Nazareth. They wondered whether these elderly Alzheimer’s patients would even know what was going on, but they thought it might be worth the effort. When they finally succeeded in getting everyone into position, they started the video. Rosemary was pleasantly surprised at the quiet attention being paid to the screen. At last came the scene where Mary Magdalene comes upon the empty tomb and sees Jesus’ body not there. An unknown man, in reality the risen Christ, asks Mary why she is looking for the living among the dead. Mary runs as fast as she can back to the disciples and tells Peter and the rest with breathless excitement, “He’s alive! I saw Him, I tell you! He’s alive.” The doubt in their eyes causes Mary to pull back. “You don’t believe me . . . You don’t believe me!” From somewhere in the crowd of Alzheimer’s patients came the clear, resolute voice of Esther, one of the patients. “WE BELIEVE YOU,” she said, “WE BELIEVE YOU!” Well, Esther, I believe it too. The evidence is overwhelming, and life makes no sense without it. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Rosemary Kadrmas in Jeff Cavins, et.al, Amazing Grace for the Catholic Heart (West Chester, PA: Ascension Press, LLC, 2003), pp. 211-212., adapted by King Duncan ___________________________ Famous Because It Is Empty! If Easter says anything at all to us it is that Jesus will always be with us. The pyramids of Egypt are famous because they contained the mummified bodies of ancient Egyptian kings. Westminster Abbey in London is renowned, because in it rests the bodies of English nobles and notables. Mohammed's tomb is noted for the stone coffin and the bones it contains. Arlington cemetery in Washington, D.C., is revered, for it is the honored resting place of many outstanding Americans. The Garden Tomb of Jesus is famous because it is empty! Don Emmitte ____________________