"Love Heals"

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

April 21, 2019

Easter Sunday

          Thistle Farms was founded by Becca Stephens, an Episcopal priest, in Nashville, Tennessee.  Thistle Farms provides women who are survivors of trafficking, prostitution, and addiction a second chance to build a healthy life.  The women are provided a safe place to live, meaningful work, and the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual support they need to survive and thrive.  Thistle Farms is built on the premise that, and I quote, “Love is the most powerful force in the world because love has the power to heal.”  

          There is a country music song based on the work of Thistle Farms.  The song is written and sung by Alison Kraus and Becca Stephen’s son, Levi Hammon.  The song is called “Love heals.”  The whole piece is both moving and profound, but the words to the refrain are especially poignant:

“Oh I've never seen a broken heart

Once shattered and torn apart

That could not come back together

And I've never known a life so heavy

Couldn't stand on legs unsteady

And one day run light as a feather

Baby here's the deal

Love heals.”

          This morning, the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee arrive at the tomb with their spices, expecting to anoint the dead body of Jesus.  They had heard the crowds scream “Crucify him” when Jesus had done nothing to deserve death.  They had watched as Jesus was crucified and then they heard him promise the criminal crucified with him that today, he would be with Jesus in paradise.  The women had followed as the dead body of Jesus was taken down from the cross and placed in a tomb.  Their hearts are shattered and torn apart having witnessed the gruesome death of their loved one.  I imagine their legs were none too steady as they made their way to the tomb. 

What the women find at the tomb makes no sense.  The women had watched as Jesus’ body was placed in the tomb so they are perplexed when the tomb is empty.  Perplexity turns to fear when they are greeted by two men in dazzling white who ask “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” Then the men say “Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”

          Surprisingly, we are not told of any great joy or excitement when the women remember Jesus’ words and realize that those words have come true.  The women do not run from the tomb to tell the others. We are simply told that, upon returning from the tomb, the women told the eleven and all the rest what they had been told.  No one but Peter even believes them.  And after Peter runs to the tomb and is amazed by what has happened, he simply goes home. 

Once the women tell the eleven and all the rest what they have seen, we don’t hear from them again in Luke’s gospel.  But they were the first to see the empty tomb, to ponder the words “Why do you seek the living among the dead” and to tell the others that Jesus’ own words about his crucifixion and resurrection have become reality.  I wonder if the implications of this new reality took a while to sink in.  I wonder if it was in the telling of the story that the words became real to the women and the reality of resurrection life began to set in. 

          What is the reality of resurrection life?  What is this reality that we are called to profess with our lips and proclaim with our lives? 

First, resurrection life brings us face to face with the tomb that had held captive the result of fear, hatred, and death.  The women were willing to look that tomb in the eye and confront the results of the powers of evil.  Resurrection life admits that fear, hatred, and death are real.  Our Lenten journey has given us opportunity to face whatever tomb holds us captive and separates us from knowing fully the love of God.  The women of Thistle Farms recognize the tombs that hold them captive as they begin to rebuild their lives. 

Secondly, Resurrection life calls us forward into new life.  Even if we are perplexed by the enormity of the empty tomb and, like the women, do not find joy right away, the empty tomb promises new life.  Life would never go back to the way it was for Jesus’ disciples before they began to follow Jesus.  We see that in the reading from Acts.  Peter does not go back to fishing.  Resurrection life transforms Peter into the great leader and dynamic preacher we see in the reading from Acts this morning.  Resurrection life calls us forward as well, as year after year we enter the story of the women and find the tomb of fear, hatred, and death empty.  Whether as individuals, families, or as a church, God does not call us backwards to be what we once were. God calls us forward to be the people God intends us to be now.  The resurrection love of Thistle Farms transforms the lives of women, not into what they were before, or a better version of what they were before, but into the new people God is calling them to be. 

          Lastly, Resurrection life proclaims that the tomb that once held the result of fear, hate, and death is now the tomb that holds only the resurrection love of God.   The resurrection is God’s love saying to us that in the face of fear, joy wins.  In the face of death, life wins. And in the face of hate, love wins.  And, as Thistle Farms proclaims, love heals.  The outrageous promise of Easter, in a nutshell, is that when we feel shattered and torn apart, and we are standing on legs unsteady, resurrection love heals.  Love healed the broken hearts of the women who had come to anoint Jesus’ body.  Love heals the women at Thistle Farms.  And love heals us.  The empty tomb proclaims that love and life have won, forever. 

                                                                             Amen.