Sunday of the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women, 2009.

Gospel, Mark 15:14-19

On these second and third Sundays of Pascha we consider those who were the witnesses of Our Lord's Resurrection. On the second Sunday we thought of the Apostles and Thomas in particular. He is the apostle for us all, because he had doubts, as we all sometimes do: -"unless I see I will not believe".

These doubts are important. Indeed doubt is always the other side of faith. Thomas was given an experience which enabled him to say: " My Lord (on earth) and my God (in heaven)`"; the very acclamation we need for ourselves.  On this third Sunday, we think of the Myrrh bearers. They too are apostles for us.

We can imagine that they were devastated and in shock. The unthinkable had happened; the One whom they loved and sought to follow had been brutally killed. The bottom had fallen out of their world. But, yet, through love they still felt they had to do what they could and they set out to visit the tomb to administer the rites of anointing with spices and ointments according to Jewish tradition.

This was a courageous thing to do. They had seen Jesus' body placed in the tomb by the rich man, Joseph of Arimathea. Was it permissible for them to venture on this territory? Then there were the soldiers set to guard it. How would they react to these women, alone in the dawn? And the stone was too large to move. It was a ‘mission impossible’, yet they set out in all their uncertainty.

And in this uncertainty, which is the eye of faith, as with Thomas's doubt, they were led to an experience of the Risen Christ.  Through the overcoming of doubt and the challenge of uncertainty they and Thomas came to a new understanding of life and were called together into a new way of living.

For us, in our own lives, sometimes we feel doubt and discouragement. We may even ask ourselves, "What is the point of carrying on?" It is natural, perhaps even right, for us occasionally to ask such searching questions, but there is another question that is even more primary, and that we must each answer personally.

It is this. Do we believe in the Resurrection?  

St. Paul says that if Christ did not rise from the dead then "your faith is futile" - worth nothing (1 Cor.15:17 ). There would be no point in carrying on at all.  But St Thomas is our witness that whatever doubt we may have, Christ did rise from the dead and he had the experience which affirmed this for him, enabling him to say: " My Lord and My God!".

The Myrrh bearers with all their uncertainties were likewise able to attest that it was true; the Lord had risen. They understood this first by the sight of the empty tomb and the message of an angel and then, particularly in the case of Mary Magdalene, by a personal experience of the Risen Lord. With this certainty they were able to move into a completely new phase of life. They formed the Church, a community of persons committed to the Risen Lord and to each other.

The reading from the Acts of the Apostles which we heard today (Acts 6:1-7) attests to the reality of this sense of community. A complaint arose because the widows of the Greek Christians were being neglected in " the daily distribution". The Church had developed into a caring community, and the response of the Apostles was to ordain deacons to lead in these practical matters. Deacons were chosen to continue the ministering work of the Myrrh-bearers. Just as the Myrrh-bearers had looked after the needs of Christ and his apostles and disciples when he was in his earthly life, so now the deacons were to continue to see that all are ministered to in a similar way.

Christianity differs from other religions in important ways. It is not a system of ethics or a set of rules to be followed or system of theology, although this Church in which we stand today could be filled a thousand times over, and more, by all the books written on ethics, doctrine and theology.

Our faith is based on none of these but on something else - a personal relationship with The Risen Lord Jesus and a relationship with all others  who make up His body on earth.

What is the Church? – all of us gathered together. What is its nature? – it is our relationship with our Lord and with each other. Where is Christ to be found? - in the hearts of each one of us and amongst us as a group.  

So these are the primary questions which each must answer in the truth of their own hearts. Did Jesus rise from the dead? Do we share in His risen life?

Thomas with his doubts and the Myrrh bearers with their uncertainties, both with their commitment to love, are our witnesses. A new age has dawned. When we move forward into the great adventure ahead, this is life.  If we stick in the past and in fear, uncertainty and doubt, this is death. We are asked to choose life in the Risen Christ!

Let us answer, and so choose.

Christ is Risen!

Fr David