Latest / Eurasia Region Podcast / S1-E110 | Everyday Eurasia | Dr. Deirdre Brower | Easter to Pentecost

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S1-E110 | Everyday Eurasia | Dr. Deirdre Brower | Easter to Pentecost · Eurasia Region Podcast

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  This week we have a special edition of the Everyday Eurasia
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  podcast. Voices from across the region
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  take us on our journey from Easter to Pentecost.
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  Today we join Doctor Deidre Browser, principal of Nasrin
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  Theological College, Manchester. I wonder how you imagine that
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  first Easter day power. The emotion, the grief, the
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  broken heartedness, the weeping. It's also very natural, and
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  certainly on that first Easter morning after the night before,
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  a night of trauma and weeping and wondering why on earth has
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  happened, we get this glimpse of Mary Magdalene coming to the
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  tomb, head bowed low, grief in her heart.
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  I imagine her coming, full of hope and pain and suffering.
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  She comes to honour her beloved master, her friend, her
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  companion, the one who had healed her miraculously and
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  freed her from everything that held her captive, the one she'd
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  followed so faithfully. And here he was, dead in a tomb.
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  Can you imagine her thinking? But what she finds is not a
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  sealed grave, but an empty one, where she encounters firstly 2
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  angels. He's not here.
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  I imagine her amazement, her puzzlement, her bewilderment,
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  her weeping eyes still streaming with tears and her question.
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  But can this be what's happening to me?
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  And then of course we know what happens.
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  She turns around and in this place and this time this tomb
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  filled garden is revealed as not just being any garden.
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  Instead it's the setting of the writing of the world.
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  It's creation. Restored is the inauguration of
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  a new Eden, a new beautiful space where all is right with
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  the world. It's the tilting of the universe
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  towards hope, new life, new creation, restoration of all
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  things, the beginning of the beginning of life.
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  The Gospel of John tells us that Mary turns and mistook Jesus for
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  the gardener. And in that tiny bit of detail
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  lies a world of meaning. Where the first Adam walks
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  amongst the trees of the garden in his failure and shame, the
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  risen Christ now walks in resurrection life, in his
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  triumph, his victory, his hope, his wholeness.
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  Where the first Adam hides and blames others, this new Adam,
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  this risen Christ, walks freely, restoring life and hope of new
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  relationships made right by his presence in this garden, in this
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  Adam. This is where death is undone,
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  where sin is silenced, where creation itself is reborn, where
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  the man and the woman encounter each other and it's truly holy.
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  Mary's tears were real. Her loss was real.
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  But then her Master, her teacher, speaks her name.
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  Mary. He says her name on his lips.
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  She is known. And in this encounter with the
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  risen Christ everything changes. In this garden God walks risen,
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  wound scarred, breath of life filled, victorious, and he calls
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  the eager watcher by name. He knows, he says in this
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  garden, Mary, this woman of no particular reputation becomes
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  the apostle to the apostles, the first to proclaim daringly
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  resurrection. Jesus says to her, Mary, don't
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  hold on to me, go to my brothers, tell them he redefines
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  everything and he makes her his apostle, his gospel carrier, his
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  good news witness his life bearing hope filled woman who
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  says the Lord, he's not dead, he's risen.
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  And in this is the birth of all things new, new relationships,
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  new creation, where the disciples all are now his
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  brothers and sisters, where old barriers are broken and a new
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  family is formed by grace in faith, where women and men
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  together discover a new reality, a New Hope, new possibility.
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  But death is not the end, that there is life after death.
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  And as NT Wright says, there is life before life after death.
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  For in this world, even now, Jesus, who was alive, has
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  changed everything. Mary, our hope carrier in John
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  20, becomes a hope carrier who reminds us that we too can
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  encounter Jesus, hear our names on his lips, and in that moment
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  that encounter find ourselves transformed and renewed.
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  This is the power of Easter, not just that Jesus is alive, but
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  that everything is being made new, including us.
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  New life, new creation, New Hope, new identity.
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  In the garden of the Resurrection, the garden of
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  Life, we hear our names spoken in love.
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  We find healing where we expected only grief and loss,
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  and we're sent out like Mary to tell the world.
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  Suffering doesn't win. Sin does not have the victory.
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  Death is not the end. Instead, Jesus is alive.
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  He is risen. The tomb is empty.
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  The gardener is the king. And this, this is just the
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  beginning. We too can encounter him.
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  Christ is risen, friends. He has risen indeed.
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  Thank you for listening to the Everyday Eurasia Podcast.
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  To find more of our Ether to Pentecost resources for
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  individuals and small groups, please visit our website
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  eurasiaregion.org.