It’s Easter, and the powers of darkness, the powers of darkness — have — prevailed. Our worst fears have been realized. The universe really is the way it appears. It really is true that violence trumps harmony. It really is hard wired into the universe that anger defeats understanding. Abuse rules over compassion. Vengeance obliterates forgiveness. Estrangement overcomes unity. War will always prevail over peace.

Our dreaded fear is true. At the heart of the universe, hatred reigns over love. Love is a fleeting, illusory hope designed to keep the human cattle docile, but hatred, raw power, violence, humiliation, coercion, war, death — they are the true realities, the true heart of the universe.

It had to seem that way to Mary Magdalene as she walked in the early morning darkness to that tomb, that tomb that had to represent to her a universe ruled at its heart by estrangement, and violence, and death.

And haven’t we all taken that walk in the darkness with her? Is there any one of us who hasn’t, some time or another, maybe most of the time, thought that all this love and forgiveness and compassion stuff makes for nice talk, but the heart of the universe is governed by disease, and tragedy, and survival of the fittest, and might makes right, and death. If you’ve never taken that walk in the darkness, God bless you. But I sure have.

Mary gets to that tomb, and the stone is rolled away. It takes quite a while for her to come to the realization that Jesus has been raised. Her first instinct is fear; she thinks the body has been stolen. She runs to get Peter and "the other disciple," and they run to the tomb and go in and are convinced that Jesus is not there. So what happens? If you’re a fan of the women in the gospels (as the gospel writers were), you have to love this: the text says this about the men: "Then the disciples returned to their homes."

But not Mary. She stays and weeps. Now, on top of it all, the body has been stolen. Mary weeps, I believe, for a universe which is cruel at it’s heart.

"Woman, why are you weeping?" It is two angels, who are inside that tomb of death. "I am weeping because they took his body, and I don’t know where it is." "I am weeping because death and cruelty and horror prevail."

"Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" It is Jesus, but she doesn’t recognize him. "Mary," he calls her name. She knows it is he, recognizes her Lord as risen. And it is she who doesn’t go home as the men did, but goes as the first evangelist, the first ever bearer of the Good News of Christ resurrected, and she goes to the men to tell them.

Look, you have to decide. Is the heart of the universe, God’s heart, darkness, cruelty, revenge, pain, humiliation, war, death, all the rest you find in that dark tomb, or is the heart of the universe, God’s heart, the Rising Son of love, the bright light of forgiveness, reconciliation, unity, hospitality, care, self-sacrifice, life?

I’m not going to try to argue you into believing in the resurrection. I’m not going to try to present scientific proofs or logical proofs or any proofs at all. I don’t trust any of those efforts, and none of them are why I believe. I’m just going to tell you why I believe in the resurrection, and why I’m staking my life on my belief that the heart of God is revealed as God’s willingness to suffer dearly to achieve unity with us.

I don’t believe in the resurrection because there is no darkness in the world. If I were to tell you that, I hope you’d rise up in open revolt. There is a great deal of darkness in the world. But it is not all darkness. And isn’t that strange? In fact, there is a lot of light. Once you start to see it, you see light all over the place, shining even in dark places, refusing to be extinguished by the darkness that rails against it. And, really, isn’t that strange? I believe in the resurrection, in the God who will not abandon us to the darkness, because love, compassion, forgiveness, reconciliation, caring even for those who harm us, all those things, they should never prevail. Never! When love shows up to confront hatred, it’s never a fair fight. Never. Hatred shows up with what? Clubs, burning crosses, fear, intimidation, violence, weapons, humiliation, (the list goes on and on) and an absolute willingness to use every tool available to destroy a dehumanized enemy.

And what does love show up with? Forgiveness. Compassion. Prayer. Ethics. Concern for the poor and helpless. A refusal to dehumanize the enemy, and an insistence on caring even for the enemy.

Sound like a fair fight to you? Hatred shows up armed to the teeth and we stand there with our arms outstretched. No wonder Jesus got killed. Good Friday should be the end of the story.

But it isn’t. The Son rises. In a billion, trillion, innumerable ways, the light shines in the darkness. In our tiny corner of the world, we bring light to broken families through the Begin Again program. We bring light to the poor in our area and the needy all over the world through the Bargain Shop. We have brought light to refugees fleeing the darkness in their homelands. In ways too many to name, we share with each other; we care about one another; we look after each other. I’ve seen you sacrifice for one another, forgive one another, love one another, so many times.

We could look at that and say, "Well, we live relatively small lives and these are relatively small rays of light in the immense darkness of the world." But when you look for the light, when you see the small rays all around you, you begin to see that the universe is infused with light. Yes, the darkness is there. Yes, it is real. But against all the odds, when it’s never a fair fight, when there should be no light at all, the universe shines.

Why do I believe in the resurrection? Because two thousand years later, here we are. Sunday after Sunday. Proclaiming the ridiculous assertion, which we see with our own eyes, which we experience in our own lives, that in this undeniably cold, dark universe, the light shines when it has no logical reason to shine at all.

We stand there with our arms outstretched, and we get creamed. But, wonder of wonders, the light does not go out; the light continues to shine; the light ultimately is more powerful than the darkness.

That is my belief; that is my hope. The heart of the universe, the heart of God, is not darkness and death. The heart of God is light and life. And so I must proclaim —Jesus Christ is risen today.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

[The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!]