Howdy in the Garden

Homily preached by the Dean Titus Presler at the Easter Sunrise Service

in Christ Chapel of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest,

Austin, Texas, 11 April 2004

Matthew 28.1-10

We look out on a garden today —

            dull and rainy as it is, but, still a garden!

I admire people who garden,

            they bring order out of chaos,

            they create beauty out of the ordinary,

God is the great gardener,

            and God created us for gardens.

In the second chapter of Genesis we hear how when God created humanity

            God created a garden as the home for humanity.

We're created for gardens,

            but it's easy for us to neglect the garden God put us in,

            to trash God's garden,

            to make of God's garden a wilderness.

Wilderness was what the women were feeling after Crucifixion Friday and Desolation Saturday.

They came to the tomb Sunday morning expecting a wilderness,

            and, behold! God was gardening.

God was transforming the desolation of the human story into a garden of new life and new hope.  

There's the macro-garden and the micro-garden of Easter.

The macro-garden is cosmic —

            huge, like the gardens at Versailles.

Easter is not simply a metaphor —

            Easter transformed the universe!

In the resurrection of Jesus from the dead God transformed the world and the cosmos —

            from the law of entropy to the destiny of resurrection,

            from everything slowly running down to everything renewed and re-created,

            from life ending in a twilight zone of non-entity to life moving from glory to glory in reconciled relationship with God.

Sin no longer has the last word — Reconciliation does.

Death no longer has the last word — Resurrection does.

Despair no longer has the last word — Hope does.

At the consummation of all things, there will be a new heaven and a new earth.

The micro-garden of Easter is scaled to you —

            something like one of those tiny Japanese moss gardens with the little pagoda and the little bridge over the stream.

The micro-garden of Easter is the risen Jesus coming and saying "Hello!"

The King James tradition of the Bible has Jesus saying, "Hail!"

The New Revised Standard Version has Jesus saying, "Greetings!"

The Texas version has Jesus saying, "Howdy!"

"Howdy" is short for "How do you do?"

            but doesn't it convey so much more? —

            "Hi!  Here I am, and here you are!  And aren't we glad to be together?!"

The micro-garden of Easter is Jesus coming and saying to you, "Howdy!

            "I'm here!  I'm close!  Let's be close, you and I."

The risen Jesus said, "Tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

Galilee was home for Jesus' disciples, so he was going to meet them at home.

So Jesus was saying, "Howdy!  Let's go home!"

Jesus is saying to you, "Howdy!  Let's go to your home —

            Home to your family, and let resurrection happen there.

            Home to your workplace, and let resurrection happen there.

            Home to your neighborhood, and let resurrection happen there.

            Home to your anxieties and griefs, and let resurrection happen there.

            Home to your life, and let resurrection happen there."

This morning we say back to Jesus, "Howdy!" and invite him in.