April 19, 2025
Vigil of Easter
But they did not believe the women, because it seemed to them an idle tale.
Friends, please be seated.
25 years ago, I worked on an English translation of the Easter Sermon of John Chrysostom. St. John Chrysostom was born in Antioch around the year 347 into a military family. He excelled in rhetoric as a student and eventually became the archbishop of Constantinople. Chrysostom means golden tongue. St. John of the Golden Tongue. John was esteemed the most formidable preacher of his age.
At some point in his career, I don’t remember when if I ever knew, John composed a sermon for Easter. In any event, it was a long, long time ago.
So I worked on my translation checking bits and pieces with my mentor Harold Remus and published it for Easter in 1999. You can still find it in an obscure archive on the Web. Now both of us, Harold and I, were a little out of our element as we were students of a difference kind and period of Greek. But this was not some obscure speech; this was a Christian sermon about Easter. And I remember a conversation we had about a particular line in the following stanza. I translated the text in stanzas to suit John’s rhetorical style.
Hell was in turmoil having been eclipsed.
Hell was in turmoil having been mocked.
Hell was in turmoil having been destroyed.
Hell was in turmoil having been abolished.
Hell was in turmoil having been made captive.
Hell grasped a corpse, and met God.
Hell seized earth, and encountered heaven.
Hell took what it saw, and was overcome by what it could not see.
(Full text below.)
The line that niggled then as now, was this business about hell taking what it saw and being overcome by what it could not see. Harold and I wondered about that.
Now, we’re talking metaphors here. But, still, we asked ourselves “what is it that is unseen, invisible to some, and which overcomes the devices of hell?”
Well, someone had to tell the story.
When St. Mark penned his Gospel, St. Mark … the first evangelist, he recalled that three women went to the tomb to take care of Jesus’ corpse only to be met with … resurrection. Hell grasped a corpse and met God. The women –Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome– were terrified, says Mark, and they told no one. But when Mary Magdalene later encountered Jesus in the garden, she forged the apostolic chain that would carry the news of Jesus’ resurrection. She told the story.
By the time Matthew and Luke wrote their Gospels, a generation or two later, the identities of the faithful women were beginning to dribble away. Matthew lists them oddly as Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. Like Larry and his brother Daryl and his other brother Daryl.
Luke drops Salome but mentions Joanna and the other women. But when these tell their story to their community, they are dismissed as uttering nonsense as we have it in one translation. Their Easter proclamation is derided and dismissed.
By the time John tells the story, only Mary Magdalene is left to tell the tale. The other women are forgotten. Put differently, no other faithful women are remembered. They have become invisible.
In some circles today, St. Mary Magdalene is revered as the Apostle to the Apostles. She is, by all of the accounts, the necessary smith in the chain, or we would not be commiserating over anything this night. Hell would not have been overcome by what it could not see.
The early witness of women to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, was at best neglected by our forebears, at worst dismissed by our forbearers. Nonsense. An idle tale.
Almost certainly their witness was relegated to reaches un-appreciated by the powers and minions of hell. And yet, hell was overcome by what it could not see.
So my question for our contemplation this night, is simply who’s out there whom we cannot see. Or, for that matter, who’s in here whom we cannot see. Who’s witness, who’s reality do we dismiss as nonsense, as an idle tale as tonight’s translation puts the witness of the women. Not far from the “tale told by an idiot … full of sound and fury … signifying nothing.”
That’s the sort of thing Harod Remus taught me to think about when I worked to bring forward an ancient witness for our time and for our consideration. Preston, yesterday morning, spoke of seeing and hearing people who are suffering and of a world in great pain. Whether invisible or not, people who are suffering are often unseen.
There is a cultural prejudice that runs though our early Christian witness and which has obtained through much of two millennia. Men are named; women are not. Men were acknowledged; women were not. Men were made priests; women were not. At least not in the received narrative.
But the church holds that all humanity bears the image of God. If that is so, I have to believe that all humanity has the capacity to offer a witness that an Easter people might do well to recall, to remember, to discern, to name, to honour, to celebrate.
And so we ask ourselves, who, in our time, do we fail to recall, fail to remember, fail to discern, to name, to honour, or to celebrate.
Let us pray.
Living God, long ago, faithful women proclaimed the good news of Jesus’ resurrection, and our world was changed forever. Teach us to keep faith with them, that our witness might be as bold, our love as deep, and our faith as true.
And may the church, this night of all nights, say “Amen”. Amen.
André Lavergne CWA (Pastor)
Honourary Assistant,
Church of St. John the Evangelist, Kitchener.
The Easter Sermon of John Chrysostom exists in many editions on the Web. This version was prepared by André Lavergne [editor@worship.ca]. Cf. The editions of Mark Baker and Frank Dobbs. Posted Easter, 1999. Revised Easter, 2001.
An Easter Sermon
Are there any who are devout lovers of God?
Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival!
Are there any who are grateful servants?
Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!
Are there any weary from fasting?
Let them now receive their due!
If any have toiled from the first hour,
let them receive their reward.
If any have come after the third hour,
let them with gratitude join in the feast!
Those who arrived after the sixth hour,
let them not doubt; for they shall not be short-changed.
Those who have tarried until the ninth hour,
let them not hesitate; but let them come too.
And those who arrived only at the eleventh hour,
let them not be afraid by reason of their delay.
For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first.
The Lord gives rest to those who come at the eleventh hour,
even as to those who toiled from the beginning.
To one and all the Lord gives generously.
The Lord accepts the offering of every work.
The Lord honours every deed and commends their intention.
Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord!
First and last alike, receive your reward.
Rich and poor, rejoice together!
Conscientious and lazy, celebrate the day!
You who have kept the fast, and you who have not,
rejoice, this day, for the table is bountifully spread!
Feast royally, for the calf is fatted.
Let no one go away hungry.
Partake, all, of the banquet of faith.
Enjoy the bounty of the Lord’s goodness!
Let no one grieve being poor,
for the universal reign has been revealed.
Let no one lament persistent failings,
for forgiveness has risen from the grave.
Let no one fear death,
for the death of our Saviour has set us free.
The Lord has destroyed death by enduring it.
The Lord vanquished hell when he descended into it.
The Lord put hell in turmoil even as it tasted of his flesh.
Isaiah foretold this when he said,
“You, O Hell, were placed in turmoil when he encountered you below.”
Hell was in turmoil having been eclipsed.
Hell was in turmoil having been mocked.
Hell was in turmoil having been destroyed.
Hell was in turmoil having been abolished.
Hell was in turmoil having been made captive.
Hell grasped a corpse, and met God.
Hell seized earth, and encountered heaven.
Hell took what it saw, and was overcome by what it could not see.
O death, where is your sting?
O hell, where is your victory?
Christ is risen, and you are cast down!
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen!
Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is risen, and life is set free!
Christ is risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead.
For Christ, having risen from the dead,
is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
To Christ be glory and power forever and ever. Amen!
+ + +