Easter Sunday

Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’  She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ which means Teacher. 

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

It’s good to be back in Putney to celebrate Easter after 3 months away.

Though it’s been nice to enjoy the anonymity of travel.

On return I’ve found it hard to talk about our time in India without sounding like some Victorian imperialist.

I’m reminded of the old major in Fawlty Towers who reminisces about how much he must have been keen on an old girlfriend because

he took her to see India.

‘India’ John Cleese questions?

‘At the Oval’.

Our family is unusual for us all having pretentious names, which proved quite tricky for Indians to pronounce – though it’s similar in this foreign land of England, for Rhiannon is frequently called Rihanna – perhaps because of her Bajan lilt.

The only one of us whose name translated was Apollo, as Apollo, happily, is a brand of pharmacies, hospitals and tyres.

There was quite a lot of Apollo-sign spotting as children are fascinated by themselves.

Happily, the Indians were equally fascinated by him, which led to the continual temptation to leave him behind.

I’ve bored the regular congregation about the story of how working as a postman as a student I was called Benny for 3 months having failed to correct the mistake early.

I hesitate to mention it as, afterwards, colleagues here called me Benny for the next two weeks.

But I’ve never really had a nickname with the exception of a short time at school where I was somewhat surprisingly known as Beefcake, and even more implausibly at theological college, when a fellow student would not be deterred from referring to me as “Tutti Frutti”, which I believe is an ice-cream flavour.

I bring this up since a major theme of the Gospel, and the resurrection appearances, concerns recognition.

The French Marxist Philosopher Louis Althusser came up with a model as to how we become social creatures.

He called it “interpellation”.

I will call it “name-calling”.

In his model the people around us call out to us with their various assumptions about us.

When we hear those names we learn to respond to them.

They become a part of who we are.

So the person we become is in part the person people keep telling us we are.

And with those words, like British, male, Christian, hard-working, naughty, special, frightened, we build a sense of self.

It’s a socially defined self – full of the assumptions and prejudices of our society into which with a shove and a wriggle, we learn to fit in.

But this name-calling, sometimes kindly, sometimes unkindly, will often not capture the person we are.

Think of any Disney movie.

It begins with everyone assuming the main character is not the beautiful, strong person we, in the audience, know them to be.

It begins with a sense of alienation.

The story is the character learning to overcome that alienation:

To become the person they’re meant to be –

 the mis-named person must discover who they are –

“I am Moana!”

This is the story of Jesus.

Everyone is calling him the Son of God, the Messiah, the King of the Jews.

The disciples call him this and march him into town on Palm Sunday to throw out the Romans.

Romanus domus eunt! Oh wait.

The authorities call him Messiah in order to get him executed as a revolutionary.

On the cross above him hangs the sign in Greek, Latin and Hebrew (all the important languages) “The King of the Jews”.

But they have not understood him, not recognised him, and so the result is tragedy.

A man is killed on a misunderstanding, a misrecognition.

Like something out of Monty Python.

To combine those great movies, The Life of Brian and Star Wars,

“This is not the Messiah you are looking for.”

The misrecognition continues on Easter morning.

In this first resurrection appearance, which is striking for authenticity in details, in its emotional register, in the fact that it’s a biological woman, when they do not, in this part of history, have a legal status.

We have another mis-naming of Jesus.

Though rather more happily, instead of trying to make him king or murder him, Mary simply mistakes him for the gardener.     

The sort of the thing that happens in Putney all the time.

Beware King Charles.

And so we have this extraordinary situation.

A woman beside herself with grief.

Not recognising the very man whom she loves, for whom she is longing.

And Jesus says to her “Mary”.

It is enough.

To be recognised for the person you are;

To be fully known;

To hear your name from the person who knows you and loves you;

That is salvation.

Mary responds in Hebrew.

Not her everyday language, but the language of her faith, of her Scriptures, that communicates her soul’s deepest needs:

Rabouni.

Teacher.

This moment of two humans recognising each other, is also the moment in which the risen Christ is recognised among us.

In the beginning, we have the book of Genesis and we’re told that God made humankind in his image.

This moment in the Easter garden perfectly captures this.

A moment of recognition which overcomes the grief and pain and hurt and fear and loss that has so recently overwhelmed us,

Tightly encapsulated in that brief encounter:

“Mary”

“Teacher”

Then we will know fully, even as we have been fully known.

It’s a strange thing, that as we go older we become harder to recognise.

The changes, the complexity of life, makes us more opaque.

Unless I have known you through the shifts and battles, the victories and failures, how will I get you.

And in our responsibilities, the day-to-day traffic we can lose ourselves.

Retreat to that brief moment of solitude in the early hours or the wee hours –

A person whom no one may see,

Cloistered even from those we live with, those we love.

To be recognised is a form of salvation.

To recognise someone for whom they really are is an act of love.

Ultimately there will only be one who has the capacity to recognise us in all that we are.

Only one who will fully know us.

He is waiting for us to return to him.

For us to hear him calling our name in the Easter garden.

That is our joy and salvation.

That in faith we might turn and, hearing our calling;

Finally, being recognised in all our many layers and troubles,

being known, may be forgiven and loved,

Responding, as we may, Rabbouni, teacher, Lord.

Amen.