Memorial United Methodist Church

NOT THE FIRST WORD: The Big Empty

A message from Pastor Joe Agne

There is a big empty space in the universe. It is between 6 and 10 billion light years away from the earth. It is close to 10 billion light years across. A light year is about six trillion miles. There is nothing there. No planets, no stars, no galaxies and no gases. This is a huge cold spot, a massive void, which brings to mind three other voids.

One void: On the first Easter morning, two millennia ago, the three women who had been closest to Jesus came to give grief-filled care to his body. But he wasn’t there. His tomb was empty. Mary Magdalene and two other women encountered a massive void. They “went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them … they were afraid. “ (Gospel of Mark) Think what Mary might be feeling. She was a very close friend of Jesus. When she went to pay her respects, she found nothing, big empty space.

A second void: Each of us knows what a massive empty void can be in our lives. It happens when:

· We give our heart to someone and we are rejected
· We work hard to be accepted to a particular college and fail
· We pursue a profession, spending lots of time and money, and find we hate it
· We save to buy a house and lose it because of a failed mortgage
· We retire from a long career and find our retirement funds are too limited to live
· We create something beautiful and discover no one finds it interesting
· We lose a job that has had meaning for a long time
· We lose a spouse to cancer and wonder if we will ever again experience intimacy

Sometimes we try to pretend there are no massive voids in our lives, no empty spaces, but we all face them.

A third void: At times we have a huge void in our heart. Pascal called it an “infinite abyss.” We try to fill it with all kinds of things, such as education, jobs, homes, money, friends and family. Pascal points out, “This infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite … God.” Our emptiness cannot be filled with a new home, spouse, career, cars, challenge or a better salary.

The women running from the tomb does not end the story. Later the disciples encounter the risen Christ, when he breaks bread with them and when he cooks fish for them on the seaside. The final word of the story is not an empty space.

The Big Empty is a reality for Jesus’ closest friends. It also exists is spaces of the universe, in our lives and in our hearts. It is probably important that we not start singing Easter hymns too early on Easter Sunday. They come after we acknowledge “the big empty.”

The Big Empty is real. Gratefully, it is not forever. On Easter morning, we have to pass through some cold and empty tombs on the way to resurrection life. (“The Big Empty” comes from Homiletics Magazine.)

Peace, Shalom, Salaam!
Joe Agne
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