RCL Easter A [i]
5 April 2026
Saint Helen’s Anglican Church
Vancouver BC
When I am driving home after an evening meeting, I often listen to CBC Radio One. It’s the rare evening when the programming doesn’t introduce me to new ideas or to a new book or a new person of interest. Just this past Monday, as I was driving home after visiting my wife at UBC Hospital following her knee surgery, I was listening to a re-broadcast of Tom Power’s interview of the US actor, Sterling K. Brown.
Tom remarked on how Brown could talk about the challenges he has faced and the disappointments he has experienced with an attitude of optimism and positivity. Brown first responded by sharing a brief bit of his family’s history as providing the foundation for this attitude. But it’s what he said next that almost caused me to stop in the middle of the East-West Connector to write his words down. Brown said that he was able to maintain this attitude because he believed that there was a divine conspiracy for his success. Let me say that again. Brown believes that there is a divine conspiracy for his success.
He quickly added that his success does not require the failure of others. It does not mean a zero-sum world in which he sits on top of the heap. ‘Success’, in Brown’s thoughts, means finding joy in becoming more fully the person he was created and is called to become and to be.
Friends, the moment I heard that phrase I knew it held my Easter message to you. There is a divine conspiracy for our success. While I do not doubt that there is an evil conspiracy to undermine the purposes and works of God, there is a more powerful and, I believe, an ultimately more successful conspiracy for our salvation, for our becoming more fully alive in the likeness of Christ.
This divine conspiracy for our success forms the foundation for the closing chapters of the Gospel according to John. During his final meal with his disciples, Jesus tells them, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” [ii] Later he speaks about the promise of the Spirit, the Advocate, ‘the One who speaks for another’, and tells them that the Spirit will guide into all truth those who love Jesus, those who obey his commandments and who follow in his path. [iii] In his final prayer to God, Jesus prays that the unity he has with God will be the unity that Jesus’ disciples have with one another. [iv]
Then comes the moment outside the tomb. The disciple whom Jesus loved recognizes that Jesus has risen but does not yet know what this will mean for him and for Jesus’ followers. It is Mary Magdalene, weeping for her loss, who is the first witness to this divine conspiracy for our success. I have loved this passage and preached on it many times. But this is the first time that I listened more closely to what Jesus tells Mary what to do: “But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your father, to my God and your God.’” [v]
This is the first time that I’ve realized that Jesus does not tell her to share the news of the resurrection. The beloved disciple already believes that Jesus has risen. By the time Mary meets the Eleven, they already know that the tomb is empty. Jesus tells Mary to share the news that he is ascending to resume that unity with God that he had before his earthly ministry. With the ascension the Spirit, the One who will lead us into all truth, the One who will enable to do greater things than Jesus, will soon be unleashed to put the divine conspiracy for our success into action.
As central as the resurrection is to our faith as Christians, its message is not primarily about life after death. It is the sign that the divine conspiracy begun in creation and renewed in the ministry of Jesus will now, through the work of the Spirit, reach its ultimate phase. Through the witness of the followers of the risen Christ, the world will see that the conspiracies of “the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God” are ultimately destined to fail. Why? Because through the Spirit of truth, we are able to see what Desmond Tutu once wrote:
Goodness is stronger than evil;
love is stronger than hate;
light is stronger than darkness;
life is stronger than death;
victory is ours, through God who loves us. [vi]
Friends, it is easy to despair these days. All one needs to do is watch the news or listen to the rants of leaders who seem to lack any empathy or see how the gap between those who have an abundance of resources and those who do not continues to grow. But today is not a day for despair. Today is a day to celebrate this divine conspiracy for our success. Sometimes, perhaps most of the time, we may doubt that this conspiracy is afoot. But the prophet Habakkuk tells us, “For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.” [vii]
Friends, hear the good news of Easter: There is a divine conspiracy for our success. These are holy words; this is holy wisdom. Thanks be to God.
[i] Jeremiah 31.1-6; Psalm 118.1-2, 14-24 (BAS); Acts 10.34-43; John 20.1-18.
[ii] John 14.12 (NRSVue).
[iii] John 16.13 (NRSVue).
[iv] John 17.20-24 (NRSVue).
[v] John 20.17b (NRSVue).
[vi] “Goodness Is Stronger than Evil” in Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), Hymn #721.
[vii] Habukkuk 2.3 (NRSVue).
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