A young girl is kidnaped in Utah. A middle-aged woman disappears on the Upper East Side. A pregnant woman vanishes in California.

Soldiers on patrol in Iraq don't return.

The news has been filled lately with stories of missing persons. Yet, it's interesting to observe that the message of Easter also contains the report of a missing person.

Three women arrive at the tomb of Jesus on Easter morning and meet a "young man dressed in a white robe." The man in a white robe (perhaps an angel) tells the women that Jesus "is not here."

The three women who had come to the tomb then had the same reaction that people today have when they learn their loved ones are missing. St. Mark writes that the women "were alarmed;" the alarm quickly spread throughout the Christian community. The earthly remains of Jesus had vanished.

But there are differences between St. Mark's missing person reports and those that fill the news in our day. Unlike the soldiers and journalists and the other missing persons who have been in the news. In this case, everyone knew Jesus had died.

Missing on Easter morning was Christ's body, which the three women had come to anoint with oil as an ancient sign of respect for dead.

Yet, in a way, the news was more perplexing than if Christ had been kidnaped. For the "young man" didn't only say that Christ's body had disappeared from the tomb. The messenger added one new bit of news about Jesus: "He is Risen."

Not dead, but risen from the dead. As the disciples would discover, Christ had overcome the separation that occurs with ordinary human death. Jesus would soon appear to his followers in a new, resurrection body.

And this startling news suggests another parallel with ordinary life -- and another contrast. After the first game of the New York Yankee season, fans were disappointed to learn that shortstop Derek Jeter had injured his shoulder and would be out of the lineup for at least a month.

Now, a baseball player who is seriously hurt is placed on what is called the "disabled list." This means that a minor league player substitutes for him on the team's roster; while Derek Jeter is on the disabled list, he can't wear a Yankee uniform or sit in the dugout.

But an player on the disabled list is still a member of the team. He still cares about how his team is doing. So, I imagine that when the Yankees go into a game, they feel that Derek Jeter is "with them in spirit."

Now the women at the tomb of Jesus on Easter morning quickly came to feel that Jesus, too, was with them "in spirit." After the women spoke with the Angel, their hearts which once were filled with the memory of death came to be filled with the presence of Christ's new life.

But here, too, there is a crucial difference between humans and Jesus. A man or woman present "in spirit" isn't the same as the experience of the Risen Christ. For Derek Jeter can wish his teammates all the best and follow their every play from the sidelines-but he won't be able to do anything for them. While he's away, he won't be hitting any home runs for the Yankees!

By contrast, the followers of Jesus found that Christ could do things for them. Easter changed their lives. The Risen Christ spoke to their most private needs. Christ gave them peace; he gave them joy.

The disciples came to a new consciousness that they too would survive death. They discovered that their bond with the Risen Christ extended from this life into the next.

We see and hear proof of this bond with Christ beyond death in our church today. For we hear music and see flowers that have been given in memory of deceased family and friends.

And, for followers of the Risen Christ, music and flowers are more than a way for us to remember. They are signs of the life we are able to share now with those we love even though we are separated from them by death.

To the world, they are missing persons. But for us, they are safe with the Risen Christ. They are close to us "in spirit" -- they are with us in Christ's Spirit.

And there are other "missing persons" who after Easter Day are no longer missing: ourselves! For in Christ, we learn who we really are.

Our Lenten Class this year studied a book by the Bishop Oxford, Richard Harries, who visited Incarnation last fall. in this book, called God Outside the Box, Bishop Harries sets for himself the daunting task of showing how one can be a Christian and at the same time be spiritual!

This isn't easy to do! But one of the Bishop of Oxford's most important arguments in favor of Christianity is of special interest to us on Easter Day. For Bishop Harries claims that Christ gives us "our true selves." We find who we are in Christ.

Whatever my nationality or race or gender, whatever my social status, whatever my personality, whatever my set of "problems," I can find my true self in Christ.

In His Spirit, self-esteem blossoms while excessive guilt is washed away.

For like the first disciples I find that who I am becomes bound up through Christ with other people. As Bishop Harries notes,