Easter Day – April 8, 2007
Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 118:14-17, 22-24; Colossians 3:1-4; Luke 24:1-10
St. Giles Church, Northbrook IL – The Rev. Cynthia J. Hallas
Do we believe in resurrection? Of course we do; that’s why we’re here this morning, to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. We’re here in this church, on this Easter morning, like so many others throughout the world, because roughly two thousand years ago a Jewish rabbi who was executed by Roman soldiers with the assistance of a handful of his own religious leaders, was discovered, on the third day after his burial, to be alive again; and was seen by a small group of his (very surprised and initially disbelieving) disciples at the crack of dawn. That’s it, basically, isn’t it? That’s what the Gospel according to Luke tells us. That’s what all the gospel accounts, in their various ways, tell us. Of course we believe in resurrection. That is why we’re here.
But do we really believe in resurrection? Not just the bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth; can we accept what that event might mean for us. As Benedictine nun Joan Chittister notes,
“The old news about Easter is that it is about resurrection. The new news may be that it is not so much about the resurrection of Jesus as it is about our own. Unfortunately, we so often miss it.”[1]
Jesus is ‘risen’. Assuming that we believe that story, what can we then believe about its meaning for us? I don’t think the meaning of resurrection was immediately clear to those first witnesses, even though our historical, theological, and liturgical ‘gloss’ may make it seem otherwise.
The meaning may not be readily apparent to any of us; and it will never become apparent if we consign the Easter event to a once-yearly church service (which is a risk for any of us, whether we attend church on a weekly basis or only on occasion).
We Christians spend a lot of time talking about what God wants from us, what Jesus expects of us, and that’s important – we should. But there’s another question that Easter begs us to answer:
What do we really want or expect from a savior who is ‘risen’? What do we want from this resurrected Lord? Eternal life? That would be nice, very nice - comforting. Continual forgiveness? We’re only human, after all. How about an intermediary who will offer a good word to God on our behalf? We could all use that, I’m sure. Unfortunately, that list is sufficient for way too many people, but it’s far from complete.
How about an example of how to live, or even how to die? How about someone to follow as a witness to God’s Good News? If we are, indeed, risen with Christ as we claim, there are things that will be expected of us. Things like loving our neighbor as ourselves; taking up our cross and following him; stepping out of the familiar – maybe even the familiarity of our spiritual lives - and making ourselves vulnerable, open to him and to others. Those things may not make the list; I’ll be the first to admit that truly being risen with Christ can be a daunting proposition.
Living a resurrected life is hard. It’s hard because it requires our rejecting the Good Friday message that the world keeps throwing at us, and that’s difficult to do.
It’s also hard because it means that first, something has to die. Something has to be given up. A cross has to be vacated. A tomb has to be emptied. An old, comfortable way of life has to be abandoned.
Those beautiful, dazzling men asked the women at the tomb: ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here….Remember what he told you….’ And then they did remember (Oh, yes, they say to themselves; we should have known, we should have remembered), and off they go to tell the others, running away from the tomb with its stench of death, and straight into the joy of Life with a capital “L”.
We can observe the discomfort, the disbelief of the first disciples to arrive at the tomb; smile knowingly as they grapple with the stunning, life-giving news that Jesus’ body was gone, not because someone had stolen it, as they may have been tempted to think (what else would one think, after all?) but because he himself had conquered death and was once again abroad in the world. We, after all, are savvier than that – it’s Easter morning and we know that Jesus is risen. But are we willing to follow them away from the tomb, or are we still there, searching in vain for the living among the dead?
Reading the gospels tells us that few of the encounters with the risen Christ actually take place in the garden or at the tomb. The vast majority of them happen later, outside of that venue: in the upper room, on the road to Emmaus, by the sea of Tiberius. Jesus didn’t waste any time hanging around that garden and that empty tomb and he didn’t expect that his disciples would either. He still doesn’t expect that we will. He expects that we, like those faithful women, will run headlong out into the world not only to proclaim, but to live resurrection.
So, are we truly ready to embrace the message of Easter, and willing to live as Easter people in the world, or are we still stuck somewhere between Ash Wednesday and Good Friday? Are we ready to let the tomb be empty? Ready to let the power of resurrection change our lives for good and for ever? Ready to greet the risen Lord with joy and confidence? What will our lives be like next week, next year, because of this day? What will they be like this afternoon?
If we think that resurrection is only about the afterlife, we’ve missed the boat big time. Jesus, by his resurrection, has handed us new life for the here and now. That’s the hope of the world in this and every time. Are we ready to run with joy from the tombs in our own lives, so that others may be freed from theirs? Simply knowing that Jesus is risen isn’t enough. This risen Lord doesn’t want us to miss our own resurrection; he wants us to live with him in resurrection life. Then, and only then, can we proclaim with confidence:
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Amen.