April 4, 2010

Acts 10: 34-43; John 20: 1-18
“Resurrection”

An untitled poem by Thom M. Shuman

early in the day,
through the mourning mist,
we walk . . .

having left our hopes
at the Skull

we come to our friend:
hands full of fragrances,
hearts empty of life.

and

at the very edge
of the mystery:

the hollowness of our world
is filled with the emptiness
of the tomb;

our hearts of stone
are rolled away
that you may enter;

the grave clothes
of our morning
are turned into
garments of praise;

the Gardener tills
the ashes of our hopes,
planting the seeds
of new life,
sprinkled with living water.

and we run . . .

into the silence of fear.

Lutheran pastor Harvey Mozolak invites us into today’ resurrection event, saying:

“Creep close to the dawn's dew
stop in the stillness
look into the emptiness
kneel in this hard place
where you have cried and died before.

Here toss back and forth alleluias
beyond the sun and stars
toss back and forth alleluias
with the angels who stand
veiled before the countenance of God
up-lifted and shining in blessing.”

Jesus’ resurrection is huge. Imagine how his followers must have felt? With his death, everything – especially their hope – was crushed. Imagine their shock, their disbelief, and their inability to comprehend what was happening. For them, the resurrection meant essentially that Jesus could never be restricted by the limits of this world, even death, or by our worn out imagination or an ability to recognize his presence in our lives. With an empty tomb and the resurrection, there IS someone to follow.

Yet, how do we follow a Lord, who fills the world with something as radical as love – really too much for the world to take, a Savior claiming to be the truth that sets us free? As the Risen Christ, he goes ahead of us into the world to comfort and heal, to bring joy and justice, to bring peace and wholeness, to breathe new life into dead places. But how do we follow a God we may not have ever met?

We follow, I think, as best we can. We trust. As God poured God's Self out for us, in turn, we strive to pour ourselves out for God, and to “do for others as we would have them do for us.” To be like Christ is our deepest yearning, it’s what we want most, and yet, at the same time, it’s what many of us fear the most – the loss of ‘me.’ Christ has taught us that only in losing ‘this life’ (and following his way) will we live." This is a resurrection experience.

In the empty tomb and resurrection, life IS full and complete. God IS real. Jesus makes sense. Following his way of living for God brings new life. Our call, and our journey is one wrapped around the promise of the resurrection. God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead has promised that, in the fullness of time, to raise us up as well. We believe that. Resurrection is who we are as Christians.

The Good News today, for all of us – not just those being confirmed – is that, the promise of Easter is about freedom and a new life. It is a promise of resurrected life, of everlasting life – of a life full and complete, a ‘kingdom life’ in the here and now. Jesus had turned his followers’ world upside down with his stories of the long awaited Kingdom of God, where even the wolf would lie down with the lamb. And now, he does it again as his resurrection turns death upside down.

Take time, all of you, to reflect on your baptism today – your death to this life – and, your resurrection into new life. What does this new resurrected life in Christ look like? What might it look like? Jesus taught compassion, to value all other people the same as we value ourselves. No one is more valuable than us. We are not more worthy than they. No one has more rights than others. Nor are we more important than anyone else. Jesus modeled it for us all.