Easter Day

April 16, 2006

The Rev. Dorian McGlannan

 

 “Nothing could have been deader than Jesus on the cross on that first Good Friday. And the hopes of the disciples had appeared to die with the crucifixion. Nothing could have been deeper than the despair of his followers when they saw their master hanging on the cross like a common criminal. The darkness that covered the earth for three hours during that Friday symbolized the blackness of their despair.

 

And then Easter happened. Jesus rose from the dead. The incredible, the unexpected, happened. Life triumphed over death, light over darkness, love over hatred, good over evil. That is what Easter means…hope prevails over despair. Jesus reigns as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Oppression and injustice and suffering can’t be the end of the human story. Freedom and justice, peace and reconciliation are God’s will for all of us, black and white, in this land and throughout the world. Easter says to us, that despite everything to the contrary, God’s will for us will prevail; love will prevail over hate, justice over injustice and oppression, peace over exploitation and bitterness.

The Lord is Risen.  Alleluia.” (God Has a Dream - Desmond Tutu 2004)

 

These words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu are words of hope written in the aftermath of the ending of apartheid in South Africa, one place in this world where victory has reigned over death, oppression and suffering. They are words that can be translated into a thousand different languages, words that can be brought to a thousand different lands.

 

Easter hope is salvation in the here and now as well as salvation in everlasting life. Our faith holds the two in tension. It is never one or the other. We cannot talk about eternal salvation without talking about salvation in the present nor can we talk about salvation in the here and now without talking about eternal salvation. The two walk hand in hand like lovers on a beach,

 

The both/and of realized eschatology or the end times and future eschatology is essential to our faith. We have a foretaste of the heavenly kingdom. Through our belief in the resurrection and our direct experiences of Jesus in the here and now, we have an experience, however small it might be, we have an experience of what life will be like when humanity is restored to God. It is not a future glory that tells us that the suffering of this life is irrelevant. It is understanding that those filled with a resurrection faith are propelled into the world to spread that resurrection faith through words and actions to ensure that the kingdom of God is a lived reality in the here and now as well as in the end times. 

 

Resurrection faith is about knowing that when you have been beaten down, bruised and battered: emotionally, physically, spiritually or in whatever other way possible that you will rise again. You will be raised with Jesus at your side both in this life and in the next. Belief in the risen Christ has raised people out of the gutter of drug addiction, the despair of homelessness, the heartbreak of fractured relationships. Belief in the risen Christ has transformed those who were enslaved by the idols of consumerism, wealth and power.  

 

 

The risen Christ is our lifeline, our hope, our guide and our savior. That we don’t always recognize him or that we have moments of uncertainty puts us in good company. Mary Magdalene didn’t recognize Jesus in the garden; Thomas demanded physical proof and the disciples didn’t have a clue as to who Jesus was when he was standing on the beach. But they all got it eventually. Mary cried out “Rabbouni” which means teacher. Thomas touched Jesus’ side and proclaimed: “My Lord and my God.” On the beach, the beloved disciple realized who Jesus was and cried out to Peter: “It is the Lord.” Jesus has been raised from the dead – for us …so that we might experience grace and live wrapped in God’s love now and forever.

 

Through the resurrection, God vindicated Jesus’ death. How did God respond to the violence committed by humankind? God responded with love. God did not answer with counter-violence and destruction. What better reason could God have had for the annihilation of all humanity than the fact that they killed his Son? All of humanity was responsible for Jesus’ death. He died at the hands of Pilate and the Romans who ultimately conducted the crucifixion, the Jews who insisted on his death, Judas who betrayed him and the disciples who denied him. All had a hand in his death. But God responded with forgiveness and love. The resurrection of Jesus is not simply a counterpart to his death, or an equal and opposite reaction to human violence but the embracing healing of our violence by swallowing it up in God’s loving embrace. Jesus’ whole life with all of its relationships, its wounds, and its dying – it is all given back to him glorified and infinitely living. The resurrection of Jesus shows that even death itself can be befriended, loved back into its proper role in God’s loving plan, rewoven into the fabric of creation as the means of giving ourselves most completely to God.

 

Easter people are filled with a sense of hope. They are fully equipped to live out St. Paul's proclamation that nothing can come between us and the love of God: "For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nothing already in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power, nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to separate us from the love of God known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39) Easter people are empowered to be partners with God in bringing a more Godly existence to this mere mortal life. Easter people know they cannot turn their backs on the sorrows of this life, they have to be working as God's agents to ensure that all of humanity knows the reality of God's dream of a world where people have enough food, where war does not ravage the nations and those who have been created by the Almighty live in harmony and respect. Easter people welcome the opportunity to proclaim the saving grace of Christ by word and deed. They are not afraid of the suffering and pain of the world. They know that to be fully engaged in their faith they need to be in the midst of the suffering being a beacon of light in the darkness, bringing hope to the hopeless. This is not always easy for us. It is not always easy to stand in the midst of the suffering of this world.

 

An Anglican sister named Sister Margaret Magdalen has a helpful metaphor for talking about how Jesus’ was able to cope with all the pain he encountered during his ministry. Jesus, she said, took on suffering like a dishwasher and not a vacuum. A vacuum sucks up all the dirt and leaves it in the bag while a dishwasher cleans off all the dirt and then immediately sends it out to the waste pipes. Like a dishwasher, Jesus absorbed all that came to him and then as it were, passed it on to God. We too can offer up the suffering we witness to God as we try to wash it away instead of trying to suck it up like a vacuum cleaner until our heart is full and must turn off.

 

Resurrection is about reversing evil. That God reversed the evil of death on a cross gives us hope and faith that evil in the here and now can be reversed by a resurrection faith. Prayers proclaimed in the name of the risen Lord have delivered people from all manner of evil and despair. Despite the continued complexities of our global environment, we nonetheless know and believe that as long as this world exists, God's dream for peace and reconciliation is possible and has indeed happened in certain parts of the world. And so we continue to pray without ceasing.

 

The joy of the resurrection is a joy that must be shared. How many of us upon receiving good news in our lives are able to just hold onto to that good news without telling someone about it:  "I've been accepted into college.” "I got a job.” "I'm getting married." or "I won the game.” How many of us can contain that kind of news without a burning desire to share it with our friends, families and neighbors. And so Mary Magdalene upon realizing that the gardener standing next to her was indeed the risen Christ ran to tell the good news to the disciples. She didn’t stand around and talk to Jesus. She ran to tell the good news. And so are we compelled to tell the news, the news of how faith in the risen Christ has changed our lives, how faith in the risen Christ can change the lives of others. This is not a story that stays right here with us in our cozy little church community. It is a story to be lived and shared in every aspect of our lives. 

 

As the earth rotates on its axis and the sun greets people around the world, millions of Christians proclaim this message of salvation. We join with them in the chorus of heavenly hosts. We accept, believe and proclaim the very words that encompass this day. Christ is risen!  The Lord is risen indeed!