| April 26, 2009
You are welcome to reflect on this message
Easter isn’t just one Sunday of the year. But the Church has seen fit to schedule at least five extra Sundays called “The Season of Easter” to focus on what Jesus did after Easter. Mostly his appearances. Because nothing happened on Easter to cause anybody to increase their faith, only their fear. But after Easter, the resurrection did change the disciples who, in-turn, turned the world upside-down. So we’re not taking the resurrection lightly. It is unique among the world’s religions and what distinguishes Christianity from them. So I’m asking us to consider what’s at stake in the resurrection. Christianity stands or falls on that. There’s no middle ground. It’s all or nothing. And there’s an awful lot riding on it.
Resurrection isn't something we can prove or test, like gravity or true north. It is non-material reality. And that’s why Paul was pushing it so hard with the church at Corinth. They were champion materialists: big eaters, binge drinkers, gargantuan appetites in every department. And they preferred their religious truths with immediate results. Anything that happened outside their daily experience didn't interest them much. The Corinthian philosophy was: grab all the gusto you can get and "let the dead bury the dead."
On the other hand, Paul believed life is more than what we see, taste, or touch. He encountered an invisible fifth dimension that was as real as the nose on their faces. And if they missed out on it, then they were “of all people most pitiful.” Paul wouldn't let them slide on this because of his experience on the Damascus Road. There a flash of light and a voice out of nowhere brought about a complete transformation in his life…by Someone who was supposed to be dead and gone! He learned all he needed to know about resurrection in that one blinding moment, namely, that this thing we call “God” is way bigger than anything we can imagine. So he postulates: if God can raise the dead ‑- and if we can believe that God can raise the dead -‑ then our despair is temporary and our hope is invincible. Not because we figured it all out, but because God knows how to “breathe new life into dry bones” (Ez. 37:1-14). Paul’s task wasn’t an easy one. Try talking to someone today about “resurrection” and see the response you get. Still he persisted because he knew what was at stake. Everything noble in life depended upon it.
The Apostle was incredulous that some would question the veracity of resurrection, because he put all his theological eggs in that Easter basket. "How can ya’ll even say such a thing?" Then he reverts to "if/then" logic. “If there’s no resurrection, then Christ was not raised. And if Christ was not raised, then our preaching is in vain…your faith is futile…you are still in your sins. And we are without hope.” "If this life only," is the only one there is; bound only by birth and death. "We are of all people most pitied!" Some versions say “miserable.” “If this life only” is all we get, Christianity is the hoax of all history. And there’s no such thing as forgiveness or grace of mercy. Without a resurrection the gospels are based on a fraud and built on a lie. Everything’s riding on Easter. Because without “the third day,” there’s nothing left. Good Friday is meaningless; Christianity is a joke; and this historic Meeting House, would after all be ... just a museum.
If there’s no Easter, the Church is just a boring set of rituals; outmoded, and out-of-step with our entertainment-addicted, American Idol, money-worshiping, status-seeking culture. Death is the end of the story; and we are little more than compost for somebody’s garden. God’s “crown of creation” is just an accidental phenomenon of evolution, no different from armadillos or daffodils. Everything is up-for-grabs if Christ has not been raised. So Paul digs deeper into this bedrock-truth of our faith, reminding us that our deceased loved ones have perished. With our minds we might entertain such a thought, but not with our hearts. Love won’t allow it. Remove the promise of a future existence and even love will wither like a week-old Easter lily. The deepest affections we can know as human beings are at stake if there is no resurrection.
Paul keeps probing, making his case: the meaning of life is at stake, if death has the final say. And everything substantial about us winds up in the graveyard. Nothing’s left but mud in our face. If there’s nothing after now, then why live at all? Over in Storrs, CT they think Geno Auriemma is God. In Memphis TN they think Elvis is too. Over in England Lady Diana is thought to live forever. But fewer and fewer flowers are placed on her grave. And I wish “the King” was alive, and all his impersonators were dead! But we know better. Cemeteries are good for only about 30 years. After that nobody’ll be left alive that knew us. And it’s just a date on a tombstone. That may be OK for some, for many even. You know, that “young and restless,” Nike “just do it” crowd. For them, meaning is found in the living of life, period. After it’s over, that’s all there is. “This life only.”
Maybe ol’ Shakespeare got it right. Is life merely “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing?” I don’t know about you but I don’t find anything attractive about fatalism. There’s something within me that won’t allow me to believe it’s just “this life only.” If that’s the case we may as well “Eat, drink, & be merry, for tomorrow we die,” and cast our lot with the Epicurians. It’s not their disbelief that bothers me. But our entire society seems to be increasingly moving toward an “in this life only” outlook. The world today seems to be full of Corinthians! Continually polarized into competing ideologies of the right and left; each rooted in its own quest for power. There’s not much moderation left, but neither philosophy has the slightest hope of life after death.
What’s at stake if Christ is not raised is the character of God; or if there even is a God. It’s mind-boggling to try to comprehend how our lonely blue planet just accidentally showed up one day. In precisely the right orbit, with just the right amount of carbon, oxygen, and sunlight. Not too cold like Mars, or too hot like Venus. All that had to happen for us to be here, just a coincidence of blind nature? I can’t conceive of a Creator lighting the flame of human personality somewhere along the process of becoming ... only to snuff it out like a cheap candle! Or fill our hearts with purpose and hope only to throw a shovel-full of dust in our face! God has more character than that. God has one Son without sin, but none without suffering. And somehow, someway I believe the good will be victorious over all the suffering, injustice, and cruelty; that the abyss of love is far deeper than the abyss of hate. St. Paul rightly insists that the resurrection is “of first importance.” Foundational to everything that matters. I’ve bet my life on it ... most days. I hope I do the day I die.
I was watching a re-run of the historical D-Day invasion of Normandy. On Utah Beach a U.S. Army Ranger stepped on a land mine and blew off the lower part of his leg. As his buddy dragged him to safety, he said, “It’ll take more than that to stop you!” Isn’t St. Paul saying the same thing to the Corinthians about the crucifixion/resurrection? The spikes that pierced Jesus’ hands and feet couldn’t penetrate his truth: “Today you will be with me in paradise!” The spear thrust into his side couldn’t touch his faith: “Forgive them for they know not what they do!” The cruel mockery urging him to “Come down from the cross,” couldn’t affect his love: “Woman behold your son!” When he cried “It is finished,” it couldn’t shake his soul, because “Into Thy hands I commit my spirit!”
Mother Nature cooperated and blacked out the sun at noon. And a hardened Centurion was eternally impressed: “I’ve never seen anybody die like that!” On Calvary, as no place else in the universe, we see the heart of God exposed. Jesus’ himself advised: “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do...” Underline that part about “after they kill the body, there’s no more that they can do!” Death deals with “this life only.” Resurrection has to do with the eternal.
A wealthy young man who had everything going for him “except for one thing,” approached Jesus one day, with an important question: “What should I do to inherit eternal life?” “Ah nothing much, just sell all you have, give it to the poor, come and join with me and be one of my disciples.” But this guy couldn’t let go of his wealth. That says to me, we better be very careful about telling God “no.” Because God will let us. The young man with everything going for him but one thing, “went away sad.” And if we don’t want to be “ ...of all people, most miserable!” Ya’ll can say “no” to God. It’s your call. Or ... you can say “yes” to God.
I admit that Paul sounds like he’s trying to argue people into the faith. But I’m not. I’m just trying to be faithful to my calling. Because resurrection can't be supported by human reason anymore than it can be verified by human experience. It comes at us another way. Every time I’ve presided over a grave side ... not a single person has come back. I can’t say that about Jesus. I know, we don’t have that much to go on. All we have are the stories told by the evangelists, based on unreasonable events of people we never knew.
But because of them, we still have a church, that we can belong to or not. And we also have a choice; whether to believe the stories or not. The way I see it, if we believe the stories and they turn out to be wrong; well we haven’t lost a thing. We'll just be duped, gullible, dead. But ... if we don’t believe the stories and we turn out to be wrong; well I reckon we hit the heavenly jackpot! So what would you rather be wrong about? Death? Or life?
Providence Prayers (4/26/09)
As we look to the world above us, we’re reminded that the more we know of Thee, the more we realize the need to know Thee more. Not more about God. Just more God. In a world that is cautious about believing anything it can’t touch or measure, help us to see the unseen with the eyes of faith.
As we look to the world below us, we hear the worn-out complaints about all that’s wrong with organized religion -- bad music, inept preachers, mean congregations. May Jesus’ modesty curb our status‑seeking, his humility melt our pride, his purity condemn our lust, his love for people shame our love of things, and his sense of mission challenge our aimlessness.
As we look to the world within us, Lord, we fall to our knees, as we're prompted to lay our many concerns before Thee; our own individual needs, so varied that no one prayer can say it all. Make us grateful that our ways are known unto Thee; that faith outlasts the night; that Thy judgments are redemptive; and Thy mercies sure. Grant us the ability to overcome whatever in us runs counter to the risen Lord, and the courage to be loyal to spreading the light he came to share.
As we look to the world around us, give us compassion for those grieving the inexplicable losses this week, whose lot in life is harder than ours; and those nearby who live and die as though there was no Easter, who can’t seem to recognize that at the heart of things love reigns, and heaven cares. Even though it doesn’t always appear that way.
Help us to be at peace in the confidence of our faith, and live out our lives as best we can, in trust that the love we’ve met in Christ Jesus will someday rule the world. May that “kingdom ... come on earth, as it is in heaven.” So shall we continue to have unfailing cause to bless Thy name. Amen. Back |
