by CCW | 12 April 2009 14:40
Mary Magdalene came to the tomb, “early when it was yet dark,” John tells us. She “seeth the stone taken away.” And so it begins. She runs to tell the others, apostle apostolorum, an apostle to the apostles, as the Fathers put it. She says “to Simon Peter and to the other disciple” that “they have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.” He is not there. Who has taken him? Who are ‘they’ that “have taken [him] away”? Confronting something that counters her expectation, she suspects a conspiracy, it seems. Don’t we all? Simon Peter and “that other disciple” run and see. They, too, find only an empty tomb. And so it continues. It is the Resurrection.
With apologies to President Obama, and for that matter most politicians, the Resurrection is change you can believe in. This is what the Gospel accounts show us. In a way, of course, it can only be believed in. There is, after all, no ‘CSI Jerusalem’ with respect to the Resurrection, nor can there be. There is no DNA. There is no forensic evidence whatsoever; not much to go on, it might seem. Folly to even think there could be, it seems to me.
At best, we might say there is only evidence which points to an absence beginning with the stories of the empty tomb. Then, there are the accounts of angels. Ah, an angel told me! Right! Hardly convincing, it might seem, at least to the empirically minded. Then, there are the supposed eye-witness accounts of strange encounters with the risen Christ who appears and disappears behind closed doors. Right! Explicable, perhaps, according to “superstring theory” in Physics, but then one might feel about that the same way the British travel writer, Alexander Kinglake, felt about churches in England, wanting to inscribe upon their lintels the caveat, “interesting, if true.” Perhaps that is where we are with the Resurrection, “interesting, if true.”
If so, why are we here this morning? Because the idea of the Resurrection has a strong hold on us, I hope, the hold of truth. It has changed the world, quite literally, one would have to say, and that, at least, is true historically speaking from the standpoint of social, political and cultural developments. The rise and spread of Christianity, its struggles and contests, first, with Jewish and ancient pagan culture, Greek and Roman, then, its conflicts and disputes with Islam, as well as its internal debates and arguments between east and west, Greek and Latin, and between Protestant and Catholic, then, with the rise of modernity and even modern science with all of its ambiguities and uncertainties that comprise our post-modern experience; how could one possibly think to explain any of that story apart from the Resurrection? It is the central defining truth of the Christian Faith, whether one believes the Resurrection or not. That much can and must be said and cannot be gainsaid whether you are Muslim, Jewish, Christian or atheist in terms of our cultural history.
And so we are here because, all our sophisticated skepticisms notwithstanding, the Resurrection is change that we can believe in. And we are here because it belongs to the Church to proclaim the Resurrection of Christ. We are here because we cannot not think it.
Renewal and rebirth are not new ideas. They are as old as the spring itself and a feature of the natural world in its varied cycles and patterns. After the bleak grim winter, we welcome the signs of spring (we are still waiting). To feel the strength of the sun and the warmth of its rays buoys our spirits (we are still waiting). That cannot be denied. But the Resurrection is not merely nature’s annual rebirth from the dark tombs of the winter. The Resurrection is something far more radical. It is radical new life and it changes everything.
What makes it change that you can believe in is that it cannot be reduced to the ‘same old, same old’ realities of our everyday world. Neither is it an escape from the mundane into some imaginary cyberspace fantasy. No. The power and the truth of the Resurrection lies in its engagement with our humanity and our world. The Resurrection is about hope and redemption, about transformation and change for the better. It bestows an incredible dignity upon our humanity and our world that challenges the despairing dogmatisms of our fearful age and day.
The Resurrection is the strongest possible affirmation of human individuality and human dignity. Think about what is being communicated to us in these stories. The body matters. While it cannot be everything, it cannot be nothing either. It, too, is part of who we are even as the physical world, too, is part of reality. Indeed, one of the truths of the Resurrection is that it not only affirms our bodily existence but asserts emphatically that the world is God’s world. The Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking about our environmental woes and worries, notes that this is a fundamental point that can only be overlooked at our peril because it undergirds the idea of our stewardship of the world. And frees us from our hubris, too, I might add, our pride and arrogance which is self-defeating and destructive whether one presumes to exploit nature simply for human ends or one presumes to save the world by getting rid of humans.
The Resurrection is radical new life because it goes to the root of the matter. It changes everything. It changes death from being the literal dead end of existence to becoming the way of life with God; body and soul are made adequate to each other. Death has been swallowed up into life. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is radical good news. Not only does it give us the hope of the resurrection for ourselves but it changes us now. We live in the power of the life of the Resurrection. It is the life of the Church.
This morning new life springs forth out of death in the baptism of Nathan. He died this morning and rose again. He died to himself and is born again to God. How? Through the death and resurrection of Christ into which he has been visibly and sacramentally incorporated. Lovely word. He has been embodied into Christ.
This morning our young gaggle of confirmands undertake a huge step forward in their spiritual and intellectual understanding and experience. They are going to make their first communion and become communicants. Why? Because they can begin to understand things that belong to the mystery of the Resurrection, the things of the body and the spirit. They have been changed through what they have been taught (at least, I hope, but then, that is what teachers do, they hope!). They are of an age to be able to understand the nature of the sacraments, outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace. They know that the sacrament of the altar is the gift of Christ to us so that we can abide in his love. They know that while they taste but a little piece of stale bread (like styrofoam, I think Megan said!) and yucky wine, what they (and we) receive is the body and blood of Christ, the spiritual reality of the Christ who died and rose to life for us.
All this is Resurrection. It is change that you can believe in. Why? Because you can see it this morning. Because in the proclamation of the Resurrection we are asked to think its radical meaning and truth. It is, quite simply, an idea that carries with it its own reality. Christ is true to his word and he is the living word; we can only truly live in him. It is the business of the Church to proclaim this and to make it known.
It is not always easy, I suppose. We so easily fall prey to our own assumptions and arrogance and find ourselves in despair. The counter is found in contemplating the mysteries that are proclaimed in the life of the Church. Those stories of the Resurrection – think about them. What you may discover is how they anticipate all and every objection and complaint; they confront all our uncertainties and skepticisms. What we see is how the idea of the resurrection takes hold on the minds of the disciples and becomes believable because thinkable, albeit in ways that necessarily stretch our minds. They show us the struggle to think the mystery of the Resurrection and the wonder.
What does the Resurrection mean? That we shall be like Christ. That as he is so shall we be. Should we ever want to say anything more than that? Even atheist moralists will perhaps grudgingly admit that Christ is an example to follow in terms of justice and compassion. We proclaim something more than a role model and an example, of course, something more than a charismatic guru offering utopian illusions. We proclaim the living Christ, risen from the dead, whose Resurrection changes everything and whose life is given for us so that his life may live in us. This is change, I hope, that we can believe in. Change that changes us.
Fr. David Curry
Easter ‘09
Source URL: https://christchurchwindsor.ca/2009/04/12/sermon-for-easter-day/
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