Life!

John 20: 1-18

Roger Lynn

April  3, 2016

1st Sunday After Easter

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

Jesus lived his life intentionally - always seeking to be open and connected to God. In everything he did and everything he said, he always sought to reveal God’s boundless and unconditional love to the world. In so doing he turned the world upside down. Those in positions of power, both civil and religious, found his message to be threatening, because it undermined the very things which kept them in power - fear, guilt, privilege, violence. And so, in the end, in an attempt to silence him, they killed him. Or so they thought. It is the hubris of power that leads us always to think we are in control of life. But Life - Life with a capital “L” - Life as God desires us to experience it - this Life is not meant to be controlled, it is meant to be lived - fully, richly, abundantly. So it really shouldn’t surprise us - even though it always does - that the abundant life we see revealed in Jesus couldn’t be stopped and it couldn’t be killed. In fact, it just keeps thriving and growing and spreading. This life force is beyond our ability to adequately describe, but not beyond our ability to experience. We see this revealed in the Gospel accounts of the resurrection. The descriptions are always ambiguous. There is always more to say than they can find words for. So, we find images of empty tombs and angelic messengers. There is talk of Jesus present but unrecognizable, touchable but just out of reach. He shows up in unexpected places and surprising ways. It is life that cannot be fully described, contained or controlled. It is life that changes us - transforms us - renews us. It is life that always points us to life and leads us away from death.

And the more I open myself to this reality - the more I allow myself to be immersed in an awareness of this abundant resurrection life - the more I find myself troubled by the language we so often use in the Church. Over the years the Church has surrounded itself with language which seems to point us more to death than to life. And it is a problem that is both deep and pervasive. The scriptures are filled with a wide variety of ways of understanding who Jesus is and what meaning we can find in his story. And yet, far too often down through the centuries the Church has chosen to focus almost exclusively on those images which seem most weighed down with death and the most resistant to life. This tendency seems to come into sharp, clear contrast particularly in the season of Lent and Easter. How do we understand the fact of Jesus’ death? What meaning do we find in his crucifixion? In the New Testament, and throughout the history of Christian theology, there are a variety of answers to such questions. But I suspect that for most people, most of the time, the first answer that rises to the surface is captured in the phrase “He died for me!” And unfortunately, if we are not very, very careful, such an understanding can lead us into some really dark and dangerous territory. What are the implications of such thinking? What does it say about God? What does it say about us? Several years ago I was talking with a friend who said, “I would like to come visit your church sometime. But I am bothered by the symbols.” I asked which symbols she was referring to. “You have a cross hanging on your wall. It seems to represent such violence - the idea that God had his son killed.” I sighed a heavy sigh of understanding. That need not be where we go, but it is all too easy to arrive at just such an understanding when we begin with the idea that Jesus died for us. It is all too easy to end up with an angry God who will not be appeased until someone dies. Theologian and New Testament scholar John Dominic Crossan asks the question, “What is the character of the God you believe in?” And the answer is not necessarily clear just because we say “God is love.” The real answer is found when we begin to explore the implications of the other things we say we believe. How we talk about God matters. It is important to look at our beliefs, and at the ways in which we talk about our beliefs, and ask, “Where do we find the compassion revealed? Where do we find the love revealed? Where do we find the life revealed?” And if we do not find those things revealed in what we say we believe, do we really want to continue believing them? Do they really help us find and express the Truth? Do they really help us share the Good News with the world?

Speaking for myself, I find meaning and purpose in Jesus’ death when I see his willingness to live his life with integrity. His whole life was so God-centered and God-filled he simply had to share that abundant joy with the world, even when it upset the status quo, even when it put him at odds with the powers-that-be, even when it led them to kill him. He didn’t back down. He didn’t run away. He didn’t respond in kind. He simply continued to live out a life full of love and full of God, right to his very last breath. And with his very last breath - “Abba, into your hands I commit my spirit!” - we see revealed the ultimate truth that there is nowhere we can go that we will not find God already there, waiting for us with the gift of life. And such life cannot and will not be silenced. It simply is not possible. It might look dead. It might feel like it has been stopped. But finally God will have the last word - and the last word is always Life! Such Life always calls us to life. And just as with Jesus and Mary by the tomb, such Life calls us by name and invites us beyond our limitations and beyond our death-filled understandings into renewed and abundant living.

And such Life is about more than just words. It is a call to action. Jesus calls Mary by name and then sends her out to tell the others about this unstoppable life she has encountered. God calls us by name and then sends us out to live our lives fully, deeply, richly, abundantly – in such a way that others will see the Light of God’s Life shining forth in our living.

It is no small thing that from the earliest days of the Church, one of the central images used to describe us has been “The Body of Christ.” We are the resurrected presence of Christ. We are the continuation of Christ’s life and ministry in the world. If the world is going to see Christ anywhere, it is in our lives where that presence will be revealed – in what we say, in what we do, in how we live. We can begin with our language – being intentional about using words and images which convey a sense of the Light and Life we see revealed in Jesus. But our words are only the beginning. Pay attention to the places where God’s Spirit bubbles up in your life. Discover what excites you and then allow that passion to shape your living. If you care about peace, then work for it. If you care about reforming health care in this country and around the world, then get involved in groups that seek to make those changes. If you care about helping to bring comfort to people’s lives, then visit the sick or write letters to those who are alone. In whatever ways it takes shape for you - open yourself to God’s Life! Experience the resurrection! Be the resurrection! Share the resurrection! Be alive! Be fully alive! Live!