Christ is Risen! So What? (Easter)

John 20: 1-18

Roger Lynn

April 21, 2019

Easter Sunday

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This past week the Church has once again told the story of pain and suffering, death and grief, and we have reflected on where God can be found in the midst of such experiences. In this season which we call Holy Week, Jesus has served as a guide on the journey through the shadows of life. But it wasn’t really necessary to look back 2,000 years to find stories of pain and suffering and death. We only needed to look as far as the headlines. Whether it is the wars and conflicts which have grown so numerous we have trouble even keeping track of them, or the mass shootings which seem to simply flow from one into another, or the flood of refugees at our border who are seeking safety and shelter as they flee from violence, we are overwhelmed with stories of suffering, death, and grief. Indeed, whether in the headlines or in our own lives, it often seems as if we are never far removed from the shadow side of life.

It is against this backdrop, of both history and our own experience, that we come to Easter, with the proclamation ringing from churches around the planet – “Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen, indeed!” Jesus’ resurrection takes center stage. Triumphal songs are sung. Trumpets blast. Joy is everywhere in evidence. The weight of 2,000 years of Church tradition seems determined to sweep us off our feet. And we can certainly understand the appeal of being carried away by the exuberance of it all. It seems the perfect antidote to the darkness which, at times, threatens to overwhelm us. But I fear that if we allow ourselves to be swept away too quickly and too easily then we will miss out on much of the real power which is waiting for us this day. 

And so it is that I invite you, in response to the message, “Christ is Risen!’, to reflect on one of the key theological questions of all time. “So what?” Why should we care about a story of someone 2,000 years ago on the other side of the planet coming back to life? What difference does it make in the here and the now of our living? So what? It may sound a bit outlandish (and perhaps even bordering on sacrilegious and blasphemous) to ask such a question, especially at Easter! But if we don’t spend at least a little bit of time pondering this question, then it is all too easy to fall into the trap of Easter becoming simply a memorial of something that happened a long time ago to someone else, instead of as an ongoing and ever-present celebration of what is happening right here, right now, in the very midst of us.

Christ is risen! So what? Well, to begin with, you might be surprised to hear me say that it isn’t really about Jesus. It’s about the reality to which Jesus points us. It’s about the God whom Jesus reveals for us. It’s about the fullness of life which opens up before us when we look at the world from the perspective which Jesus offers us. If Easter is only about one obscure person in a backwater corner of the globe rising from the dead a long time ago, then I’m not really very interested. It would be a curious historical note to study, an anomaly in our established understanding of biology. But in the end it simply wouldn’t have very much to do with who I am or how I live my life. It wouldn’t have the power to really reach out and grab me. 

Fortunately, the story we proclaim is not that story. Jesus is not simply an isolated anomaly. His story is our story, and he calls us to fully participate in it. Over the years, the Church has spent so much time focusing on Jesus’ death, that we have forgotten to pay attention to his life. And what we find revealed when we begin to look at his living is the courage to live life fully and richly because we can let go of our fear of dying. What we find revealed in the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is that the things which we often think of as ultimate and final are, in fact, temporary and transitory. The light of God’s presence in our living transcends even the darkness of our dying – whether that is the dying which comes at the end of our days when our heart stops beating and our breathing ceases, or the dying which we experience throughout our lives as relationships end, or dreams are lost, or health fails, or disappointments color our world. It’s not that such things are unimportant. They are immensely important. They are simply not ultimate. God is ultimate, and the life which flows from God as an eternal gift endures.

And just as it is about more than simply Jesus in isolation, so also it is about more than just us in isolation. There is sometimes the temptation to make Christianity a matter of “me and Jesus” or “me and God.” To the extent that this becomes our focus, we have missed much of the life which is available to us. The faith to which Jesus points us, the life which we find revealed in his life, is always one which centers around community and relationship. We are forever being invited to step beyond ourselves, remember who we are, and recognize the connection we share with the entire rest of the cosmos. In the story from John’s Gospel, we find Mary so blinded by sorrow and grief that she doesn’t even recognize Jesus when she encounters him. Life for her is effectively over. It is only when he calls her by name, when he literally calls her back to herself, that she begins to truly experience what has been going on around her. And part of what it means to live this life to which she has been called is to live it within the context of community. “Do not hold on to me,” Jesus tells her. Instead, she is invited to go and tell the other disciples. Find God in the connections with your friends. Reach out and share the gift of life with each other.

The Magdalene’s Blessing

For Easter Day

You hardly imagined
standing here,
everything you ever loved
suddenly returned to you,
looking you in the eye
and calling your name.

And now
you do not know
how to abide this hole
in the center
of your chest,
where a door
slams shut
and swings open
at the same time,
turning on the hinge
of your aching
and hopeful heart.

I tell you,
this is not a banishment
from the garden.

This is an invitation,
a choice,
a threshold,
a gate.

This is your life
calling to you
from a place
you could never
have dreamed,
but now that you
have glimpsed its edge,
you cannot imagine
choosing any other way.

So let the tears come
as anointing,
as consecration,
and then
let them go.

Let this blessing
gather itself around you.

Let it give you
what you will need
for this journey.

You will not remember

the words—
they do not matter.

All you need to remember
is how it sounded
when you stood
in the place of death
and heard the living
call your name.

—Jan Richardson
from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons

Christ is risen! So what? Why does it matter? It matters because it points us to the larger reality of God and community and life abundant which we find revealed in the Jesus story. We know about the darkness. We know all too well about the darkness. I invite you now to open yourself to the light, for it is in God’s light that our lives are revealed. In Christ’s life we find light to illumine our living. It is a story that really does matter, because it is a story about the abundant life which is waiting for all of us. New life is real. Resurrection begins now. Let us celebrate together!