Christ is risen, alleluia! The darkness is over. Resurrection of the Christ proves that God has ultimate power and control over death, God has power over suffering, over pain, over addictions, isolation and hopelessness.
The women, the disciples came and found the tomb empty. He wasn’t there; he was freed from the bonds of earth and body; and just as Christ rose on Easter morning, we, too, have been set free, free from death in all its forms—fear, despair, envy, impulsiveness, self-centeredness, compulsion, and greed. We cannot linger in the graveyards of hopelessness, apathy and resignation.
We seek the living Christ where he is to be found—walking with us in our midst, driving to work, at the bus stop, at the drop in center, in our schools, in the soup lines. And as we continue to build the kingdom as he did— we seek to see, hear, smell, taste and touch him.
The truth of the resurrection, astounding and incomprehensible as it is, forms the very crux of our faith—that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again!
We can look for signs of the Resurrection, and listen for testimonies to it, in unlikely places, even where we may not always hear the name of Jesus Christ confessed. Like at public vigils against domestic violence, the walk for cancer, and in the mayor’s new initiative to take better care of violence victims through the training of law enforcement agencies of Cleveland. And something more family/personal related…
We can look for signs of the resurrection in the vigils in Guatemala, where family members defying the threat of violence gather to remember the imprisoned and "missing." Or in the homes, hospitals, and clinics of this country where people who are suffering the ravages of AIDS or cancer are held and comforted in their dying and remembered in their death as precious brothers and sisters, beloved of God.
My friends, you are here to witness the miracle of Easter Sunday. On Easter Sunday we celebrate the most perfect event in the history of the world - the perfect act of divine love, the greatest expression of life ever gifted to the world — the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Look around you and you will see the resurrection in flesh and blood, for we all are proof of a love so strong that we have been saved, and we are here to testify that God has a purpose for each and every one of us.
In 1991, Wendell Berry, who is one of this nation’s greatest living poet, ended his poem entitled “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” with two words. I printed a copy of it so you can take it home and read it later. Those two words are “practice resurrection.” In his own life as a farmer and philosopher, “practice resurrection” is what turns Wendell Berry from a poet into a poem.
But “practicing resurrection” takes . . . you guessed it . . . practice. Practicing resurrection means re-telling the story of the passion of our Christ; the Good Friday sacrifice and the Easter morning miracle, again and again, through our words and our actions, throughout your life of faith. It is a story that is so familiar that we may overlook it in a moment of distraction . . . like remember that science lesson we learned in the 3rd grade -- Don’t help the butterfly – the struggle to free itself from the cocoon is its preparation for flight. It is the same for us -- Through life’s struggles we win our freedom.
But we don’t always go bravely into the struggle. We recall that Jesus asks of God, begs of God, to take this cup away, yet, God does not, God cannot remove it; it is finished, the plan is set, and Jesus accepts that human condition we all share, we all fear, the fear of suffering and dying in pain.
But death is defeated in the resurrection. As a matter of fact, Jesus defeats death daily. His resurrection is a continual re-run, a miracle replayed for us every day, and for every generation, for every situation, for everyone who reaches out in the darkness in search of the light.
We seek the living Christ where he is to be found—walking with us in our midst, driving to work, at the bus stop, at the drop in center, in our schools, in the soup lines. And as we continue to build the kingdom as he did— we seek to see, hear, smell, taste and touch him.
The truth of the resurrection, astounding and incomprehensible as it is, forms the very crux of our faith—that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again!
I saw Jesus this week: in that act of kindness when a girl was helping a boy when the chain fell off his bike.
I saw Jesus this week: when the birds and buds and bulbs returned to my sight; when the smells of spring filled my nose; the sounds of new energy, new birth, my blood pumping as I ran through Edgewater Park.
I saw Jesus this week, when one homeless guy with cigarettes gave one to another who had none.
I saw Jesus this week, when a gentleman came and raked St. Paul’s back yard so the children don’t walk on sticks and debris.
I saw Jesus this week, when someone returned from the hospital after a totally successful surgery for a brain aneurism.
I saw Jesus this week, in the face of a mother who would do anything for her newborn child, even give him up for adoption because, with someone else, they could have a better life.
I saw Jesus this week, the resurrected one, who has recovered from a domestic violence episode.
I saw Jesus this week, the one who has learned to function in public, on buses and at work, even though he is a double amputee.
Jesus’ resurrection was perfect. But every generation of disciples have to keep practicing.
What those women and men encountered as an empty tomb was the growing ground of a fertile womb. From that cave came the fullness of faith that could stare down Rome. The first generations of Christ-followers did not just face challenges — they faced them down. They overcame them.
The work of resurrection faith is to remember. Remember Christ’s words. Remember Christ’s stories. Remember Christ’s signs. Remember Christ’s promises. It is this remembering that will re-member each new generation to the empty tomb and the miracle of resurrection.
As resurrection Christians we take with us the defining miracle of an empty tomb, we can re-member the body of Christ anywhere, anytime, in every age. Re-membering is a life-time endeavor. The new incarnations of Christ’s body might not have perfect symmetry. They might need to work on coordinating all its new parts. But we keep practicing resurrection. We keep practicing because we serve a risen, and rising, Savior. Christ is risen, alleluia! The darkness is over.
Let us pray: God we want to thank you for those resurrection moments in our lives when you boost our immune system and we respond to the treatment, your prognosis is the best; we want to thank you for those moments in our lives when you push us out of the dark hole that we have crawled into or that foggy night and day that turns into a week, when we are pulled out into the bright sunlight, squinting and a little disoriented, when we no longer feel confined by four walls but are ready to shake the dust and grime off of our wings and start to fly.
God, your ways are a mystery to me, but only say the word and I will find a new life in that small act of kindness, or that I will see your hand causing the lake to thaw out; or I will have a moment of clarity when all of your goodness is on display in a simple sentence of wisdom from socially inept person.
Help me to be the person you created me to be, to live out the call you have made on my life. Help me fly like the butterfly who has caught a breeze and makes haste towards her next mission.
