Our hope in Christ’s resurrection is for this life, too – and brings healing and hope and life to our existence here.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Resurrection of Our Lord, year C
Texts: Isaiah 65:17-25; 1 Corinthians 15:19-26; Luke 24:1-12
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
This the day for hope.
Today we rejoice, we remember, we proclaim, we sing that Christ is risen and death is reversed. Which means all whom we love who have died, all those precious to us who are no longer here, are alive now in Christ. Our grief and sadness is answered today with hope: death is not the final answer. Death, as Paul says today, the last enemy, has been destroyed.
But what if we’re missing something about today? About this resurrection?
Listen to Paul again:
He said to his Corinthian people, “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” He’s trying to convince them of what we hold dear, that because Christ is risen, they’ll live after they die, too. He wants them to know their hope isn’t just for this life in Christ.
Do you see the difference? Our central hope today, that we have life after death in Jesus’ resurrection, is news to Christians in Corinth a full 20 years after the resurrection itself. And not just in Corinth. Paul’s Thessalonians also need to be taught this hope.
So Paul went throughout Asia Minor and Greece proclaiming the cross and resurrection of Christ, establishing congregations all over the region that lived vital lives of faith and hope, but wasn’t clear with them about life after death.
So where did they find hope at first? What gave life to their faith? Why did people even join?
The men in dazzling clothes said to Mary and the other women this morning, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?”
That’s a huge question. The Church has put so much of its proclamation and hope on life after death it’s one of the chief things people criticize about Christianity, especially people who see the damage and hurt Christians have caused. They say that all we care about is getting people to heaven, all we promise is life after death, and nothing else matters. And for centuries it’s been a fair critique. Far too much of our energy has focused solely on life after death: how do you get it? By living a good life? By God’s grace only?
It’s as if we’ve been looking for the living among the dead, saying this was the main thing about today. The early believers got there eventually, but it seems it took them some years to find that hope as well.
So what about Christ’s resurrection changed everything for them? What did they find when they looked for the living Christ among the living, in their life in this world?
Look at those first women and men.
They followed Jesus in his ministry because of his teaching, because he embodied God’s love for them. His welcome, his proclamation of God’s grace and forgiveness, drew them in. His call to living in God’s reign gave them hope. Many dropped everything to follow him. And he almost never talked about life after death.
They found life in Christ here, in their lives, following Jesus. They lived in hard times, too, with oppressive powers ruling and dominating and harming. They had little control over the world, and they saw and knew lots of suffering and pain. But each heard something in Jesus, saw something in Jesus, found something in Jesus, that gave them hope.
Hope that living in God’s love and grace and welcome was a life worth living, even in all the trials of the world. Hope that they, too, could share in God’s Spirit. Hope that love had a strength that could overcome the world. That even enemies would stop being enemies, that forgiveness and restoration was possible. They realized they were part of God’s reign, so they had meaning and purpose in their lives. They could extend God’s welcome, be God’s love for others, as they’d received it. And it would change them. And change others.
So when Jesus was killed, so was their hope.
If the one who said love could change their lives and the world was killed, if his way of rejecting power and violence got him killed, maybe he was wrong. Maybe the powers of the world really are in charge. Maybe there’s nothing to be done. Best keep your head down, lock yourself away at night for protection, and try to stay safe.
But with Jesus alive again, do you see what that meant? The whole life he proclaimed, the love he called them to live, all of it, was validated. They saw that nothing could stop the reign of God, not even evil and violence and wickedness. Not even death. And they found hope again.
Hope is such a powerful thing.
All Jesus’ teachings now made sense again. All that they followed, all they were learning, all that they practiced and sometimes struggled to do, all of it was now theirs again.
And they went out, joined by others like Paul, and proclaimed this reign of God again with their lives. A life in the Spirit of God that transformed them. A life of love for the least and the marginalized, a life of grace and healing one person at a time, a way of love that loses itself for others and so finds everything.
And everywhere they went, people joined in. And their lives were also changed. They too found hope, no matter the circumstances.
We should reverse Paul’s words today.
If we say it this way, we’ll see the truth: “If for the next life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”
Because there’s so much more for you today than just life after death. This is the day of Resurrection. Your resurrection. Mine. The Church’s resurrection. Today we remember that there is hope here. Hope, no matter the circumstances. Hope for the healing of this world.
Because Christ is alive, and death has no power even in this life, in this world. It’s time to look for the living Christ among the living. Christ is here. In you. In me. In the Church. And the love he taught and called you to live will make all the difference in your life. And even in the world.
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
