Easter Day 2010
In one of the great paradoxes of our faith, the most significant events are also the most private. Think about it: the most glorious event in human history is shared only among some close friends. There is an important message here.
But for many, this is not a message but a problem. The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is dependent not on careful evidence presented in the Gospel or in history. Rather, it is communicated only on the evidence of the witness of a select few. We are asked to trust the testimony of people who, at times, cannot be trusted
But this is not a courtroom; it is the sacred liturgy of the resurrection. Nor is this a laboratory demanding absolutes. No, this is a family celebration of a shared and certain defining moment.
Since most people believe in God, nothing is impossible. We can even be generous in believing what many of us hold true. But to accept something like this from people like these is a completely different matter
Some modern theologies attempt to diminish the importance of the bodily resurrection and instead emphasize the communal recollection of the loved ones left behind. Skeptics place even greater emphasis on pagan mythologies that bear a very close resemblance to what we celebrate today. As purely academic theories, I guess they have some merit. But when it comes to a faith like ours, they are confusing at best and heretical at worst. We can understand how people follow this line of thinking because they all lack what we started with.
Jesus Christ returns to the same setting that began this final project of His earthly life. He returns to that Upper Room where He celebrated the Passover with the neonatal Church. But He didn't do this merely to reminisce or because it was easily familiar. He returned not to a place so much as to the intimacy of love.
The experience of the resurrected Christ can only be shared in that setting. Sure, it's marvelous that after such a disaster as Good Friday people can see some redemption somehow or another. Resurrection is, after all, a pretty good thing. I mean, wouldn’t it be lovely!
But to understand Easter is to be transformed by it. This marvelous and cosmic event is real but means little without love.
Even with the infidelity and outright betrayal those gathered few were guilty of committing, Jesus appears to them. Friendship gives the only effective forum for transformation. It was not about how worthy they were or how imperfect their lives. What mattered was the acceptance we can know only among friends.
If we look at the small triumphs in our lives, we can admit that few will be impressed by them. We really do not lead lives that demand front-page coverage of every little thing we do. But those who love us, those who are friends with us, understand their significance.
But if it is true with us, it is even more so with God. The appearance of the resurrected Christ would have delighted the world for a brief period until something else came along. To Jesus' friends, however, has had more than the fleeting interest of the current news cycle.
Is it possible that Easter is reserved only for those privileged few who are faithful, practicing Christians? In a certain sense, yes. The commercial world has tried for years to turn Easter into a marketing holiday like Christmas. Admitting the failure to do so, they've turned their attention to the second largest grossing holiday, Halloween.
But this is not about exclusivity. Easter is the invitation to enter into the friendship confirmed by the presence of the risen Savior. Christianity is not some strange cult that demands ever deepening levels of membership. It is a welcome into a friendship that has lasted for thousands of years.
So yes, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is essential to the celebration of this feast. That one is beyond dispute. Equally, the bodily resurrection is also the invitation to a daily intimacy with the One who rose from the dead. We will come to know this relationship by a single word we often use only partially. That word is "mercy."
During the 40 days of Lent, we spoke of mercy as the forgiveness of sins. It is that divine attribute assuring us that by His grace, what we have done wrong is not counted against us. That's true, but only half the picture. In Easter, the forgiveness of sins is coupled by and occasioned by the approach of Jesus in His resurrected, subtle glory. The call to repentance can never be separated from the invitation to know the One who calls us to repent in the first place.
So yes, celebrate the seasonal rebirth of the natural world ready to burst into bloom. Celebrate also the supernatural grace of the invitation to intimacy with Christ. The Irish have an expression for this. They describe a friendship between two people based on a union we can only call "spiritual." They refer to it as anim cara. Sometimes we call it a "soulmate" but I don't think it goes far enough; I think it's beautiful but merely human.
To hear, perceive, and accept the Easter proclamation that "Christ is risen from the dead" is a radical thing. It challenges our assumptions and skepticism. But not far from the surface is the awesome possibility of the encounter of our soul with the love truly stronger than death.
Our prayer today is that we find this love beyond fear of God and even more, of ourselves.