Loading...Alleluia, Alleluia! Christ is risen!
On this Easter Sunday, this day of Resurrection, we boldly and joyfully make this announcement.
We make it today and all the Sundays of the Easter season.
But it is so much more than that!
The Resurrection and life is not just a one time event, as though it were some sort of historical event stuck in time. This resurrection and life is God’s commitment to all of humanity and all of creation!
This good news is proclaimed here and now, and through the centuries.
It comes to us through this story from St. Luke and the other gospels
and throughout the other parts of the New Testament also.
This is a resurrection claim that we make in the Christian church:
it hasn’t set well with some and they’ve left;
others still ponder it with questions, some doubt, and conversation;
and still others embrace the claim gladly and fully as good news of great joy.
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Alleluia! Christ is risen!
In Luke’s story, the women go back to the other disciples and report what they’ve seen, heard, and believe.
Except, they are not believed!
“It’s a idle tale!”
“It’s gossip”
“It’s fiddle faddle!”
Yet, somehow, and some way, the story is heard and retold and it sticks.
Of course it did, because here we are!
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Alleluia! Christ is risen!
But, you might wonder, what does this mean for me?
What does this claim, this announcement, this proclamation mean –
practically speaking
in my day to day life
in my own situation?
It means that God is committed to you.
This resurrection is universal: it is for everyone.
But, it’s also very particular: it is for you;
and for all of the other “you”s in the world,
all of the other people of the world in their specific situations.
What does this “idle tale” mean for you?
It means that new life and new possibility is for you.
It’s not limited to people who
talk the right way,
look right,
do the “right” thing,
believe the “right” thing,
are in the “in group”,
say the right thing, or
any other restriction or rule that humans can dream up.
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One day, Simon Peter had a complicated vision (read the first part of Acts 10)
which ended with the instruction to go pay a visit to a man named Cornelius.
Now, Cornelius is a Roman man.
Peter knew that right away: “Cornelius” is a Roman name. There’s no way that this could be a Jewish person that he’s supposed to visit.
Turns out, Cornelius is a Very Important military leader in the Roman Army.
This isn’t just a Roman man, but the enemy.
Cornelius was part of the oppressive, brutally violent system
that was an enemy for the Jews,
and the disciples and other followers of Jesus.
Yet this man, this enemy to God’s people, is the one to whom Peter is sent.
When Peter got to Cornelius’ house,
he found someone who was HUNGRY to learn about Jesus
and about life and salvation
and about the Way of following God through Jesus.
When Peter got to Cornelius’ house,
he discovered that God, indeed, shows no partiality:
God has no limits or favorites to who is included.
Cornelius and his whole family heard the story about Jesus and resurrection.
It was not an idle tale for them.
It was good news.
It changed everything for them.
Cornelius was not around when the women went to the tomb
and talked with the messengers in dazzling clothes.
He wasn’t part of the group to whom Mary, Joanna, and Mary Magdalene
told their remarkable story.
But, just like the three women and the other disciples and followers who had heard the story of the resurrection,
everything that Cornelius knew and believed to be true was turned topsy-turvey!
Cornelius’ whole life – all those things upon which he’d built his life:
ethics, values, mores, economic/political system ...
All of it – disrupted.
Disrupted to its core.
And then,
Everything reoriented.
Like a snow globe that is shaken up, everything shaken.
Like a kaleidoscope that shows something new
when you shift it just a little bit, everything was new.
Cornelius and his family saw another way of living, the Way of Jesus:
Service, humility, kindness, compassion,
caring for others, community building,
noticing and including those who were ignored or
pushed away by larger society.
It’s like Cornelius’ life was an Etch-A-Sketch (THAT shows my age!).
Cornelius’ Etch-A-Sketch was a complex drawing of his life, all mapped out.
Then, with the vision he had and the story he heard
from Peter about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection,
that Etch-A-Sketch life was shaken up
so that what he knew was blanked out.
What he knew was blanked out
and a new drawing of life was made –
A new drawing with God’s mercy, grace, and love at the center.
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The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a fundamental and earth-shattering disruption.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is God through Christ
destroying every ruler, authority, and power
that has already laid claim to us,
or attempts to lay claim to us,
and that distorts life and hope.
You know, the powers or authorities that try to control us
or turn us against ourselves or one another.
You know, the powers, rulers, and authorities that would tell us what
security, beauty, success, freedom, wealth, leadership, or strength
looks like – but that is actually a lie!
Lies that break us down,
turn us against one another,
or tell us that we’re not good enough.
Lies that destroy and bring only death.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ wipes out the walls and barriers and borders
that we put up between people.
Walls, barriers, and borders between people based on
race, language, gender, sexuality, and
even religion or anything else that would divide us.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ –
this story that we share, the good news announced –
is the shaking up of our Etch-A-Sketch
and the destruction of the lies, distortion, and pain that attempts to control us.
This new possibility, the new life we have in resurrection reorients us –
shifting our view and outlook, like a kaleidoscope changing what we see –
towards growth, hope, community, forgiveness, and grace.
Cornelius’ life story was renewed and turned him toward love and mercy.
You and I, regardless of whatever forces may have been binding you to fear or to death, are resurrected through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We are given new life and new hope in Christ.
This is indeed good news of great joy!
It is the announcement we shout and sing:
Alleluia, alleluia! Christ is Risen!
Amen
