RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD
5 April 2015 (Year B)
Mark 16:1-8
What
is the opposite of resurrection?
For
a long time, I assumed death was the opposite of resurrection. It seems fairly
clear- someone was dead, now they’re now… (ta-da!) resurrection! Yet the more I
grieve people who have gone to their rest- Pastor John, Les, Inger, Sandy, and
other- the more I rely on the truth that they are resting in God’s eternal
light… the more that I hope that
the world can still change, that peace is still possible, that justice
will rule, that love will win…
The
more I ponder all these things… the more I come to realize that death is not
the opposite of resurrection. Resurrection incorporates wholeness, renewal,
breath, movement, liveliness, forgiveness, grace, and hope. The opposite of resurrection,
then, would necessarily be about brokenness, sameness, stagnancy, dullness,
listlessness, hardened hearts, resentment, and despair. That’s not death.
That’s resignation- believing there no change is possible. Resignation is the
opposite of resurrection.
Resignation
is what the women felt as they trudged out from Jerusalem to the place of the
tombs. Resignation is what they felt as they gathered their spices and
ointments, quietly the day before. Resignation is the look they saw in each
other’s eyes as they met each other on the road- Mary Magdalene, Salome, and
the other Mary. Resignation is the sound of their sandals in the dust. Re-signed. Re-signed. He is dead. He is
dead. Re-signed. Re-signed. We had hoped. We had hoped.
Resignation
is the opposite of resurrection. If death were the opposite, they would have
left the tomb, rejoicing. We thought A, but now B is true! Instead, they leave
in confusion and fear. Do they dare to hope? What does it mean? Why did this
happen? How?
Resignation
is a habit. It comes from days, months, and years of the same stories, the same
oppression, the same fights, the same fears, the same lies. Habits are hard to
break. Thus, the women leave the tomb- spices and ointments still in their
hands- wondering, “What do we do now?” The habit of a lifetime does not change
in an instant.
Resignation
is our habit as well. Many of you may have worked through Lent to try to
instill new habits in your life- stopping something that was unhelpful, taking
up something that was needed in your life. Forty days is a hard slog, but new
habits take work. We have to wear them- learn them with our muscle memory, our
reach and grasp, our head and our hearts. No matter how well your Lenten
discipline worked out (if you had one), the season of Easter provides a chance
to embrace a new habit.
Resurrection
is a habit. Resurrection thoughts, resurrection hopes, resurrection actions are
habits. They cannot exist in the same space with resignation. Thus, on this
day, on this day of forgiveness, of new life, of realized hope, of daring to
dream… on this day we begin the setting aside of all our resignations.
We
are not resigned to physical death being the end of life. We are not resigned
to religious terrorism having a permanent place in the world. We are not
resigned to the idea that our jails must be full. We are not resigned to
inequality and inequity between different races. We are not resigned to
rejection and exclusion of sexual minorities. We are not resigned to the fading
away of creation. We are not resigned to Jerusalem as a city torn apart. We are
not resigned to rape and incest being the fault of the victims. We are not
resigned to political systems ruled by money and power. We are not resigned to
believing nothing will ever change.
Either
the death of Jesus Christ- as a blasphemer and political prisoner- and God’s
raising him from the dead as the ultimate trump to the powers of this world
means something or it doesn’t. If it meant something then, then it means now as
much as it ever did.
We
cannot be resigned to the idea that the very life blood of Jesus was shed so
that we could ignore our neighbors and the situations close by us and focus on
the sweet by-and-by or what comes next. The empty tomb echoes back to us the
sighs of resignation. It echoes them back until we realization that hollow
sound is not our answer. And it cannot be our habit.
We
are Easter people. We are people who have been saved from the fear of death,
from the fear of separation from the love of God, from the fear of being unable
to be good enough for anything. We are people who have been loved enough to die
for. That knowledge sets fire to the edges of resignation and out of those
ashes is born our new habit- resurrection.
The
women walked away from the tomb, silent, confused, afraid. They did not tell
anyone. Ever? Somehow the news got out. They had to work on their new habit-
the habit of resurrection. The habit of saying “He lives”. The habit of saying
“God is greater”. The habit of saying “We believe”. The habit of saying “We
have seen the Lord”. The habit of telling what they knew to be true about God
in the world- no matter how anything looked. They had to live into the power of
the resurrection habit… a week, two weeks, 30 days, 50 days… and so on.
Easter
is a season, not just a day. It goes on even longer than Lent. It goes on
because we need the time to develop the resurrection habit and to see how it
shapes our lives. A resurrection habit says a prayer of hope in the face of a
depressing news story. A resurrection habit offers to have coffee with someone
who has a different political opinion. A resurrection habit takes a short walk,
even with great effort, because that’s the path to healing. A resurrection
habit picks up the phone and calls a long-time acquaintance. A resurrection
habit forgives, loves, hopes, trusts, and keeps moving forward.
The
women at the tomb were resigned to bodies staying dead, being unsure if Jesus
was the Messiah for whom they had hoped. They were resigned
to Roman oppression, to inter-religious fighting, and to wondering if God would
ever act in the world in the way God had done in the time of their ancestors.
Slowly, they developed the resurrection habit and all they knew, all they experienced,
all they trusted was transformed. Through that, so was the world transformed as
more and more people came to know the story of Jesus and to walk the Way, in
the habit of resurrection.
Grace
is true. God reigns. Christ lives. The Spirit moves. Nothing is outside of
God’s power to transform, to heal, to redeem, to forgive, to restore. The
Easter truth is not just a platitude, something nice to say. It is something
that we live into- developing our spiritual muscles, voices, and abilities. The
Easter truth, the reality of resurrection, is to be the habit of people of
faith in Christ. We are not resigned to fear, to despair, or to stagnation.
The
opposite of resignation is…resurrection.
This I believe.
The opposite of resignation is…resurrection. This is our habit.
Amen.
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