April 11, 2004

Easter Sunday!

Luke 24:1-12 

“Do You Seek the Living?”  

     We were flying home from Louisville, KY and we hit an air pocket, not your run-of-the-mill turbulence, mind you, but a hole in the sky that would not support the plane.  And we fell…and fell.  I don’t know how far or how long, but by the time the other passengers began to gasp I, like them, was thinking about death. I wished Matt and Jon weren’t on the plane with me.  And I prayed that Kay and Christina would be all right without us.  It was probably only a couple seconds, but a person can think of a lot of things in a short amount of time, at times like that.  When we hit the bottom of that air pocket instead of the ground and started regaining altitude, I remember the pilot’s reassuring words over the sound system, “Oops!”  Yeh, oops.  No one at my end of the plane said “Oops!”  I looked at my two sons (who thought it was all rather funny, of course) with a sudden and deep appreciation I couldn’t express.  And when I got home, I had the same feeling when I saw Kay and Christina, too.  I don’t how close we really came to death that today (It was close enough for me), but when life suddenly took its place, life never looked better.

     Ever have a lump or a breast removed, have prostate surgery, or open heart surgery, have a near miss at an intersection or survive a serious accident?  Did you come away from such an experience with a new perspective and a deeper appreciation for life?  Have you ever stood at the graveside of a loved one with death staring you in the face, consumed by grief, when someone suddenly took your hand in theirs or wrapped you in an embrace and there found more hope in that simple expression of love than you’ve ever imagined?  Then maybe you know something of what it was like that first Easter morning for those few women who went into a place of death to anoint a lifeless corpse in stone-cold tomb and found, to their surprise, so much more.

     “Why do you seek the living among the dead?  He is not here, but has risen!”, said the angelic figure in dazzling clothes.  Suddenly, death’s free-fall hit bottom and they had wings.  Did they gasp?  Did they cry?  Did they hold one another with a deeper appreciation then they ever felt before?  You better believe it.  Jesus was alive again!  His prophecy came true!  They came in the darkness of death but now Easter had dawned!  They came, seeking the dead but now could seek the living.

     “Death has been swallowed up in victory!”, exclaimed the Apostle Paul,  “Where, O death is your victory?  Where, O death is your sting?  But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”  The suffering and death of Good Friday and Holy Saturday have passed, a near miss, and suddenly we find ourselves in the victory of life. 

     Life cannot be denied by the grave.  Death has lost its power.  The resurrection proclaims this.  After the resurrection, everything looks different…better, more alive, more beautiful, more precious.  Darkness dissipates in the light that radiates from the tomb and we no longer seek the dead, but the living.  Here, we see in a new way.  We see as God sees.

     Such vision changes us, changes our understanding and appreciation of everything.  We might even be able to see beyond the often selfish and shallow pursuits of the day.  We might be able to see beyond the day’s struggles and frustrations, too, beyond violence or pain or grief.  We might even see beyond death because in Christ we’ve seen death’s defeat.  It has lost its sting.  There is victory in our Lord Jesus Christ.  There is a new day to drink in life more fully, more deeply.  This is God’s gift of Easter.  This is salvation.

     I think to see things this way is to catch a glimpse of the true nature of God, that God is all about life lived fully in the hereafter and in the here and now, too.  Through teaching and acts of compassion and healing, Jesus pointed to this, pulled back a corner of the cosmos to let us see the love of God which never dies, never fails and is always and everywhere given to us freely, completely.  And when people still could not see this, he went further, all the way to the cross, stepping into the deepest darkness imaginable, into death itself.  Then, Easter.  Then, suddenly, incredibly, God in Christ rolled back death like the stone door of a tomb and heaven’s light burst out upon creation, a new dawn radiating eternal life. 

     This same light has filled the hearts of countless millions of people ever since.  It fills our hearts today.  It is Christ’s revelation to us, his opening a door on the divine to us, his allowing us to see what is.  Such vision changes everything.

     I know it changes me.  I hope it changes you, too.  Nothing can look the same after this.  Life can be lived more deeply, more fully.  We can seek the living, the life-affirming and life-giving moments in everything, even in troubled times, even a war-filled and violent world.  There is hope yet.  Easter says so.  Jesus says so.  Look.  See for yourself.  Like Peter, look into the empty tomb and see forever.  Be amazed.

     We cannot leave this empty tomb or the words of the angel unchanged, for like the women who were there that first Easter morning, our roll is different now.  We have good news to share.  Death has lost it power.  Evil does not win the day.  Peace is possible in our time.  Goodness and mercy shall prevail.  Nothing is as powerful as the love of God.  Life is not meaningless or tragic or hopeless, but beautiful and blessed and precious and good, every breath of it, every beat of it.  We must run and tell the others what we have seen! 

     You have this great and precious treasure, my friends, this truth, this vision, this hope, this light.  You have Easter.  You have what our dark and troubled world needs right now.  You can help this world let go of its fixation on death and violence, to seek life, embrace life, celebrate life.  You can do this, beginning with the people you know and love.  You can look beyond their imperfections, their quirks, their views and attitudes that don’t always make sense to you and see them with a new and deeper appreciation, a post-resurrection perspective.  You can affirm them, respect them, support them, inspire them, love them as deeply as you have been loved.  You can pull back a corner of the cosmos to help them see life as it really is – blessed, good, eternal.  You can do it today.