The resurrection of the dead is written on every page of the New Testament:
When the archangels sound the trumpet on the last day and raise the cry to awaken the dead … death shall be no more … the final enemy, conquered, at last … sorrow put aside … tears dried … and the sun, never to set again!
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
[John Donne’s Holy Sonnet 10]
The last lines of the Apostles’ Creed:
I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life ever-lasting.
Every Easter, we sing:
Up from the grave he arose;
with a mighty triumph o'er his foes;
he arose a victor from the dark domain,
and he lives forever, with his saints to reign.
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!
Paul the Apostle writes:
Listen, I will tell you a great mystery! We will not all die, but we all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed [1 Corinthians 15:51-52].
For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words [I Thessalonians 4:16-18].
Whatever else can be said about the Christian faith, this must be said, and said again and again:
We believe in the resurrection of the dead.
And why?
Because we believe in God.
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
We believe that God is greater than death.
That death does not have the final word.
God is the Alpha AND the Omega.
God is the beginning and GOD is the end.
That’s how it’s going to end, dear friends.
For each of us.
For loved ones long gone.
For every creature, great and small.
Death will be no more.
Darkness, no more.
War and hatred, no more.
Envy and jealousy; rage and fear, no more.
Theft and murder; lies and deception, no more.
Bullying and intimidation; discrimination and partiality, no more.
Bad hair and dandruff and grumpy bosses, no more!
It’ll be Pentecost Day all over again, where every tongue is respected, and all the languages of the world are lifted up to the glory of God.
No one will be an alien, because all are welcomed.
No one will be left behind, because God doesn’t leave anyone behind.
With the Paul the Apostle, we cry out to the world:
I am convinced that nothing in all of creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our LORD. Not even death!
Because the dead are raised.
And God is the God of life.
Everything we are in Christ and everything we do in faith is rooted in the resurrection of the dead and the victory of Christ over the grave.
The final goodness of God.
Life and light and peace and truth and kindness and forgiveness and hope and faith.
Life overwhelms death.
Light overcomes darkness.
Peace defeats war.
Truth banishes all lies.
Kindness replaces stinginess.
Forgiveness does away with bitterness.
Hope drives away despair.
Faith consumes fear.
Because God is the God of the living.
To God, all of them are alive.
But maybe doubt and cynicism shapes our souls, and we say to ourselves:
“So what? What does this mean to me? All this resurrection stuff … what difference does it make?”
“I still have to get up in the morning when I don’t feel like it, go to a job I’m not too fond of, my family life is less than what I want it to be, government spending is out of control, Sarah Palin is a media star, and I’ve got lousy hair.”
And in the end, everyone dies.
So who really cares?
As a young friend of mine said recently, “Life is fleeting.”
If death has the last word, who cares?
I mean, really, who cares?
You live your life, I’ll live mine.
You choose one set of values, and I’ll choose another, and maybe in between, we both change our minds.
But nothing really counts.
Because it all ends up in the same landfill called death.
The best and the brightest, the worst and the meanest – the good, the bad and the ugly - who cares what anything means, if it all ends up in the same dark dank place – the tomb – a black hole from which there is no return!
Goodbye.
Farewell.
Dust to dust, earth to earth, ashes to ashes.
End of the story.
And there is no more!
Think for a moment - if there were no resurrection of the dead.
If death had the last word.
Death would be god!
Death would be everything.
The all-consuming reality.
And hedonism would probably make sense: Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die [1 Corinthians 15:32].
Well, if we’re looking for a quick fix, we’ll not find it in the resurrection of the dead.
But if we want a reason to live, a reason to care … if we want a guiding light that does not fade, and the strength to make a difference, or at least, try to make a difference, we find all of that and a whole lot more in the resurrection of the dead and the victory of Christ over the grave.
The God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ gives life to the dead, and calls into existence the things that do not exist [Romans 5:17].
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
That’s no temporary deal.
There is no expiration date stamped on God’s love.
All of our life, and then some.
For us and our loved ones.
For all of creation.
From here to eternity.
Now and forevermore.
World without end!
The resurrection of the dead is the energy of God’s love at work in all things, including the worst.
The love of God rolls away the heavy stone and walks Christ right out of the grave.
Up from the grave He arose …
To confirm for us the reality of Christ.
That Christ is worth it.
And his words are - the Word of the LORD!
This is my beloved Son, listen to him.
If there were no resurrection of the dead, there would be no Easter.
If there were no Easter, would we pray as we do?
Would we pray the LORD's Prayer?
Would we even bother with it?
We pray the LORD's Prayer because the dead are resurrected, and there is an Easter.
We pray because tombs get emptied sooner or later … and sooner or later, the powers-that-be get their comeuppance … Pilate is proved the fool, and Rome nothing more than a bad dream … and all of the horror and foolishness of humankind – that, too, will pass.
And when we fight the good fight, when we stand up for the oppressed and the excluded and the marginalized … when we go to bat for folks who aren’t even allowed into the game, we’re on the winning side.
If we align ourselves with the voices of hatred and power.
If we cheer on the big boys at the expense of the little ones.
If we build gates around our heart and live in seclusion from the sadness and injustice of the world.
If we simply don’t care about others because we’re frantically shoring up the foundations of our own lives, then we’re on the wrong side.
Period.
We are on the side of death.
The resurrection of the dead gives us the to courage to stand up for life, here and now … it isn’t easy to stand up for life, but Jesus never promised us a rose garden.
I Twittered Friday afternoon that I was still “working on the resurrection” … and a friend replied, “So is Jesus.”
The resurrection of the dead gives us the courage to pray the LORD's Prayer:
Hallowed by thy name … not the name of Caesar or Wall Street … or any other name that comes to mind!
Thy kingdom come … because we need something more than ourselves to think about … we need stars to stare at in the night … big ideas and grand adventures …
Thy will be done … no matter how hard it may be, thy will be done, because God’s will is life … rather than going with the flow, we have to swim against the current now and then … to run toward the smoke of battle rather than turn tail and go with the crowd. The crowd always plays it safe, and sometimes we can’t. For the sake of Christ who didn’t play it safe, we can’t either.
On earth as it is in heaven … heaven prevails, heaven wins, heaven is real, heaven is truth, and the hope that a little bit of heaven will go along way here on earth … we can never be content with the way things are, because there’s too much death right now, and not enough life, and we can’t put up with it, we can’t close our eyes to it, we can’t ignore it.
Give us this day our daily bread … not mine, not yours, ours, because we’re all in this together … if one person is hungry, something is wrong; if millions are hungry, then something is really wrong …
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors … because God Almighty withholds the judgment we deserve, and gives us the mercy we don’t deserve … and the next time we’re all hot and bothered about what someone did to us, and all hot and bothered by illegal immigrants and Muslims and poor people and whatever or whomever else the latest hot-button big deal might be, we’ll remember the judgment we didn’t get, and the kindness we didn’t deserve but was given to us anyway.
And lead us not into temptation … because we might not hold up too well … because none of us are all that strong.
And deliver us from evil … because evil is real … out there, and in our hearts and minds … every time we give into bullying and bigotry and partiality and exclusion and fear and anger and cheap faith without ethics and a loose tongue, we forge one more chain and shackle ourselves to evil a little bit more, and sometimes only a miracle can break the chains we forge … sometimes, only a miracle can stop us in our tracks and turn us around and move us in better directions …
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Because the dead are alive to God.
And Christ walks out of the tomb.
Amen and Amen!
1 comment:
Word. Thank you.
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