Pleasant Hill Community Church, UCC

Between Death and Resurrection...a Stone

One of the most faithful and integrated hours in the church is the Sunday morning hour in….our prison system. Outside the prison, our Sunday morning worship hour is not so integrated. But in the jails, all the good Christians, be they black or white or whatever, share the same pew. And in the jails, much like outside the jails, Easter Sunday is a big deal because it is the Sunday when we focus exclusively on resurrection. That is, the issue of life after death.

In the prison system an emphasis on the resurrection would seem to make sense. For inmates, a great piece of their lives has been taken from them. They are no longer free. They have done things our society has determined warrants punishment. Because personal freedom is such a core value of American life, taking that freedom away is a core punishment. So it is not surprising that many inmates embrace a faith orientation that holds the promise of resurrection as central. Since the promise of life has been taken from them now, faith and the promise of an afterlife becomes critical.

Maybe there – in the afterlife - with the help of God’s grace and forgiveness, reconciliation and peace will finally come to the inmate’s life. For many men and women in our prison system the choice is between anger, frustration, and despair or the hope of a new life provided by a God who offers even the worst of sinners a chance to repent and claim a new life in the resurrection. It is a theology that is very understandable.

But for most of us, our freedom has not been taken away.  In fact, the majority of us have had many good years of life. Some of us have good years of living yet to come. Considering these realities, resurrection in the sense of an afterlife may be interesting to ponde,r but the reconciliation of our life here on earth does not depend upon it. We will all die and we will all go somewhere upon our death, but most of us will die with stories to tell and t-shirts to wear and achievements to be proud of.

So what is the use of Easter?  If we are not primarily here to secure our place in the afterlife, why then are we here?

In an episode of the HBO series called Six Feet Under which is about a dysfunctional family that runs a funeral home, a deeply distraught woman comes to one of the directors of the funeral home in tears. Her dearly beloved aunt, who is the closest thing she has had to a mother, has died and she cannot understand why. So she says to the funeral director through her tears “My Aunt Lillian was the only person who ever really loved me. My parents did not. My husband certainly did not and now she is dead. Her husband died and her daughter died too on her seventeenth birthday. But Aunt Lillian just went on. She raised Welsh Korgy’s. She took up water color painting. She loved me, and now she is dead. I have never felt this alone in the world and I am used to feeling alone. I know what that is like. Now I know there is this whole new level of loneliness.”

Then looking the young funeral director in the eyes she asked: “Why do people have to die?” The funeral director, struggling for words said: “They have to die to make life important. None of us know how much time we have got. That is why we have to make each day count. It sounds like your Aunt Lillian did exactly that. That is the most any of us hope for.”

We are here on Easter morning not really to secure our place in heaven. That is God’s business. We are here in church on Easter morning to secure our place on earth. We are here in joy on Easter morning in order to gain strength and hope for tomorrow morning.  My New Testament professor Steve Patterson puts it like this:

“Resurrection is not about the resuscitation of a corpse, that one great miracle   that proves we are right after all. Resurrection is about the resuscitation of hope in the face of cruel realities.”

Clarence Jordan, the founder of the Koinonia Community brings it home for the church when he writes,

“Jesus’ resurrection is not to convince the atheist, nor to assure the fearful, but to arouse the believers. The proof that God raised Jesus from the dead is not the empty tomb, but the full hearts of his transformed disciples. The crowing evidence that he lives is not a vacant grave, but a spirit-filled fellowship. Not a rolled away stone, but a carried away church.”

The early disciples could proclaim the resurrection of Christ because they clearly believed that he was right about God. Jesus brought God to us. He said “Live this way. Be compassionate. Love justice. Forgive and love one another.” Those early disciples were convinced by what Jesus said. They were excited about what he did. They were committed to the way he lived. And most importantly, they believed all of this long before he died.

Easter morning is a time of great opportunity for all of us. It is a time to hear once again the story of God’s vindication of Jesus. Easter is God’s “yes” to Jesus and God’s “no” to the powers of death that killed Him. Easter is an opportunity for all of us to make a decision about and recommit ourselves to the one who brings new life to a dying world.

In our own lives, Easter is a time to identify the stones before the tomb that prevent us from proclaiming a resurrected life here and now. I believe very deeply in the mystery of the afterlife. Our bodies may rot in the ground but our souls will not. There is something beautiful that comes upon our deaths. Something we cannot know until it is actually here. But Easter Sunday is not about that. Easter Sunday is about how we shall live right now here on earth. How we shall live as people free to make decisions and choose our course here in this life.

Easter Sunday is about living. So let us on this resurrection Sunday roll away the stone and choose new life for ourselves and our world. Christ is risen! Thanks be to God.

3/23/08

Pastor Tom Warren