Easter 2007

(This is long, so if you don't make it through, Happy Easter and much love from Fort Wayne)

On Easter we celebrate the resurrection. Jesus died, was buried, and on the third day rose again. This is the cornerstone of the Christian faith. It is a mystery that we believe by faith, and that infuses us with the hope that we too will experience resurrection. In the book of Acts the resurrection was the focal point of the apostle's teaching (Acts 2:24, 31-34, 4:33). This change in the disciples (from deserting him at the cross to boldly proclaiming his resurrection even at the point of death) to me is clearest evidence of the resurrection. Mostly because the disciples didn't expect Jesus to be raised from the dead. It was unheard of that the Messiah would be killed, especially by Rome, and then would somehow come back to life, conquering death. If anything, as seen in the Triumphal entry, people expected Jesus to restore Israel to power and overcome Rome. But as far as evidence goes, the mystery of the resurrection is not something we can take to the lab test and come out with a validated outcome. So its not surprising in our time where science has been elevated to such a high place, that the concept of resurrection is met with great skepticism. Since it cannot be proven it is cast aside as "superstition", good for those who need to put a positive spin on death, but foolishness for the enlightened. This has lead "enlightened" theologians to de-mistify the resurrection by explaining it as a metaphor. Jesus' spirit lives on but he physically remains dead like the rest of us will. This distinction between physical and spiritual has also crept into mainstream Christian thought as well. The gospel message preached in most evangelical churches goes a little like this: 1. You are a sinner 2. Jesus died for your sins 3. Pray this "sinners" prayer and you will 4. Not go to hell but 5. Go to heaven which is somewhere beyond our galaxy 6. you will be a disembodied spirit floating in the clouds in this celestial city and will probably know how to play the harp. I might have exaggerated this a bit, but this view of the gospel leads to escapism, which maintains that our ultimate goal is to be free from this body, and free from this world. You see it all the time in some of the songs we sing, "I'll fly away" "Take me away sweet Jesus". It has lead countless Christians to "rapture practice", and has inspired numerous bumper stickers "in case of rapture, this car will be unmanned!" The overall message here is that there is nothing worth saving in this world but our souls, so don't worry about "physical" things like our bodies or the environment around us, its all gonna burn. I think this distinction is false or at least misleading. We have a tendency toward this dualism because we live currently in physical reality and it is hard to imagine the spiritual world as anything other than a separate realm having nothing to do with what we can see, touch, smell, or taste. And so heaven is far away somewhere "beyond imagination", Jesus saved your soul, which will one day disappear in rapturous delight to this "unworldly place".

But listen to T.S Eliot who writes, "We may say that religion, as distinguished from modern paganism, implies a life in conformity with nature. It may be observed that the natural life and the supernatural life have a conformity to each other that neither has with the mechanistic life." Along the same line Wendell Berry says, "I take literally the statement in the Gospel of John that God loves the world. Our bodies are involved in the world. Their needs, desires, and pleasures are physical." The point is not to downplay spirituality, or to say that we are not spiritual beings, but that the belief that our souls are the only thing worth saving leads us to devalue physical reality. This same sort of reduction causes those in the scientific community to equate our bodies with machines; the heart is a pump, brain is a computer etc., diminishing in every way what was "fearfully and wonderfully made". The opposite view is what NT Wright describes as "overlapping spheres"; that there isn't such a wide gap between the spiritual and physical but that they are intermingling. Heaven is not so much a place far far away but it is God's realm, which is present all around us, "The earth is full of his glory." Through Jesus, this realm has come breaking into our present reality, and though it is not fully realized yet we are instructed to pray "your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." And the message of the kingdom is that God is healing, restoring, and renewing his people and his creation. We are more than just souls that will float off someday, we are people who live, breathe, and move in a world which is sustained by his love and full of his glory. This is the good news, that God so loved the world that he was not willing to let it perish.

And so we celebrate Easter. Jesus died, was buried, and was raised to life. And this resurrection life, this redeeming of our physical bodies is the hope of the whole earth.

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved." Romans 8:8-24