audacious hope
The Disciples Peter and John running to the sepulchre on the morning of the Resurrection, 1889 (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) by Eugène Burnand.
The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the most daring statement of Christian faith. Unless you consider God coming in the flesh to be even more bold. Either way, Christmas and Easter, stand together as shining pillars of Christian faith. The resurrection declares that the past is not prelude to the future. Our past failures, sins and regrets, need not determine our lives forever. Each of us has the opportunity to consider a future made possible by the forgiveness of sins and the new life that Jesus declares possible for all. Peter, James and John are not the only ones given a second chance! It’s true for each of us.
“So …. do not cling to me, Jesus says to Mary; instead, go, and bring others along on the journey toward the heart of God. Easter always forces us to ask where and how we might want to cling, where and how we might turn away from the task and the journey.” (Rowan Williams)
It’s a startling command: do not cling to me. There is within each of us a desire to cling to what we know and more often that means the past. Yet Jesus does not allow such clinging. Without clinging we walk into a future that is alive with possibilities never before considered. Without clinging, we depend not upon ourselves but upon the justification that can only come from the God of Israel who sees beyond our past, beyond our fears and our failures, beyond our relentless desire to justify ourselves. As Jesus goes on to his home-in-the-Father, he promises an open future not bound by the past. Christian faith does not look back to a great teacher or a more example, but forward to where Jesus leads, to that being-at-home with God, that he has made possible.
On this Easter, I imagine those migrant women and girls, men and boys who have traveled across rugged countryside, fleeing desperate poverty and deprivation, clinging to nothing but the hope of a new life in a new country. It’s an audacious hope under threat from authoritarian rule. Their future is utterly uncertain, more than ever, but still bright with hope and possibility - they embody the Easter promise of life from death. The past holds nothing for them, they have only a future fraught with danger nevertheless filled with hope. Thus, these poor migrants on the border of past and future, render for all of us the journey that Jesus’ summons us to in our journey toward God. Those who stand against the poor, the wayfaring stranger, stand against the God who loves them to the end. This includes those unjustly deported and detained in prison.
After the resurrection, the earliest Christians were sometimes called “followers of the way” (Acts 9) or the “friends of Jesus” (John 14) and their fledgling churches known as “resurrection communities.” There was curiosity among their neighbors as they witnessed Jews, Gentiles, rich and poor caring for each other, sharing meals and helping those in need. In defiance of the local gods, these Friends of Jesus’ sole allegiance was to the God of Israel who had raised Jesus from the dead. What held them together was the conviction that Jesus was alive and his Spirit was leading them into a new way of life.
And this is what we celebrate each time we gather at the Lord’s Table and baptize our children: the living presence of the Lord Jesus among us through his Spirit that binds his people together in love. We know Church history is stained with awful acts that have violated the dignity of men, women and children. We know the failures of the Church to bear witness to Jesus as Lord against all other competing gods. We know how timid the Church can be in the face of injustice, cruelty, oppression and racism. This has forever tarnished the witness of God’s love in Jesus Christ. But that is not the whole story.
The good news is the Holy Spirit is still forming a “people of the way”, gathering friends of Jesus into “resurrection communities” that resist the powers defying God’s reign of mercy, love and justice in in every place of suffering. The risen Christ is the one who binds the Church together to proclaim his promise of new life. Into this community of Christ we baptize our children.
One more thing. The burning of the Cathedral of Notre Dame may well be a parable of resurrection power. From a profound sorrow emerged an international community vibrant with the desire and hope of building a bright future in the ashes of the old. The community includes those in every language and race who haven’t prayed in years or sung a hymn on bended knee. Sometimes death is the very thing that brings life. This is resurrection. Now, lo and behold, the Cathedral is restored and our hope remains for a better future.
Mary weeps at the thought that her Lord is gone. Her weeping opens our own tears over what has gone in our life. Yet the moment Jesus calls Mary by name, her joy is unbound. And so is yours. Delight springs forth knowing he is alive, calling you by name. Whatever else may happen, you know, as Mary does, that nothing will ever be the same. The future beckons you because that is where Jesus is going ahead of you. So, tell the others! He is alive.
Friends of Jesus: do this, see what signs and wonders occur among us.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Amen.
John 20:1-18
With joy unbounded
Easter April 20, 2025
Roy W. Howard