A Homily For Easter I

April 7, 2013

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be always acceptable in thy sight, o Lord my strength and my redeemer.  Amen

            Man was created in the image of God.  The implications of this are incredible, deep, and wide.  It tells how we are made up, how we are to live our lives, and that we are created to be eternal.  I suspect that the meditations on this can go on and on. 

            To be made in the image of God means that we, too, are Trinitarian -- we have a body, we have a soul, and we have a spirit.  These all work together, while,each is  distinct.  When we forget we have a soul, and neglect it, it is tremendously unhealthy.  Similarly, it is unhealthy when we neglect our body, or do not submit our spirit to God’s spirit.  Each of these aspects of a human is important, and helps us to better understand who we are.  We are not merely a blob of cells, nor are we simply spiritual beings. 

           

Too, we are to live in community, for the trinity is the model of the perfect community.  We were created to seamlessly exist with our brothers and sisters, for in the perfected state each member of the body of Christ has a role, a position, a part. 

            We are to be creative as well.  This speaks not only about procreation, which is often where some people stop with this theological point, but it also speaks of the act of making beautiful things, whether it be music, art, poetry, prose, or houses.  We are made to make beautiful things.   Just as our God was a creative God, so are we to be creative beings. 

            Before the fall of mankind we were to be eternal, uncorrupted by sin, to live in the garden of perfection, the pinnacle of creation.  Instead, by the tempting of the devil, we chose to make ourselves like God, instead of being content to live in His image.  We wanted to be on par with Him.  The acceptance of the Creation story as a literal piece of history is irrelevant to the blatant fact that again and again, man will attempt to make himself into God, to misalign the fact that we are created in the image of God, and to be creators ourselves, but not demigods.  History speaks loudly of this, and we see it as we survey the history of the world, both within the context of scripture, and outside of it. 

            So, it is that in the scriptures it was a woman who first saw the temptation of the devil.  She was the first to see evil in this world, and saw what its destruction could do.  It is also woman who was first to see the empty tomb, and know of the resurrected Christ, and the first to see that evil had been crushed, destroyed.  The devil no longer has any power in this world.  Yet, his tempting is still something that we wrestle with every day.  Though he no longer rules, he is not yet cast into hell where he’ll spend eternity it at the end of days.  Until that day, he is a roaring lion, seeking the ruin of souls. 

            This is the state that we live in.  We are fallen, torn from God by our own sinfulness.  This is a state that we share with all of humanity.  For humans, interfered with will seek their own good and their own glory, always.  This, of course, does not mean that humans never do anything good or worthwhile.  Instead, our souls are tainted with the curse, continually driven to disregard God.  We may be able to love our neighbors as ourselves, but if we don’t love God with everything that we have, then what is this?

            So it is, that in our shared fallen state, we are not capable of judging others.  We must instead love.  This, of course, can be taken to be something wishy-washy.  The love that comes from God, is notwishy-washy.   Rather, God’s love is firm, and it is solid.  The love of God is the same love that sacrifices His son on the cross, and it is the same love that raises him from the dead.  It is the same love that pours out mercy upon us, and gives all men mercy to continue each day in life.  It is the same love that pours out justice.

            It was love that told Detrick Bonheoffer that though it was wrong he had to kill Hitler.  Even though he knew murder was wrong, he knew that the only loving thing to do was to prevent Hitler from further evil, and further sin.  So love drives us to stand up for justice, for the poor, and the unwanted.  Though we are not the independent arbiters of justice, we must call right, right, and wrong, wrong.

            So, this is the Christian life- that we dwell in a world that has fallen from the side of God, and that we are constantly tempted to not live in His mercy.  Yet as the first lesson says. “the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them.”  That is, we are able to hang on to the side of God, made possible by the grace we find in Christ.  It is by this we are able to bring glory to God, and we are able to dwell peaceable with him. 

            In this first lesson we see the truth of the world spelled out in a tremendously poetic way.  This great divide between God and man -- this chasm, as one theologian once described it. 

            It is the world that tells us -- this is it, eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we’ll die!  Without a divine purpose, this is it, but this life is not it.  Though, it may seem when the faithful die the end is the end, if we cling to Christ the visible end is not the end, but the strong promise of eternal life with him.  When we dwell in Christ, His righteousness is put upon us.  That is two-fold.  First, that we are seen as righteous by God, and are therefore able to worship him, to come to him in all our brokenness.  The second meaning of this is that we are being made righteous.  This is the process of sanctification, that over time, by God’s mercy we are made more perfect, that the sins and temptations grow less, and less attractive as our hearts long more for the good things He promises. 

            To the world this may seem foolish, and even more foolish seems the idea that this is not the end, but life fully bound to God waits us in eternity.  We stand firm in this promise, and we live in it.  We know that, though there may be tests and temptations and trials, as the writer of the first lesson says, these trials are as the trials of gold.  They are purifying, and as we pass through them, we are being sanctified.  This is what happens to gold, when put in the fire; the imperfections are burned out.  It is the same with us.  As we live in this world, and experience hard times and heartaches, our imperfections are being burnt away, so that we may be found worthy to dwell with God. 

            It is both in this world and in the world to come, we are called to be lights of Christ.  In this world, the author speaks of being, “sparks in the stubble.” If we are sparks in the stubble, we can set the nation on fire.  When we let Christ’s light shine through us we bring glory to God.  This is our calling, no matter who we are, to be reflections of the true light of God. 

            Without fire, without light, gold is just a dark cold metal, unfeeling, unattractive, it is not until you put gold in the light, that it shines and sparkles, and grows warm.  The same is the case with us.  Though we have feelings, it is not until the light of Christ dwells in us that we can become sparks in the stubble, that we are filled with joy, and glory.  It is His glory that dwells in us.  We are made to be reflections of His light, and His glory. 

            In the end, judgment day will come, and being brought into God’s glory, we will sit by his side when the nations are judged.  We will understand then what true mercy and true justice look like, and it will make our hearts glad.  Today, we only know these things as shadows, and we live in our conscience, following always the word of God, praying and submitting to him.  In the days to come, these things will be clearer. 

            Though today things are unclear, and things are foggy and hard, our hope is in Christ.  We do not trust in men or princes, but in God alone, for it is God alone that is the bearer of all good things.  If we trust in this truth, when the time comes, all things will be clear. 

            This all becomes a little bit clearer when Christ, who was crucified, is raised on the third day for us.  It is His promise that He will come again.  Our world view is transformed by the Resurrection.  Our understanding of who we are, and what we are to do, is dominated by this.  In the season of Easter, we spend our time meditating on what this all means. 

            For while we, all of humanity has chosen to seek after our own glory, the author of Glory, the one who is full of glory, comes to earth,

Amen

A Homily for Easter Sunday

March 31st, 2013

 

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!

He is risen indeed!

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, be always acceptable in thy sight, o Lord my strength and my redeemer.  Amen. 

             Jesus, the Christ, was not the earthly king the disciples had expected, and the Jewish authorities had feared.  The disciples expected that they would ride to the throne, beside the new king, and be his right hand men when he took power.  The Jewish authorities feared he would throw off the fragile balance of power they had fostered with the Romans. 

When darkness overcame the land, and Jesus was crucified, the disciples thought surely this man, their dear friend, their leader, their rabbi, was not the Christ as they expected him to be. 

            As the few remaining loyal friends laid him in the tomb, perhaps they thought he was still a great teacher, even if this tragic end was what awaited him; perhaps they had just misunderstood his teachings.

            And they did misunderstand, yet not as they might have thought.  While everyone was looking for a temporal, or earthly savior, or earthly king, God had provided a king, not just for that moment in time, but for all time.  He had provided a king who would rule over all men -- the one true lord, the Lord of Lords, the king of kings, the sovereign over all sovereigns. 

            So, it was in the early hours of the day, on the third day after the crucifixion, that the faithful women went to his tomb, to give him care, and to pay him their respects.  Yet, there they found the stone rolled away.  Uncertain of what this all meant they ran back to find the men to tell them about what they had seen.  In fear, the men ran and found, sure enough, the body gone.

 

            They trembled and believed, not yet understanding.

 

It may not seem notable to us, in our time, that the women found him missing, and that they were witnesses to His resurrection before the men were, but this would have been embarrassing and shameful to the men of that time.  That they were willing to admit to their down fallings, their denials, the often upside down nature of what had happened, speaks loudly of the validly of the testimony of the Scriptures.  The great saints we revere today were humans too, and the witnesses of Scripture do not try to gloss over their embarrassments, but rather present the events as they happened.  Yet, perhaps this also isn’t nearly as upside down as we might expect, for as someone once said, “women were first to see evil, and first to see evil crushed.”  So, it is that even this was in exactly the right order. 

            So often we are asked to believe, without understanding fully.  While the testimony of Scripture tells us of the Resurrection it is, to our rationalistic minds, often so hard to grasp that a man, three days dead, could come back to life.  Yet, this is what we are asked to do, and this is what the disciples did.  This is what the evidence points to.  The prophecies fulfilled, the testimony of history, and the logical conclusion of all the evidence compiled is that Christ is Lord. 

            While the Scriptures had yet been explained to them, they knew something monumental had happened -- they knew that Christ was no longer dead.  Though he tried to help them to understand the witness of the Scriptures before his death, their eyes were yet to be opened, and it was not until after His resurrection that they were able to understand. 

            Last night in the Great Vigil, some of the archetypes of the Resurrection were laid out for us.  That is, from the creation of mankind God blessed us, and made us special.  He delivered his chosen people out of the oppression of the Egyptians, through water and fire.  He resurrected the Valley of Dry Bones, and put flesh upon the dusty dry bones.  He blessed his chosen people more than they could ever desire or imagine.  It is through the chosen people that Christ came into the world, and it is through Him that the whole world is blessed. 

            Christ is the fulfillment of this promise.  Christ is the fullness of what we expect, and wait for.  So too, we see in the witness of the First Covenant that a much greater covenant is to come so that all men may come to worship God, in the fullness of truth.  It is this that we celebrate today.  It is today that we remember how His small band starts to realize the truth of who Jesus really is.  He is the true Christ, the Son of God, and the fullness of all expectations.  Though at first their eyes were not open, once the scales were removed they started to see the overpowering nature of the witness of the Scriptures to who Christ is.

            So too, is Christ the fullness of our expectation.  He is the fulfillment of that which our hearts are tuned to truly desire.  It was St. Augustine who said our hearts are restless until they rest in God.  So, it is in the Resurrection that we are able to truly rest in the mercy and grace of God. 

             It is the Resurrection that our hopes hang upon.  We know despite being mocked by some, denied by others,  doubted by some, and casted aside by others, it is a firm promise, and a solid hope.  Just as Christ was resurrected, so He will come again, and so will we share in the Resurrection in the fullness of time.  The Epistle calls for us to cast aside the cares of this world, and to care for the things to come, to care for the things of Heaven.  So this is the Easter call -- that we being one body, might set our eyes, not on the cares of this world, but in love focus on the things that are to come. 

            As we enter into the beauty and the joy of the Easter season, we should focus our eyes on the resurrected Christ, and rest our hearts in the promise of His coming again, instead of being weighed down by the turmoil of this world.  For Christ is the one true risen Lord. 

Christ our Lord is risen!  Let us keep the feast!

Amen