April 17, 2022 – Easter Sunday

How can we accept the resurrection of Jesus Christ? You will never see or accept something that you will not allow yourself to imagine!

Let us pray.  Holy and gracious God, we give you thanks for your presence in this time and place, and within each one of us. Help us now to open our minds, our hearts, our whole lives, to receive the gift of your living Word for us this day, and may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.

Well, the fact you are here this morning indicates that, for you, today is about more than chocolate eggs and Easter bunnies. But it is also about more than simply the Christian religion – more than the teachings of Jesus, more than gathering together with family, friends, and fellow church members in the name of God.

Today is about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ – full stop! Is Jesus risen from the dead? I use “is” rather than “was” because if he is risen then he is here with us as we gather in his name.

In today’s First Reading, in a section of the Acts of the Apostles where Peter is struggling – not with whether Christ is raised or not – he doesn’t have any issues with that. Rather, he had issues with who Christ was resurrected for! However, the Holy Spirit kindly convinced him that the resurrection was for everyone! You can read the full story in Acts, chapter 10.

But in today’s Second Reading, St. Paul is debating about the resurrection with some of his contemporaries. They were struggling, not specifically about Jesus being resurrected, but rather because they were part of a religious group that did not believe in the resurrection of the dead – period! And if you don’t believe that resurrection happens, then Jesus can’t be resurrected either.

In the Gospel Reading, the women coming to the empty tomb struggle also – at least initially. I’m not even sure that the visitation by the two angels changed their minds. Rather it was these words, spoken by the angels. “Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.” They remembered Jesus’ words. They know Jesus – they trusted Jesus. So that made it possible to at least contemplate Jesus’ resurrection. Obviously, at first, the apostles didn’t have the same level of trust in the women – except maybe for Peter, after he visited the empty tomb and went away amazed.

The resulting Christian church, then and now, is essentially the ‘company of those who have accepted the resurrection of Jesus Christ.’ And it seems there has always been those who have struggled with the Resurrection.  In the 19th and 20th centuries – the height of rational modernism, the issue was scientific – biological.  The dead tissue of the human body can’t be made to live again. As a result, systematic theologians had to spin all kinds of theological ‘gymnastics’ to get around the problem, with phrases like “The Jesus of history and the Christ of faith” – as two different realities. Or the proposal of a “spiritual resurrection” where the presence of Jesus in the peoples’ hearts made him alive again.

But now we’ve moved past rational modernism. With quantum physics, subatomic particle theory, generating life in a test tube, the possibility of a human resurrection seems at least possible.

So what is the stumbling block around Christ’s resurrection? I want to suggest that it is this: “You will never see or accept something you will not allow yourself to imagine!” Think of all of the technical inventions in the last 150 years. Some inventor, somewhere, allowed him or herself to imagine what some new invention could look like – the airplane – human space flight – the mobile phone. Or what about women excelling in traditionally male-dominated professions? Some time ago I had a conversation with a female, recently-ordained priest telling me about a discussion she’d had with a man who was in training for ordained ministry in a denomination that doesn’t ordain women. She said that he wondered if she “felt more like a man” when she stood behind the altar? Clearly, he would not – could not – allow himself to imagine women as priests. You will never see or accept something that you will not allow yourself to imagine! So hopefully you’ve got over that stumbling block with respect to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So now – in this generation of the 21st century – if the latest science has enabled contemporaries to imagine the resurrection of Jesus Christ being in the realm of possibility – what is today’s issue around belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ? I think it’s the indifferent response – “So what?” What difference does that make – to me – to this world? What can we say about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and living in this present world?

There is a “hint” in today’s Collect Prayer. “Lord of life and power, through the mighty resurrection of your Son, you have overcome the old order of sin and death and have made all things new in him.” Hmmm – “overcome the older order of sin and death”, and “made all things new.” Let’s take a look at that. Over the centuries there have been some victories over “old orders” and some things made new. At least in some countries there is a reasonable sense of law and order – and personal safety – some sense of justice. At least racism, exclusion based on gender or sexual orientation is now being called out as unacceptable. Capital punishment is more rare. There has been a strong attempt to stamp our slavery. But then there is the opioid crisis, global pandemics, genocidal dictators invading neighbouring countries, and the global climate crisis, to name a few. Have the older orders been overcome? Are all things being made new?

Remember – you have to allow yourself to imagine it before you’ll be able to see it. Our problem is the limit of linear thinking. We seem to naturally expect a improvement to follow a progression from bad – to not-so-bad – to good – to perfect. This, too, is a product of liberal modernism. But what if real progress is much more complex – 3 steps forward and 2 steps back; or sometimes, several steps back before the forward steps resume. What if “the old order of sin and death” has been defeated. (like spring defeats winter – even if it rears its head in a freak April blizzard!)

So how do you receive and accept this claim of the resurrection of Jesus Christ over coming the old order – beginning the making of all things new? What did we say earlier? “You will never see or accept something you will not allow yourself to imagine!” We can never hope to fully understand the complexity of God’s paths in “making all things new.” But we can imagine that this is so, and when we can allow the resurrection of Jesus Christ in our realm of thinking – when we can believe that ultimately the old order of sin and death has been overcome – then we become open to see the ways that God is making this truth a reality. And most importantly, we become witnesses to God’s victory in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This morning, Arthur is embracing that reality – and he’s doing it here because he has experienced the risen Christ in this community. Lorraine and Mitchell are re-affirming their commitment to the Resurrection and its impact on them and this world.

And we are invited to do the same – to join ourselves to the Risen Christ, which we’ll affirm when we say these words at the Breaking of the Bread: “Lord, we died with you on the cross; now we are raised to new life. We were buried in your tomb; now we share in your resurrection. Live in us, that we may live in you. Stretch those imaginations – open wide your minds and hearts. Christ is risen – the Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.