If you are a pastor, you are probably tired this
morning! You may feel as “snuffed out”
as one of the candles at the Good Friday Tenebrae
service. You have kept homiletical vigil over the season of Lent, and yesterday
you tried to present the best news ever: the last enemy, death, has been
conquered. Christ is risen, indeed.
It is not
just members of the clergy who are weary, faithful laypersons have sought to
live into spiritual disciplines that have cultivated attentiveness. We have tried to make the past forty days (a
little more than a tithe of the year) a time of creating space in our lives for
the stirrings of the Spirit.
Over the
next few Sundays, the New Testament readings from the Gospel of John and Acts,
as well as 1 Peter (where we do not linger enough) will explore what it means
“that death is behind Jesus,” in the words of Moltmann. We will learn anew that
resurrection is not just about what happened to Jesus; it is the hope for all
creation, including us.
First Peter
offers this affirmation about the impact of Easter:
Praise
be the Abba God of our Savior Jesus Christ, who with great mercy gave us new
birth: a birth into hope, which draws its life from the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead; a birth to an imperishable inheritance incapable of
fading or defilement, which is kept in heaven for you . . . (1:3-4).
We are “born into hope” because of
God’s action in Jesus, through the power of the Spirit. Death retains a powerful hold on humanity,
especially untimely, violent and lingering experiences. The inescapabilty of death prompts us to try
to secure our lives, and we overreach.
Because humans inveterately behave this way, Moltmann turns the equation
around and says: “The wages of death is sin.”
We can live as resurrected people,
knowing that the horror of a godforsaken death is behind us. We do not have to cling so desperately to
this life, our things, or even our disappointments about how we have managed
our years. All the promise of our
lives—some fulfilled, some left fallow—will be gathered up into God’s eternity.
With the Spirit as our companion,
we can move from life, through death, to life.
It is God’s pattern of making all things new. In our baptism, we have been “buried with
Christ,” and are “risen to walk in newness of life.” While we have hope beyond death, even now we
live into the resurrecting power granted to Christ’s body. Alleluia!
Molly T. Marshall
Central prepares women and men for seeking God, shaping
church, and serving humanity. To learn more, continue visiting our website.
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