"Resurrection Faith"

by Revd Bruce Waldron - 8th April 2007
Easter Sunday 2007

John 20: 1-18
1 Cor. 15:19-26

John 20:1-18,
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

1 Cor. 15:19-26
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

I frequently sit and wonder where the church went wrong.

Why is it, that when all through the scriptures, people say things like Paul has just said, that there is such a common assumption that living a Christian life is entirely about not cheating other people and being generally good.

I don't need to be a Christian to do that. All I need to do is be a halfway decent human being. I don't need God for that. All I need is decent heart and a good upbringing.

Christian faith is about the search for God. OK, it has ethical concomitants but they are the byproduct of the relationship with God, not the content of faith. Christianity is about a search for a living, dynamic, resurrected relationship with God. To say that it's about being good is like saying the central aim of football is to wear funny coloured jumpers and sing silly songs.

I seem to keep hearing from people that it's something it simply isn't. It's no wonder people say I don't need to go to church to be Christian because Christian is defined as being good.

Being Christian is something quite different - and I don't mean it's being bad.

Christian faith is about developing what is going to be an eternal relationship - with the Spirit of God that we saw in Jesus Christ. It's about tapping into that sense that there's something more to life than existing until the body wears out and then extinction. It's about taking seriously that feeling that there's more to all this than just a heap of atoms coagulating together by accident for a few decades until they fall apart and disintegrate back into dust.

Christianity is about the idea that there is an ongoing, living, breathing Spirit of God in and through us and around us and all creation, and that's a part of reality worth tracking and tapping into.

And it's about believing that Jesus was a guide, an image, a cipher who is a part of this reality, a way to it, and worth listening to and taking seriously.

Being Christian is about taking all this seriously and knowing that we don't do it on our own but with other people, because at the heart of this person Jesus, who we happen to take very seriously, is that core value that this isn't just for me. But what I discover I share, to help others. What others learn I listen to and share because I'm not the cats whiskers, - like other people I need to hear and learn.
It's about trusting that faith and community go together, to support each other.

Christian faith doesn't sit well with self serving individualism and it doesn't buy the idea that all I have to do is be alright for myself. It knows that in this business of searching for God we need each other as a reality check, as a way of checking our spiritual barometer to see if it's still calibrated, we need each other for encouragement in our faith journey. But that journey isn't just utilitarian, to make me happy in the here and now.

Jesus tells Mary, don't hang onto me Mary, it isn't all about just now. Paul says we've really missed the whole target if it's all just about now because that's not what's at the heart of Christian faith. The church is not just about doing good things and keeping nice buildings and beautiful organs and running care for the starving and hurting. These come into Christianity because God cares about the starving and hurting. But the heart of Resurrection Faith is about trying to get to grips with the God that Jesus kept pointing people towards.

Easter Resurrection as about a lot more than someone coming back from the dead 2000 years ago. It is about the discovery of an eternal living centre in our own living, a resurrection of a spiritual deadness that lifts us out of the strictures of earthbound materialism.

Christian faith is resurrection faith, and what it points to is that the God who raised Jesus is no less concerned with you and me. And God can pull resurrection out of the tombs of our lives too, out of the mess and the injustice and wounds of our existence, God can bring new life.

Christian faith is not about a nice ethical way of living. It's a promise that the resurrection power of God that was there for Jesus is there for you and me.

And in Jesus, God invites you to look it in the eye, and find it for yourself.

Amen