Faith Works 4-23-22

Faith Works 4-23-22
Jeff Gill

So what has changed?
___


Alleluia, Christ is risen!

And?

I'll avoid the more caustic "so what?" which implies a more negative angle on the question. Let me deploy the conjunction, the question mark, the punctuation which implies a consequence.

Easter Sunday is when Christians, a majority perspective in our area, celebrate the epochal event of human history as we understand it: Christ is risen!

Mary Magdalene, a hesitant Peter, a frightened John, a doubting Thomas and then many more besides gave witness: Christ is risen! A couple came running back from Emmaus with further confirmation: Jesus is alive, we ate dinner with him! Groups in Jerusalem, a multitude on the Mount of Olives, a gathering by the Sea of Galilee would all agree that their eyes and awareness all conclude: He lives.

And?

There's the post-Easter question, and just to offer some wider context, there's this book called "Acts" which offers 28 chapters of reply to "and" and "so what" and "what then?" You could start there.

But that would safely contextualize the event and the answer both into a foreign location, to a couple of millennia and a safe ocean of distance far away. What about right here, in our neck of the woods?

Christ is risen, and that means I should . . .

Do you have an answer to that? Because we really should take our celebration and our rejoicing and our ham and colored eggs and baskets full of candy and use all of that holiday energy to get us going on the implications of what we're claiming. Christ is risen, and that means God is good, the Good News is for thee and me, and we'd best be sharing it with others who need a word or two of hope. Jesus is alive, and if he could do it, his teaching appears to have been setting up all along that it will be possible for us, too. Resurrection may not play out exactly the same way for each and all, but Paul's talk of "the first fruits" of resurrection in Jesus is saying to us that death is not a final answer, but a pause, a semi-colon, a period through which we pass, but there is more.

And if there is more, then what we do with our now might just need to change. If age and infirmity and human limits are just one part of a wider longer broader arc, then we are not just winding up but getting ready. If our mistakes and missteps in this life that the world says will permanently mark us are not, in fact, the defining character of eternity and our future with God, then we may need to live with hope even when everyone around us says we're done.

God, unlike downtown Granville or Newark's Courthouse Square, allows U-turns. Unexpected U-turns are a traffic hazard, to be fair, but in living our lives and dealing with consequences, the record of divine activity in scripture, which Jesus rising from death to life would seem to validate, says God is fine with U-turns, even favors them somewhat. (The streets in the Holy City, we're told, are paved with gold, but the signage must be something…)

Christ is risen! And? This is what the churches of Christian belief and believers of a Christian perspective can and should be wrestling with between now and Pentecost. It had to be what Phillip and Andrew and Stephen, Martha and Mary and Lazarus, and all those disciples and apostles had to be dealing with in the days after the resurrection, before the ascension. Jesus is alive and now: we have to think through what he said to us, realize that some of the implausibilities he casually spoke have more import than even the practical advice he gave us. Christ is risen and now: we have to reflect on what this event tells us about the words of the prophets and the priests and the lamentations we have from those waiting generations before us. He lives, and I need to live as if that means something to me. Not that I'm marking time until my own death, but I have a place in a plan, a story, a heavenly banquet being prepared.

You know, the one Jesus kept talking about. Turns out he really meant it.

Do we?

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's glad to know he has a seat at the table. Tell him about your Easter blessings at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.