Rise Heart, Thy Lord is Risen Easter Day St Mary s Iffley, Sunday 31-Mar-13

Transcription

1 A small town had three churches Catholic, Methodist and Anglican. All three had a problem with moles. The Catholic Church, run by the Franciscan order, could not harm any of God's creatures, so humanely trapped the moles and set them free outside of town. Three days later, the moles were back. The stewards at the Methodist Church organised a bring & share supper, confident that overfeeding the moles on casserole would be the last they saw of them. However, the moles loved it and came back, bringing many of their friends and family with them. The Anglicans had the best solution. The Vicar told the Curate to baptise the moles and get them all to fill in an electoral roll form. That ll do the trick, he promised her. Now we ll only see them at Christmas and Easter! This Easter morning, we are come with Mary Magdalene once again to the tomb. It is through her eyes looking for a glimpse of the resurrection that we see Jesus mistaken for a gardener but unavoidably alive in the process of being unveiled.

2 Seventeen hundred years ago, Cyril of Jerusalem observed that The church glories in every deed of Christ BUT that the paschal mystery is different. It is the only one that is for everyone, forever. Let me explain. Before Maundy Thursday, Jesus met moments of need one by one A blind man s sight restored, but others left sightless. Ten lepers cleansed, but hundreds others excluded still. Five thousand fed with fish and bread, but only once. Lazarus alive again for now, but death would reclaim him. The cross and resurrection are for everyone, forever. The cross and resurrection are for everyone, forever. But they only work if they work together. There s a deceitful narrative that we need to challenge. It goes something like this: The death of Jesus was the real work and the empty tomb is the medal ceremony now that the race has been won, that the resurrection is merely an encore in which we applaud Jesus gratefully for all that his cross achieved.

3 The cross & resurrection only work if they work together. The Apostles defined themselves as witnesses not of the cross, but as witnesses of the resurrection and as we heard in our first reading they preached this resurrection with passion The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed. Now in adjusting the balance, I not saying we need to blunt our theology of the cross, for as Congregationalist writer P.T. Forsyth asserts Christ is to us just what his cross is but I am certain that we need to sharpen our theology of the resurrection. Contemporary writer John Eldredge may help us: A dead man is not a great deal of help to us; a dead God is even worse. But life, real life, the power of God to restore you -now that s a whole other matter. We say Christ died for us, and that is true. But Christ was also raised for us. His resurrection was as much for us as his death was. His resurrection was as much for us as his death was.

4 Paul explains it for us in the epistle reading. God wanted to have us for Himself, but the way we were was what stood in the way. God first utterly did away with us by the cross of Christ, so as all die in Adam and then by resurrection he has begun streaming new life into us so will all be made alive in Christ. We are in the process of being unveiled. Our old history ends with the cross. Our new history begins with the resurrection. We are in the process of being unveiled. The sense that I have come to this Paschal season is that the cross did something TO us but the resurrection does something FOR us resurrection corrects and protects us resurrection connects and perfects us We are in the process of being unveiled. Watchman Nee: The greatest negative in the universe is the cross, for with it God wiped out everything that was not of Himself:

5 the greatest positive in the universe is the resurrection, for through it God brought into being all He will have in the new sphere. So the resurrection stands at the threshold of the new creation. It is a blessed thing to see that the cross ends all that belongs to the first regime, and that the resurrection introduces all that pertains to the second. Everything that had its beginning before resurrection must be wiped out. Resurrection is God's new starting-point. We are in the process of being unveiled Paul Tillich captured this process, saying that here and there in the world and now and then in ourselves is a New Creation ONLY HERE AND THERE, ONLY NOW AND THEN The process is begun, but the process is a struggle. Be kind for everyone you know is facing a great battle Philo of Alexandria The process is a struggle, but the process is begun. Resurrection is a habit that comes to life in us as we make it our own, a duty and a joy, at all times and in places.

6 The Sursum Corda is the name for words that priest and people share at the start of the Eucharistic Prayer. It s been part of our story gathering as family around the table from the earliest liturgies we have. The phrase Sursum Corda is generally translated as "lift up your hearts", but the Latin literally just says Up hearts. We can imagine this as the shout of a sergeant major, calling hearts to attention before the throne and altar of the King of Kings. Uuuuup Hearts! So, in the rest of this week, wherever we go, whatever we do, UP HEARTS! In the conversations we have and the decisions that we make, UP HEARTS! In the moments of blessing and of peace and of joy, UP HEARTS! In the moments of pain and of frustration and of disappointment, UP HEARTS! This Easter Sunday, as George Herbert wrote: rise heart, the Lord is risen. but may our hearts also more fully be caught up in the unfolding reality that that because He is risen, we too are risen indeed: ALLELUIA