April 21, 2019 – Easter Sunday
Mark:16: 6-8 “The women said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”
Angel at the Empty Tomb
Detail of a monument painting, "The Angel at the Empty Tomb" by Austrian painter Max Weiler. (Photo By Leitzsche derivative work: MagentaGreen - This file was derived from: Thaur-BildstockIII III.jpg:, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39104466)
The question is not: Do we understand the resurrection?
The question is, can we permit newness into our lives?
Listen, people:
Something has happened in our world.
The old powers always
lock up the dangerous dreamers of new possibilities.
Easter is a power surge that defies the old,
it is a new healing power,
a new risk to be taken.
It offers newness
- leaping - dancing- praising -
Life!
It is the power beyond all controllers of power.
Resurrection faith challenges
greed, hate, and fears that would destroy us,
that turn people
who are different into enemies,
and abuse our neighbors.
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The resurrection of Jesus is not just about a dead man coming back to life.
It is about this dead man coming back to life.
This people waking up.
This dead church/nation receiving power,
coming back to life.
In a word: There is a way forward!
Come and feel the power
to make human life possible in all the hopeless places.
Power is at work that we cannot understand or control.
Some love the old deathly ways,
“business as usual” ways.
Where are the failed places in your life, in your church, in our nation?
Easter faith is a special power breaking in.
Families’ members can celebrate
The prodigal can come home
Swords into plowshares
The old ways of greed, hate and fear that would destroy us
Fall away.
Churches can move past old arguments that condemn and despise;
We have been good at death making.
But there is an alternative!
We can be on the side of the newness that God has prepared for us:
Life Making!
“Christ is risen!” is more than a slogan -
It is “a happening!”
Newness is given to you and me
As a chance to be taken
In this so-called modern world
That boasts of outgrowing Church and its power
And now wonders what to believe,
Where to turn,
Who to believe.
One little word can save us:
Christ is risen indeed!
Prayer
O Lord, whose wondrous birth means nothing unless we be born anew, whose death and sacrifice nothing unless we die unto sin, whose resurrection nothing if thou be risen alone; raise and exalt us, O Saviour, both now to the state of grace and hereafter to the state of glory; through Jesus Christ our Hope. Amen.
-Prayers and Services for Christina Festivals
The Rev. Bill Cotton of Des Moines, Iowa, is a retired clergy member of the Iowa Annual Conference. With the help of friends, he produces MEMO for Those Who Preach and distributes it by email. Click here to subscribe.