The Gift of Life

Reflections from 'Memo for Those Who Preach'

by

“ So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them and they said nothing to anyone…”  – Mark 16:1-8

April 1, 2018 - Easter Sunday

This is Easter Sunday in the Year of our Lord 2018. It is also April Fool’s Day. Mark tells us of the women going to the tomb to do the last rites for the dead Jesus, only to discover that someone had played a very bad trick on them — Jesus was not there! A young man is there. He tells them not to fear, Jesus has risen from the dead and gone into Galilee. They are told to go and tell Peter and the Disciples. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, they flee and tell no one.

Shortly before Christmas I became very sick for the first time in my life. Lucky for me, I was unconscious for several days and not aware of the seriousness of my condition. With a wonderful medical team, many prayers, and the constant vigilance of family and especially my wife Jan (who never left me), I woke up one morning having my life given back to me.

Now with the gift of life given back to me, I find myself wishing to live so as to deserve it. God’s first gift to us is life. Life is the one word which includes all other words: there is the water of life, the tree of life, and the crown of life – victory over death.

Resurrection is to know that God is on our side as giver of life right now as we draw our next breath. Right this minute, eternal life is ours if we choose it and as the hymn would tell us, “Every morning is Easter Morning from now on.” After going through such an experience, it feels like I have crossed over into new territory—quite unexplainable but wonderful.

My old teacher Schubert Ogden put it this way: Whatever else may befall us and however long or short may be the span of our lives, we are each embraced in every moment within God’s boundless love and thereby have the ultimate destiny of endless life in and through the eternal. In this sense the promise of faith, which is already known to the Christian in our encounter with Jesus Christ, is the promise of victory over death. Our faith knows that the final end of the whole creation is none other than God, who accepts all things and persons and overcomes the perpetual perishing of death and its terrors.

So I have been given back my life. And that is no April Fool’s joke. Christ is risen indeed!

Prayer

Holy One, giver of every gift, allow us to accept your gift of life as opportunity to grace your world with gladness. And may the words “Christ is risen” become our challenge for the Church to awaken too—for the sake of the world. Christ is risen indeed!

The Rev. Bill Cotton, a retired United Methodist clergyman living in Des Moines, Iowa, sends "MEMO for Those Who Preach" via email. This post is republished with permission. Click here to subscribe to his e-letter.