After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.
But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”
So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” (NRSVUE)
“Christ is risen!”
“Christ is risen, indeed! Alleluia!”
“The Lord suffered for the sake of him who suffered, and was bound for the sake of him who was imprisoned, and was judged for the sake of the condemned, and was buried for the sake of the buried. So come, all families of human beings who are defiled by sins, and receive remission of sins.
“For I am your remission, I am the Passover of salvation. I am the Lamb sacrificed for your sake. I am your ransom. I am your life. I am your Resurrection. I am your light. I am your salvation. I am your King. I lead you toward the heights of heaven. I will show you the eternal Father. I will raise you up with my right hand.” Melito, Bishop of Sardis (died c.190 C.E.)
So, why not today, of all days on the calendar? Why not experience miracles on this Day of Resurrection in which new life abounds? Why not sense the power of Christ’s Resurrection coursing through your spiritual veins? For this is the day of new beginnings, leaving old grudges and bitterness behind. This is the day of deliverance from all things which hinder us from knowing God and seeing the Savior.
O God, of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things are made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The attitude that comes from selfishness leads to death, but the attitude that comes from the Spirit leads to life and peace. So the attitude that comes from selfishness is hostile to God. It doesn’t submit to God’s Law, because it can’t. People who are self-centered aren’t able to please God.
But you aren’t self-centered. Instead you are in the Spirit, if in fact God’s Spirit lives in you. If anyone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, they don’t belong to him. If Christ is in you, the Spirit is your life because of God’s righteousness, but the body is dead because of sin. If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your human bodies also, through his Spirit that lives in you. (Common English Bible)
The chapters of Romans 5-8 are a core biblical text for the Christian life. They get down to the fundamental issue of a Christian’s identity and daily practice.
In the mind of the Apostle Paul, all persons are either in the Spirit of God, or not; selfish or unselfish; thinks of the common good of all, or only thinks of oneself and what is best for the individual me.
For Paul, the tell of one being a Christian is to orient one’s life completely around the person and work of Jesus Christ. If not, then one cannot claim to be a Christian, at all.
Regular Bible-readers will notice that I have used the Common English Version’s rendering of the Greek word σάρξ as “selfishness” instead of the literal and often translated English word “flesh.”
My choice highlights the reality that, although “flesh” may make some reference to the physical body, it has much more to do with a person’s holistic expression of sin by means of the mind, emotions, and soul. In other words, “flesh” can be appropriately translated as “selfishness” since it truly takes the whole person to accommodate sin’s desires.
The selfish nature of human individuals (and communities) can take many forms such as the passionate pursuit of material possessions, winning at all costs, unchecked power, and seeking influential positions.
What’s more, this fleshly selfishness is seen in communal ways through extreme promotion of capitalist ideology; hierarchical forms of power which dominate and oppress others; societal norms which keep people locked into class warfare; and exploitation of the earth’s resources for selfish purposes.
Those who are in these sorts of mindsets and social practices cannot please God, because they fundamentally contradict the overarching ethics of Holy Scripture.
We are not to dwell in the realm of selfishness but are to live in and according to the Spirit of Christ. All of this means that every believer has within them a great potential for both good and evil. Even though we have been freed from the realm of sin, the individual (and the community) must actively use this freedom from Christ for good purposes.
Simply avoiding the bad – although quite necessary – will not do. Only focusing on not getting into trouble may easily leave one complicit to evil by not helping when it was in our power to do so. The Lord Jesus avoided a simple skate through his earthly life. He instead sought:
“to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19, CEB)
These are actions rooted in Old Testament ethical practices. They are socially minded aspirations meant for the common good of all people, and not just some persons.
The Spirit invades our lives in order to unite us to Christ. In him the believer is made righteous, and given new life and hope. Christians now have a real possibility to live according to the words and the ways of Jesus.
We no longer need to “watch out for number one.” The love of God in Christ provides what is necessary to melt the old selfish desires.
We can now remove ourselves from unholy cycles of condemnation toward both others and self.
We can now speak in a manner which encourages and uplifts, rather than use our speech to verbally decapitate another with harsh divisive language.
We can now relate to others with genuine spiritual care, instead of personal disinterest.
And we can take great hope in the fact the work of God in this world is ongoing, because of transformation by divine grace. I need no longer to listen to all the condemning messages emanating from ignorant persons who are quick to make knee jerk judgments on things they know little about.
The Spirit of Christ and the Word of God are more powerful and have greater effectiveness than any other spirit or word that is expressed or spoken. The inner testimony within the individual knows this to be true. The Christian’s identity is firmly in Christ, not in selfishness.
Perhaps it is so hard to live unselfishly because self-surrender to God feels like dying. Often our longings betray the fact that we have forgotten who we are. When that happens, we tend to search for that identity in all the wrong places.
Let’s instead put our effort into the ultimate ethic of love as embodied in the Lord whom we serve – not in idyllic ideas of romance, but in accepting people for who they are, and not what we want them to be.
I’m talking about a love that is present to others and stays with them; sharing my life; putting up with another’s difficulties; seeing things through and plugging away at what I know is right.
Most of the time, living in the Spirit is just a matter of meeting what comes day by day, and persevering with patience through it in the best way I know how.
The love of God in Christ tends not to be the kind that people write stories about, but is simply doing things with a good attitude, a right spirit, and proper motives. If we relate deeply to life and experience both the joy and pain of living on this earth, then I believe we will find that our longings fade into the background.
That’s because I am now living in the realm of the Spirit of love. And when I’m in that zone, there’s no reason to seek anything else, because the Spirit is your life.
God of compassion and consolation, your breath alone brings life to weary souls. Pour out your Spirit upon us, so that we may face despair with the hope of resurrection and faith in Jesus Christ your Son, our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit are one God, now and forever. Amen.
The story of Christianity, the very heart and essence of the religion, is a tale of transformation from all the obstacles, impediments, and barriers which confine or cripple. The person and work of Jesus accomplished this. In his earthly ministry, Christ continually called people to transformative change into the reality of God’s gracious and benevolent realm.
“I have come to give the good life, a life that overflows with beauty and harmony.”
Jesus(John 10:10, First Nations Version)
Christ’s resurrection made possible our own transformative new life. This is both exciting and scary. Resurrection is frightening because it’s a call to live a life without any of the walls which have defined us and/or imprisoned us.
The massive stone covering the tomb of Jesus Christ was rolled away. He walked out of the grave by the power of resurrection. The cave of death was changed into the place of liberation.
That place is a powerful image of moving aside any and all obstacles to our own faith and freedom. The prison doors have been opened. Our self-contrived inner prisons, as well as the unjust shackles placed upon us, have dropped away.
As a result, those who have been exiled, excommunicated, and treated as expendable are visited by the luminous healing presence of God’s great liberating force: resurrection.
I want to fully know the Chosen One [Jesus] and the power that raised him from the dead. I want to know what it means to participate in his sufferings and to become like him in his death, living in the hope that, like the Chosen One, I will also rise from death to life. (Philippians 3:10-11, First Nations Version)
All of these words may either seem strange and/or compelling. If this is the case, it is a sad situation. Because it’s quite necessary that we become familiar with such language. Unfortunately, the gap between the world we are presently living in, and the world our hearts yearn to know, is quickly coming to an unsustainable place of high stress.
There is now a profound disconnect between the love deep inside us, and the way in which we are living our day-to-day lives on this earth. The issue has become so great as to warrant the need for resurrection.
And I am not simply addressing Christians. In his earthly ministry, Jesus was not only talking to his own Jewish people; he came for the whole world. Jesus is for everyone – whether we acknowledge him according to Christian dogma and doctrine, or not.
The evil gaslighting sort of person wants you to believe that you are alone, bereft of any help – that somehow you need to assert yourself aggressively into the dog-eat-dog world. Wickedness always looks to chaos and war as the path to gaining the life one wants.
But Jesus is the bridge to another kind of thinking, another sort of life. He is the guide to the greatest power which exists in the world: Love. And Love is why resurrection is a reality.
Although we suffer from systemic evil and all kinds of structural “ism’s” in this world, our shackles and chains have been largely forged by ourselves, through spiritual ignorance and misunderstandings of who we are and why we are here.
Resurrection opens us to new life. It provides identity, purpose, and passion to live the good life. Even though we live in this world below, our answers to living in the here-and-now are found in the world above.
Since you have been raised up to a new life with the Chosen One [Jesus] then keep looking upward toward him into the spirit-world above, where he sits in the place of greatest honor at Creator’s right hand. Keep your thoughts and desires centered on the spirit-world above, not on the things from the earth below. (Colossians 3:1-2, First Nations Version)
All of us have experienced walking a dark path in life. But now it is high time to walk away from uncontrolled emotions and evil ways. There are plenty of lying spirits who intend on deceiving you and I for their own selfish purposes. Instead, we can refuse and resist such evil.
We can live in ways that represent the good, the right, and the just. We can experience living a resurrected life. Let us choose the pure path of the new person in Christ, the person you and I were created to be.
The telltale signs of the person living into resurrection are a deep feeling for the pain of others, kindness, humility of heart, a gentle spirit, and long-suffering patience with others. Such persons wear forgiveness like a well-worn pair of jeans.
This is the path of resurrection, the way of unity, peace, and harmony. And these qualities will always guide us and inform us in helpful and sacred ways.
Our current global decline comes from an accumulation of greed and sheer lovelessness. But the possibility of rebirth, of resurrection, rises from our deep universal yearning for the good and the true. It comes from our radical willingness to change and live a different counter-cultural life.
Resurrection does not occur because of lofty thoughts; it comes from a humble, and contrite heart which yearns for a better and more sacred existence.
Only until we find our present life on this world as intolerable with its injustice and persistent carelessness, will we see that we must put love where love is not.
The great lesson of resurrection is that Love makes all things right.
Dear friends, let’s love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love. This is how the love of God is revealed to us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we can live through him. (1 John 4:7-9, Common English Bible)
May resurrection move from being merely a theological concept, to a powerful reality that permeates and fills your life with meaning, power, and love. Amen.
St. John the Baptist Preaching, by Giovanni Battista Gaulli (1639-1709)
John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
And the crowds asked him, “What, then, should we do?” In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none, and whoever has food must do likewise.” Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”
As the people were filled with expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
So with many other exhortations he proclaimed the good news to the people. (New Revised Standard Version)
John’s ministry was meant to be one of preparing people for the Lord’s coming. His understanding of that preparation may seem odd, even harsh, to us.
Yet, John believed that the coming of the Lord meant that Judgment Day was at hand. So, his words are consistent with that sort of theological understanding.
What John did not see at the time – nor anyone else, for that matter – was that the coming of the Lord was happening in two advents, and not just one.
The first advent, or coming, was the incarnation and earthly life of Jesus. This first coming is not yet the time for judgment. The second advent, however, will be all about judgment for both the living and the dead.
That reality, however, doesn’t mean John’s feisty words have no meaning for us. In fact, they have more meaning than ever, because the judgment he foresaw is still yet to come.
We need to hear John’s words, and have the ears to receive those words, because we are in a world that seems ripe for divine judgment.
Repentance – a change of mind and heart that leads to a new life of active justice (not judgment) – is the appropriate preparation for us in this current Advent season.
Amongst the crowds who gathered around John, some recognized how they had fallen short of loving God and neighbor. Some had a profound sense of failing to live faithfully. Others were overwhelmed and came to see and hear the Baptist preach.
Above all, however, John had a warning to the people about relying on their privilege as Jews. It isn’t pedigree that gets anyone anywhere in God’s kingdom.
Instead of putting faith in something like ethnicity or religious beliefs, people ought to be putting their efforts into living a good, right, and just life.
For us today, nobody can rely on special privileges either. It has always been humanity’s responsibility and obligation to love, not hate; serve, not always looking to be served; and showing mercy, not revenge.
The axe comes in many forms, yet it consistently exists to cut off something. Far too many persons, during this time of year, and especially in this season, feel cut off from family or friends. Many sense they are cut off from light, or sanity, as if the world is a surreal place filled with clowns and oligarchs who care nothing for others.
There’s a lot of suffering going on. And any threats of axes and separation are already a reality for too many persons. So, what are we to do with all these icky and unwanted thoughts, feelings, and situations?
John said to the crowd that they were to bear fruit that is worthy of repentance. That is a very biblically language-based way of saying that, for God’s sake, we had better start practicing forgiveness, and see one another from a different angle.
We need a changed viewpoint that leads to a changed heart and life.
There must be a new, or renewed, relationship with God.
If there is doubt about what to do, the answer lies within the problem:
For the money-hungry, don’t be greedy, but learn to give away resources
For those in authority, don’t abuse power through extortion, but learn to give it away, along with your wages
For those who talk a good line, don’t manipulate others, but learn to give your hands and feet to working for a better world, and for your neighbor next door
Learning how to change and be different in this season of Advent is the very best way of preparing to receive the Christ child at Christmas.
One greater than John is coming, with something better than anyone can imagine. It is the gift of a different baptism – fire and spirit – that breathes the power of God into everything it touches.
The axe may be at the root of the tree. There may already be plenty of separation and disconnection. But this year doesn’t have to end in disaster or destruction or disappointment.
You and I, along with everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, can experience deliverance from evil, and freedom to be the people we were always meant to be.
O God of the lost and the displaced, you promise restoration and wholeness through the power of Jesus Christ. Give us faith to live joyfully, sustained by your promises, as we eagerly await the day when they will be fulfilled for all the world to see; through the coming of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Rev. Tim Ehrhardt 