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Easter Sunday 2008This morning I’d like to take you on a tour of the resurrection. To do this I’m going to ask you to imagine a series of 4 concentric circles. It will be a bit like the ancient Temple in Jerusalem that had an outer Court of the Gentiles, an inner court for Jews, a more inner chamber where the priests made sacrifices, and at the center, the Holy of Holies. Curiously, this central place was totally empty, I suppose so that there could be room for the Holy One. My tour of the resurrection this morning will similarly take you through 4 concentric circles, beginning at the outside and moving towards the center.
The outer circle of resurrection is like the Court of the Gentiles. In this place all kinds of things took place –purchases for the necessities of worship, gossip, business transactions, news of the community. Similarly, the first circle of resurrection is quite broad. It is Easter as a springtime festival. This morning we began our first liturgy with a full moon and a bonfire in the patio at 6am. We’ve got an Easter egg hunt, and a delicious breakfast all morning. Beautiful music and colorful streamers abound. We’ve got bunny rabbits, children, and flowers. Later today, many of us will have an Easter dinner with tasty food and wine.
Then we throw in Jesus’ resurrection into the mix, and the festival becomes vast, cosmic:
Now let the heavens be joyful, let earth her song begin
the round world keep high triumph, and all that is therein
let all things seen and unseen, their notes together blend
for Christ the Lord is risen, our joy that hath no end!
Every culture, every race has festivals like this, and at this level, the details don’t really matter very much. As long as you’ve got color and food and jubilation, it could be Dia de los Muertos in Mexico, Diwali - the Hindu festival of lights in India, or an African wedding. This first outer circle of Easter is all about the renewal of creation in spring. It is wonderful, and for some of us, more than enough. Perhaps this is exactly where some of you need to be today.
When we step towards the center of the Temple in Jerusalem, we enter the Court of the Jews, where the stories of scripture were read, and the faith was taught – Jesus himself taught here. Similarly, when we move into the second circle of the resurrection, we encounter our central story and teaching: Jesus’ rising from the dead. An earthquake, a massive stone miraculously rolled away, astonished women at an empty tomb, an angel in white, and the risen Lord, majestic and transformed.
Years ago, I moved into this second circle of Easter as I had never before when I visited the Holy Land. Walking the hills of Galilee overlooking little fishing villages, wandering through the ancient, crowded, blood-soaked alleyways of Old Jerusalem, it dawned on me: Wait a minute! This was real. A man named Jesus lived a human life here. He gathered followers, miraculously healed the sick, and shared wisdom that woke people up to God. They executed him on a cross and he came back alive! His friends would never be the same. All of this really happened.
This second circle of resurrection is about the story of Jesus: the power of God working through him, his holiness, his love. He radiates with glory. He has ascended into the heavens, exploding, as it were, into all creation, dwelling as risen Lord within and among us. Perhaps some of you today are taken by this story about Jesus, and this is where you need to be. Devotion to the risen Christ brings you renewal.
In the Temple, the next inner chamber was where the priests made the animal sacrifices on behalf of the people, offering the most precious thing possible back to the Creator – an actual life. In the same way, if we take a few more steps toward the center, the resurrection begins to cost us something. It involves sacrifice. For here, resurrection is no longer just about the springtime renewal of nature or an inspiring story about Jesus. Here God begins to ask more of us, something more than celebration or devotion. God asks us to change.
This third circle is where our behavior is resurrected. As we read the gospels and begin to understand the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, we find ourselves unable to live as we have lived before. We can’t tolerate pettiness, resentment, and a purely materialistic view. We grow weary of our addictions and our fears. We can no longer believe in the illusion that the emotional ups and downs of our daily life are ultimately real and worth the trouble. We want to learn how to love our enemy, forgive those who harm us, and to be a more humble servant for the greater good of all. We see other people as our brothers and sisters in God, worthy of respect and dignity, no matter who they are, and we strive for justice and peace.
This third circle is what we will re-commit to in a few moments as we renew our Baptismal Covenant. It is about the resurrection of our behavior – dying to the old life of sin and rising to the new life of grace, so that, with God’s help, we might be more Christ-like. Here, Easter becomes something to practice every day. Perhaps this circle of resurrection is where some of you are today; you feel compelled to follow the risen Christ along his pathways.
But finally, there is yet another circle, at the center: the Holy of Holies. Like the center of the Temple, this place is empty, too. This is the most challenging circle of resurrection. It asks more of us than celebration, more than devotion, even more than behavioral change. It invites us to die and be reborn. It promises inner transformation. Let me tell you what it has been like for me to be taken there now and again.
It happens when things are dark or confusing, when I find myself stuck within my own frustrating limitations and unshakeable habits, when I am powerless to climb out of a dark place on my own.
In some of these times, and only by the grace of God, I have occasionally managed to surrender. Dying to the illusion that I can save myself, dying to my own ability to understand and act effectively, I fall down and put all my trust in the same thing Jesus did when on the cross he said Into your hands I commend my spirit. I give up.
Over the years I have learned to trust that in this dark tomb of my soul, hidden from my sight, a small stirring will always begin, something beyond my control and my understanding. It grows in me as an intuition, a sense that what I’m struggling with is being opened up into a greater reality. Over time, as I trust in it patiently, this greater reality grows and becomes stronger.
Eventually, questions I previously struggled with just don’t seem to matter any more. With fresh eyes I see the world anew, and am free. It becomes natural to love without condition and to walk gratefully through this wondrous world. I taste what St. Paul called the peace of God that passes all understanding. I know what Dame Julian of Norwich meant when she said All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.
Now none of this happens because I finally figured something out or tried harder; it happens because I die and God rises up, by his own power, within me.
I have come to count on this process of resurrection as the only thing that is ultimately real and lasting. I have come to trust that resurrection will always come when I need it – perhaps not today, but it will come. It cannot be forced into being. Like the Holy of Holies, it needs an empty place - our weakness and our need for God – in order to have room to be.
Perhaps some of you have experienced this, too. Perhaps some of you today feel stuck in some difficulty, something you have no power to fix. Perhaps it is time to surrender, to give up your preferences, to lay down your imagined self-sufficiency, your ability to understand and control your life. Perhaps it is time to die.
You will find that there is life beyond this tomb. It stirs in the darkness even now, waiting to be born, waiting for you to get out of its way so that it may rise up in you. This is the power of God. It is the power of Jesus’ resurrection, and it is as real as the Easter eggs and colorful flowers of today’s festival.
Don’t think of any of these circles we’ve toured this morning as better or holier than others. Don’t imagine that they are sequential, or that you ever really leave any of them behind. Sometimes we need festivals that celebrate life. Sometimes we need devotion to our risen Lord. Sometimes we need to change our behavior. And sometimes we need to die and be reborn. We move through these circles of resurrection again and again, and each one of them is infused with the glory of God. In each one our Creator generously and abundantly makes life new again.
Alleluia, Christ is risen, and we and all creation are risen with him.
End Document — St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church