Resurrection

What is “resurrection”? Is it the same thing as eternal life? Does anything in Dr. Ward’s presentation make it easier for you to believe in the possibility of a life beyond death?

The video in our class material states that death is the way to life. This is resurrection – life that follows death. It can be the glorious resurrection of Jesus, but there are other ways we experience resurrection. When my mother-in-law died from the effects of Alzheimer’s, we met with our pastor as he was planning the funeral. He asked us questions about her, and the conversation brought her back to life in the room with us. I don’t mean that she came back to physical life, but the memories of her – her photography, her lists, her lively existence with us – was returned to us as we talked to our pastor. It felt like a resurrection. Death bringing life.  It isn’t always the same thing as eternal life, although it can be, as it will be (we hope in our faith) for us.

 

As I think about the universe Dr. Ward explains – matter created and held together in the mind of God – I can see how eternal life with God could work (or at least a little bit). We won’t be the people we are now (Jesus tells us that), but we will be the children of God that God created, existing in the consciousness of God, like the universe. Of course, that is also the case now, as we exist in this world.

Resurrection

What is “resurrection”? Is it the same thing as eternal life? Does anything in Dr. Ward’s presentation make it easier for you to believe in the possibility of a life beyond death?

The video in our class material states that death is the way to life. This is resurrection – life that follows death. It can be the glorious resurrection of Jesus, but there are other ways we experience resurrection. When my mother-in-law died from the effects of Alzheimer’s, we met with our pastor as he was planning the funeral. He asked us questions about her, and the conversation brought her back to life in the room with us. I don’t mean that she came back to physical life, but the memories of her – her photography, her lists, her lively existence with us – was returned to us as we talked to our pastor. It felt like a resurrection. Death bringing life.  It isn’t always the same thing as eternal life, although it can be, as it will be (we hope in our faith) for us.

 

As I think about the universe Dr. Ward explains – matter created and held together in the mind of God – I can see how eternal life with God could work (or at least a little bit). We won’t be the people we are now (Jesus tells us that), but we will be the children of God that God created, existing in the consciousness of God, like the universe. Of course, that is also the case now, as we exist in this world.

Expecting Resurrection

Last week, I wrote about Abram and Sarai (renamed Abraham and Sarah) who laughed when the angel told them they would have a son and be the beginning of a multitude.  

In his study, Harnish says that when the women went to the tomb to care for Jesus' body, they didn't expect to find a resurrection. They never thought to see a risen Christ. They only worried about the stone, and how to roll it away.

Again, we are on this side of the story, and we know what happened, so our surprise when (in Mark 16) they see a man in a white robe sitting on a rock, and no corpse in site, is dulled.  We aren't surprised.  We aren't shocked.  They are, but we miss it, because God isn't surprising us.

Has our lack of anticipation dulled us to the presence of God in lives? Where is God working? Do we see it? We we believe we will ever see it? Is it something reserved only for the women who come to the tomb? Or do we ever open our eyes to the possibility of resurrection in our every day lives?

Rejoice

The word for today is rejoice.

It's kind of an odd word for the beginning of Holy Week.  Tulips, symbols of new life, might be an odd picture for the beginning of Holy Week.  I even feel guilty about posting them.

We haven't yet shared the last supper, or witnessed the trials, or overheard the conversation with Herod, or walked the road to Golgotha, or felt the pain of the crucifixion, or the known the loss of Holy Saturday.  Why post tulips?   Why even whisper the word rejoice?

Because we live on this side of Easter, and even the experience of Lent does not separate us from being post-resurrection Christians.  It's a gift to us that no matter how dark it as, how much pain we anticipate, or how many trials are coming our way, we are still children of the resurrection.  Tulips are our flower.  Rejoice is our byword.

God is with us.  Even in the darkness.  Rejoice and anticipate new life.

Genesis 50 -- Resurrection

Sunrise this morning from the high school hill

I finished the book of Genesis today.   Since I was in Bethel Teacher training, the last book of Genesis has always seemed to me to contain on of the important messages of the book:

Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.  (Genesis 50:20)

God can bring good, even out of the most horrific history -- such as brothers selling their brother into slavery.

What does God do in our lives?  Are we chess pieces -- pawns that God moves for his purposes?  I don't believe so; however, God is involved in our lives.

It always strikes me that those who say that God "has a plan" -- and that by saying that mean that whatever has happened in the world is God's will -- are incorrect.  I don't believe all that happens is God's will or that he has engineered it for his own purposes. 

I don't believe that for many reasons, but not least among them is that a belief like that lets us off the hook.  We can't take responsibility for something that happens if it is God's plan.  God becomes our scapegoat.

Joseph isn't telling his brothers that none of what happened to them is their fault.  He doesn't say that what they did was not wrong (can you follow that double negative?) or that God motivated them to do it.  I think what Joseph is saying is that in spite of what the brothers intended, God's intentions are different.  God can bring about good in spite of what we do.  His actions to bring about his will despite what we do don't negate our sin.  In fact, in this passage, Joseph doesn't say the brothers did no wrong; he forgives what they have done.

Forgiveness loses its power if there is no sin.  If we can make excuses for the behavior, then we are saying that the sin did not exist.  That's not forgiveness.  Forgiveness is grace in spite of -- in face of -- the sin. 

The cross - the ultimate in forgiveness -- doesn't say we commit no sins.  It says that God forgives us, and love us anyway. 

The resurrection is life out of death.  Perhaps that is what Joseph is talking about here.  God can bring resurrection out of our death -- and sometimes the death isn't literal. 

WOW or Blah?

I taught Sunday school today. I was kind of unimpressed by the liturature -- it seemed kind of blah to me.

It's Easter. The talk about it should be WOW, not blah.

Go and read this devotional by Guest Sandblogger, JtM: April 12.

How will this Easter affect you? Will your experience of the resurrection of Jesus Christ change you? Will you live life differently because you have seen and believe? Will you love more radically? Will you give more generously?

Radical. That's a WOW word. The resurrection of Christ is radical. The love of God for us is radical. What is our response?

Is it blah? Or is it WOW?

What difference does this fantastic, radical action of God make in our lives?

Image: Dogwood at St. Marks.

Rising from Death

As I was working on our Advent devotional, assigned dates and scriptures, I ran across Mark 9:9-13. The person who had that particular scripture associated with the date didn't use it, but as I read it, I was struck by a particular sentence:

As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean. (Verses 9 and 10)

There is, of course, an obvious answer -- what does rising from the dead mean? They probably couldn't have even imagined what he meant by the phrase or what it foreshadowed. Even with the advantage of hindsight, I think it's a something that we can't even begin to understand.

Putting the obvious aside, though, what does it mean for us, right now? Is there life after death? Do we live a life in which we are dead only to be brought to real life after we come to know God? Does our life after death begin when we say "yes?" Does it begin every day as we continue to say "yes" to God?

If we live in the kingdom of God now, then isn't it true that we have already risen from the dead?

Image: Moon rise in Hungington on Thursday

Ninety One Years

Ninety one years
Seems like a long time
But it’s too short
Too short for those who loved him
Too short for those he loved.
Life seems to speed toward death.
That is its sting.

And yet, there is a resurrection
Promised by the Father
Purchased by the Son
Illuminated by the Spirit.
Life without end.

If joy is not happiness.
If joy is the presence of God
Then a funeral can be joyful
A funeral can be hopeful
A funeral can be a witness
To the possibilities
Of a life lived with God
Even through death.
Even in spite of death.

Ninety one years
Seems like too short a time
But when those years
Are lived in the presence
Of the eternal
Then we can stand and sing
Sing of the promise;
Praising God for the fact
That it is well with our souls.

A brother and a sister
Standing in the front
Of the support of the church,
Share their father.
The way he lived his 91 years.
His life a witness to the kingdom
His children evidence
Of his rules of life.

A man
Standing in front of strangers
Bishops and pastors
Those he’s never met.
Given courage by a man
His friend,
Who always came by his pew
And listened to him.
Making him know
That he is a child of God.
Seen. Never invisible.
Now never alone
Death will not keep them apart
As Rev. Conner will always be with him
In that pew.

A minister standing
Pastor to a pastor
Calling ministers to stand
In honor of one of their
Brothers.
A family of those
Who have heard this particular call
From their God.
Standing for a fellow circuit rider.
Standing in respect
Standing in the presence of their God
Standing on the promise
Of a life never ending.

Ninety one years
Of offering them Christ
Inviting us into the light
Of being last, always
Of living in the will of God.
Of dancing with Jesus.
A witness with his invitations.
A witness with his life.
A witness.
Proclaiming a message
Even today
As he lives with God
Dancing, flying,
As he always has.

Image: Cross and butterfly from the sanctuary of First United Methodist Church, Barboursville, which was the location of the funeral for Rev. J. Irvin Conner on Monday evening.