Resurrect

Propers: The Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 32), A.D. 2019 C

Homily:

Lord, we pray for the preacher, for You know his sins are great.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Resurrection is the central hope of Christian faith—unifying, as it does, two inescapable convictions of the soul.

There are certain things that we know simply by dint of being human, ideas we cannot escape no matter how we might try. The first of these is that the way the world is, is not the way that it ought to be. Something has gone wrong. We have a knowledge of good and evil, of right and wrong. We see injustice in the world and we are moved to fix it, to repair it, to reestablish in some small measure the intended goodness and beauty and truth of this world.

How do we know that? How do we know that our world is fallen? How do we know to contrast what we can merely see and touch with something that must lie beyond?

The other inescapable conviction is that death is not the end. No society, no culture, no religion has ever believed that at some point we simply cease to be. There is some sort of afterlife; we feel it in our bones—even though it might indeed be easier, might be more comforting, to imagine that this life is all that there is. Then we wouldn’t need to worry about eternity. We could just slip guiltlessly into blessed oblivion, with none of our actions or decisions ever having meant a thing.

But we don’t believe that. We can’t. It’s just part of being human. Even people who commit suicide are in some way yearning for a better world, a better afterlife. We cannot imagine this life does not matter because everything in our lives is saturated with meaning and purpose and value. And that doesn’t end at the grave.

So then: the world is broken; and death is not the end. These are the universal human experiences brought together, brought to fruition, in the Resurrection.

We believe that though the world is fallen, God does not will it so. God did not create evil or injustice or death. He can’t. If He could make evil, then He wouldn’t be God. Besides, evil isn’t a thing in and of itself. Evil is a lack, something that was good now broken. And God, it seems, permits this for a time, for whatever reason; free will, perhaps. But ultimately brokenness and wickedness and evil cannot stand, for they are not the will of God.

Someday God will make it right. Someday He will restore Creation to its intended goodness, even beyond its original state, and it will be everything we’ve ever imagined, everything for which we’ve hoped—for it shall be the fulfillment of every promise ever made by God in the wildest dreams of all of humankind. And no-one and nothing will be left behind. There will not be even one iota of Creation that God does not redeem, resurrect, and reclaim, for there is not even one iota of Creation that God does not love.

And let me tell you, He’s not going to wait around for subordinates to get the job done. Oh, no. He comes down Himself, down into the world, down into the mud and the blood, down into the womb of a poor and humble girl in a poor and humble land. And as He grows, He will preach and He will teach, He will heal the sick and forgive the sinner, He will topple the lofty from their thrones and uplift the lowly in liberation. He will love, fiercely, frighteningly, a love that will not be denied and that cannot be escaped. And for all of this, we will kill Him.

We will raise Him up on that Cross and plunge Him down again, down into the Tomb this time, down into hell—and there He will conquer. He shall take what appears to be His greatest humiliation and transform it into His greatest triumph. He shall fill up all of hell to bursting with the Light and Life and Love of God and rise again with all of humanity, all the ransomed dead resplendent in His train. He shall harrow hell and hallow Heaven and raise us up to be with Him forever.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the firstfruits of this victory. He leads the Way and clears the path. But the fullness of the harvest still awaits. Someday, we shall rise as He is Risen. And on that day, every tear shall be dried, every wound healed, every question answered, and every godawful tragedy impossibly made right. And death and hell shall be no more, for God will be All in All.

Don’t get bogged down in the mechanics of Resurrection. Don’t try to imagine how biology might work in a world that shall be remade completely new. Just trust in the promise, trust in the witness, of the Resurrection of the dead. Trust that in God, nothing good is ever truly lost, be it physical or spiritual, unseen or seen. Trust that God’s will for us is nothing other than perfect Good, and that God’s will shall be done. Trust that this life matters, that God counts your every tear, and that in the end, life shall triumph over death, and God’s perfect mercy and perfect justice shall both of them be revealed as one and the same perfect Truth.

 “The birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus means that one day everything sad will come untrue.”—J.R.R. Tolkien

Until that day, we walk as He walks with us: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, healing the sick, forgiving the sinner, and speaking truth to power. When we do this, when we live as Jesus, we are for the world a foretaste of the Feast to come. We are the Resurrection given hands and feet and hearts and tongues. We are the Risen Christ for the world! There could be no greater honor, no greater responsibility, no greater comfort, and no greater joy.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.