Rise Up!

1 Corinthians 15:12-22

"If there is no resurrection, then we are most to be pitied."

The Apostle Paul states the impact of our central doctrine clearly and precisely. We are the people of resurrection. Other religions believe in heaven, the East believes in reincarnation, and some believe death is it, the final frontier. We followers of Christ believe in resurrection--that one day, all that is, all of us, and all else will be made anew in the new creation. Some Christians call it the Second Coming. Paul saw it as the remake--all that is will be made new, but we will stay who we are, just perfected. John, in Revelation, sees it as a cosmic new reality. We, mostly, stand at gravesides hoping and praying that the dearly departed are in heaven, a place we really cannot describe, but sense is some celestial wonderland of angels, light, peace, joy, and music that defies imagination.

But what is resurrection for us the rest of the time? How is it relevant to the here and now?

I will begin with what might seem an anathema statement--focus on heaven is a distraction. Resurrection, if it means anything at all, has to have a present moment reality and experience to be relevant at all. It really does no good to throw our greatest hope as something that will only come when we die. Hopefully, we all have a good deal more living to do before that final breath. I earnestly do not believe that God intends for us to simply meet this string of days before us with a sigh and a shrug of resigned endurance to get to that point. That was the theme of many a horrible sermon to folks in captivity or illness or brokenness of any sort--just get through it, good times are going to come; in the meantime, suffer well! No wonder Karl Marx threw up his hands and dismissed the Church as offering only an opiate for the people--a message to dull them into complacent suffering of unforgivable injustice. I think God probably throws up his hands, too, in the face of such faulty proclamation. No, resurrection is meant to redeem NOW. It is meant to heal us NOW of all that hurts or binds us.

How?

Resurrection was God's answer to human depravity. In our sinful madness, we sought the destruction of God's Son. We thought to be rid of this holy critic and challenger to our self-will and self-arrogation. We sought to be rid of any power that challenged what we believed to be our inherent right to self-centered self-gratification. So, up went the cross and Jesus died. We were free. But three days later, Jesus rose. God rules.

And that is a good thing.

Life according to human depravity ends in nothing, feeding existential despair that nothing can alleviate. For proof, we need only read through a newspaper or watch a news program. Better still, turn to one of the gossip channels like "E"--there is the full vacuousness of human willfulness on display. Thirteen million people tuned in to watch a daredevil cross the Grand Canyon on a tightrope. The truth is that the chance of his fatally falling was what drew most people to watch.

God ends that drive, ends that corruption of our creative wills, and rejects our selfish emptiness. God fills us. God loves us. God loves us with a love that calls us to love one another, losing self in the fullness of being completely with one another. In that connection, God creates the space for real and actual peace among all of us. God creates an environment in which we can truly become all that we were created to be. And resurrection makes it insurmountable and omnipotent. There is nothing in all creation that can undo God's will for love. Nothing.

Think of the implications--a child born into poverty can have real and actual hope of being well because resurrection says that this circumstance can be broken; a battered spouse can have hope of healing if she walks away because resurrection says new life is possible and actual; an addict can have real hope for healing because resurrection says that grace will allow for recovery; and on it goes--hopeless cause after hopeless cause are met with tenacious affirmation that there is no such thing as a hopeless cause.

Now, I am not naive enough to blather away that time will tell and every dream will come true. No, for resurrection to be a present reality, we, the proclaimers of it, will have to live it in the way we act, speak, and interact with the world and each other. That means getting involved. That means taking on some of those hopeless causes directly and, yes, confrontationally.

Note Christ's approach to the most broken before him--he touched lepers, reclaiming them; he made the lame walk through love; he fed the hungry, even when there was nothing with which to feed them; and so on.

That is our vocation.

As we pick up the cross and follow Christ, we do so as he did, meeting the suffering of the world head on--not in a air of doleful resignation, but with the quiet assurance that all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.

Yes, involvement is scary. Yes, involvement is messy. Yes, involvement means setting aside our own wants and agendas. But we do not enter it lightly or alone--we are all here for one another and to be with one another as we work together to make resurrection real. Our faith is communal--we are in this together. We share with one another, walk with one another, and meet with another. These are not informal gatherings, they are a pooling of resources. We throw what we have together to make resurrection real in a world consumed by death. That means that some of us are truly frontline activists--we leap into the fray and meet need head on, ready to crash into it, if need be. Others of us, though, are the equipment managers. We make sure the activists have what they need--material and spiritual. Some of us are the triage unit--we are there when the activist gets hurt to mend them. We are also there to tend the wounded they bring to us. We all have a role to play and none of us has to do it all on our own.

You see, that is the power of resurrection. It says there will be life even in a world of death. It says that love creates bonds and connections that can transform the world, making it something other than it is. Resurrection is confirmation that there are no LAST chances in the presence of God. With God, there are only opportunities. Everyone has a chance. Everyone has as many chances as it takes. There is no one that God gives up on. No one.

That is the real and present power of resurrection.

Never give up.