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The Sunday Of The Resurrection: Easter Day
Almighty God, who through thine only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by thy life-giving Spirit; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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The Sunday Of The Resurrection: Easter Day
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A Sermon by
The Rev. Canon Carl Turner
✛
The Eternal Freshness of the Wounds of Love
“If I climb up into heaven, thou art there; if I go down to hell, thou art there also” – words from Psalm 139 which speak of the presence of God in the whole of the universe.
If you were not in Church on Good Friday or Palm Sunday then, I am afraid, you are only hearing part of the greatest story ever told. Christian orthodoxy requires us to know the whole story of Jesus Christ. And Christian Orthodoxy is less about Credal Formulae but more about knowing the real Jesus.
Who was he?
Although many depicted Jesus as a good man who became the Christ after the Resurrection and still others saw him as some ghost-like creature, it was St Athanasius who led, cajoled and sometimes bullied the early church into accepting the fact that this Jesus was truly human and at the same time truly God. What we celebrate at Easter, therefore, is not a philosophy or a nice set of ideas or even the life of a good man – if Jesus died, he really died. His death and resurrection was no neat conjuring trick by a demi-God. The man Jesus died, was buried; he descended into hell – he went to the place of dead. But if he is also God – then God experienced mortality and the emptiness of the grave. Now the psalmist’s words take on new meaning: If I go down to hell, thou art there also …God is not there because of his omniscience but also because of his emptying himself into creation.
Writing to the Philippians, St Paul says “Let the Same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death – even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8)
And this death happened in time and space. On the cross Jesus says to the thief “Today, you will be with me in paradise”. Time and space is consecrated by the death of Christ and God gives new hope – turning the tables on the inevitable monotony that marks our existence as we move towards our own deaths. Easter is about discovering the reality of God in our own lives – discovering what the right questions are that we need to ask rather than looking for easy answers.
There was once a wealthy man who had a very nice house in the Hamptons but he was rather eccentric and kept a great white shark in his swimming pool. He gave a challenge – anyone who was prepared to swim one length of his pool and survive would have his beautiful house or inherit half of his wealth or have the hand of his beautiful daughter in marriage. Of course, nobody ever took him up on the challenge. One summer evening, John Scott and the gentlemen of Saint Thomas Church Choir were present at a cocktail party held by the pool and the rich man was commenting on how nobody had ever taken up his challenge when, suddenly, there was a huge splash. Everyone turned to look at the pool as a member of the choir was swimming frantically down the length of the pool. The shark, taken unawares, had only just noticed but was now in hot pursuit…as the shark closed in on its victim the man, having those few seconds of extra time, managed to scramble out of the pool as the jaws of the great white snapped shut, barely missing him. Everyone ran over and the man stood there dripping wet and breathing heavily. “My goodness!” said the eccentric old rich man, “I am a man of my word. What would you like? My beautiful house” “No!” said the choirman. “Perhaps half of my fortune?” said the rich old man “No!” said the man still dripping wet. “Ah!” said the rich old man, “You want the hand of my daughter in matrimony.” “NO!” exploded the swimmer. “Well, what do you want then?” said the rich old man. “I wanna know the name of the guy who pushed me in!”
You see, my friends, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the answer to the greatest question we could ever pose. Is this all I am – destined for old age and death or is there more? Or, as Fr Austin said on Good Friday, do we really want to say “it is finished?”
The resurrection of Jesus, therefore, is not a piece of neat logic – “Well, he was God, so I suppose he can do that.” The resurrection of Jesus affects our understanding of death – of Sheol – of our own mortality precisely because Jesus really died. And since his death was real; bloody, agonizing and torturous, his resurrection is equally real; transforming, hopeful and all-embracing. The disciples do not meet a ghost – the resurrected Jesus eats a fish; he can be handled; he has flesh and bones; he lights a fire and cooks breakfast; he breaks the bread. In all the wonder of the Resurrected Jesus appearing and disappearing at will – entering through closed doors or breathing new life into tired followers, we must not forget the fact that the disciples experienced life with the real Jesus after his resurrection; the wounds of love still fresh enough for Thomas to place his fingers and hands in them. He restores the relationship that was broken through his death and touches the lives of the disciples once more.
And it is the eternal freshness of the wounds of Christ that points us to the reality of God’s sovereignty over broken humanity. The question “Is this all there is for me?” is answered in this simple way; the wounds of love on the, now, glorified body of Jesus allow us the possibility of change and give us hope for it gives us the hope and promise that our wounds, too, may be transfigured. And this is the heart of Orthodox Christian Faith. As St Paul said to the Corinthian Church:
“If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, we are the most unfortunate of all people” (1 Cor. 15:18)
Or as Michael Ramsey once said
“From Calvary and Easter there comes a Christian hope of immense range: the hope of transformation not only of humankind but of the cosmos too. The bringing of humankind to glory will be the prelude to the beginning of all creation. Is this hope mere fantasy? At its root there is the belief in the divine sovereignty of sacrificial love, a sovereignty made credible only by transfigured lives.” (Be still and know, pp69-70)
