Isaiah 25.6-9; Acts 10.34-43; John 20.1-18.
Alleluia, Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed. Alleluia.
Now what?
No, really. Now what?
We proclaim these words with ease, but what do they mean for us? He is risen indeed. But what now?
After all, Easter is not the commemoration of a long dead saint, but a celebration of our relationship with a living God through the risen Christ; who in his life, death and resurrection completed the work of bridging the gap between God the Father and humanity. Through Jesus, God has become accessible to us without our failings and shortcomings getting in the way. This is why on Easter Day we shout ‘Alleluia.’
The spiritual union with God that Jesus has made possible is, for us, utterly transformational, not just to our personal lives but in firing us up to be agents of change who can transform the world around us. This is what it means to be ‘Church’: we are the bearers of Christ to the world around us, and when we channel our own personal relationship with Jesus into our collective activities as a congregation, we become turbo-charged with the explosive energy with which Christ burst from the tomb.
So the first answer to the ‘Now what?’ question is that we rejoice — re-joice: to feel joy again — at the new life Christ has given us, and to recover that sense of personal and collective transformation that is offered to us by faith.
In the gospel accounts of the death of Jesus, it is the women who move towards the cross, and confront the consequences of Jesus’ death for themselves, while the men retreat. It is the women who first discover the good news of the risen Christ, as they visit the tomb to tend the body of their Lord.
Where, I wonder, do you place yourselves in this narrative? With the cautious male disciples, backing away when things get a bit tricky, needing to debate and discuss what is going on, weighing up this and that before committing to a course of action? Or with the women who stand by Jesus, even when it appears that all is lost. It is those who remain loyal to Christ who first discover the joy of the new life he brings.
When the women go to the grave of Jesus to tend his body it is an act of collective defiance. Robin Meyers writes:
…women went to the gravesite to perform funeral rituals… This would not be unusual or unique [at the time] but they did this for Jesus in defiance of Roman prohibitions against just such rituals, especially for the victims of crucifixion.
Why was this dangerous? Why was it forbidden? Because to give a proper burial to the victims of execution, and then to have public ceremonies of grieving, was to spoil Rome’s intended effect. The empire’s message went far beyond “King of the Jews.” [Crucifixion] was also Rome’s way of making a person and everything he stood for, “disappear.” The real message was: “Behold a nobody who has come to nothing and now is nowhere… You people need to go home now. It’s all over.”
Yes, of course it was.
Except it wasn’t.
It was the women who resisted first, defying Rome through their graveside vigils. It was the women who brought food, broke bread, and raised the spirit of the Beloved — perhaps even giving us a model for the Eucharist… The church was born as an act of collective defiance, and it prospered as a community of resistance. Easter is not just the sound of a solitary bird singing after a thunderstorm… It is the Stone of Hope, covered with nail prints, and rolled away with tears. This is the Easter message: Rome said no. God said yes.
So the second answer to the ‘Now what?’ question is that we as a church must strive to recover this dynamic, radical and subversive faith that stems from the resurrection of Jesus. God did not come among us in human form simply to propagate some anaemic middle-class culture of niceness. Jesus came and immersed himself in the worst problems of the world: suffering, mental illness, disability, poverty, hunger, prostitution and, finally, death.
The risen Christ challenges us to look at our world and tend the places of desolation that need to experience some kind of resurrection for themselves. Where can we help to restore life to situations that appear to be dying? Where in our world, our community, workplace, public life, business or political world is in need of God’s touch to renew and restore it?
Where are the situations of hate, injustice, or intolerance in which powerful people use their position to manipulate or coerce others? The places of abuse against children, women, young men? Where are the hard, cracked places that yearn for an outpouring of God’s love to bring new life out of the dry soil of despair?
They are everywhere.
Read the newspapers, watch the news, look at what is happening in your neighbourhood. The challenge is that there seem to be so many problems, so much depressing news, its hard for us to know where to begin.
And its easy to feel detached from being able to understand or take meaningful action on the problems of our community or the wider world, especially when so much care and compassion has been outsourced to professionals, leaving us bewildered about what the right thing to do is, or how to engage appropriately with such situations.
But do not believe for a moment that you are powerless.
We have a voice, we can make a contribution. However small our individual actions, they gather and accumulate with the small actions of others to gain momentum and create a force for change. This is one of the ways that congregations can use their collective power, and when added to that of other churches and agencies, can make a profound impact.
I want to mention just one situation where it is easy for us to feel helpless but where, in fact, there is much we can do.
Syria.
There has been civil war in Syria now for seven years. Hospitals are bombed, neighbourhoods destroyed, children massacred. 400,000 people have died. 4 out of every 5 Syrians now live below the poverty line.
11 million people have fled their homes, 5 million of whom have gone abroad to find safety. 1 million of those have requested asylum in Europe.
And we look on, appalled. What is happening in Syria is nothing short of a holocaust that is annihilating innocent people who are shouting for the world to listen and take action — people who are yearning for a resurrection amidst the death that unfolds around them daily.
God hears their calls and knows their suffering. What is God doing to help Syria? Many Syrians are Christians — why does God not intervene and bring about peace?
What if it is the people of God, the ones who already know about the power of a resurrection that brings new life to barren places, upon whom God is waiting to act?
St Teresa of Avila famously wrote:
Christ has no body now on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which He is to bless His people.
What can we do for Syria? Pray. Agitate for political action. Sign the petitions. Join the protests. Become informed by choosing your news sources carefully. Talk about it with family and friends. Donate money. Raise money.
One of the charities we support at St Anne’s is Christian Aid, which is actively involved in supporting Syrian refugees. Through their partnership with organisations in Lebanon they are ensuring that child refugees from Syria can not only continue their education but can access psychological support to come to terms with their traumatic experiences. They have been supporting refugee women from Syria, some of whom have been terribly exploited. In northern Iraq, Christian Aid is supporting Syrian refugees with vocational training so that they can find ways to make a living. And in Syria itself, Christian Aid is supporting partners providing hot meals to people who have been displaced from their homes following bombing.
That’s why we are participating in the Circle the City event next month, to help raise £500 to support Christian Aid in all its work, not just in Syria but in 36 other poverty hotspots around the globe. (There will be further information about how you can sponsor us online on St Anne’s Facebook page shortly).
The question, ‘Now what?’ is one we must keep at the forefront of our minds. Our new life in Christ is not a gift that we are given to keep for ourselves. It is for sharing. Inspired by the example of Jesus, we are called to reach out and bring healing, restoration and peace to the desolate places that need an outpouring of God’s love.
Christ is risen indeed. Now what?
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