Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!
With these words we join ourselves to the people of God in Christ Jesus
Down through the years
Who have claimed this as the central truth of their lives –
The singular most important
Most powerful
Most life-changing truth the world has ever known
And it’s this truth that Paul is writing about in 1 Corinthians chapter 15
When we are born
We are born into Adam –
Born into a creation marred by the fall –
Marred by sin –
Marked by death
This is why Paul writes in verse 19 that
If we have only hoped in Christ for this life
With its struggles
With its pain
With its losses
With its sicknesses
And death
And wars
And storms
And dangers –
If all we have is this life
Then, indeed, as Paul says: we are of all people most to be pitied
I mean, just look at the world we’re living in
Climates are changing
Vast portions of the globe are experiencing drought and fires
While other are facing storms and floods
Previously unseen
Untold damage is occurring to ecosystems
And whole species are being eradicated
By our refusal to stop polluting –
To stop abusing and misusing –
The air
Ground
And water we all depend on for life –
The precious creation we have received as a gift from the hand of our Creator God
People are being gunned down in schools
Colleges
Inner city streets
Malls
Movie theaters
Political meet and greets
With weapons that have no place
And no real purpose
In the hands of ordinary citizens
Dictators
And the sons of dictators
Threaten the delicate balance of peace in places like North Korea
While violence
Civil wars
Populist movements
And the like threaten to destabilize nations in the Middle East
Asia and
Africa
Yes, we are born into a creation marred by the fall –
Marred by sin –
Marked by death
We have all died in Adam
And the old Adam and the old Eve within each of us
Needs to be continually opposed –
Drowned, as it were, in the flood of God’s Baptismal life…
But Christ has been raised from the dead
The first fruits of those who have died
And as we have been tethered to Adam and Eve in sin and death
So, too, we shall be tethered to Christ in resurrection life
We have no hope of making it through the waters
Except that we have been tethered to Christ Jesus
Who has come to conquer and destroy the last and greatest enemy of all –
Death itself!
By his dying, Christ Jesus has destroyed death once and for all
And by his rising, he has restored life –
Our lives
And the lives of all who dwell upon the earth
This is how the Church has said it throughout most of the last 2 millennia:
Dying, you destroyed our death
Rising, you restored our life
Lord, Jesus, come in glory
This short profession of faith in the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus
Follows the same pattern, notice, as Paul in our reading from 1 Corinthians
From death to resurrection
And from resurrection to Christ’s coming again in glory –
Coming at the end –
Having destroyed every ruler and authority and power –
Destroying death itself, last of all –
Coming to reign as the eternal King of all Kings…
So we are born tethered to Adam in sin and death
And, by God’s grace, we will be tethered to Christ in resurrection life
In his eternal reign
But we live here and now
And in this meantime –
In this middle time –
When Christ has died
And is risen –
As we wait for his coming again
We live the life of discipleship
Daily dying with Christ
Daily rising with Christ
Our whole lives marked by this pattern
Luther writes this in the Small Catechism:
The old person in us with all sins and evil desires
Is to be drowned and die
Through daily sorrow for sin
And through repentence,
And on the other hand
Daily a new person is to come forth
And rise up to live before God
In righteousness and purity forever
This is the life of those who have been baptized into Christ Jesus –
Into his death and resurrection –
This is our life
Lived in the tension between the now and the not yet –
Between the continual struggle to drown the old Adam and Eve through repentence
And the joyful life of loving service
Lived in the freedom of God’s saving grace
This is our life as Easter people
Lived in the joy of God’s salvation
In, through, and because of Christ alone
The crucified and risen Lord of all!
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen, indeed! Alleluia! Amen
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