Christ Church Anglican, North Bay
Easter 2014
Jesus said ?I am the Resurrection and the Life?
Amid our sorrow, we say these words at every funeral.
At Easter we say them with triumph and a special sense of joy.
Yet even at Easter we may miss the deep significance of these words for our life from day to day.
Without question, Jesus?s profound assertion of his power over death brings us comfort and hope in times of grief, but just as surely we need to know that the eternal life Jesus promises us is not just life ?over there and after death?, but ?here and now?.
?I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly? he tells us ? and in that statement there is a promise of life lived fully, life lived with joy, life filled with meaning and life rooted in grace.
What a thought!? We live in a world obsessed with the very thought of death. We go to great lengths to avoid it, to prolong life and yet at the same time we deal death daily in war and poverty and pain. On one hand we try to remove every trace of it from our day-to-day lives and on the other, we watch in some sort of odd fascination with violence and death in our movies, TV and literature.
Into this dichotomy, we are reminded that we ?do not live as those afraid to die? and so we can live fully and freely.? As a church, we are called to witness to this glorious truth.? Eugene Peterson proclaims ?the Holy Spirit formed (the church) to be a colony of heaven in the country of death?.
St. Paul says it something like this:
???Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we?re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!?
(Romans 5:9-11 The Message)
In grateful response to this amazing gift, we bow in awe and worship, and then we rise to live out the reality of this resurrection life, cooperating with God as he establishes the Kingdom here and now. The work and the worship, the prayers and the praise, all join together in triumphant harmony to declare?
? ? ? ? ?Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, alleluia!?
May we who share in this risen life, witness to it in word and deed and work together to bring a message of life abundant to a world that is dying to hear of its hope!
Yours in the Resurrection Life!
Rev. Marie