Easter’s Over…So What?
There sure seems to be a bumper crop of evil in the world these days. Perhaps one result of technology’s instant feed of all things everywhere is that the outlook looks worse than ever and that everything lies in shadow, or maybe we really are devolving worldwide…I don’t know.
In the final book of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, when evil and violence looks overwhelming and hopes of rescue slim, Sam Gamgee, a hobbit of some fame, considers his moment.
Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach. His song in the Tower had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate . . . ceased to trouble him. . . . Putting away all fear, he cast himself into a deep, untroubled sleep.
“…in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing…”
The shadows in our time can seem more like walls than vapors. Nations at war. Innocents slaughtered. Famine taking children. Families dissolving. Leaders not leading. Authority questioned. Betrayal. Envy. Heartlessness toward the vulnerable.
However dangerous and dark our days look, these shadows are only small and passing things…because of what we celebrated last Sunday. Because of Easter we live in what N.T. Wright calls the “now but not yet” moment of history.
T.S. Elliot, in his poem, The Hollow Men, puts it this way:
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
In the face of our days’ rising tide of evildoers and their evil deeds, it’s easy to only see shadow. Easter calls that to account and simply says, “No.”
Not yet will no longer be confused with never because of an empty tomb and a risen savior.
We recognize the price of love willingly given for all at the Friday execution, so extraordinary in power that even the heavy, foot-thick curtain in the Temple separating the people from God was torn top to bottom at his death. A physical symbol of access to all that is God open for all to enter.
Then on Sunday, life and light strode out from the shadow of death and darkness. Christ, victorious. Jesus, never to be seen again as a mere good teacher or moral exemplar. FatherSonSpirit together reconciling the world to himself. For God really did so love the world that he gave.
Easter changed everything.
Paul, who experienced his own freedom from the shadows, explaining again to a young church why believers can be people of hope in dark times, writes this in 1 Corinthians 15.
Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.
I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him….
But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.
Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.”
So, as Easter shrinks in the rear view mirror, it’s easy to rush past the ongoing impact of the resurrection in daily life. Paul, never one to miss a chance to link doctrine to action, in the last two sentence of the of the section above showers his readers with the “so what?” of what Easter teaches:
You can live with strength and confidence even as shadows surrounds you.
Because you believe sin and death have been swallowed up in victory, you are invited to dive headlong into living every day to the full.
Until we die, we will be encountering bad people doing bad things that will rock our canoe like an unwelcome speedboat wake on water. Easter says, “Regardless of what you face, remember always that Jesus won, and in him we win, as well.”
Martin Luther back in the 1500s thunders this truth of Christ’s victory in the midst of a broken and dangerous world. Read here the lyrics of A Mighty Fortress. Read them as a poem, divorced from the familiar tune.
A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing;
our helper he, amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe
does seek to work us woe;
his craft and power are great,
and armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing,
were not the right Man on our side,
the Man of God’s own choosing.
You ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he;
Lord Sabaoth his name,
from age to age the same;
and he must win the battle.
And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God has willed
his truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure,
for lo! his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him.
That Word above all earthly powers
no thanks to them abideth;
the Spirit and the gifts are ours
through him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also;
the body they may kill:
God’s truth abideth still;
His kingdom is forever.
Paul and Martin got it right. Because of Easter you and I can stand strong and immovable, tending to all that makes up a worthy life, trusting that he will use every part of it for his glory and kingdom growth, whether we see it or not.
At the beginning of Revelation, John’s masterful allegory of faith in times of Rome’s fearful evildoings, he gets a glimpse of Jesus as he is now.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.
So, friend, consider carefully the cold darkness of your shadow. Now, beloved, don’t be afraid, but pray for eyes to see and a heart to be comforted by the truth that the Light from the empty grave will make it “a small and passing thing” you must walk through, but never alone.
Let’s go together!
Music…for the beginning of spring and after Easter
…and, naturally, a chorus for the ages
Funnies, sure but no guarantee of quality
My new neighbor lady owns several cats. On a recent visit to meet her, she introduced her cats to me.
Neighbor: "That's Astrophe, that's Erpillar, that's Aract, that's Alogue"
Me: "Where on earth did you get such unusual names?”
Neighbor: “Oh, those are their last names. Their first names are Cat."
****************
As I was doing my jogging exercise on the road this morning, I got mugged!
I told the police, "First, I got hit by a violin, then a clarinet and finally a tuba."
The policeman said, "I think this was an orchestrated attack."
