Falling Upward

Easter Sunday 2013

Psalm 118:1-2; 14-24

I Corinthians 15:19-26

Luke 24:1-12

Once upon a time, twin boys were conceived in the womb. Seconds, minutes, hours passed as the two embryonic lives developed. The spark of life grew and each tiny brain began to take shape and form. With the development of their brain came feeling, and with feeling, perception—a perception of their surroundings, of each other, and their own lives. They discovered that life was good, and they laughed and rejoiced in their hearts.

One said to the other, “We are sure lucky to have been conceived and to have this wonderful world.”

The other chimed in, “Yes, blessed be our mother who gave us life and each other.”

The twins continued to grow and soon their arms and fingers, their legs and toes began to take shape. They stretched their bodies and churned and turned in their little world. They explored it and found the life cord which gave them life from their mother’s blood. They were grateful for this new discovery and sang, “How great is the love of our mother—that she shares all she has with us!”

Weeks turned into months and with the advent of each new month, they noticed a change in each other and in themselves.

“We are changing,” one said. “What can it mean?”

“It means,” said the other, “that we are drawing near to birth.”

An unsettling chill crept over them. They were very afraid of birth, for they knew that it meant leaving their wonderful, comfortable world behind.

One said to the other, “If it were up to me, I would live here forever.”

“But we must be born,” said the other. “It has happened to all the others.” Indeed, there was evidence inside the womb that the mother had carried life before theirs. “And I believe that there is life after birth, don’t you?”

“How can there be life after birth?” cried the one. “Do we not shed our life cord and also the blood tissue when we are born? And have you ever talked to anyone that has been born? Has anyone ever re-entered the womb after birth to describe what birth is like? NO!” As he spoke, he fell into despair, and in his despair he moaned, “If the purpose of conception and our growth inside the womb is to end in birth, then truly our life here in this womb is meaningless.” He clutched his precious life cord to his breast and said, “And if this is so, and life is absurd, then there is no mother!”

“But there is a mother,” protested the other. “Who else gave us nourishment? Who else created this world for us?”

“We get our nourishment from this cord—and our world has always been here!” said the one. “And if there is a mother—where is she? Have you ever seen her? Does she ever talk to you? No! We invented the mother when we were young because it satisfied a need in us. It made us feel secure and happy.”

While the one raved and despaired, the other resigned himself to birth and placed his trust in the hands of his mother. Hours turned into days, and days into weeks. And soon it was time. They both knew their birth was at hand, and they both feared what they did not know. The one who was first conceived was the first to be born, the other followed. They cried as they were born into the light. They coughed out fluid and gasped the dry air. And when they were sure they had been born, they opened their eyes—seeing life after birth for the very first time. What they saw was the beautiful eyes of their mother, as they were cradled lovingly in her arms. They were home.

The Apostle Paul writes, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

It is hard to believe in something you’ve never seen before, especially something that has radically changed the world as has the promise of life after death through belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In writing to the Christians in Corinth, Paul talks about the resurrection of the dead, in response to some who were saying there is no such thing. He argues that there is such a thing as the resurrection of the dead, and for proof, he points to the resurrection of Jesus. In his most profound reflection on the resurrection of Christ, Paul does not tell a story in the customary sense of an Easter story. Yet, for Paul, the resurrection plays an essential role in a much larger story, a story that extends back at least to Adam and forward to the final triumph of God over the power of sin and death. The resurrection of Christ is the central cornerstone of the Christian faith.

Paul gives us a glimpse of the larger story of God at work here and the place of Christ’s resurrection in that story. Christ is the biblical “first fruits” of those who have died. It’s not an isolated event. It is the first fruit on the tree. It signals that the full harvest can be relied on to follow. Just as Adam introduced death into the world and all human beings die because of Adam, so Christ introduced resurrection into the world, so all will be made alive in Christ.

It was obvious that eight-year-old Stephen’s mental disabilities were becoming even more severe. His Sunday school teacher did her best to include Stephen in the classroom activities and to avoid situations which might prompt his classmates to make fun of him. In April, she gave each of the eight children in the class an empty plastic egg and instructed them to place inside the container an object that represented new life in spring. Fearing that Stephen might not have caught on, and not wanting to embarrass him, the teacher had the children place all the containers on her desk so that she could open them.

The first had a tiny flower in it. “What a lovely sign of new life,” said the teacher. One of the students couldn’t help but erupt, “I brought that one!”

Next came a rock. The teacher assumed this must be Stephen’s, since rocks don’t symbolize new life. But Billy shouted that his rock had moss on it, and moss represented new life.

“Very good, Billy,” agreed the teacher.

A butterfly flew from the third container and another child bragged that her choice was the best of all.

The fourth container was empty. This must be Stephen’s, thought the teacher, quickly reaching for a different one.

“Teacher, please don’t skip mine,” interrupted Stephen.

“But it’s empty, Stephen.” said the teacher gently.

“That’s right,” said Stephen. “The tomb was empty, and that represents new life for everyone.”

Later that summer, Stephen’s condition worsened and he died. At his funeral on his casket, mourners found eight plastic eggs—one from each of his classmates—and all of them empty.

Reality is that one day we will all die. Our bodies will eventually give out or be snuffed out. The reality of death is a threat to life. It’s the power that stands in complete opposition to the essence of God. It’s from death’s clutches that God has recused us through our savior Jesus Christ. It is this rescuing power of God that has made us righteous in the eyes of God. It is what has brought this community of believers together to become the body of Christ. This community consists of those who have known God’s great work on their behalf and who live their lives in glad response to what God has done. The righteous are not smug, arrogant or rude. They are extremely grateful to be recipients of God’s amazing love and thankful for delivering us from death to new life in Jesus Christ.

The church knows that Easter would not have happened and new life would not have been given, except by God’s powerful intrusion into human events. We must remember that death is a powerful force. It is a formidable power which wants to take control of you and me and God’s creation, but God will not allow it to happen. Evil is no match for the power and resolve and authority of God. Christ’s resurrection inaugurates the end, the final triumph of God over every ruler and every authority and power, even over death itself. All this makes it possible for us to have a new, spirit-filled, radical style of new life. Worlds once closed off are broke open. Old perceptions of what is possible are shattered to pieces. The future becomes the promise of sharing in the resurrection of Jesus.

In the meantime, the call is to remain steadfast and growing in the word of the Lord; to live and serve each day with boundless gratitude for what God has done for each one of us. God has answered. God has heard your need. God has rushed to intervene. God has changed death to life. God has overpowered the doom and gloom of Friday for the renewing, transforming, life-giving, history-making new life of Sunday. The rejected one, left for dead, is now the treasured one.

We do not gather on Easter morning merely to celebrate a miracle that happened to Jesus 2,000 years ago. No, we gather to declare that because he defeated death, Christ is the Lord not only of our lives, but also of our future. We live in a fallen world, but we follow a risen Savior who has come to release our world from bondage to death and to put the shadows that are on our lives into a context of hope, until the day when the kingdom of God comes in its fullness.

What a day! This day of rescue is a day for joy! What a day! It’s Easter day, new life day, new beginning day! When we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior every day is a day of new life.

What Easter continues to promise is not that all the battles have been fought and won, but that God’s power has assured us that the final victory will belong to God.