Resurrection hope

Pastor Sharon McRann

Easter Sunday has just passed. We took the opportunity to proclaim: “Alleluia,” and “Christ is risen!” and “He is risen indeed!” Easter is a joyous occasion ... a time to celebrate. It’s one of those holidays when families gather. Often, in church, we have people attend who live outside the community but who are visiting family ... or people attend who aren’t able to come regularly on other Sundays due to busy work schedules and other commitments. So, Easter is a time for family ... a time to celebrate and rejoice. But just what is it that we’re celebrating? Most of you, of course, will answer we are celebrating Christ’s resurrection ... the day Jesus rose from the dead. What do you think is the true meaning of Easter? And how do you want to celebrate it? It’s important to try and understand the meaning of Easter, as it is at the heart of Christianity. The most important question to ask at Easter is, “Do you have a resurrection faith?” We often hear about the promise of Easter. And so we ask, “What does the proclamation ‘Christ is risen!’ mean for you? For many, it signifies hope: in the promise of life beyond death, in the possibility of a new beginning after darkness and destruction, and in the transformation from despair to hope. For others it simply offers the reassurance we are not alone. Last Sunday’s lectionary spoke of hope ... the hope that comes through the assurance of God’s love. I believe if we have an Easter faith, we are very hopeful. We think positively and have compassion for others. We stand up for justice, are challenged and humbled, and we trust God is with us no matter how things turn out ... bad or good. Easter gives us hope for new life and a promise new life will eventually come. There will be a light in the darkness and it will never go away again. Therefore, resurrection comes to those who want it ... to those who hope for it and wait for it and work with God’s help to make it happen. Those who don’t want to see change or who can’t accept the changes that are made, find it very hard to understand the true meaning of Easter. New life comes only through change. Resurrection comes through death. It would be hard to understand resurrection and new life if we didn’t have an experience of the other side of life ... the dark side. As we know, Easter comes with a price – a cost – and an experience of death. It doesn’t come free. There are many stories of people who are experiencing death in various ways ... those who carried the cross of job loss, failing health, addictions, poverty, death of a loved one, etc. Each of these live with hope that things will change, that resurrection will come. It is through the hope of resurrection that we learn and grow from Jesus’ cross and suffering. We are able to move on from our own pain and suffering into new life. We may feel our experience of suffering and desolation is hopeless, but in the eyes of God, who is at the heart of our Easter faith, we trust we will be raised from our death experiences into new life as Jesus promised and as it happened to Him. Some believe resurrection is about what happens to us after death. Again, resurrection faith is about hope … hope in what lies ahead ... hope that we will once again see our loved ones who have died ... hope that God will welcome and embrace us with loving arms. That is the gift of Easter. Resurrection hope! We don’t know how or when it will happen but some day when our souls feel dry and painful, we will experience the empty tomb and our pain and suffering will be gone and we will be full of joy and awe. Resurrection is not a one-time only thing. It happens again and again. Remember today the carpenter from Nazareth, the young wandering rabbi, the great gatherer of friends, who experienced everything dark, destructive, and broken in our humanity. He turned out to be infinitely more than any of His friends or enemies had imagined. In His humanness, he triumphed over death. Christ is risen! Alleluia!