Resurrection 101

For Jill who chose life everlasting Saturday afternoon...


Our friend, who is pastor of a downtown church wrote of standing in front of his congregation Easter morning, preaching to a congregation struggling with death in the present and life to come. His words are powerful for me. "I don't need a bodily resurrection to believe" has become the watchword of the almost always rational believer (I say "almost always" because I find my skeptical, rational friends always have a very irrational place in their bones about something, whether it is football or the joys of their children) and having spent a good bit of time with both Marcus Borg and Dom Crossan (and I like Dom MUCH more than Borg), I find their work very helpful but in the end, unsatisfying. As Guiterrez (bad speller) the liberation theologian told Borg, "in South America, I need a God who has the power to raise Jesus from the ____ing dead and not one that can be argued about in a god-damned seminar room") (this story was related to me by a Borg friend who thought Guiterrez was a "fundamentalist" (because he believed in resurrection, he's a fundie...oh please!)....I'm with Guiterrez....I preached before four church members yesterday ranging in age from 23 to 57, all dying of cancer and THREE families, two of whose sons committed suicide this year and a third who tried and screwed up his brain forever), and "metaphor" just doesn't get it...Now, what kind of body is a resurrected body is a great question, but I'm with Buechner.....I don't know what happened that day...who the hell does?....but I bet my life that something did...that Jesus got up and somehow things are never the same again.... I always say at FBC we have only ONE doctrine and that it's the only one the New Testament ever states, "Jesus is Lord"....and if that one won't keep you busy for the rest of your life, you aren't paying attention....but I don't know how one gets there without Jesus being the Risen Lord...otherwise we are back to George Burns and "Jesus was my Son, Buddha was my son, Mohammad was my son" which, of course, is true...but somehow, not enough... Just some thoughts....
His pain as pastor for those who have lived and are now living the crucifixion, his being the voice and face of God for those in his care, requires, demands a Risen Lord. Most of us have the luxury of having to face death and destruction in a limited way. We are not asked the hard questions by parents whose son chose death over life. We do not hear a father cry as he imagines his children growing up without his presence in their life. We do not sit in the company of the old whose lives are limited by minds that have unraveled or bodies that have failed. Our crucifixion quota is limited to ourselves, our immediate family and friends. If we are active in peace and social justice issues, our circle expands somewhat but most of us never feel the immediate intense anguish of those who are struggling with life in death as a part of our daily lives.
The decision to follow Jesus is at its heart an irrational decision. There is no scientific proof or rational basis for ordering one’s life and committing the care of your soul (again an unseen entity) to a man who lived over 2000 years ago. We launch our faith boats out into seas covered with fog, unable to see shores in either direction. Our destination is a mystery that comes clear only after we die. Nothing about this make sense to the head and yet the heart cries out for the Peace that passes all understanding. In our need for order and knowledge, we seek to apply rules and processes we understand to something that is beyond our comprehension. To paraphrase author J.B. Phillips, our God is too small, limited by our need to explain and understand.
All theologians, (and that includes those of us without seminary degrees who speak freely of our beliefs rational and otherwise) would find ourselves speaking and believing differently, I suspect, if we had to be pastor for a year or so. There is nothing like hard core pain and suffering to strip away the nonessentials and as my old revival preacher used to say, force you down on your knees. On my knees I can own up to my doubts and pain, weep and lean on those who are kneeling beside me in the valley of the shadow, and hear the words “The Lord is risen indeed!” I can say with Thomas the Doubter “My Lord and my God!” I can stand up and walk and run to the Risen Lord like Mary and Simon and Thomas. Something extraordinary did happen and I can live with the Resurrection mystery, live with the certainty that death is not the final answer. Love and Life walked out of that tomb long ago and into my life as a Christian. I am grateful.