Is Easter your defining moment?

Beloveds in Christ,

Easter is our defining moment as Christians, and resurrection

defines Easter. When you think of Jesus’ resurrection, what comes to

mind?

A miracle? That after being executed, Jesus came to life in a

resurrected body fully accessorized with supernatural powers?

This is a fair, rational point of view. But at that time and

place, accounts of “awakenings from death” were neither unknown nor

uncommon. So the proclamation of Jesus rising from the dead would not

have been new news.

Do you, as many I know, think that Easter proclaims a fiction?

Self-delusion and corporate deception could have carried the first

disciples only so far I think; only resurrection explains for me

their subsequent self-denying, death-defying missionary zeal and

success and our presence here, now.

For others, Easter proclaims a real, historical story with mythic

elements: that Jesus, metaphorically speaking, was raised up in a

continuing life in the body of his followers, a following that has

had life on its roller coaster ride through centuries in an array of

expressions within that community called The Church. This, too, is a

fair view of the resurrection of Jesus. But it doesn’t include the

very real historical experiences of some truly rational people who,

through the realm and range of time, have testified to having

encountered the living presence of Jesus. A final fair position I

suspect some of us take is that as Jesus was raised from the dead, so

we too will live forever. Well, even if Jesus’ rising did mean the

same for us, “living forever” doesn’t strike me as so pleasant a

possibility. This life, as it is, “world without end” as old prayer

books out it, is not something I want to enjoy forever. Immortality

is a wonderful prospect precisely because it embraces a life and a

world where all is well, where good triumphs, where right reigns,

where love is victorious. Here, all is never well! Responses to calls

for compassion, mercy, kindness, peace, justice and love are too

often, “No!”

As I experience the gospel story, the purpose of Jesus’ mission

and ministry was to proclaim the nearness of the presence of God.

Jesus not only proclaimed it, he personified it. Wherever he went,

whatever he said and did, for those who entered his presence it was

as if good had been embodied, right made manifest and love enfleshed.

Then, Jesus was killed. Wrong seemed to have won, This world shouted

“No” to God.

Will we dare to confront and confess the truth about the

continuing brokenness of our lives and of this world where little is

ever well and all is never well? Will we dare to hope that for every

human “No” there is a divine “Yes?” Dare we hope that this divine

“Yes!,” God’s first word breathed into being - life at the dawn of

creation, will be God’s last word at the close of this age bringing

into being the fullness of life everlasting. When we so dare, Easter

is our defining moment.

By The Very Reverend Canon Peter D. Haynes, Rector

Saint Michael & All Angels Episcopal Churchis located at 3233

Pacific View Drive in Corona del Mar. Call (949) 644-0463 or visit

www.stmikesdcdm.org or [email protected].