By Scott Herr
The traditional refrain in Christian sanctuaries Easter morning, “He is risen! He is risen indeed!” is an affirmation that the grave is not the end of the story. The good news of Easter gives us a future comfort and hope, as we are assured by the Apostle Paul that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38).
But Easter is also a present energizing motivator. If you read the story again, you’ll note how the disciples were all running somewhere, Mary Magdalene from the empty tomb to tell the other disciples, and Peter and John running back to see the empty tomb. But the angels tell them, you must look for Jesus somewhere else, he is risen and no longer in the tomb.
Pope Francis, in his last sermon delivered on Easter of last year, the day before he died, declared, “This is the message of Easter: we must look for him elsewhere. Christ is risen, he is alive! He is no longer a prisoner of death, he is no longer wrapped in the shroud, and therefore we cannot confine him to a fairy tale, we cannot make him a hero of the ancient world, or think of him as a statue in a museum! On the contrary, we must look for him and this is why we cannot remain stationary. We must take action, set out to look for him: look for him in life, look for him in the faces of our brothers and sisters, look for him in everyday business, look for him everywhere except in the tomb.”
Easter is a dynamic invitation to seek out new life all around us here and now in each neighbor, in every person and situation we may encounter. The Pope’s sermon reminds me of one of my favorite poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins, “As Kingfishers Catch Fire”:
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.
I say móre: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is —
Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.
The message of Easter is not about finding some religious calm in the storm, some ancient fairy dust to make all evil in the world go away. It is fuel for resurrection life here and now. It is the liberating good news that God has created you for a purpose and that you are called to be you and live your life in a way that allows the unique gifts God has given you to be shared in wonderful and varied ways in the world like only you can do. Easter new life is about pursuing what is good, true and beautiful, seeking a better life and a fairer world for all people!
That God raised from the dead the crucified Lord has always fascinated me. It is Jesus who responded with self-giving forgiveness and love even as the darker powers and principalities falsely accused, arrested, tortured, mocked, maligned and condemned him to the most humiliating death on a cross… it was this one whom God vindicated and raised to new life. Resurrection new life does not deny, but dynamically carries us through the sadness and despair of the harsher realities of this life, empowering us to live each day seeking ways to make peace, to engage the ministry of reconciliation, to embody the faith, hope and love central to the gospel.
Like Mary, Peter, John, and Pope Francis, we also are called to run into the loving arms of the living God in life and in death. And when all the trumpets and hallelujah choruses have quieted, when the Easter lilies have wilted and the crowds scattered and we move on with our busy lives, I pray in all our running around, we will remember to search for Jesus in the faces of our neighbors, all of them, and to treat each person with the dignity and respect we would offer to the crucified risen Lord. The surprising message of Easter every day is, “He is risen! He is risen indeed!” for “Christ plays in ten thousand places…”
A very Happy Easter to all, and Chag Pesach Sameach to our Jewish friends and neighbors!
The Rev. Dr. Scott Herr is one of the pastors serving the First Presbyterian Church in New Canaan, a congregation where all are welcome.
