With “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” still resounding in our hearing and in our hearts, we find ourselves post-Easter people once again. After forty days of preparation, including a week of eager anticipation ranging the gamut of emotions from boisterous celebration (Palm Sunday) to agonizing loss (Good Friday), we think we have a tidy denouement to the whole story. This neat and clean plot line is expounded in our exegesis, taught in our theology, and proclaimed in our preaching; our communion liturgy proclaims that “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” For most, this resurrection moment is the pinnacle of our faith, upon which all the rest rises and falls. After all, Saint Paul did write that “If Christ is not raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:17, The Inclusive Bible). So it’s a pretty clear, linear story then, right?
Well, I want to challenge that notion. I propose that Easter isn’t the end of the story at all; if it is anything, it is the very beginning. Easter is about realizing that Jesus the Christ is the expression, the fullness, the revelation of God. But we can’t end it there. Easter is the beginning of Christ’s story, and it should be the starting place of OUR stories. In the expression of God in Christ we find that place to locate our own stories and our own selves. Jesus gave his life away to others and for others so that we could find ourselves loved and accepted by God, just as Jesus was. Jesus’ story gives us courage to face darkness and death and realize that the light of dawn and the hope of resurrection is but a moment away.
So, don’t flee from whatever tomb you find yourself in, don’t let terror seize you, and don’t keep silent from fear. Remember that the risen Christ gives meaning to all who will receive it, and even to those who won’t, because it isn’t about believing in some doctrinal assertion. It is about being hungry for something greater, something that gives our stories significance. Clarence W. Hall declared that “Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won't stay there.” Claim the truth that can’t be silenced as your own, and know that Easter gives you and your story sacred meaning and worth.
