HomeGood Morning!
I love this time of year. Flowers and trees are in bloom or bursting towards opening, sunlight warms the earth, and the abundance of new life is everywhere. Sitting in my yard the other day I was surrounded by a swarm of pesty gnats and even they were a welcome presence, because they were a sign that spring has truly arrived.
Things that had been inanimate, that had appeared to be dead, things that had lived, faded and disappeared in the earth, all are rising again to new life.
That rebirth of life that is taking place all around us is the inspirational source of many of the religious tales and stories of the death and rebirth of Gods. And there are many.
Human history is full of legends of death and rebirth. Ancient hunting societies, perhaps to assuage some guilt they felt, or to avert the danger they thought might exist from the animals they had killed, had tales of animals killed in the hunt that nevertheless reappeared alive and well.
And once agriculture became part or the human experience, the lesson of the seed planted in the ground—that is, buried in the tomb—and then reborn in the spring with new abundance, one small grain of wheat or millet becoming a stalk of many seeds, was not lost on those who did the planting.
Death is a great mystery for human beings. We may be the only creatures on this planet who realize that death is the future for us. Here we are, alive and aware and seeing all of the world and all of life from one particular perspective, we each see it thoroughly from our own life experiences. But the time will come when that awareness disappears. How is that possible? And how frightening that thought is to many of us.
I will disappear; I will not be.
And so the recognition that things that are dead and are planted into the ground then spring up alive again, that becomes seen as a message from God or the Gods that life does not end with death, that our lives in particular—or the lives of our loved ones--do not end with death, and that an even greater and more abundant life lies in our future.
Like the seeds and bulbs that we plant in the earth, we may have to go through the doorway of death to reach that greater life, but having done so, that life is there.
The Christian story of Easter begins not with the Palm Sunday entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, nor with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem nor with the Annunciation to Mary. The Christian story begins long before that, with the Garden of Eden and the so-called rebellion of Adam and Eve. It was their refusal to heed the commands of God that got them expelled from Eden and that brought death into the world. It is in the punishment of Adam and Eve that God says to them, “you are dust and to dust you shall return”.
Paul in his letter to the Romans points to this when he says, “as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men…”.
Death then reigns from Adam on. That is, from the time of Adam and Eve on all beings must suffer death, because they brought death into the world and handed the world over to it. So not only did death enter the world for human beings, for you and I, it entered the world for every creature, for mammal and reptile, for bird and fish, for insect and protozoa.
That is a harsh view of Adam and Eve. But it is an even harsher view of life, of God. It is a harsh judgment by God. What did dogs and cats and cattle have to do with this? Why should they suffer for the act of Adam and Eve?
What kind of God is this that brings such pain and sorrow into the world over the eating of a piece of fruit?
Well the Christian story says that is not the end.
God feels sorrow for his creation. God wishes for his people to live lives of eternal bliss, of eternal happiness.
And so Jesus is born into the world. Depending upon the particular branch or brand of Christianity one belongs to, Jesus either is God or part of God incarnate, or is a subordinate deity or divine or semi-divine being, or is a human being chosen by God to be the Christ, the Messiah.
The role of Christ is to conquer death. In order to do that he must himself die, he must enter into the realm of death and defeat death there. That is the commission of Christ and therefore of Jesus.
God has said, you must go through the doorway of death; but in doing so, know that you will be reborn. That is the secret that Jesus keeps from his disciples until near the end.
The purpose of his ministry is to defeat death so that all other human beings may have eternal life; that is the Christian story.
And so Paul, after saying that sin came into the world through Adam, goes on to say, “Then as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men”. “All men”; that is a Universalist proclamation. “One man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men”; all are saved.
That is the astonishing promise of the Christian story of Easter: Eternal life and eternal happiness for all. And the proof that this story is true is not that Jesus died on the cross, but that he arose and lived again. Within the story, the resurrection is the proof that the promise will be fulfilled. And so Christians call and answer, “Christ is risen; Indeed, he is risen”.
The claim is that we, too--all of us--will experience death, but will then like the earth around us, like the plants in our gardens or in woods and streams and by the waysides, like the trees and bushes; we, too, will be reborn. And so shall our loved ones who have passed away. We will see them again, and the longing for them that lives in our hearts will be fulfilled.
Not all of us believe that story; not all of us believe that there is eternal life, or that Jesus was the Christ, or even that God exists.
And yet, there is something in this story that speaks to each of us no matter what our personal theology may be.
Sometimes it is not death so much that frightens us as life. Sometimes death is not the burden we face, but continued existence. There are times when each of us is bent down with pain or suffering and feels despair and hopelessness. And there are times when, while not so extreme, we seek for some hurt or sorrow to end.
The Christian story speaks of the promise of happiness to come. The Christian story of Easter says that no matter what our personal pain may be, there is the possibility, even the promise, of release. There is the promise of rebirth and renewal.
And if it is said of some of us that we cannot believe in the literal truth of the Christian claim that Jesus rose from the dead and walked again, and spoke again with his disciples, we can at least believe in the truth that our senses tell us as we look around and the earth speaks to us of rebirth. We can feel within ourselves the same energy that rises up in root and bud; that causes restless birds to fly north following the moon or a star; that swells stream and river with both water and new life. We can know that same sense of healing and oneness that brings the earth to renewal at this time of year.
Where in your life, where in my life do I seek rebirth and new growth? The Easter story says that it is happening right now; rebirth and growth are happening within me right now, right this moment. I have only to let myself feel them.
And so on this beautiful Easter Sunday, let us give praise.
Give praises to whatever: praise Jesus, praise God, praise the Goddess, praise the happy coincidence of Cosmic flux and evolutionary chance, but give praise that you and I are here and that we can be reborn now, in this moment. Go further still: open heart and soul and give praise that we are reborn, that we are right now being filled with hope and strength; give praise that life has changed, has found renewal and rebirth and we with it.
Who is risen? We are risen. Indeed, we are risen.
Let life begin anew.
And let us sing praises.
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