4/12/20
For some years now, on Tuesday in Holy Week, our bishops have invited the clergy of the ECCT to join them at the cathedral in Hartford for the renewal of our ordination vows. We do a form of the liturgy for ordination, and then there’s a program of some sort, and then we share a meal, and spend some time together. Five or six years ago the program was to go out into the neighborhood around the cathedral for a couple of hours and look for where we could see Jesus.
So: how do we see Jesus? Where can we see Jesus? What does that mean?
There were a number of specific places where people congregated which we were directed to, like the public library, and Hartford Hospital. The one I chose was the big common room in the basement of the cathedral parish building, which they open during the week to people on the street, giving them a place where they can come and be warm for a few hours in the middle of the day, have a cup of coffee, and hang out in a safe and friendly environment.
That day there were around thirty people there; I joined a couple of guys sitting at a table playing dominoes, who taught me how to play. And at one point, there was a man who was making his way around the room, stopping at different tables for a few minutes. When he got to us, it became apparent that he needed help; but he had some kind of cognitive difficulty, and a speech impediment, so it took him a few minutes to make himself understood: he needed to get home, which was somewhere in the city, and he didn’t have any money. And when that finally became clear, before I could reach for my wallet, both of the guys I was sitting with, at the same time, reached into their pockets and said, No, man, I got a bus pass, you want a bus pass?
That bus pass was something each of them needed, I was quite sure, but they were each offering theirs to a complete stranger who they could see needed help. That’s the self-sacrificial love of God in Christ. That’s where I saw Jesus that day.
Today we proclaim that Christ is alive. Today is the greatest, most joyful day of our Christian year: even in conditions like the ones we’re living in now. Which are not unlike those of the church – the followers of Jesus – on the day of the resurrection, 2000 years ago. That church was dispersed, as we are now: blown apart by a terrible calamity. Its heart and soul – the source of its life – had been destroyed. Their friend, their teacher, the person who’d said and done things no one had ever seen before, things that seemed undeniably to come straight from God: that person was now gone for good, executed like the scum of the earth. So there was fear, and anxiety; as there is today. They didn’t know who they were any more. We thought God was right here with us. What could God possibly be doing? Was any of it real?
Today’s gospel story from Matthew shows they’re about to find out that it was real; in fact, more real than any of them had imagined. The angel tells the two women at the tomb, “I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised….” He’s telling them, Do not look for Jesus among the dead; because he is not dead. He has been raised.
“Raised.” Let’s think about that for a minute. The risen Jesus is not alive again in the same way that he was before, ready to resume his earthly ministry, God having performed a magic act to confound Jesus’ enemies. No. God has raised Jesus: raised him to a higher, an infinitely greater, realm of life: life which is in this world here with us. When we talk about the risen Jesus that’s what we’re talking about. And that life is not just as real as Jesus’ life before; it’s more so: because it’s the life that’s eternal.
The angel tells the two women to go to the disciples and say that Jesus has been raised, and gone ahead of them to Galilee; and they will see him there. Those women then immediately come face to face with the risen Jesus, and he tells them the same thing: Tell my brothers to go to Galilee, they’ll see me there.
Galilee: it’s is where they all came from, Jesus and the disciples. Galilee is the sticks: flyover country; a place where you could scratch out a life, but nothing there this world puts much value on. It’s in the far north, as far away in the nation of Israel as you can get from Jerusalem, from the center of worldly power, the temple, the headquarters of the Roman Empire: it’s where the money is.
That’s why Jesus wants the disciples to go to Galilee. He knows that their connection to the kingdom of God, which was through him (as it is for us), has been broken. He knows they’re frightened, and anxious, and confused, and in despair. He wants them to get away from the powers of this world – that right now have blinded them to his presence – and go to Galilee; where they will see him. And they do. They go to Galilee, and they see him: the life that is eternal; is now; and will be forever.
So you see, today is the greatest day, the most joyous day, of the Christian year. It always will be: whatever the circumstances of the present moment, whatever’s in the headlines. Because this is the day on which we behold the resurrection: which opens our eyes to see God’s infinite love for us; opens our eyes to see the life that is eternal, which is here now; opens our eyes to see all that great glory, through the One who is our Savior, our teacher, and our friend: the Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Thanks be to God.