24 April 2011

Easter I - Easter Day
The Rev’d Lloyd Prator
New York City

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a story that has been told and retold over and over again. In the Bible, there are four Gospels and each one of them has a version of the story of the resurrection. Each story varies a bit in details and focus, but we Christians don’t care, after all, almost any event of any moment at all is perceived in different ways by different people.

Mark’s Gospel, in its original form, simply ends with the empty tomb. There is no evidence of the risen Christ apart from that eerie absence. Luke, who was always concerned about feeding, has Jesus appear at a couple of meals. John, who was Jesus’ particular friend, insists on putting in a note saying he was the one who wrote all this down. Matthew, which we read today, has the women discovering the empty tomb and being told to go back and tell the guys to return to Galilee, where the whole story had started, they would meet Jesus there.

Four original stories, four different emphases. Fascinating and puzzling, calling us to consider what is going on here.

I am not sure of the motives of the men and women who formed the canon of the New Testament. I was not there, I am a 21st century man, and they were second century men and women. But I am convinced that having four different stories, including one with an obvious later addition, makes a deep, personal point about who we are as Christians and how we are meant to live in the shadow of the resurrection.

Matthew’s gospel ends with what Christians call the Great Commission, that is, the disciples being sent out as apostles, to tell the story of this great event to the end of the world and to the end of time. We, each of us who calls ourselves Christians, are told to retell this story in new places and new times. And each of those new places and new times requires a new way of telling the story. As the great hymn puts it, “new occasions teach new duties.” And it is the duty of Christians to tell the story in new places and new ways.

How do we do that?

When we Christians stand for equal rights for women, we are telling the gospel. the women were the first ones to see the great event, and it is a shame that many cultures and many other religions still subject women to the domination of men. Breaking down those barriers is about opening the way to new life, and that is the gospel.

When we Christians insist that this country finish the work we began in the last century to assure the proper equality of black men and women, we are telling the gospel. The first people of God were slaves, some Christians are still sold into slavery in various parts of the world, and the fact that our country takes bare notice of that is a serious example of missing the point of the resurrection. Stable families, job opportunities and social reform is part of the way to new life, and that is the gospel.

When we Christians insist that our national economy be recast in order to assure the blessings of liberty and prosperity for the next generation, we are telling the gospel. Our economic life is a fragile creation, and yet it is a powerful engine to assure prosperity and equal opportunity for all. Our religion is told out in terms of history and human endeavor. That God uses such idiom for his self-revelation reminds us of the importance he places on the various essential components of our common life. Caring for that economy brings new life to those in need, and that is the gospel.

What we have in the gospel, what we read today is an unfinished story. And a good thing. for the fact that the story is unfinished sets the agenda for those whom Christ stills sends to the far corners of the earth to proclaim his resurrection, assuring that he is with us always even to the end of the ages.