Rise Again

By Karen Georgia A. Thompson

Resurrection Hope

Christians around the world celebrated the high holy days culminating the 40 days of Lent, with thanksgiving and joy for the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. The journey across Holy Week from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday focuses on Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, his observance of Passover, his death at the hand of the Roman rulers and religious leaders, and his resurrection.

The mystery and miracle of Jesus being raised from the dead contains the wisdom of the ages pointing to the power of God present and at work among us, if we choose to believe in the greatness of the Divine. The resurrection of Jesus is framed in the presence and power of God revealed through Jesus and his ministry. The resurrection is the salvific work of God, providing new life for the world through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (John 3:16-18).

While Christians celebrate Easter annually, the resurrection is more than a moment in time to be celebrated. Easter holds deep meaning and possibility for our lives because it points to new life. The resurrection of Jesus points to new possibilities, new hope and the power of the Holy Spirit manifesting newness of life and spirit among us. With God all things are possible (Matthew 19:25-26). Possibilities abound in the promise of Easter joy. These are individual and collective possibilities for the church, for the world, for all.

Easter with its symbols of eggs and bunnies is also connected with ancient festivals that pre-date Christianity. These festivals were connected with the celebration of the equinoxes and spring in the northern hemisphere. The spring equinox was a sign that the cold and darkness of winter were drawing to a close, a sign that the light and warmth of summer was overcoming the darkness and cold of winter. These festivals were also a sign of the people’s connection to nature and the rhythms of the earth. It was in 325 A.D at the first major church council, that the Council of Nicaea determined Easter would fall on the Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox.

(https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-15/the-origins-o f-easter-from-pagan-roots-to-chocolate-eggs/8440134)

The connections between the resurrection, the celebration of new life in the world and the new life in Christ invite us to create space for this new life to emerge among us. The seasons of life are a sign along the way as are the cycles and rhythm of the earth. Where new life emerges, it means change is present - death has occurred, endings have been realised and something new is on the horizon.

“Jesus brought ministry to the poor and the marginalised. He stood up against the religious institutions of his day and named for all he encountered that the religious elite were a part of the problem (Matthew 23:1-39).”

Resurrection is associated with Christianity and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The primary dictionary definition of the word is the rising of Jesus from the dead (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/resurrection ). In addition, the word resurrection means revitalisation or revival of something. The word comes from the latin resurgere and resurrectio which mean rise again. Rising again is the essence of resurrection. Jesus was laid in the tomb and rose again - as recorded in the Gospels.

To get to resurrection we have to pass through death, change and the deterioration that comes to living things. Nothing lives forever. Nothing stays the same. Death resides among us, coming and going in ways that remind us of our human frailties and our mortality. We see the cycles of change all around us. The flora and fauna around us exhibit this cycle. The flowers bloom and die. The trees shed their leaves. The animals give birth. All things living experience death. The organisations we support and are a part of experience demise and decline. This too is death. Even as we are witnesses to this cycle among us, we are challenged in our ability to cope and respond to this cycle among us. Death is hard for us to come to terms with when experienced as a part of human life. Decline, deterioration and demise also bring stress and crisis as we attempt to adapt to what the changes mean for our lives.

Perhaps it is the permanence of death which causes discomfort in talking about how death affects us. Our inability to experience death as a part of life and living is a hindrance to our ability to live the possibilities of new life offered in Christ. Good Friday becomes a day in the week on the way to the joy of Easter Sunday. The death of Jesus is experienced as a temporary moment in his life and ministry because we know if we wait the three days, we can celebrate the resurrection.

And yet, the Bible clearly states that Jesus died and records the pain of the Good Friday torture and trial. His disciples mourned. They sat together in grief and anger, having lost their friend and leader. His mother shed tears and was devastated at the loss of the life of her child. Her presence at the foot of the cross is an expression of deep pain and grief. A mother weeping for her child as she stands by watching him beaten and dying. The death of Jesus was cruel. The cross that Christians experience as an act of redemption and liberation was a form of capital punishment used by the Romans. A person was hung or nailed to the cross, a punishment resulting in a painful public death. As Jesus hung on the cross, his sides were pierced an act which accelerated his death (John 19:31-37). Jesus was punished for ministry labelled as seditionist. He challenged the Roman occupation of the land in which he lived. He challenged the treatment of the people of his day. He demanded justice and change.

Jesus brought ministry to the poor and the marginalised. He stood up against the religious institutions of his day and named for all he encountered that the religious elite were a part of the problem (Matthew 23:1-39). They were not sharing God’s love with the people, instead, they were contributing to the economic decline and suffering of the people. They were supporting the rule of law brought on by the Roman occupation to perpetuate their own existence at the expense of the quality of life of the people.

The cross requires that we pause and examine what Jesus endured and the lengths taken to silence the ministry and mission of Jesus. His was a mission to the margins. Jesus disrupted the authority and oppression of the Roman Empire. He provided the people with a spirituality which gave them new life as they navigated life under occupation. He gathered the people and taught them God had more and better in store for them. He taught them God loved and cared for them. He taught them in ways that inspired their lives and encouraged them through a time of crisis and oppression (Matthew 5:1-12).

Jesus was concerned with justice and righteousness. He sought justice for the people. He met the people where they were and gave them what they needed. He provided for the people physically and spiritually, to sustain them during challenging social and economic times, and a time of spiritual dearth.

We are invited to mourn at the foot of the cross, mourning the cruel ways in which life was interrupted for Jesus and the ways in which empires negate the voices of those who confront the treachery and disparity they support. We must

mourn those for whom suffering has been normalised. The way of the cross is death that has to be named, acknowledge and mourned if we are to experience the new life possible in the aftermath of death.

We cannot fear or ignore death if we are to receive the new life offered in the hope and promise of Jesus Christ. There is no resurrection of Jesus without his death. There is no new life without the demise and end to habits, plans, thoughts, ideas and the ways we are accustomed to living and being. Death is inevitable, as is the promise of new life.

As Christians, living the joy of the resurrection is tied to the death of Jesus. As we remember the joy of Easter, that joy is accompanied by the grief and tyranny of Good Friday. Life beyond Easter Sunday carries pain and joy, life and death, grieving and celebration because our reflections and commitments to follow Jesus are the catalysts for change in the places where we live.

Beyond the Resurrection

During the past year of COVID-19, there have been over 3 million deaths attributed to the virus (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/). As the virus spread, it disproportionately affected the most vulnerable communities. Women, children, the poor, those in service industries which are typically low wage were further marginalised, as were persons living with disabilities and chronic illnesses. As the vaccine rollouts increase, these communities are not prioritised neither are the countries with less resources than the developed countries located largely in the northern hemisphere.

While COVID-19 continues to capture our attention, the numbers of displaced people have increased globally. According to the United Nations, “there were 79.5 million people forcibly displaced world-wide at the end of 2019. Among those were 26 million refugees, half under the age of 18. There were also 45.7 million internally displaced people, 4.2 million asylum seekers, and 3.6 million Venezuelans displaced abroad. There are also millions of stateless people, who have been denied a nationality and access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement” (https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/refugees). Globally, women’s rights advocates are noting the increase in gender-based violence. There are escalating numbers of calls to domestic violence hotlines. Women and girls are not safe in their homes. These are not new issues, and in the year of sheltering in place, lockdowns and distancing they have become worse (https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/in-focus-gen der-equality-in-covid-19-response/violence-against-womenduring-covid-19

Poverty, disease, discrimination, unemployment and underemployment are staples among us. The world normalised living that is unhealthy and oppressive in the embrace of empire and pursuit of wealth. Suffering, disease and death do not receive the protest and outcry they should, and some among us are oblivious to the disgrace and discomfort of the injustices running at pandemic proportions among us. These days of COVID-19 also focused our attention on the global spread of the virus and amplified social ills living among us.

In this season of Eastertide, Christians are rising to new life in Christ, and as such we are called to action, called to be a part of the change needed in the world. Christian are children of the resurrection, believers holding hope in God who can triumph over death and promises to make all things new. God promised hope and change, the church is the evidence of renewal and renewing of life, each member of the body of Christ a symbol of God made present in the world.

We are living through one of the most challenging times of our generation. Pandemics have come to reside among us and we are perplexed as to how we got here and even more perplexed about when change is going to come. Week after week I hear people longing for the way things used to be. Longing for what was - being able to go back to recreational activities, meeting publicly, traveling widely and living the way things were. And yet, what was a time of good living for many was not so for others. The world cannot return to the way things were.

The renewal that comes with spring is the resurrection of lilies pushing out of the frozen earth. The revitalisation is the blossoms and the birds, the light returning and the cycles and rhythms of the earth that are both death and life, renewal and transformation, letting go and embracing new intentions, new hope, new thoughts and new ideas. We can shake off the past, let go of the things that no longer serve us in the shadows of the full moon and hold new intentions for the journey that lies ahead.

We are people for whom life promises a new beginning each day, with new hope, new promise and the newness of change emerging in and through us. God shows no partiality. The promises of life are for all God’s children. We are all created in the image and likeness of God. New life is possible for all.

Rising to Life

Rising to new life is a radical call for this season. The church and the world are ready for renewal and revitalisation. The possibilities for renewal rest on the ability to call out the injustices and challenges present among us and bring them to an end. Renewal and revival begin with individuals to affect the change we want to see in the world. “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

We are waiting for something new to emerge among us. We are awaiting the end of injustices. We want to see justice in the world. We are awaiting the end of discrimination, xenophobia, racism and violation of human rights. We are awaiting the flourishing of God’s love among us. We want to see the end of sickness and disease. We want suffering to end. We want all of God’s people to live the full expression of life, joy, health, hope and happiness. We want a world that is reflective of God’s love for all.

Christians are renewed in Christ. The joy of the resurrection is the change affected by Jesus’ ministry, his death and his resurrection. Christians are called by Jesus to be light and salt to the earth. We are the message of hope and promise. What is the message you hold for new life in Christ? What do you hope for your renewal, revitalisation, and transformation in Christ? The celebration of the resurrection is a reminder we are no longer the same. We encounter the power of the Holy Spirit in the celebration of Jesus rising from the dead.

Rising to life with Christ is an expression of bold courage and commitment to be advocates for our siblings who are in need. We must hold a vision for the world built on the foundation of the love of God for the world given through Jesus Christ. This vision requires that we bring prophetic imagination to ministry and mission. We have to be willing to let go of “the way things were” and imagine a future where all are free, healthy and have access to the resources they need to live full lives in God.

We rise to live with Christ. This is an invitation to deepen our spiritual lives. We are a new creation in Christ. Relinquishing old habits, thoughts and ideas, old ways of relating with God and with neighbour will create the space for God to be at work in us, with us and through us. We are the children of the resurrected Christ, called to love God and neighbor, and to bring our gifts to change the world for all.

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)

“Globally, women’s rights advocates are noting the increase in gender-based violence. There are escalating numbers of calls to domestic violence hotlines.”

We are light born of the light children of the resurrection products of truth and love bringing with us the essence of Divine grace.

We are the possibilities for renewal bearing expectations of revitalisation and transformation.

We are living through moments in time beckoning us to rise again suggesting we are more than these junctures, we are more than the failures or the lack we identify we are more than the flaws and the limitations of our human frailties.

These are days of transfiguration we are rising to life with Christ.

The renewal that comes with spring a sign of new life emerging among us the resurrection of lilies pushing out of the frozen earth rains watering the earth, renewing life trees blossoming, the flowers returning.

The revitalisation is evidenced in the songs of the birds the light returning as the earth tilts toward the sun the cycles and rhythms of life are at peace united together as one heartbeat.

Death and life are one, renewal and deterioration giving birth to change balancing the journeys around the sun the oneness creating new intentions new hope, new thoughts, new ideas.

These are days of restoration we are rising to life in Christ.

We relinquish the past letting go of practices that no longer serve in the shadows of the full moon light we hold new intentions to the light for the spirit filled journeys that lies ahead.

We are children of the resurrection products of light and change transmuted over time children of hope and grace.

We are the renewal of life bringing new vision to the world rising to new life.

These are days of resurrection we are rising anew.

We are the message of hope and justice prophesying new life and a better future.

12:13 13 April 2021 KGAT Olmsted Township, OH

by Rev Dr Karen Georgia A. Thompson, Associate General Minister for Wider Church Ministries and Operations in the United Church of Christ and Co-Executive for Global Ministries