There was an item in the National Post recently concerning an RCMP briefing paper for the federal government. While heavily redacted – that is, censored to protect sensitive information – there was still enough to make it a depressing read. Our national police force’s analysts forecast serious civil unrest in this country in the next five years. This will arise from upset over the diminishing standard of living that will worsen with a recession. Young people are discouraged by their lack of prospects, their inaccessibility to the housing market; all of us who aren’t “the top ten percent” despair at the affordability crisis. Then there’s the general social decay we’re seeing: homelessness, increased drug abuse, rising crime. Interesting though, is the report’s focus on misinformation and disinformation, the not at all subtle suggestion that this is the root of our current malaise and this is giving rise to distrust of government, national institutions and large corporations, and that’s the real problem. So, I guess I’ve been misinformed about my bank balance; and that the prices on the grocery store shelves are just a lot of disinformation.
I take this sort of thing as another example of the tired, trope that all these problems are our fault, we the masses, the common folk, we are the authors of our misery, most of which comes from a lousy attitude toward authority when we should be grateful. We do bear some responsibility – our job is to hold authority accountable; but the powers of this world are quite good at making that difficult to do amidst all the work and family matters that are more pressing. But when people become disillusioned for good cause with those we’re told to trust, this is the result.
I read all this, and became discouraged, distressed, anxious. I failed to take my own advice with respect to the mainstream media. I’ve spoken about this in the past, drawing on my education and experience from before entering ministry: we need to be careful about our news watching and reading – very little of it is about informing us. Rather, it’s to create anxiety, or to distract, and to trap us in a web of facts, rumour and opinion in which we panic and look for reassurance, a little good news, and for someone, usually in politics, to come to our rescue, we who are overwhelmed by it all.
Now come Easter Sunday morning, and we’ve made our way to church, to mass – and what are we looking for? Just a little break from the world? Well, I wouldn’t think so, there’s a lot of other options, we could be all out having brunch.
No, if we’ve come here today, we’re like the disciples that first Easter morning, responding to the news of the empty tomb; some of us with more than a little skepticism. I mean, today’s Christians proclaiming, “He is Risen” have the same status as women in first century society did, those who were the first witnesses of the empty tomb – they aren’t credible.
But that didn’t matter in the long run, because from those who saw and believed, the miraculous, and in secular terms, unaccountable transformation of human society began; and it did so in the face of enormous, powerful opposition.
The faith born that day in so many, then strengthened and confirmed at Pentecost, took all the troubles of that time, and saw them in their proper perspective: these are passing things, and they will be overcome through the power of the Resurrection.
First century Judea became a place of civil unrest and then war. To address the problems being faced, many chose from among the few options the world offers: collaborating with the Empire that was slowly destroying them, or armed resistance that just sped up the destruction.
Christians, however, looked past the political issues of the day, the economic, the cultural – instead, they preached, proclaimed the Resurrection; and they must have seemed daffy.
But it’s from this mystery that the world is overcome, our fears are overcome, our sins overcome; and we pass through into the Kingdom of God here and now, and eventually, realize it fully and eternally.
But you know that realization by way of revelation, didn’t come immediately. No, first bewilderment, and then giddiness and joy that could not be wholly comprehended, but at some deeper level they knew that something wonderful had happened; and that it was something even more profound than a man rising from the dead. Something more had been raised, they had been raised, and in the power of that, they went out and raised and remade the world. Much of their work we can still see, those things we want to keep, to have in the world in which we live, raise children, work, and make community.
So, this Easter morning will be the start for some, a good reminder to others, and pure celebration for the many who already live in the power of Christ’s resurrection.
Amen.