Easter Sunday of last year, I observed that this day challenges us. The question is put: is it true? And then we have the flurry of testimony in the scriptures that will continue in our readings at mass in the coming weeks: people encountering the risen Christ and being changed in the encounter. That is, the evidence is presented for our review and reflection.
This morning we’re back to that same question: is it true? But I have to ask of us all: are we giving any answer? Have we concluded the answer is “yes”, sincerely made that our confession, and then shared what we know?
A great many who think themselves Christian, the “unaffiliated”, the non-observant, the “culturally” Christian who see the functional practicality of the Christian ethos and moral system but don’t worship, pray or study the scriptures, they have little if any evangelical impulse to share the good news. Rather, as is the consequence of an overlong era of protesting and secular individualism, they have their opinions on God, Christ, and morality as derived from faith, and for the most part, prefer to keep it to themselves.
Yet, the impulse to ask the question, “is it true?” is profoundly Christian and demands not an opinion but an unqualified affirmation. That is, a decision. To be concerned with the facticity, the veracity of it, and not simply accept it is essential to our faith. We must know, not guess, at what is at the heart of this faith. Now, we might say that’s a ridiculous assertion. Truth and fact, these are the preoccupations of science; and then we can speak of the antagonism between faith and science and how today many turn away from faith in preference to the seeming solidity of a life based on scientifically established facts. Now, one can quickly observe that facts are one thing, what to do with them another, and science is of little help when it comes to what we call morality: knowing right from wrong. But I get how one does not want to live one’s life according to a myth, no matter how inspiring, to not set life’s priorities on the basis of unsubstantiated facts no matter how much we want to believe.
The Bible, is increasingly verified by good science. I admit it has a theological gloss – that’s obvious, but in terms of its facts, its truth, it’s pretty on the money if one reads it as the Church has read and passed it on for two millenia as a compendium of history and story, wisdom and revelation. And I put it to us that outside our Sacred Scriptures, we will find only myth in the world, and unreliable reports of other would-be prophets and messiahs, some who claim to speak for God, others who preach a more earthbound creed rooted in theories of economics, history, and lately, race and gender.
This morning, I don’t have time to rehearse all the arguments for Christ, to address all the challenges to the story of his life, death and resurrection. We can’t go into all the dimensions of its meaning and consequence for us. But as with Lent, when we were called to meditate on his death, his sacrifice, so now we are to consider what this resurrection means for us. How this resurrection can become our resurrection to a life lived in God eternally through a commitment to Love and Truth – that our commitment to these things find their inspiration in Jesus Christ who lived and died and rose again through the power of Truth and Love that is, who is God. To live our lives confident in the knowledge that having died for us, our life in Christ is one where the penalty of sin (that is, death) does not apply, and so, death has no dominion over us.
So, do not be afraid, but go and tell our brothers and sister, he is risen.
Amen.