Resurrection readings on this Resurrection Day.
An invitation
An invitation
to live in the confidence that every act of compassion matters - not just now, but forever,
to celebrate the infinite possibilities beckoning past "the reigning plausability structure,"
to say "yes" to the present risenness of Christ,
to stand in flux and change as bright "immortal diamond."
Christ is Risen!
He is risen indeed!
He is risen indeed!
 |
| Who Are You Looking For? Anna Kocher, 2006 |
from Resurrection, Rob Bell, 2010
resurrection announces that God has not given up on the
world
because this world matters
this world that we call home
dirt and blood and sweat and skin and light and water
this world that God is redeeming and restoring and renewing . . .
this world that we call home
dirt and blood and sweat and skin and light and water
this world that God is redeeming and restoring and renewing . . .
resurrection says that what we do with our lives matters
in this body
the one that we inhabit right now
every act of compassion matters
every work of art that celebrates the good and the true matters
every fair and honest act of business and trade
every kind word
they all belong and they will all go on in God’s good world
nothing will be forgotten
nothing will be wasted
it all has it’s place
in this body
the one that we inhabit right now
every act of compassion matters
every work of art that celebrates the good and the true matters
every fair and honest act of business and trade
every kind word
they all belong and they will all go on in God’s good world
nothing will be forgotten
nothing will be wasted
it all has it’s place
everybody believes something
everybody believes somebody
Jesus invites us to trust resurrection
that every glimmer of good
every hint of hope
every impulse that elevates the soul
is a sign, a taste, a glimpse
of how things actually are
and how things will ultimately be
resurrection affirms this life and the next
as a seamless reality
embraced
graced
and saved by God
everybody believes somebody
Jesus invites us to trust resurrection
that every glimmer of good
every hint of hope
every impulse that elevates the soul
is a sign, a taste, a glimpse
of how things actually are
and how things will ultimately be
resurrection affirms this life and the next
as a seamless reality
embraced
graced
and saved by God
there is an unexpected mysterious presence
who meets each of us in our lowest moments
when we have no strength when we have nothing left
and we can’t go on we hear the voice that speaks those
words
who meets each of us in our lowest moments
when we have no strength when we have nothing left
and we can’t go on we hear the voice that speaks those
words
destroy this temple and I’ll rebuild it
do you believe this?
that’s the question Jesus asked then
and that’s the question he asks now
that’s the question Jesus asked then
and that’s the question he asks now
Jesus’ friends arrive at his tomb and they’re told
he isn’t here
he isn’t here
he isn’t here
there is nothing to fear
and nothing can ever be the same again
we are living in a world in the midst of rescue
with endless unexpected possibilities
they will take my life and I will die Jesus says
but that will not be the end
and when you find yourself assuming that it’s over
when it’s lost, gone, broken and it could never be
put back together again,
when it’s been destroyed and you swear that it could never
be rebuilt
but that will not be the end
and when you find yourself assuming that it’s over
when it’s lost, gone, broken and it could never be
put back together again,
when it’s been destroyed and you swear that it could never
be rebuilt
hold on a minute
because in that moment
things will in fact have just begun
from The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, Lesslie Newbigin, 1989
because in that moment
things will in fact have just begun
 |
| Resurrection, Manuel Panselenos, Greece, ca 1300 |
from The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, Lesslie Newbigin, 1989
It is obvious that the story of the empty tomb cannot be
fitted into our contemporary worldview, or indeed into any worldview except one
of which it is the starting point. That is,
indeed, the whole point. What happened
on that day is, according to the Christian tradition, only to be understood by
analogy with what happened on the day the cosmos came into being. It is a boundary event, at the point where
(as cosmologists tell us) the laws of physics ceased to apply. It is the beginning of a new creation – as
mysterious to human reason as the creation itself.
But, and this is the whole point, accepted in faith it
becomes the starting point for a wholly new way of understanding our human
experience, a way which – in the long run – makes more sense of human
experience as a whole than does the reigning plausibility structure. That the crucified Jesus was raised from
death to be the firstfruit of creation is – in the proper sense – dogma. It is something given, offered for acceptance
in faith, providing the starting point for a new way of understanding which,
instead of being finally defined by the impassable boundary of death (our
personal deaths and the final death of the cosmos), moves from death outward to
an open world of infinite possibilities beckoning us into ever fresh regions of
joy.
 |
| Doubting Thomas, Emmanual Nsama, Zambia, 1970 |
from Abba's Child, Brendan Manning, 2002
For me, the most radical demand of Christian faith lies in
summoning the courage to say YES to the present risenness of Jesus Christ. . . . I have lived long enough to appreciate
that Christianity is lived more in the valley than on the mountaintop, that
faith is never doubt-free, and that although God has revealed himself in
creation and in history, the surest way to know God is, in the words of Thomas
Aquinas, as tamquam ignotum, utterly unknowable.No thought can contain him; no
word can express him. He is beyond anything we can intellectualize or imagine.
My YES to the fullness of divinity embodied in the present
risenness of Jesus is scary because it is so personal. In desolation and
abandonment . . ., in loneliness and fear, in the awareness of the resident
pharisee, and in the antics of the imposter, YES is a bold word not to be taken
lightly or spoken frivolously.
This YES is an act of faith, a decisive, wholehearted
response of my whole being to the risen Jesus present beside me, before me,
around me, and within me; a cry of confidence that my faith in Jesus provides
security not only in the face of death but in the face of a worse threat posed
by my own malice; a word that must be said not just once but repeated over and
over again in the ever-changing landscape of life.
from That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection, Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1888
 |
| Resurrection, unknown artists, Istanbul, ca 1315 |
from That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection, Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1888
Delightfully the bright wind boisterous ropes, wrestles, beats
earth bare
Of yestertempest’s creases; in pool and rut peel parches
Squandering ooze to squeezed dough, crust, dust; stanches,
starches
Squadroned masks and manmarks treadmire toil there
Footfretted in it. Million-fuelèd, nature’s bonfire burns
on.
But quench her bonniest, dearest to her, her clearest-selvèd
spark
Man, how fast his firedint, his mark on mind, is gone!
. . . Enough! the
Resurrection,
A heart’s-clarion! Away grief’s gasping, joyless days,
dejection.
Across my foundering deck shone
A beacon, an eternal beam. Flesh fade, and mortal trash
Fall to the residuary worm; world’s wildfire, leave but ash:
In a flash, at a trumpet crash,
I am all at once what Christ is, since he was what I am, and
This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, patch, matchwood, immortal
diamond,
Is immortal diamond.
 |
| Jesus: the Resurrected One, Jason Fowler, 2011 |
Where is Newness Needed, March 2013
Risen Indeed!, April 2012
Resurrection,, April 2011
