Sisters and Brothers in Christ

A few years ago an Anglican bishop in England said during a radio interview that the resurrection was nothing more than a "conjuring trick done with bones." Interesting observation for a bishop to make. What are we to do with the resurrection? Believe in it? I feel that simply believing in resurrection leaves it in a grave of ideology. So what shall we do with it?

Lalla, the poetess who lived in 14th century Kashmir, wrote a poem that I think is very informative about how we, in the 20th (or 21st if you prefer) century could plumb the vast resources resurrection offers. She wrote:

I made pilgrimages looking for God.
Then I gave up, turned around,
there God was inside me!

Oh Lalla, why do you keep on
wandering, and begging?

Make just a little effort. Act!
And God will appear in the form
of a love that fills your heart.

I tried for many years of my life to bottle God up in a historical bauble I called "resurrection." I showed this bauble to people and tried to convince them that it was really real. All the while I wore this bauble around my neck I searched for God under rocks of dogma and along highways of doctrine. I sought God in inscrutible scripture, tricky theology, sacred history, and mysterious rites. Finally, one day, the bauble I wore broke and God was released from the idea of resurrection. Then an odd thing happened–resurrection! God rose from the death of my puny idea of God which held God secure in the prison of my ego.

"It might not be a good idea for God to be set free!" my ego warned. Yet bathed in that risen Presence I began to see God in the eyes of friend and stranger. I saw God helping a child and God crying over the loss of a loved one. I saw God allowing another driver to merge into traffic. I saw God cheering another person’s accomplishments and grieving over another’s misfortune. I saw God reveal glory in mysterious rites and come alive in sacred writings.

Once the rock to the tomb of my ignorant idea of God was rolled away God did indeed rise in my heart and open my eyes to resurrection that happens now, and now, and now.

What shall we do with resurrection? Try our best to prove that it really happened 2000 years ago? How ludicrous! That really is a conjuring trick done with bones.

Resurrection has no need of being proved. Resurrection only needs you and me to live it.

Joel t