Resurrection People

The Easter message from the Moderator of the United Church of Canada popped up in my facebook feed several days ago. I have many friends in the UCC and worked in a UCC congregation for three years and I really enjoyed watching this video from The Right Rev. Jordan Cantwell. I’m going to quote her this Sunday when I preach about the disciples on the Emmaus road.

Rev. Cantwell talks about how our excited hallelujahs were not the initial response of the disciples. They were in awe, afraid, doubting, amazed, terrified. She talks about how when we are in the midst of our own resurrection experiences, we can respond with uncertainty, anxiety, dread and disbelief because resurrection by its very nature is unexpected and unimaginable for us. We can’t see it coming and we’re never fully prepared for it. It is a revelation of new life where just before there was nothing but despair and loss.

I love this message, a message encouraging us to always hope and trust in God’s ability to be in the business of resurrection, whether in our lives or our churches or the world. It sounds easy, but when numbers are declining, programs are folding, churches are decaying and expenses mounting, it can be very difficult to believe that God can resurrect us. A wonderful book by the Presbyterian Church in Canada’s current Moderator, The Rev. Peter Bush, called In Dying We Are Born considers some tough questions. For new life to emerge, we often need something else to die to create the space for it. This may be a program or theology or approach to worship, or it may even be a building or the configuration of congregations in an area.

So what does resurrection look like for us in 2018? To believe in the power of Jesus’ resurrection and the difference it can make for us requires faith despite the odds. The disciples had trouble seeing and believing it was true even when He showed up on their doorstep. We have 2,000 years of records and other evidence and still can struggle to whole-heartedly accept what happened. But if we can, and we can trust in what God did through Christ for us, then how much more can God do through the church, the body of Christ?  

To be a resurrection people, we need to know and own the gospel story. We need to have the same hindsight about our own lives as the disciples on the way to Emmaus. Where are those moments that Jesus showed up powerfully and unexpectedly in life events and through our ministries? When has Jesus reassured us that we’re on the right track or pointed the right way to go? When have we been blessed by the hand of God guiding and protecting and growing us and what we’re doing?

Knowing that God has intervened in our lives and ministry, we can trust in God’s ability to do it again. We can pray for wisdom and discernment and to be ready for God to bring resurrection into what we are doing. We can pray for acceptance and joy rather than fear and doubt when God does the unexpected among us. We can pray that our hearts will burn within us, letting us know it is truly Christ among us leading us.

If we’re honest, I think that many of us would rather not be a resurrection people. We’re tired of learning new things all the time and would rather stick with what we know and already know how to do. We would rather not have to re-invent the wheel, even if that means we would grow numerically and spiritually. We would rather stay cynical or frustrated, happy to have excuses to not meet our potential.

But resurrection reminds us that it is God’s plan and timing that changes and saves us. We don’t have control over how God breaks into our journey. Things will happen that we aren’t expecting or even wanting. But we will experience something new that we couldn’t have dreamed of being possible if we open ourselves to dying to self and being raised in Christ. As individuals, as leaders and as the church itself we have the invitation to live a resurrection life, fully expectant on the promises and intervention of God.

He is risen! Hallelujah! And may we be a resurrection people, ready to live with joy and conviction, as well as openness to the reality that what is impossible for us is entirely possible for God.