Easter Faith
John 20:1-18[1]
For most of us, I think “faith” is a word that we associate with
the content of what we believe. Whether it has to do with our faith in Jesus
Christ, or our faith in our public institutions, or our faith in our families,
it’s a matter of believing something specific about each of these aspects of
our lives. But I think there is a deeper dimension to faith than what we say we
believe. It has to do with what drives the way we actually live our lives. I’m
pretty sure most of us aren’t always fully aware of the faith that drives our
actions in this meaning of the word. But make no mistake: we all act out our
faith, whatever that faith may be.
This kind of faith is something that has been ingrained in us,
in many cases from childhood. It may have to do with the belief that it’s
important to get up as early as possible in order to get started with the
chores of the day. From that perspective, if you’re not working by the time the
sun comes up, you’re burning daylight. That’s a kind of faith. For many of us,
this deep level of faith may have to do with what our family life is supposed
to look like. For some, that means that the family that prays together, stays
together. For others, it means taking every opportunity to plan for times to
play together as a family; in other words, the family that plays together,
stays together. We have these proverbs we live by, perhaps unconsciously, that
drive our actions in a powerful way. And I would say that our actions show
where our faith really lies.
I think if we’re honest with ourselves, when it comes to the
Easter story, many of us run into a wall with our faith. Most of us can accept
that Jesus was born. And that Jesus was crucified on a Roman cross. But when it
comes to Easter, it can be different matter altogether. How do you wrap your head around the Easter
Gospel that a man who was really dead somehow as raised to life? It’s one of
those aspects of faith that moves us beyond our normal experience. We tend to live our lives based on what we
can see and touch. That’s not a
rejection of faith, it’s simply a particular kind of faith. It is the faith
that our future rests on what we do for ourselves.
But the Easter Gospel is that God does not operate within the
limits of what we can see! Easter faith
in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead points us toward the hope that God
really is working to make all things new. That may make Easter Faith sound
attractive, but I don’t think it makes it easy.
As one of my favorite philosophers puts it, our faith moves us beyond the
realm in which we can understand and manage things. It moves us into “the sphere of the
impossible,” where “only the great passions of faith and love and hope will see
us through.” [2]
I think, in part, that means that it’s not enough just to “believe”
our faith intellectually. Rather, the miracle of Easter calls us to trust God
with all that we are. More than that, it calls us to base the way we live our
actual everyday lives on something we cannot see. For some of us that may come
fairly naturally—like John the beloved disciple from our Gospel lesson for
today. Although I mentioned a few weeks
ago that I’m something of a skeptic, I’m also at heart a believer. When I think
about the great questions of life, in the depth of my being, in that place
where all pretense is stripped away, the hope and faith that there is a God who
loves us all, who is working to restore and renew everything and everyone,
simply rings true. If that is true, life makes sense to me; without it nothing
makes sense.
For others like Mary, Easter faith not so automatic. When she came face-to-face with the risen
Christ, she thought she was talking to a gardener who may have removed Jesus’
body. It was only when Jesus broke through her sorrow and her suspicion by
calling her name, “Mary,” that she recognized him. For some of us, it takes an
experience like that to break through the walls we put up to protect our
hearts. And there are many of us who have had such experiences—in one way or
another, at one time or another, we have felt that we experienced the presence
of God in our lives in a unique and profound way. I think many of us put our
faith in Jesus because an experience like that puts us in touch with the love
that is at the heart of all things, and therefore calls forth within us a
profound faith.
But how do we encounter this presence of Christ? It’s one thing for Mary to meet Jesus in the
garden. It’s another thing for you or me
to encounter him now. I think there can
be many answers to this question. For
me, I find myself experiencing God’s love calling me by name through the
presence of Christ in the community of faith.
I encounter Christ through the love and support and affirmation I
receive from other people who have also encountered the risen Lord in their
lives.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with many of the proverbs
that we live by. But Easter Faith calls us beyond believing what we can see to
entrusting our lives to the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead. It is a
different path, a whole new way of life that sees the light shining in the
deepest darkness. And when we walk in
the light of Easter Faith, I think it makes a profound difference in the way we
live our lives. Easter faith enables us to move from a life that we have to
manage and control by our own efforts to one that is fundamentally based on the
hope that there really is a God who loves us all. And Easter Faith enables us
to move beyond trusting only what we can do for ourselves to trusting that this
God loves us all so much that he is working to renew everything and everyone. That’s
the kind of Easter Faith that can make all the difference in the way we live
our lives.
[1]
©2018 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 4/1/2018 at
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2]
Cf. John Caputo, On Religion, 8-9.
No comments:
Post a Comment