Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Col 3:1-4
John 20:1-9
Bishop Untener's Homily
Solemnity of the Resurrection of The Lord
Today I'm going to preach on our Second Scripture Reading, which is only four verses long.
I chose this reading because it contains a truth about the Resurrection that you may never have thought of. Not that you've never heard the words before. But sometimes you read a familiar passage, and a light goes on, and you see one of the well-known truths of our faith come alive in a new way. That's what happened to me when I read this passage, and I'll see if I can pass it on to you. Here goes.
Our Share in the Risen Life of Christ
The Letter to the Colossians centers on Baptism. (By the way, scholars are almost evenly divided on whether this letter was written by Paul, or by someone who worked closely with Paul. For the sake of simplicity, when I refer to the author, I'll simply say "Paul".)
As I said, this letter centers on Baptism. A few verses before today's passage, Paul says: "When you were buried with Christ in Baptism, you were also raised with him."
Now the symbolism of being "buried with Christ" at Baptism is not new to us. By going down into the water we "die" to one way of living. Here at St. Mary's parish you've gone back to the traditional form of the Baptismal font - a pool for immersion - and it expresses more fully that we are "buried with Christ in Baptism."
It's that second phrase that caught me: "When you were buried with Christ in Baptism, you were also raised with him." Paul doesn't say that, because of Baptism "you will be raised with Christ" at the end of your life. It's in the past tense: "you were raised with Christ." He goes on to say, "God brought you to life along with him."
Now think about that. When Jesus died, God brought him to a new life - a transformed, risen, human life. Paul says that we have received this same life.
There's more. In today's reading Paul says: "If then you were raised with Christ" (he says it again in the past tense - we were raised with Christ) "If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God . . . For your life is hidden with Christ in God."
What Does All This Mean?
Now, here's the flash of awareness, the good news I want to pass on to you.
- The resurrection isn't an event that simply happened to Christ.
- The resurrection isn't simply something we look forward to when we die.
Paul is saying that the resurrection of Christ affects us right now. We are enfolded into the life of the risen Christ... now.
That is what happened in Baptism. We didn't simply go into the water to express our intent to die to one way of living, and then come out of the water to express our intent to try to live a good life based on the Gospels. There's more to it than that. Christ emerged from the tomb with a transformed, human, risen life. We emerged from Baptism with a participation in the same life Christ received when he rose from the dead.
This is the only life Christ has, and it is this life that he gives to us: his transformed, human, risen life.
Think about it. This is the life that is nourished within us at every Eucharist. At the Eucharist we join with Christ in his dying and rising during the Eucharistic prayer. And then at Communion we come forward and literally "connect" with the Risen Christ. We are tangibly, visibly enfolded into Christ and his risen life when we eat the bread and drink the cup.
The Way We Live
There's one more thing to say about this, and it helps us understand it more fully.
One of the things Paul deals with in other parts of his letter to the Colossians is the incorrect teaching of some in the community who said that we have first of all to believe in Jesus Christ, and then we have to earn a place in heaven - eternal life - by living an upright life.
Paul in today's passage says it's the other way around. Good behavior doesn't cause God to give me the gift of risen life. God's gift of risen life causes me to live a good life. We don't earn a share in the risen life of Christ by "being good." Living a good life is simply a response to the risen life we have already been given. It's matter of living up to who we are.
When I realize that I actually share in the transformed, human, risen life of Christ, then I want to live a better life. Sharing in the risen life of Christ is not a future expectation. It is an accomplished fact. It results in, not simply living the way Christ once lived, but the way Christ is living and thinking now.
Seeing it that way makes a big difference. I think for example of going up to a young person - say a 17 year old - and trying to encourage him or her to live a good life. I could do it by saying that God expects certain things of them, and if they want God's blessings they have to show some will power . . . show that they deserve to receive God's gifts. But in the light of what Paul is teaching us, I'd say to a young person: "You are something. You've got a great gift in you - the risen, transformed human life of Christ. Because of that, you are part of God's family, and you've been lifted up to a new level of human life. You're a gifted person. Live up to it." And so forth and so on. I may not say it in exactly those words, but that's the message I'd want to get across. Besides being true, I think the second approach would have a much greater effect. It affects middle-aged people too - and old people. It's a magnificent truth.
I looked ahead to the Opening Prayer for Mass this coming Friday. It says in much fewer words what I've just been trying to say: "May the new birth we celebrate, show its effects in the way we live."
Closing Thoughts
Well, that's enough. I hope I was able to pass on to you at least something of this insight that I found so helpful. It really does motivate me to do better at living Christ's way of life.
I wish all of you a Happy Easter. If you had a good Lent, then you have momentum, and you are in a position to open yourself more fully to the gift of the Risen life of Christ in you.
To those of you who didn't have such a good Lent, well... that can happen. Before you know it, Lent is over and you never did get your plans off the ground. Take heart. Easter is a great time for a turnaround, because it's the great feast of the turnaround. Christ was battered, beaten and dead on Friday, and on Sunday he has glorious, risen, human life. You have been given this same life. Take hold of it and live it.
I close with three small excerpts from our second reading. Paul is speaking to us, and he speaks of the past, the present, and the future:
"You were raised with Christ... " (Past: Our Baptism.)
"Your life is hidden with Christ in God... " (Present. Our life right now.)
"You too will appear with him in glory... " (Future. Our death and resurrection.)
It's with all that in mind that I say, Happy Easter.
Originally given on April 20, 2003, Ken's last Easter with us.