Bishop Untener's Homily
The Eucharist
We're celebrating the oldest ritual of the Church, the Eucharist, which is the Easter sacrament. If Jesus had not risen from the dead, there wouldn't be any Eucharist. The disciples would have simply gone back to wherever they came from, sad at the way things turned out. They would have regarded Jesus as a great prophet and healer, and some of them would probably have continued to preach and teach his message. They might even have had a commemorative meal every year to re-live the memories of the meal they had with him on the night before he died. But they never would have had Eucharist, because Eucharist is a participation in the living, dying, rising, ascending of Jesus, and his sending of the Spirit, and his gathering of all creation into the reign of God. The Eucharist is always live.
Jesus did rise from the dead. And so they celebrated Eucharist, knowing that the Risen Lord was with them. They celebrated not only what He had done, but what He was still doing, and how they were not only remembering him, but participating in the work that he was continuing to do.
The resurrection is more than an epilogue. It's the heart of what Jesus did and is still doing.
A Survey on the Resurrection
I'm going to take a survey on the resurrection. There's no right or wrong answer to these questions, but it will be interesting to see what you think. I have three questions and I want you to give your opinion by raising your hands.
- The first question is this: Which is harder to believe - to believe that there is a God, or to believe that for human beings there is life after death?
Now, let me explain something. I'm not asking you whether you believe or don't believe any of these things. I'm simply asking which is harder to believe in. Or to put it another way, about which of these are doubts more likely to come? Faith, as you know, is not mathematical or empirical certitude. And because of that, there are doubts that flit across our mind. That is why we pray, "I believe, Lord. Help my unbelief."
So, accepting the fact that we all believe, I want to ask you - and I don't know the answer to this question: Which is harder to believe ... that there is a God - some great power beyond all creation ... or to believe that for us, there is life after death? Now I'm theorizing that a person could believe that there is a God, but then wonder, doubt, if we live on after death, or if we're just like these flowers, that live, blossom, and then are gone. So, with all of that in mind, I'm asking your thoughts. How many think it's harder to believe in God? How many think it's harder to believe that for human beings there is life after death?
[Note: The overwhelming and nearly unanimous consensus was that it's harder to believe that for human beings there is life after death.] - Here's my second question: Is it harder to believe that there is some kind of existence after death, or to believe that our life after death is good, pleasant ... that we live on as individuals who are happy? Even if we do believe in life after death, do we suspect that it is a vague, ghostly existence?
So ... how many believe that it's harder simply to believe in any life after death? How many believe that it's harder to believe that life after death is a pleasant, happy experience as an individual?
[Note: The response was about even.] - My last question. Do you think that as we get older, it's easier to believe in all this, or harder? It could be that when we're young, we picture death as something way off in the future and it's more or less easy to believe that we live after death. Then, as we get older, and the time is inevitably drawing closer, we have to face this hard reality.
I don't know the answer, but I'd like your opinion. How many think that as we get older it becomes easier to believe that we live on after death? How many think that as we get older it becomes harder to believe that we live on after death?
[Note: By a small majority, the consensus seemed to be that it gets harder as you get older.]
Our Christian Faith
It may well be that doubts come our way at different times. That's inevitable when you believe in something as astounding as the resurrection. But, make no mistake about it. We Christians do not have a vague belief in the resurrection. Mary Magdalene, Peter, the beloved disciple, Paul, the two disciples who went to Emmaus, the early Christian community, did not have a vague belief. They had a strong, rich, and full-bodied belief that we shall rise, through death, to the other side, and that it will be a glorious existence for each of us individually, and all of us. It will be rich and full and happy and fulfilling. That is the faith they handed on to us. And these were not people who were easily taken in. They doubted. They did not believe when Jesus was buried that this was going to happen. These were people who ran a fishing business, people who were tax collectors, people who were regular folks ... these are the people who believed and staked their whole life on this and wanted everyone to know about it.
It also helps to know that we don't believe that in some strange, science-fiction way, while everything else dies, we somehow are transported to some other world. We believe that because of what Jesus Christ did, all creation is being wondrously transformed. Our resurrection is part of what Jesus is doing for all creation.
It also helps to know that our faith in the resurrection has been shared by people across 20 centuries - people of all kinds - regular folks close to the earth, some of the world's greatest thinkers, people from eastern cultures and western cultures, people from the north and from the south. They have believed with a belief full and strong, without footnotes or asterisks.
The Eucharist
We don't believe just because they did. We believe because the Lord gives us the grace to believe, and also because we experience the presence of the Risen Lord. We do. We don't see him, but we experience him... and it was the Risen Lord who said to the disciples, "Blessed are those who have not seen but have believed."
We experience the Lord especially at Eucharist. It is here that we experience the pass-over - the passing of all things, bread and wine, creation, and most of all ourselves, into a life that is transformed, just as Jesus was transformed in going through death to His wondrous, glorious resurrection. It is here at Eucharist that we hold in our hands the risen body of Jesus Christ. And we drink the cup that transforms even suffering into glory.
We give thanks this morning that in this Eucharistic celebration, we experience the presence and the action of the risen Lord among us, which is the promise and the beginning of our life with Him forever and ever.
Originally given on April 15, 2001