Resurrection Hope

Easter Sunday, 2025

One of my favorite stories comes from the soviet union under communist rule. Evidently on one occasion, there was a communist lecturer addressing a packed auditorium in the middle of Moscow and he spent just on three hours seeking to demolish all arguments for the resurrection of Jesus and at the end of his lecture he, said to the audience, “There's some time for questions” and at the back there was an elderly man who put up his hand and the lecturer said to him I can give you one minute and he said I don't need one minute, I just need one second. And so this elderly man walked down, stood in front of this packed auditorium who had been listening for three hours to every argument that you can put together to demolish the resurrection and this elderly man looked at the crowd and said to them, “Christ is risen” and they erupted in response “He is risen indeed”!

That story stirs me deeply. To realize that at the heart of our faith, at the heart of our faith there is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That on the third day God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. That the tomb was empty and that he appeared to his disciples transforming their lives so that they became agents of transformation. That they literally turned their world upside down.

No resurrection. No Christian faith. It is that simple. All that we believe and have hope for rests on the truth of the resurrection. The resurrection reminds us that the life which God gives us, the life that Jesus proclaimed, the life that Jesus taught about, the life that he lives and which we share THAT life cannot be extinguished. It is an indestructible, eternal life that is the bottom line of Christian faith.

And so on this glorious resurrection Sunday, as we come to the end of this series, Seeking the New Life in Christ”, I want to invite you again to explore with me three common threads that run through all of the resurrection narratives. When you do the exercises, If you do them and you come to pray the resurrection Ignatius invites us to do two things.

On the one hand I had never been asked before to ever do this. On the one hand invites us to enter into the joy of Jesus himself, that Jesus himself experiences joy in his own resurrection and to allow something of the joy of christ to begin to rub off on our own lives and then, on the other hand and again this was a bit new for me on the other hand he invites us to open our lives to an encounter with the Christ who brings consolation, he stresses again and again that the primary ministry of the resurrected Jesus is the ministry of consolation. Of consolation.

And so as we together unpack this joyful consolation that christ brings let me take you to these three threads that we notice running through all of the resurrection narratives.

The first one is this. Have you noticed that each person to whom the risen jesus comes each person is in a place of struggle and difficulty and grief and loss. Have you noticed that Mary is crying in the garden. She's in grief. She's lost the person who loved her back to life. the two Emmaus pilgrims we are told their faces are downcast and they are saying to each other we had hoped that he was going to be the one who was going to liberate Israel, The disciples are locked behind closed doors because they are frightened and fearful. Thomas is battling with a doubt that verges on unbelief. The disciples who are out fishing have caught nothing. Peter is wrestling with his deep feelings of failure and remorse and regret. Each person to whom Christ comes is in a difficult space and perhaps that is one reason why Dallas Willard once said that, “God's address in our life is end of the rope dot.com.

I wonder if today I could invite you to allow your pain right now to become a possible meeting point with the resurrected Christ, Right now.

I asked him for a word i haven't asked many people for a word many people have words for me that i haven't asked for but he's one of three people that i've asked in my life and he said these words to me and they scorched their way into my soul and they've guided my whole ministry. He said, “Don't ever forget when you go back to south africa every person sits next to their own pool of tears.

I'm very aware of that even now as i stand here that each of us each of us sits next to our own pool of tears and it's precisely at that place that Christ wants to meet us. It's very hard for us so often we want to avoid our pain, especially men. We want to run away from our pain we work too hard. We drink too much. We want to keep the conversation light always. We watch porn, the list just goes on. All our pain avoiding behaviors and we miss out on meeting the one who meets us at the end of our rope.

So, I do want to invite you to today. I do want to invite you to let your pain, your present pain become the place where Christ the risen one can console you.

The second common feature that we notice as we read the resurrection narratives is that every time the disciples take time to recognize the risen Christ, they recognize him gradually.

Mary thinks he's the gardener at first. The emmaus pilgrims uh kind of think that he's a stranger who's just joined them for the conversation as only much later when they break bread together that they realize that the stranger who had been with them was the resurrected one.

Those fishermen who had caught nothing only realized that the stranger standing on the seashore was Jesus only after they had acted on his words to throw their nets to the other side and they caught i think it was 153 fish. Fishermen always know exactly how many fish they've caught! We recognize often the presence of the resurrected christ gradually. I want to suggest that this is why we always need to take time just to reflect on our lives. Lord where have you been in my history? Where have you been in my life this past day how have you been meeting me with your consoling presence.

one of my first very first mentorsin pastoral ministry always used to sayto metrevor we don't learn from experiencewe only learn when we reflect uponexperienceand it's as we reflect on our experiencethat wewe begin to see signs of the risenlord with usand again ignatius is so helpful herebecause hehe he gives us some rules fordiscernment he gives ushe gives us some signs by which we canrecognize christ's presenceand they're very practicalhe encourages us to pay attention tothose momentswhen our hearts burn with new love forgodhe says the holy spirit could be presenttherehe encourages us to pay attention tothosemoments when we are sometimes moved totearsover what we have donethe spirit could be present drawing usvery deeply into the mercy of christhe invites us to pay attention to thosemoments when we feel ourselveswhen we feel ourselves drawn intogreater faith and greater hope andgreater lovein those momentschrist could be presenthe invites us to pay attention to thosemoments when we experience a realsense of settled peacefulnessin our livesand so perhaps could i ask youto maybe just reflecta bit on your past few hourspast few days past few weekschrist continues to come to those wholikemary are grievinghe continues to come to those who likethe emmaus pilgrimsare caught up in hopelessness anddespairhe continues to come to those who likethomas wrestle with doubt and unbeliefhe continues to come to thosewho feel themselves locked behind closeddoors because they are frightenedand scared he continues to come to thosewho who feel that their efforts arenot bearing any fruitand he continues to come to those wholike peterare battling with feelings of regret andremorseand sadness he continues to comecan i invite you to recognize i've givenyou some signsto recognize the consoling presence ofchristin your lifeand the last feature is thisthat whenever christ came to thosediscipleshave you noticed this he always givesthem a job of work to doalways always peteris told feed my sheepthe disciples behind locked doors jesussaysas the father sent me so i send youthe emmaus pilgrims they immediatelyrise from the tableand they go back to jerusalem mary runsfrom the garden to the disciples withthe newshe's risen indeed notone of the disciples to whom jesus comessays you know christ is risen death hasbeen conquered my sins have beenforgiven and i'm on my way to heavennot one of them christ is risendeath has been conquered sin has beenforgiven and they've got a job of workto doin this worldthe resurrection can never be privatizedand as christ encounters us with hisconsolationwe are invited to become agentsof that same consolationin our world today we are called tobecome easter peoplewho practice resurrection in a goodfriday worldcan i say that againwe are called to be easter peoplewho are called to practice resurrectionin a good friday worldand jesus models how to do itlike him we go to the mary's in ourworldand we go with the ministry of wipingaway tearslike jesus we go to those who strugglewith doubt andunbelief and we engage in deepconversationlike jesus we go to those who are lockedbehind closeddoors because they are frightened and weseek there to bethe presence of christlike jesus we join those on the emmausroad who feel hopelessfilled with a sense of despairwe enter into conversation with themand like jesus we go to the peters ofour worldwho feel that they have failed deeplyand just want to give it all upobviously we can't take on the wholeworldobviously but we can ask one questionlord where is there one placein my community where i can practiceresurrectionwhat is the human cry in your communitythat captures your heartthat has your name written on itso let me end we've been on a journeyand perhaps i can as i close i can justpull for one lasttime the threads of this journeytogether let me do it slowlyat the heart of the christian faiththere is the availabilityof another kind of lifethat's where we started it doesn'thave to be this wayrepentance supported by trust changingdirectionis the doorway and the pathwayof this lifeand as we discover ourdeepest deepest desiresgod meets us in those desires they'renot alwaysalways granted but through those deepdesiresgod leads us further into the journeyand into the life that god wants to giveusthe most glorious opportunity of lifeis the opportunity to come to knowchristand in coming to know him as hisdiscipleas his learner as his apprentice ourexperience of god's lifebegins to deepen more and more and morethere's a sacred mystery a sacredmystery into whichwe are called and invited to participateit's the the mystery of learning to diewe are now called by the risen lordand the risen christ to receive theconsolation that he wants to give usthat we may becomeagents of consolation of resurrectionnewnesswherever we live and work and playi invite you to become a seekerto become a seeker to remain a seekerall your lifeand i end again with those two sentencesof scripturethat i began with the word to jeremiahwhen you search for meyou will find me and if youseek me with all your hearti will let you find me says the lordthe words of jesus seek firstthe kingdom of god and god'srighteousnessand all these thingswill be given to you god bless youfriendsamen we just enter againinto the silenceand again i want to holda wandering question before youand the question is thishow can i beginto practice resurrectionwhere i live and workwhere can i share in the ministryof christthe ministry of consolationwhere i live and workand playhow can i become part of an easterpeoplepracticing resurrection in a good fridayworld[Music]walking down this path of practicing theresurrection in my daily lifei see a number of effects one is i seethe effect of brokennessin the sense of i become very much awareof my need for god and also just thebrokenness around me and beingconfronted with that level of brokennessthe only thing else i could do is to goback to god for helpis to continue to rely on him it alsobrings an acute level of compassionand what i mean by that is in practicingthe resurrection and beingpresent to what's going on around me andto the people i walk with the people ilovei have a greater appreciation for whatthey're going throughbecause in being present they i believewhen you're present and you listenpeople feel loved and there is thatopenness to share and and the more theyshare the more youhave compassion because you can betterappreciate where theyare and for me particularly itit brings a greater appreciation forchristuh just in the sense of um with eachissue and each conflict you get intoand what you see and each area of needwhether it besomeone struggling with shame whichmight actually be reflective of theshame i'm struggling withit's just a greater appreciation forthat reliance on christ that i canalways go back to himand always rely on him it createsconfidence in christjust for you to know that he has thiscovered he will take care of itit's very easy to think about yourselfin terms of what you door what you achieve or what people thinkabout you andthe resurrection actually forces you tothink differently it forces you to thinkabout things like graceto think about your position in relationto godand puts things in perspective in a waythat very few things doand so for me i thought a lot aboutscenes in my life like at work or athomewhere moments i could show graceto people around me and so when i thinkabout specific moments i think aboutmaybeteams at work who may not get alongand how you can sort of help try tomaybe build peace between themor times maybe when your three-year-oldson wakes uptwo hours before he should and uhshowing loveand sort of compassion even though it'sfive in the morningone thing i'm always fond of that dallaswillard said is thatthe most important thing about your lifeis not what you achieve it's about whoyou becomeand i think when you think aboutsomething like the resurrectionor living in a community of peopleabout the transformation that happens inyour own life over timethese are all things that are longerterm investmentsthere are things that happen over thecourse of a lifetime and i thinkwhen it comes to grace and when it comesto sort of that type of thinkingthese are not things you can microwaveand get overnight there are things thatthat take time to sort of mature youhave to continue to go back to godthroughout the course of your life toreally see that fruit fully born[Music]youEnglish (auto-generated)