“Easter in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic”

Karen Sloan 12/04/2020

Reading – Matt 28:1-10

So what do I want to say about Easter Sunday in the time of the Covid 19 pandemic, a crazy event in itself.  

At this time, maybe it’s good to reflect on what we believe, and how that makes us act in the world.  I was listening to my music the other day, at home where I am stuck now.  I have a playlist of my favourite songs which I play all the time, sometimes for the sheer pleasure of listening to the beat of the music, and sometime because the words are so powerful or speak to me so deeply.  About life and love and yes, even about God.

One of those songs is from Joan Baez, called “God is God”. It’s not written by her, but by Steve Earls, yet it has become one of her signature tunes.  I have loved it from the moment I heard it.

When she was interviewed about it and about the need for hope in the world,her answer was beautiful, I probably have paraphrased it slightly here,

She said, “We live at a time of little victories and big defeats.  We are now seeing a massive defeat.  But every little victory, every little decent thing we do, makes a difference.  Every little bit of the things young and old people do for others counts now more than ever. We will have a time when we are together, but were in a crazy time now and how we behave in this time will reflect in our future”

Wow, it could be an answer given today.  And crazy is a good word to use by all of us.

So in this time of uncertainty and upheaval, the faith question that comes to my mind is this? 

Do we believe and trust in a universal God of love revealed in Jesus of Nazareth, or in something more exclusive, as some forms of Christianity proclaim?  I think how we see God reflects how we see Jesus, and therefore one another. And particularly how we see and what we believe about the resurrection.

So let me explain my thinking.

Joan Baez sings about God, but what is God? 

I have always had the sense of a something more that drives life itself. Not a presence that disappears then reappears because of a sacrificial death, but a presence that is found throughout the life of the universe,  the life of all of creation and the life of every human being. Which is closer to us than our own breath but urges us to connect with one another with love and care and compassion.

When we talk about this extra bit of life, this creative force or divine presence, how do we describe it, how does it affect who we are as people? Well many, including me, would say we see this presence most clearly in Jesus.  

Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was flesh and blood, who laughed and cried, prayed and suffered, who was human like us, and who died a horrible painful death.  A Jesus who confronted the powerful and paid the price, as many do. Somehow his story lives on in those that follow.  A story that resonates in our own lives and the lives of others.  Even in the 21st century.

Can I really see God in this person?  Is God and Jesus one? The NT writers think so, they write so long after his death, but with such passion and purpose.  While we have varying accounts of the resurrection, some physical, like the one we heard today from Matthew, (or at least read today) embellished with an earthquake, and some spiritual, like the writings of Paul, the reality is the disciples and his followers were transformed by the events. 

In fact the truth of the resurrection is not in the details of the differing stories, but what occurred afterwards. And what happened is that God became real to people through Jesus in a way that was different, maybe more earthy, more concrete.  

Jesus became a living presence, symbolising what life lived in God should be like.  His early followers believed that "in his words were God's words and in his action were God’s actions". The love, and compassion and justice and peace of Jesus, were not defeated by the worldly powers of Rome.  His vision of a new empire, which he lived out with them long before he died, could not be killed by an executioner or cross. They recognised that the life they had experienced with Jesus was not ended but had been affirmed by God in their own lives.

In other words, his followers continued to experience him after his death, not as a figure of the past, but as someone still walking and talking with them.And It gave them hope.

As Clarence Jordon says, “The proof that God raised Jesus from the dead is not an empty tomb, but the full hearts of his transformed disciples. The crowning evidence that he lives is not a vacant grave but a spirit filled fellowship. Not a rolled away stone, but a carried away church.”

Yet it still could all have stopped there in the 1stcentury, remaining as a little subgroup of the Jewish religion. But it didn’t. How did we end up with a spirit filled fellowship and a carried away church? 

While Jesus was a particular man in a particular time, he birthed a universal message of love that has lived on well past his humanity.  The particular became the universal. Jesus became Jesus Christ, not because Christ is his surname but because his teachings and actions, and God driven life lives on. Christ means anointed not magical. Richard Rohr would call this the Universal Christ, Matthew Fox the Cosmic Christ. 

So can I believe, as the early disciples did, that in Jesus the God presence was and is revealed most fully. Well, yes. Somehow the message of Jesus touches and activates something mysterious in all of us. He turns on the light. His words and deeds, and the response of his followers show us how to act in faith, to be people of the way.   

We can become aware of the divine presence within ourselves, as it was in Jesus, if we let go our ego and our activity driven lives, easy to do now we can’t go anywhere, and look for it, for it hasn’t gone somewhere else. Our response will then reflect Jesus’s concerns in the every day. 

Concern for ourselves that we can be the best people we can be, concern for others that they may be loved and cared for, and concern for the planet and all of creation that it should be protected and nurtured. At this time it is what is needed more than ever.  God transformed Jesus and God transforms us.  

So the resurrection story is not about a divine resuscitation of a body or an empty tomb! It’s not about a cosmic plan and a future elsewhere. And it’s not a once off event, a miraculous supernatural apparition, never to occur again.  

Resurrection is about the divine presence found within each one of us, and in Jesus. Giving light where there is darkness, renewal where there is decay, hope where there is despair, and new life where there seems only death. Resurrection happens all the time, it happened with the disciples, after Jesus died, and they were left to carry on, it happens in communities and countries, it can even happen for you and me. 

It’s a deeply human experience, and a revelation of how the universe and how the God of the universe works. 

It happens when we keep the story and spirit of Jesus alive. 

So this Easter, here is a list of things to remember about our faith story when things get a little hazy and we are in self isolation -

Remember, God is a God of the universe, found in the stars and planets and in you and me.

Remember, God is not  only for a few, but for all of creation, all people and all nations. We are all children of God.

Remember Jesus, for he guides and leads the way. God is spirit but that spirit needs to be expressed in the real blood and guts of the world.

Remember, if you don’t understand, just do it anyway, for in the doing you will sense the truth. The mystery of faith.

And remember, Jesus is with you always, to the end of time. For his words and deeds never fade.

In hard times, it’s good to review our deepest truths. And finally, to remember that each new day, as Joan Baez sings, “is another chance to get it right.”   

Amen