ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET

Sermon preached by Fr. Gerald Beauchamp at Solemn Evensong and Benediction on Easter Day, 4th April 2010

Readings: Isaiah 43. 1-21; I Corinthians 15. 1-11

St Paul, writing to the Church at Corinth is the first Christian writer to give some details of the resurrection appearances. So, what would we have experienced had we been one of the 500 that he mentions? What would we have felt? Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury tells of hearing a professor of Ancient History say that when educated Greeks first heard the Christian proclamation of the resurrection their response would have been How do we get him back in the grave again? The initial reaction would have been one of fear. Like the women in Mark's Gospel, those who first realised that something was afoot they would have run away terrified. No wonder the resurrection is accompanied by that most horrific of natural disasters, an earthquake.

People in every culture speculate about what is beyond this world. Human beings differ from animals because apparently we're acutely conscious of our own mortality. Accounts of other worlds (heavens and hells), speculations about final reckonings are the stuff-in-trade of religion. Ghosts haunt all popular cultures. Resurrection was a much-discussed possibility during the ministry of Jesus. 'Resurrection' erupted at Bethany in the raising of Lazarus (Jn 11. 1ff), at Nain with the restoration of a widow's son (Lk 11. 11ff) and amazed the household of Jairus (Mt 9. 18ff //s).

So what marks out the resurrection of Jesus is not that it happens but what Jesus says and does during the appearances. One of the reasons why coming back from the dead was associated with such dread was because it was assumed that a visitation from the netherworld would disclose bad news. Damning secrets would be revealed. Accusations would be made. At the end of the Aeneid Virgil says that the dead stretch out their hands in longing for the other side of the river. And you didn't want to be around when they got their cold, clammy hands on you.

The Jews gave a lot of thought to what this moral restoration might look like. Because their focus was on this world rather than the next and because it was in this world that they often felt so hard done by (what with their land rarely being their own and their kingdom ruled by someone else) the Jews increasingly thought that at the end of time there would be a final resolution. God would come through for his people, sort out the mess and decide who would live and where. Those believing Jews who had held out for the truth to the bitter end would be raised up and given their rightful place.

But by the time of Jesus what had simply been a hope was being speculated about as occurring already. When the disciples of John the Baptist came hot foot from John's prison cell to Jesus with the question Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another? Jesus (according to Matthew [11. 3]) points to a whole variety of indications ('signs') that God's reign is not a thousand years off but is taking place in his ministry: the blind receive their sight (he says) and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. (Mt 11. 5) What's significant about this passage is that although it is modeled on (it 'fulfils') the prophecy of Isaiah (29. 18-19; 35. 5-6; 42. 18; 61. 1) nowhere does Isaiah mention the raising of the dead. The raising of the dead is Jesus' innovation. The resurrection like the blind seeing, the lame walking and the deaf hearing is good news.

What Jesus is saying is that life matters. Life in all its fullness, matters. Life is not to be considered cheap and of no account. It matters that people are diminished by the curbing of their senses and the ending of their breath. Jesus and the author of creation (God) were finally seen to be one because the early Christians experienced in the presence of Jesus a power of re-creation. And the first day of the week became a holiday ('holy day') because the day of resurrection came to celebrated as the day of recreation.

Jesus wasn't just bringing newness of physical life so that it could be business-as-usual. He brought newness of physical life accompanied by the transforming of the interior life. Wholeness and holiness went together. How often we find in the gospels, that miracles of healing go hand-in-hand with the imperative sin no more (e.g. Jn 5. 14). Resurrection is steeped first and foremost in morality not history. Resurrection is not historical. Resurrection makes history. The Pharisees came to believe in the resurrection before the time of Jesus because they believed that a holy and moral God would not finally abandon those who had striven to live faithfully and justly. God would raise up his people. In the past, God had done it for the nation. Now he would do it for individuals.

The resurrection of Jesus takes this one step further because as the first fruits he is what we are all to become. (I Cor 15. 20) In overcoming death he returns not for vengeance but with blessing. For the peoples of the ancient world it's what he said that mattered not that he was raised. And what does Jesus say according to the gospels? He says a lot. And it's all good news. To the disciples on the Emmaus Road he opens the scriptures. He makes them live. He doesn't turn them into a closed book. (Lk 24. 13ff esp v 27) He calls Mary Magdalene in the garden by name. He doesn't call her names. (Jn 20. 1ff esp v 16) To his frightened followers he says Peace. He doesn't point the finger accusing those who let him down and ran away (Jn 20. 19ff esp v 21).

And Jesus doesn't just speak. He acts. In Doubting Thomas he provokes faith by allowing himself to be poked. (Jn 20. 26ff esp v 27) He cooks breakfast for those whom he has the deepest love. (Jn 21. 9ff) [What a glorious experience it is when a lover cooks us breakfast.] So, like Peter we are questioned: Do you love me? If we do, then we are to feed: feed (the) lambs (Jn 21. 15ff). Knowing that we are beloved we are called to be lovers: lovers who cook breakfast, who feed others, who nourish with our words, whose demeanor brings joy.

The resurrection is the sign that death (death in all its forms) is over. So we must be prepared to meet those who in some way are dead to us. What will we say to them? Philip Larkin began a notorious poem with the words They mess you up, your mum and dad. (Well, he didn't say mess you up he used another four-lettered word but you get the drift.) There are people from the past who we'll find it quite difficult to meet again. But if death is conquered then meet them again in some shape or form, we will. So what will it be? Name-calling? Finger-pointing? Or will it be Peace be with you?

I'll be having my own words with St Paul. How anyone could give us the some of the greatest verses from the scriptures in the glorious hymn of love in I Corinthians 13 yet descend into the spiteful recriminations of Galatians 5 where he wishes that those who are unsettling the faith of the Galatian Church would go and castrate themselves (v 12), I'll never know. But perhaps I do. I, too can descend from the sublime to the ridiculous as easily as anybody.

But I would like to know why St Paul missed the point of the resurrection in this evening's verses. It's not enough to say that Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to people. We need to know what he said and what he did. After all, if any of us has a friend we haven't seen for a while who calls on a mutual acquaintance then we'd want to know not just that they'd appeared but to know all about it: what they'd said and what they'd done. Nietzsche cruelly dismissed St Paul as bad news unlike Jesus the good news. My problem with St Paul is that sometimes he's just no news.

So the challenge lies with us. 'The dead' lay all around us. The resurrection calls us to bring life and to bring it out of suffering and grief. So what will we say? When 'our dead' put in an appearance what will be our words and our actions? Will we turn the air blue or will we clear the air? Will we pour petrol on the flames or will we cook breakfast? Will people say of us? Oh, horror or will they sing Alleluia?