A few years back, when I was Associate Pastor at another church, the other pastor and I would alternate the Easter Sermon. When it was his turn to preach, he would get up on Easter morning and head over to the nearest place to pick up the latest copy of the daily tabloid to see what unearthly or un-natural events were “news”. There’d probably be something about Elvis’ love baby, or something about aliens, or who-knows-what-else. He’d pick the most outlandish story and bring it to church and start his sermon with that – Totally out there… but “true”. This would be the pre-cursor to the story of the dead itinerant Jewish preacher/miracle worker, who was killed by the Romans, and came back to life again – perhaps equally outlandish to some! Totally out there… but true.
Yet, back then, in the Ancient Near Eastern religions, this idea was not quite as outlandish as first thought. Many religions at and before the time of Jesus, particularly in that part of the world, (Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Persian, Babylonian [at least]) had stories of a “God-man” dying, and rising again. Some of these stories are eerily similar to our story of Jesus.
I’d brought up this idea before in other places, that all the themes we might have in Christianity have appeared somewhere else in other religions, other places;
the eating of a sacred meal, a ritual cleansing with water, the special prophecies announcing the birth of a “God-man”, the supernatural birth of the “God-man”, the death of the “God-man”, and the resurrection of the “God-man”, the eating of the flesh of the “God-man”, and many other ideas. (The themes seem to be the same, although the theological overlays might differ). So in one sense it’s not as outlandish as first thought.
I talked about this at one church and one of the people listening commented something like, “but we’ve (meaning Christianity) cleaned the stories up.” The idea seemed to me like we Christians were needed to legitimize these ideas, almost like we were needed to “make them right”.
Here’s my take on all these stories; We could ask – why do these themes keep coming up across cultures? I don’t know any culture that doesn’t have some kind of ritual cleansing with water. Could be that deep-down, we recognize water as a gift! And it can certainly be used for cleansing. I’ll bet there’s been at least one time in your life where you may have used water to help clean your soul – metaphorically speaking – to wash away something you’ve needed to cleanse yourself from.
Why does the idea of God/the divine/the Sacred being coming to earth in human form keep coming back up? I’d say it’s because we have always been drawn to connect with that which we identify as grander than ourselves! I’d say it’s because we have always believed we are not alone! I’d say it’s because we have always believed – perhaps since the dawn of humanity – that whatever it is we believe is out there… is calling us to be connection with it!
Have we “cleaned” these stories up? I guess you can think that if you want to… can’t hurt I suppose.
But I see millennia upon millennia, generations upon generations, of our human ancestors reaching… connecting… lifting hands, voices, hearts – in whatever way they knew how, in the way they came to understand… the Grand Creator, what the people called the Sacred Mystery. It makes our lives just that much more sacred!
So we tell the story of Jesus- his life, his ministry, his death, and his resurrection – as an act of faith… as an act of hope!
We tell this story because – as outlandish as we think it may be – it’s a story that has been flowing through the veins of our ancestors… and now flows in ours as well. It’s a story that has been transmitted from generation to generation in the DNA of faith – however understood… since the beginning!
So here we stand- telling this story once again, hearing this story once again, a story that has been told and re-told across eons about a God come down to earth, who lived in human form as one of us, who died as one of us, and who was raised up again. I could ask – what does this tell you about God? And we could talk about this. But another question might be- what does this tell you about you and me? What does believing in the resurrection of Jesus tell you about you? About your life? Your faith? Your humanity? At the very least is says you believe in a God of Life!
Do you believe in resurrection? I do! Do you believe in a God that can bring New Life? I do! I’ve seen it too many times to NOT believe! Today we celebrate Life. Death is not the final answer! In the midst of mourning and loss… we can look up! In the midst of doubt… we can look up! In the midst of struggle… we can look up!
This is the ultimate “tomorrow is a new day” story! Today we don’t do it alone! We celebrate together – as our ancestors did in the dawn of time, in the ancient days. There IS a God! And this is a God of life!
So we say, with all faith and hope- Alleluia, Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!
Happy Easter to you… and God bless you!
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