Jeffrey T. Howard
On day after Easter, God is at work renewing and restoring creation.
Introduction
Yesterday was Easter Sunday. At Easter we Christians celebrate our favorite day. Our churches are filled with flowers. Everyone wears their best clothes. And preachers are ready with their greatest sermons. They tell us about the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This story is a familiar one. Jesus had been killed on a cross and buried in a tomb. But early on the first day of the week the tomb was empty and Jesus was alive. Was the resurrection of Christ a historical event? Of course, we have the testimony of the witnesses faithfully preserved in the New Testament. Did the resurrection validate what Jesus had said and taught? Of course, Jesus claimed to be God. There was no better way to prove it. Did Christ's resurrection change things for the world? Of course it initiated the new creation of heaven and earth.
Problem
But on this Monday after Easter we are forced to ask what difference did Easter make. On this Monday after Easter violence is still raging in Iraq. Gangs still run in the streets of Los Angeles. Extreme poverty is still the rule below our boarders. We still face academic requirements, job uncertainty, and large student debt. In other words this Monday after Easter is not much different from the Monday before Easter. So, what difference did Easter make?
This was the question that Jews had after their Babylonian captivity. The Persian King Cyrus had free them from exile and permitted them to return to Judea and their beloved city Jerusalem. This proclamation had to result in a huge celebration of thanksgiving to God not unlike our own Easter celebrations. But when the exiles returned and saw their city in ruins and their temple destroyed they must have asked: what difference did Cyrus' proclamation make? They had returned home but not to their own kingdom. There was no descendent of David on the throne as God had promised. So their great excitement at being freed from captivity was tempered by reality. What difference did it all make?
The prophets had the answer. Just follow God. Avoid the other gods who led you astray. Follow your God who will restore your land. Here is the good news one wrote:
Isaiah 65:17 - 25 17 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. 19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. 20 No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed. 21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 23 They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the LORD-- and their descendants as well. 24 Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. 25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent-- its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD. (NRSV)
On this, the Monday after Easter, can we accept this good news? Do we see the new heaven and the new Earth being created all around us? Do we see signs of peace in the world? Do we see signs that life is getting any better?
Illustration
Recently I was a chaplain at Methodist Hospital in Arcadia. At 5:30 one morning I was awakened by a call from the hospital switchboard. They told me an ambulance was on its way with a patient in cardiac arrest. A chaplain was needed in the Emergency Room immediately. When I arrived at the hospital the Emergency Room staff was frantically trying to revive the patient. It was a scene straight out of the TV show ER with doctors and nurses performing a well rehearsed ritual using every medical technique they had to save the patient's life. Eventually the doctors and nurses relaxed. There was nothing more they could do. The patient had died. He was placed in a small room next to the ER. And I waited for the arrival of the widow.
When the widow arrived we sat in the family waiting room in the ER. We talked while waiting for other members of the family to arrive. She told me that her husband was 45 years old and in good health. She awoke that morning and began brewing coffee when she saw the dogs behaving strangely. She went into the bedroom to wake her husband, and when she touched him his skin was cold. She knew he was dead as she dialed 911. She never expected anything like this.
The promise of Isaiah was that "no more", "NO MORE" shall there be an old person who does not live out his lifetime. Isn't this our expectation after Easter? How could this man of 45 years die leaving behind a widow and two young children - on this side of Easter? There are no easy answers for these questions. These questions test our Christian faith.
I. Blinded by grief
The promise of Easter is that God is at work in the world transforming and renewing creation. Sometimes though, we are blinded by our grief, concerns and sin, unable to see all that God is doing. For example, in preindustrial societies one third of all children died before age six, and the life expectancy of a newborn was just 33 years old. Today childhood mortality rates have plummeted because of substantial improvements in medicine and nutrition. It is common for people to live well into their 80s and 90s with many over 100 years old. This has come about because God has worked with scientists and doctors to create medicines that protects us and allows us to live healthier and longer lives. We are living happier and healthier lives right now. But, when we are happy and healthy we forget about God and all he has done for us. We take our happiness and health for granted. We assume that it will last forever. Then when we or a loved one gets sick we are blinded by grief to these blessings of God and complain that God has forsaken us. The good news is that God is at work renewing and transforming our world whether we see it or not. We can trust by faith that God's will is being done on earth right now bringing about the new creation God promised.
Illustration
After the family arrived at the hospital we went in to see their dead husband, father, brother and friend. We gathered around the bed and each person in turn said goodbye. The widow cried softly as this ritual continued. But near the end she began to sob loudly and fell to the floor. I knelt down and held her hand. She asked me to pray for the family. I said that I needed her help. So she got up and assembled the family around the bed. Everyone held hands. And I began to pray.
II. The importance of prayer
According to the prophet Isaiah, God's work of re-creation and renewal is tied to prayer. God knows our prayers even before we pray them. And his promise is that our prayers will be heard. God will answer our prayers in his work of transforming and renewing creation. Our prayers for peace will be heard. The Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq will one day dip pita bread into olive oil together. Poverty in Latin America will go away. We often wait until the crisis hits to begin our prayers. We are too busy to pray every day. But God's work of re-creation is enhanced because our prayers change our hearts of stone into a hearts of flesh. Prayer is how we allow ourselves to be re-created. The good new is that even if we do not pray as we should, God still hears our prayers.
Illustration
I was with the widow and her family all day. We waited for the deceased's mother to arrive and went to the morgue to say our last goodbyes. After our prayer the widow asked me to do a funeral service for her husband in the church chapel. At that chapel service I talked about the future when the bodies of all the faithful will be resurrected from the dead. The death of her husband was not the end. Just as Jesus Christ had defeated death by being raised from the dead so too would her husband who would live forever in the glorious presence of God where no grief would be remembered and gladness and rejoicing would continue forever.
III. Hope in a yet unrealized future
The new heaven and earth that Isaiah prophesied is in some sense still in the future. God's work of re-creation is an ongoing process that lasts for generations. Our own re-creation is the result of a lifetime of interaction with the Holy Spirit. Thus the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy will not occur until the end of the age when Jesus will return. Our hope in the return of Jesus takes many forms. Some are waiting for Christians to be snatched up into heaven. Others expect a violent apocalyptic end. But Isaiah gives us a vision for a nonviolent renewal of the entire world. The world we have today is not as God intends. It is a fallen world corrupted by sin. God has not yet finished the work of creation. Eventually, as God works in our hearts we will be transformed into new creatures. Sin will be removed from our hearts. And fallenness will be removed from the whole cosmos. When this happens we will all be living in right relationship with God. We will experience the fullness of life that come from a full participation in God. All of humanity will learn to live together in peace, harmony, love and righteousness. We will be reconciled with God and with each other. And the new creation will be glorious because we will all join together in glorifying God. This is the good news.
Conclusion
So, on this Monday after Easter has anything changed? Of course, the new creation of heaven and earth has begun. We may be blinded to much of God's work. But God is working whether we see it or not. Now is a time for prayers that God will transform the earth beginning with own hearts. And we trust that the final re-creation will be fulfilled with the coming of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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