Homily
Easter
Christ the King Church Topeka
19/20 April 2014
Daily Readings
Audio
Jesus Christ is Risen! He is truly Risen! Jesus Christ is Risen from the dead! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Surprise! Oh wait - you were probably expecting to hear those words today. That's why you came, right? To hear that Christ is truly Risen? So you're probably not surprised. Still, how do these words hit you today? Are they more true, more dramatic, more exciting, than anytime you have heard them before? Better yet, are you ready to say them yourself more personally, and with more heartfelt meaning, than you have ever said them before.
If these words hit you this morning with any less intensity than that first proclamation to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, with any less force than the words that made Peter and John run to the tomb, then you might as well go home. Really, I mean it. If these words do not move you at all, and if you are not ready to repeat them with great intensity on Easter morning of all mornings, then we really are wasting out time. For these words - Jesus Christ is truly Risen - are the most mysterious and dramatic and profound, and yes, TRUE - words that have ever been spoken or could ever be spoken in human history. There is no middle ground with these words - I'm sorry, that's just the way it is. Either these are the most important words in your life, or they are not. Either these words are everything, or they are nonsense and are nothing.
Without these words - Jesus Christ is truly Risen - there is no point in our repeating the most profound words that Jesus Himself ever uttered - this is my body, this is my blood - because without the words of the Resurrection even the words of the Eucharist lose their meaning and lead us nowhere new. Without the words of the Resurrection, even the most profound love the world has ever seen - the love manifested on the cross - ends up meaning nothing. For without the Resurrection, even the most powerful love, the love of the cross, is powerless in the face of death. Without the truth of the Resurrection, the Church cannot proclaim for certain that she has found and experienced a love that is stronger than death.
Thankfully, we do not have to generate the faith to say these words of Resurrection this morning out of nowhere. Easter Sunday is the easiest day of the year to proclaim that the Resurrection of Jesus is the thing I most know to be true out of all the things I know to be true. Nature herself sets the stage, as winter gives way to new life. The Church provides the sights and sounds and smells in Her sacred liturgy to pave the way for the Easter proclamation. And we profess not alone but with the whole Church throughout the world, led by the historical cloud of witnesses from the first apostles to the latest martyr, all of whom professed the truth of the Resurrection to the point of death, so that this faith might reach use safely here in Topeka, Kansas on April 20th, 2014. It is in this amazing context that we profess with all our hearts and minds and strength today the beautiful Easter proclamation - that Jesus Christ is truly Risen!
All of this support is great, but it does not make our proclamation this morning any less personal or risky. For being a Christian is never to go with the flow. We are pathetic beyond imagination if we only renew our baptismal promises this morning because everybody else is doing it. For professing faith is never something small. If the renewal of our baptismal promises today is no big deal, or is boring, than mercy we are doing it wrong - we are doing it all wrong! Today's proclamation is not to simply show up and buy a ticket at the eternal life lottery - no today is about dramatically going against the flow, and to bet our entire life on the truth of the Resurrection.
For what we profess today is a faith that is exciting and dramatic - as is the paschal mystery of Christ - his suffering, death and Resurrection is the most intense human story ever told. What we profess is a faith powerful enough to shake any person who has become anesthetized to Christianity. For no proclamation, no words - have ever shake the history of the world like an earthquake, or so changed the dignity and destiny of man - no victory has even been won that possible compares - as the proclamation that Jesus Christ has defeated death itself - and is truly risen from the dead.. That proclamation can't be something that limps out of our Church on Easter Sunday . . if so, forget it - let's just all go home and eat Peeps! No, the Easter proclamation of the Church has to be a proclamation impossible to ignore by those who think we are the weak ones who need a myth to cope with the reality of life and death.
Against anyone out there who might think the Christian proclamation of Easter is a myth for cowards or weak thinkers, we disciples of Jesus must be known as those who more radically and intensely and courageously are search for that love that conquers all things, even death itself. That search for the deepest love that is the source of life led us first not to the empty tomb but to the cross, where perfect love is perfectly revealed. On the cross we see a love that is ultimate truth and that casts out fear. It is at the cross that with our Lord real Christians avoid nothing and fear nothing.
To be a Christian then must be the antithesis of being a naive coward, for the wisdom of the cross compels Christians to be soldiers who live the truth that suffering and death are not to be avoided, but are to be welcomed, redeemed, filled and conquered with love itself. A true Christian then does not proclaim the Resurrection as a vain hope for the future, but as the real fruit of the cross that he has already begun to experience. For we begin to live the truth of the Resurrection right now, whenever we dare to live the radical truth given by Jesus that whoever loses his life through love, saves it for eternal life.
So we gather to profess this faith in the Resurrection today not only because the faith has been passed down to us, not only because everyone else is doing it, but because we have actually tried being Christians, and have found the Resurrection to be true. We are the most pathetic of people, and our faith is completely in vain, if the Resurrection is something that we have to pretend to be true, instead of something that I have discovered with great effort to be true. Woe to us if we cannot profess our life getting bigger, and our growing younger, every time I lose myself in the adventure of following Christ through His suffering and death, to the glory of His Resurrection!
So I beg you this morning - don't say something pitiable with our profession of faith. Don't say something easy. But with sharp minds, and pure hearts and courageous wills, let us say personally and together the most profound and dramatic and mysterious words that have ever been spoken, or that can ever be spoken. Jesus Christ is truly Risen from the dead. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Easter
Christ the King Church Topeka
19/20 April 2014
Daily Readings
Audio
Jesus Christ is Risen! He is truly Risen! Jesus Christ is Risen from the dead! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Surprise! Oh wait - you were probably expecting to hear those words today. That's why you came, right? To hear that Christ is truly Risen? So you're probably not surprised. Still, how do these words hit you today? Are they more true, more dramatic, more exciting, than anytime you have heard them before? Better yet, are you ready to say them yourself more personally, and with more heartfelt meaning, than you have ever said them before.If these words hit you this morning with any less intensity than that first proclamation to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, with any less force than the words that made Peter and John run to the tomb, then you might as well go home. Really, I mean it. If these words do not move you at all, and if you are not ready to repeat them with great intensity on Easter morning of all mornings, then we really are wasting out time. For these words - Jesus Christ is truly Risen - are the most mysterious and dramatic and profound, and yes, TRUE - words that have ever been spoken or could ever be spoken in human history. There is no middle ground with these words - I'm sorry, that's just the way it is. Either these are the most important words in your life, or they are not. Either these words are everything, or they are nonsense and are nothing.
Without these words - Jesus Christ is truly Risen - there is no point in our repeating the most profound words that Jesus Himself ever uttered - this is my body, this is my blood - because without the words of the Resurrection even the words of the Eucharist lose their meaning and lead us nowhere new. Without the words of the Resurrection, even the most profound love the world has ever seen - the love manifested on the cross - ends up meaning nothing. For without the Resurrection, even the most powerful love, the love of the cross, is powerless in the face of death. Without the truth of the Resurrection, the Church cannot proclaim for certain that she has found and experienced a love that is stronger than death.
Thankfully, we do not have to generate the faith to say these words of Resurrection this morning out of nowhere. Easter Sunday is the easiest day of the year to proclaim that the Resurrection of Jesus is the thing I most know to be true out of all the things I know to be true. Nature herself sets the stage, as winter gives way to new life. The Church provides the sights and sounds and smells in Her sacred liturgy to pave the way for the Easter proclamation. And we profess not alone but with the whole Church throughout the world, led by the historical cloud of witnesses from the first apostles to the latest martyr, all of whom professed the truth of the Resurrection to the point of death, so that this faith might reach use safely here in Topeka, Kansas on April 20th, 2014. It is in this amazing context that we profess with all our hearts and minds and strength today the beautiful Easter proclamation - that Jesus Christ is truly Risen!
All of this support is great, but it does not make our proclamation this morning any less personal or risky. For being a Christian is never to go with the flow. We are pathetic beyond imagination if we only renew our baptismal promises this morning because everybody else is doing it. For professing faith is never something small. If the renewal of our baptismal promises today is no big deal, or is boring, than mercy we are doing it wrong - we are doing it all wrong! Today's proclamation is not to simply show up and buy a ticket at the eternal life lottery - no today is about dramatically going against the flow, and to bet our entire life on the truth of the Resurrection.
For what we profess today is a faith that is exciting and dramatic - as is the paschal mystery of Christ - his suffering, death and Resurrection is the most intense human story ever told. What we profess is a faith powerful enough to shake any person who has become anesthetized to Christianity. For no proclamation, no words - have ever shake the history of the world like an earthquake, or so changed the dignity and destiny of man - no victory has even been won that possible compares - as the proclamation that Jesus Christ has defeated death itself - and is truly risen from the dead.. That proclamation can't be something that limps out of our Church on Easter Sunday . . if so, forget it - let's just all go home and eat Peeps! No, the Easter proclamation of the Church has to be a proclamation impossible to ignore by those who think we are the weak ones who need a myth to cope with the reality of life and death.Against anyone out there who might think the Christian proclamation of Easter is a myth for cowards or weak thinkers, we disciples of Jesus must be known as those who more radically and intensely and courageously are search for that love that conquers all things, even death itself. That search for the deepest love that is the source of life led us first not to the empty tomb but to the cross, where perfect love is perfectly revealed. On the cross we see a love that is ultimate truth and that casts out fear. It is at the cross that with our Lord real Christians avoid nothing and fear nothing.
To be a Christian then must be the antithesis of being a naive coward, for the wisdom of the cross compels Christians to be soldiers who live the truth that suffering and death are not to be avoided, but are to be welcomed, redeemed, filled and conquered with love itself. A true Christian then does not proclaim the Resurrection as a vain hope for the future, but as the real fruit of the cross that he has already begun to experience. For we begin to live the truth of the Resurrection right now, whenever we dare to live the radical truth given by Jesus that whoever loses his life through love, saves it for eternal life.
So we gather to profess this faith in the Resurrection today not only because the faith has been passed down to us, not only because everyone else is doing it, but because we have actually tried being Christians, and have found the Resurrection to be true. We are the most pathetic of people, and our faith is completely in vain, if the Resurrection is something that we have to pretend to be true, instead of something that I have discovered with great effort to be true. Woe to us if we cannot profess our life getting bigger, and our growing younger, every time I lose myself in the adventure of following Christ through His suffering and death, to the glory of His Resurrection!
So I beg you this morning - don't say something pitiable with our profession of faith. Don't say something easy. But with sharp minds, and pure hearts and courageous wills, let us say personally and together the most profound and dramatic and mysterious words that have ever been spoken, or that can ever be spoken. Jesus Christ is truly Risen from the dead. Alleluia! Alleluia!
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