Trinity Parish Church – 22^nd Sunday after Pentecost – November 11, 2007

The Rev. Rachel Endicott

This morning I share with you the good news!  We are indeed children of the resurrection!  We are alive in Christ!  We are the people of God!

Now perhaps that seems obvious to you.  But perhaps not.

Through October and into November, a small group of us have been getting together on Thursday evenings to learn about the precepts of our faith and life as Christians.  Geared for those who want to be confirmed or those who want to go back to the basics, we took a rip-roaring ride through church history, Scripture, prayer, rules of life, the creeds, symbolism, and more.  Almost every class we discovered where the church has come to a turning point as it explored - and dare I say it, even argued about - what it took as definitive.

And it seems to me that today in our reading from the Gospel of Luke, we have one such turning point, one place of wrestling.

Now the issue at hand appears to be the discussion about the resurrection, about whether those who have died are still with God.  In Luke's writing, he sets up this debate between the Sadduccess and Jesus.  And it's not unimportant that Luke uses precious words to ensure that the reader knows that the Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection.

So, the big broo-ha-ha is on.  Will there be a resurrection or not?  Is God powerful enough to do this thing?  And here we are plunked into the middle of this argument when Jesus steps up to bat.  And his answer is different than to some of the other questions posed to him about God and who he is.  To the other questions, he pretty much responds, "You say that I am" or "Today this has been fulfilled in your sight."  Instead, today we find him as a good Jewish student going back into the Torah, and he argues from a place of God's work in history.  To the Sadducees, to those gathered around, and through Luke to us, Jesus responds that we can be sure of the raising of the dead, of resurrection, through the words of God as coming from the burning bush.  He argues that, for God, there is no break in continuity at the time of death.  We are all in some mysterious way alive to God no matter how it might appear to those around.

Having this lesson the week after All Saints and All Souls seems a blessing.  We are prompted to not only remember those who have gone before, but we are to think of what is now and what will be our future.

Yet resurrection isn't only something to look forward to at the eschaton, the end times.  It's something all around us.

In Megan McKenna's book, Not Counting Women and Children: Neglected Stores from the Bible, this Roman Catholic writer shares an experience.  "Once in a parish mission when I was studying ... [a passage about being brought back from the dead] with a large group, someone called out harshly, "Have you ever brought someone back from the dead?"  I had been saying that life happens when we are interrupted, and that some of the most powerful acts of resurrection happen to the least likely people; that we are the people of resurrection and hope, called to life passionately and compassionately with others, to defy death, to forgive, and to bring others back into the community, to do something that is life-giving, that fights death and needless suffering.  And then this challenge from the back of the church.

"My response was "Yes."  I went on to say, "Every time I bring hope into a situation, every time I bring joy that shatters despair, every time I forgive others and give them back dignity and the possibility of a future with me and others in the community, every time I listen to others and affirm them and their life, every time I speak the truth in public, every time I confront injustice - yes - I bring people back from the dead."" ¹

And so it is that resurrection moves from a theological statement to an overriding action plan for our lives.  Rather than being a noun, it becomes a verb - practicing resurrection.

At the diocesan gathering of the clergy a few weeks ago, there was talk about what books are appropriate study texts for those in discernment, particularly in discernment about vocation.  Along with two others, Nora Gallagher's somewhat autobiographical book, Practicing Resurrection, was suggested.  I confess that I've not yet read that book, but thinking in about resurrection as an ongoing action has moved the book up on my reading list...I'm guessing that she, too, looks at resurrection as it speaks to her and her family in a significant way even in face of her brother's death.

And Megan McKenna and Nora Gallagher join others wrestle in taking this theological truth that one step further into daily life.

Episcopal priest and writer, the Rev. H. King Oehmig, also suggests that we can practice resurrection in our daily lives.  No doubt having been influenced by his experience as a cancer recovery-group facilitator, he identifies the following ways to do so:

-         "Give your full attention to whatever you are doing, and you'll recognize the constant renewal of life all around you.

-         Walk the path of beauty and notice the spiritual radiance in people, places and growing things - more signs of rebirth.

-         Leave the past to God's mercy.  Leave the future to God's discretion.  Living in the present moment, the only time when God brings forth new life, is a way of affirming your belief in resurrection.

-         Whenever you with compassion open your heart, mind, and soul to the pain of the world, you help bring suffering beings back into the land of the living.

-         When you cultivate the art of making connections, the walls of separation come crashing down and new life can spring up out of the rubble.

-         When you regularly pray for others as part of your devotional activities, you are practicing resurrection.

-         Faith enables us to live with confidence amidst doubt and paradox.  When you can trust in your relationship with God, all kinds of leaps and rebirths are possible.

-         Every time you forgive someone, another resurrection is in the making.

-         Practice gratitude and you are slaying the death-dealing forces of boredom, despair, and taking-things-for-granted.

-         Bring hope to someone in despair, bring healing to those in conflict, and you are contributing to the ongoing resurrection.

What's to keep us from starting today?" ²

As a community of faith, this church has experienced resurrection.  You have gone from a people in exile in your parish hall to a people with new life back in this beloved building.  The broken shell of the physical aspect of this place has been brought back to life and beautifully so.  And so resurrection happens to us as individuals.  But don't forget - we are called to practice resurrection on a daily basis.  As Fr. Oehmig reminds us, "What's to keep us from starting today?"

¹ Megan McKenna, Not Counting Women and Children:  Neglected Stories from the Bible, Orbis Books, 1994.

² H. King Oehmig, Synthesis, November 11, 2007.