I know what you all are thinking. Some coincidence, huh? My wife and I go away for a few days, and while we’re gone, Osama Bin Laden is found and executed. So, to clear the air, neither Cherie nor I are members of an elite Navy SEALS team. We were in the Adirondacks reading books and taking naps. Some week though. From presidential birth certificates and royal weddings to the confirmed death of the most notorious man on earth. Closer to home, our brother Wayne succumbed to his four year battle with cancer. He died fully aware, ready, and at peace. He said goodbye to the people he loves. On Tuesday, we will gather here for worship, to give thanks to God for Wayne’s life and to receive comfort in sorrow. Next Sunday, we will celebrate holy baptism; welcoming new children, new life, to this congregation. There is joy and there is sorrow. It may seem like a circle, a perpetual pattern, a never-ending life cycle. It may seem like biology is the one true fact of life. We are born, we live, we die. An old Blood, Sweat, and Tears song from the 60’s said, and when I die and when I’m gone, there’ll be one child born in this world to carry on, carry one. But is that enough for us? Is that it? The circle of life? It never has been. Jews and then Christians have always questioned this seeming unending cycle, the seasons of life. The biblical worldview rejects the circle of life. We see the history of the world as an unfolding story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. We do not see it as a perpetual machine, from birth to death and back again. We cannot accept death, or evil and injustice as natural parts of the created order. We cannot believe that the living God, who breathes life into all things, is responsible for sin, disease, and violence leading to death. What do Christians believe about evil, about death? In light of the death of Osama Bin Laden, what do we say? Or perhaps more importantly, in light of the resurrection of Jesus, what is our hope?
Christians do not believe in retributive justice. No justice is done in the killing of another human being. Jesus rejects the ancient law of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. He demands sacrificial servitude, even when one is being oppressed, maligned, or mistreated. Christians have found ways to justify war, and the killing of evil men, because it is easier than Jesus’ demand for peace through non-violence. Kill or be killed is no way to live.
Bin Laden’s death does not make the world safer. Hitler’s death didn’t, Neither did Stalen’s. When evil men die or are killed, others arise in their own place and time with their own ideology of hatred leading to murder or genocide. The problem of evil is not solved by rounding up and exterminating all the bad guys. We can understand the impulse, though. His death is somehow a payment for 9/11. There was something cathartic about that news. He was the responsible terrorist. He was held accountable. But the problem of evil is bigger than Osama Bin Laden, isn’t it? Its deeper than the secrets of the human heart. Malice, hatred, fear, vengeance, killing. These seem to be so much a part of the human condition. It seems like the real enemy is death itself, chasing all of us, threatening to destroy us, to take away the ones we love, to break our hearts. Every death is a reminder of our own mortality, of the one’s we’ve already lost. Sin or evil is death’s twin. Hunger, poverty, disease, murder, suicide. Death will get all of us somehow. Death renders life meaningless, hopeless, Godless. Death hurts.
It must’ve been devastating for the followers of Jesus. I mean, they were convinced that he was the Messiah; the hope and savior of the people. With him, their enemies would be eliminated and the kingdom would be restored. Pure Temple Worship of YHWH would continue forever and the people of Israel would be blessed. With Jesus, all their problems would be solved. Others saw it differently, believed that Jesus’ crucifixion would solve their problems. A dead Messiah cannot subvert the unjust systems at work in the world that benefit some, while killing others. So who was right? Maybe both parties.
On the road to Emmaus, Jesus meets two grieving disciples and interprets the events of good Friday in light of a newly emerging Easter faith. The son must be condemned and killed, he said. Failing to recognize him, they invite him to stay with them. At the meal, he breaks bread and then they recognize him. The familiar action of breaking bread at meal, opens their eyes to see the truth about Jesus. Apparently the resurrected Jesus is both the same as before and somehow different. He has changed and yet he is himself. Jesus is raised from the dead. The New testament revolves around that claim. It was unexpected and amazing. God did it. People saw it. The rest is commentary. What does it mean? How do we live in response to this news? Jesus’ resurrection sparked a new imagination for life after death and life after that. It meant that Jesus was and is the Messiah and Lord; not Caesar or Obama or Osama or yo mama. (Okay, moms rule, too). Jesus was and is the King of Israel and savior of all the nations; not just the chosen empire du jour, Israel or Rome or the U.S. ---the whole world is saved. Because Jesus is all of these things, and we belong to Jesus through faith and holy Baptism, we are saved. Who gets saved and who doesn’t is not decided by each individual. God saves, sets right what is wrong. Because of Jesus, God does not condemn anyone. We are reconciled to God, healed, forgiven, and eligible for eternal life. We will also die and be raised. We will ascend to heaven and descend to earth. No longer held hostage by the threat of death and the power of sin, we are free to live a new kind of life. Unafraid and confident in the LORD’s salvation, we proclaim the mystery of faith; Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. No longer must we preserve and protect ourselves against evil hidden all around us. We confront evil, injustice, and the things that deny the will of God because Jesus has changed everything. We cannot live in darkness, because we have seen the light. We know that God’s will is grace and peace. So we demonstrate grace and peace toward others. We do so as humble servants, compassionate, generous, loving. As a community of believers, we encourage one another. When death comes, we envision a hopeful future. Kept in heaven until the day of resurrection, we dwell in God’s peace. On the day of Christ’s coming, a new heaven and a new earth will emerge. New bodies will rise up, re-animated, restored and reunited. We will worship and serve the one God , we will till and keep the earth as a gardener loves the garden. We will feast on rich foods and we will know complete joy. This is God’s promise. We do not believe in what goes around comes around. We believe in the alpha and the omega—a man who is the beginning and the end of all things. Since we are preparing for the day of his coming again, we worship with joy, we live to serve, and we celebrate life. We do not rejoice over any death, for the enemy will have no power over us. The coming of spring is a reminder, not of the futile, unchanging, seasonal nature of things—but of the promise of Easter; the eternal spring. In the end, as in the beginning, God breathes life into all things. Life prevails. Death has lost its sting. Since the first Easter, the world has been moving forward into God’s good future. Right now, in this place, with these bodies and minds and hearts, we are participating in God’s re-creation. So plant, sing, eat, drink, pray, give, share, love. You have been born anew, not as perishable, but imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. Alleluia Christ has risen. Christ has risen indeed, alleluia! Amen.
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