The following Sunrise devotional was delivered this morning by a cat-nervous Ethan C. Nobles — a member of Parkview United Methodist Church and the administrator for this blog. Pastor Dee Edwards’ Easter sermon will be posted here when it’s made available. Happy Easter and remember the good news — He is risen!
Back when I was a student at Hendrix College, I wound up taking a lot of religion classes. Through those I was fortune enough to come in contact with Dr. Francis Christie, a former dean of the college, religion/philosophy professor and all around good guy. He introduced a concept back than that has stuck with me for the past couple of decades. Dr. Christie observed that the Bible can be viewed as a mirror that reflects back on itself. In Genesis, man is unified with God and, at the end of Revelation, man and God are again unified.
The Bible, then, can be viewed as the story of us striving for that unification that we had in the beginning. We lost that togetherness in the Garden of Eden and, since then, have wanted it back. That’s a powerful notion and, in fact, helps define the Jewish concept of hell as merely the complete separation of us from God. If we examine that concept further, then we can easily say that a good deal of the evil in this world is the direct result of that separation. Furthermore, that concept gives rise to the notion that Heaven can, in fact, be established here on earth if that unification takes hold.
And, yes, we pray for that unification just about every Sunday. The Lord’s Prayer, found in Luke 6:9-13 is proof enough of that. When we get to the part in the Lord’s Prayer where we say “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” that’s exactly what we’re asking for – a reunification between God. It is our hope – our prayer – that a relationship with God is established that is so strong that we all benefit.
So, here we are on Easter contemplating the Resurrection and what that means to us as Christians. Jesus is the pivotal figure in our reunification story. A good portion of Jesus’ efforts went to gathering disciples and spreading God’s word in a blatant attempt to sow the seeds for the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth. Jesus spoke of achieving peace, harmony and justice through observance of God’s laws and obedience to His will. He gathered people around him – and gathers them still – in an attempt to spread the Kingdom of God throughout the world. Why? That unification – the observance of God’s laws and obedience to His will – results in a situation in which we are in harmony with God, evil is defeated and we live together in a world where love, harmony, peace and justice are the norm.
That attempt to establish such a unification started with Jesus’ ministry on earth, continued in earnest after the Resurrection and is still pursued today. Without the Resurrection, that process would have been stopped in its tracks. Christ’s influence may well have been limited in that he would have been viewed in some circles as merely a man with some great ideas. The miracle of Resurrection, then, sealed the deal – Christ’s triumph over death stands as absolute proof that he is the Son of God. Furthermore, the miracle of the Resurrection offers hope to us all – those of us who follow Christ will also triumph over death and dwell in our Father’s house forever.
Through our lives and after our deaths, then, reunification with God remains the goal. We can seek that reunification in this life, of course, but are assured of getting that closeness to God that is so important to us as Christians after death.
And that, folks, is very good news.
