WORSHIP

After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the
other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an
angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on
it. 
-Matthew 28:1-2

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Matthew’s gospel isn’t subtle about the ramifications of the death and
resurrection of Jesus. Its seismic consequences are accompanied by literal seismic
events. This makes sense after all. The power of death is undone, the angel’s
appearance signifies a breaching of the barrier of the earthly and divine, angels who sit
on the heavy stone mocking it’s supposed power. The guards are overwhelmed and
dispersed by this cataclysmic event. There is nothing stable about an earthquake,
everything wavers and totters, things do not stay as they are. So it is with the
resurrection event.

It is easy in these days to look into the heavens and be a bit more anxious than
usual about those apocalyptic scriptures, about the end of days. Seismic events seem
today to be the rule not the exception. It feels more than a bit destabilizing to hear
people, even with our own military, speak of the most recent conflagration in the Middle
East as a Holy War launched to bring about Christ’ second coming.

I will confess that I’m deeply skeptical of their assertions and suspect a cynical
undercurrent afoot to justify themselves. It is beyond our remit and pay grade for any
mortal to speculate much less declare certainty about such things. After all, Humans
have a nasty habit of dragging God’s name through mud when we want to commit
violence against one another. Yet amid these seismic upheavals, we should not hide
away or dismiss them either. The status quo is being shaken to its very foundations, the
foundations of empire and its oppressiveness are tottering and being called into
question in ways large and small across our country and across the globe.

Indeed, resurrection is not simply a promise at the end of time but something
tangible in our midst, here and now. What is it that is dying, being shaken to its
foundations, so that something new can come to birth? The end times will come when
God ordains them, we know neither the day nor hour, nor were we meant to. But as we
confess in the creed, we are always on the look out for the resurrection, looking for
ways in which God is shaking the foundations of this world to bring life out of death.

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As Ever in Christ,
Pastor CJ