Jesus Followers, Cross Seekers, Good News Bearers,
Well known preacher and teacher, Thomas Long,
begins a recent article in a preaching journal with a story about the gathering
of scholars who wrote the Westminster
Confession of Faith. He reminds readers
of this moment when one of the members of the Westminster Assembly raised the
question, “What is God?” But when none in
the Assembly had enough sand to try and offer an answer, they turned to the
youngest person in the room to give a formal answer, a young 30-something
Scottish Pastor named George Gillespie.
Unlucky enough to be called upon, “I need God’s wisdom,” he said, his
voice surely cracking. “Will you join me
in prayer?” And then he prayed:
“ O God, thou art a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in thy being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. ”
Though Gillespie’s offering was simple and
majestic, the Assembly did what assemblies often do, beefing up the words,
piling on the descriptions, and trying to include every possible definition in
what seems like a William Faulkner-esque sentence. Good for them!
Long simply recalls that when Moses spoke to
the burning bush and asked who it was that was there, all he received was the
reply “I am who I am.” And then goes on
to quote theologian Robert Jensen’ s answering the question, “Who is God?” this
way: “God is whoever raised Jesus from the dead, having before raised Israel
from Egypt.”
Easter is coming—arriving before your next
newsletter! Easter is coming, and
Jensen’s radiant definition implies we need a new definition of God—that we
must refashion our understanding of God in light of what God did in the
Resurrection! What is God? God is what raised Jesus from the dead! This is Long’s way of saying, “Easter changes
everything!” He writes:
“ …Easter is not a way to get along better in the world as it is but is instead the end of this word. Easter destroys the perceived world at hand, and before we sing about the joy of Easter’s new reality, it is crucial to feel the shock and to see the destructive power of the Resurrection on the old reality.
“…The Resurrection …is instead the unmasking of the present reality, the world we assumed was permanent, the world of business as usual, the world of inevitable death. Easter is an earthquake destroying the reality we thought could never change, a world in which dead people stay dead and in which some little tyrant is always placing guards in the cemetery to make sure it remains that way. Easter is a lightening -bold illuminated flash forwarded to that time when “The Kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever.” That joyful good news of Easter is an obituary and a birth announcement combined: the old world has passed away and the new has come. ”
“ …Easter calls for a change of citizenship. The frightening demand, the more-astounding-than-can-be-imagined invitation, of Easter, is to leave the familiar but dying world behind and to enter the new, unexpected, and uncertain world revealed in the Resurrection. ”
Long suggests we cannot look at Easter in the
way we’ve been used to celebrating it.
It’s not a moment in which to cheer, “Up from the grave [Jesus] arose!”
or, to simply exclaim, “the tomb is empty,” as if, once again, “Jesus were the
reason for the season.” No. Instead, the world was changed by the God who
does resurrection. It is no longer the
world to which we are accustomed; it is the world God would make it to be
because …RESURRECTION!
That takes some getting used to. And …well, we’re not used to it!
It is my privilege to remind you that Jesus
loves you. So do I. God wants the best for us and is inviting us
to fulfill our calling. Jesus dies; but
God raised Jesus in the Resurrection, and that changes everything! Get ready.
Gird your loins. Easter is
coming. The journey was already started!
