The Witness: What Can You Expect?

What Can You Expect?
By V. Gene Robinson
Friday, March 18, 2005

Lectionary Reflections for Easter Day (A)

Readings for Easter Day, Year A, Mar. 27, 2005

Acts 10:34-43 or Jeremiah 31:1-6
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Colossians 3:1-4 or Acts 10:34-43
John 20:1-18 or Matthew 28:1-10

"Well, what can you expect?!" Those words usually greet us when we are faced with a major disappointment. Many of life's great hopes are dashed on the rocks of reality, and many have come to expect that life is going to treat them poorly.

Instead of the presence of the stench of a decaying body, and an absence of the Jesus they had known and loved, they found the absence of a decaying body and the presence of the living Jesus. And this Jesus would say to them what he always said to them, countless times: "Fear not."

Reality, on that Easter morning, told the women that they were going to find Jesus' body in the tomb, already beginning to smell the odor of decay. They and the disciples were already smelling the sense of their own disappointment. "We thought he was the one. He seemed so connected to God, how could God have let this happen? He had almost convinced us that his way of seeing the world and one another was the right way. But now this!! And what in the world are we going to do with our lives now?! Go home and admit to everyone that we were wrong to follow this disillusioned dreamer? Go back to fishing, after knowing what it's like to fish for men and women? Well, what can you expect?!"

What the women got was not what they expected. Instead of the presence of the stench of a decaying body, and an absence of the Jesus they had known and loved, they found the absence of a decaying body and the presence of the living Jesus. And this Jesus would say to them what he always said to them, countless times: "Fear not." "Don't be afraid." And the disciples expected to go home to cast their nets once again in the Galilee, and what they got was a ministry that changed them and changed the world forever.

The Early Church rarely preached anything but Jesus' resurrection from the dead. All else seemed irrelevant and insignificant next to the magnificent news that the bonds of death had been broken, and the Reign of God had begun. In the time since then, however, it seems we have become obsessed with focusing on Jesus' teachings and on finding his instructions on life's little problems, and feeling a near-embarrassment about preaching the resurrection. In our attempts to distance ourselves from irresponsible and future-oriented pie-in-the-sky theology, we perhaps have lost the ability or inclination to proclaim the resurrection.

The fact is, at least for me, the resurrection makes all the difference in how I live my life. The resurrection is how I can "be not afraid," but instead be a bold and active witness to the love of God.

I am not worried nearly as much about life after death as about whether or not there is life before death!

When I was preparing for my consecration as the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, I was getting a lot of death threats. Preparations were being made for the consecration security, and I was asked for my blood type, so that preparations could be made for immediately beginning medical treatment on the way to the hospital, should something violent take place. I remember saying to our two grown daughters, who were worried and anxious about my well-being, "You know, there are worse things than death. Some people actually never live -- and that is the worst death of all. If something does happen, remember that the God who has loved me my whole life, will still be loving me, and I will have died doing something I believe in with my whole heart."

As I strapped on my bulletproof vest just before the service, I remember feeling blessedly calm about whatever might happen. Not because I am brave, but because God is good and because God has overcome death, so that I never have to be afraid again

That is the power of the resurrection. NOT in what happens AFTER death, but what the knowledge of our resurrection does for our lives and ministries BEFORE death. I am not worried nearly as much about life after death as about whether or not there is life before death! We are no longer prisoners to the power of the fear of death. We don't have to be worried about how all of this is going to turn out. We know the end of the story. God reigns. Death is vanquished. We are given life eternal in the company of a merciful and loving God and all the saints. Believing that, knowing that, can and does empower us for ministry in God's name.

The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson is bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. His office may be reached by email at mailto:pbibber@nhepiscopal.org.