Stand Up and Raise Your Heads
Frame the Day
It is always a promising idea to frame whatever the day may bring with the bedrock proclamation, “The tomb is empty!” For me, it is the lens through which I strive to interpret and react to whatever life might serve up to me or to our world. This is not to say that I do not get anxious when confronted with ominous news or get very frustrated with the powers of this world not being able to pay serious attention to things like the developing global calamity of climate change. Yet, when I get knocked off my center, it is remembering and clinging to the promise wrought by the proclamation, “The tomb is empty” that centers me back to true north.
I had to find that true north when my heart was wrenched by the battle with a glioblastoma and the inevitable death of my best friend – a lifelong friend. “The tomb is empty” is what framed me when I was called upon to conduct and craft my words for Stuart’s celebration of life service for close to 400 people on a farm north of Statesville, NC. I had to find that true north late on a Friday evening while I was with my wife, Harriet, enjoying the fall colors at the Lutheridge conference and retreat center near Asheville. A nurse at Winship Cancer Center called me with the news that I was no longer in remission in my fight with leukemia. And daily I have to stay held by the bedrock proclamation when our siblings in Haiti are having to endure unnecessary daily suffering and our own government, who is complicit in Haiti’s demise, does nothing.
The Tomb is Empty
The tomb that held Jesus, the one whom they crucified, is empty. To remind oneself of this is not a psych trick or a cliché. It is a reality. In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus from the dead, God has already overcome everything that would demean us, fragment us, and destroy us. By the grace and tenacious compassion of God, love and life do finally win in the end.
In our congregations that use the ecumenical lectionary, the 1st Sunday in Advent comes with Jesus standing with his followers and pointing to some very calamitous events on the horizon (Luke 21). Contrary to the religious hucksters of our day, Jesus was not pointing to the end times. He was pointing to events just over the horizon. The nature of the coming trials could fit any generation, including ours. Nations still rise against nation. A global pandemic is still wreaking havoc and death. Political one-upmanship and culture wars are undermining our capacity to act on the big picture issues that matter not only for us but also for all humanity and all of creation. Cable news, social and the mainstream media deal in sensationalism and “click bait” rather than substance. These are trying times with a lot at stake.
When Jesus was speaking truth of what was soon to come, he admonished his followers on how to respond. “Stand up and raise your heads.” Do not panic. Do not hide. Do not become cynical. And for God’s sake, do not give up or give in to despair. Despite evidence that would suggest otherwise, God still yet reigns and owns the future. Keep loving one another and this world. Keep doing what you can to make the world a better place for all. Be my heart, hands, and feet in the world. Jesus could say that because he knew that he would soon be taking a beating and be put to death by unspeakable torture and laid in a tomb. But he also knew, trusting the One who sent him, that on a Sunday morning, women who first came to the tomb would run and report the tomb is empty.
