HE AROSE

MARCH 23, 2008

Joe Kutter

 “I’m tired of winter? I want spring to come.”?  I grew up in Florida and my idea of a white Christmas is a sandy beach! But even for life-long Kansans, it seems that this winter has been more than enough; more than enough snow, more than enough ice, more than enough cold, more than enough heating bills, more than enough. We are ready for spring.

And the good news is that spring is coming. The little crocus at the corner of my house has fought its way through the top of the soil to announce, spring is coming. I see buds on the trees and the forsythia. A small flock of robins is worm-hunting in my yard. Before long, the grass will be green and the gardens will sparkle with flowers of every color and the cold will become warm … and we will complain of the air-conditioning bills!

And what is even better, our spirits will soar. Most of us just feel better when we can get outside. Man was not made to live on artificial light alone! We want the sun and the clear blue sky and we want it now. We will feel better.

What does this have to do with Easter?  Since Christians first tried to explain the meaning of the resurrection, we have used the coming of spring to point in the direction of the difference that Christ has made in their lives. And we have used the new life in spring to point towards the new life of Christ in resurrection.

We were lifeless and then when Christ came into our hearts. It was like spring with all of its color and all of its warmth and it’s new energy and we just felt better. It’s like spring.

Or, as winter appears to be a season of death, it’s really not but everything seems brown and dormant, as winter is like death, the resurrection is like spring. God brings life from death itself.

Like every analogy, this one has its limits. To be dormant in winter is not the same as being dead. And while the new life in spring is an automatic thing that is simply a part of the cycle of the seasons, resurrection requires an act from God.

Your new life in Christ, with all of its joy and all of its beauty and energy, is a gift from God. God chooses to offer and you choose to receive. It is the event in which your will merges with the will of God to create some thing and some one new. You become a new person in Christ and it’s like spring.

Jesus was not merely dormant. He was dead and it required an act from God to transform death into resurrection. And it is that act that we celebrate today.

You may have noticed that I have spoken of the resurrection of Christ and our new life in Christ together, as though they are related. In truth, they are deeply related. God, who raised up Jesus from the dead, is the very same God who gives new life to you and prepares you for your own resurrection into eternal life.

Let me read a few verses to you from the apostle, Paul. 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:5 (NIV)

  Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 1: 16)

   Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands… (2 Corinthians 5: 1)

Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Corinthians 5: 5)

Now this is the point. The very same God who renews us, even when our bodies are failing us, is the very same God who resurrected Jesus from the grave and is the very same God who will create a new body for us in heaven.  All of it, every bit of it, is the result of the loving and powerful intervention of God. And the evidence is that the Spirit of God is living among us and within us – right now!

The gospel is this: God chooses to give you new life and God chooses to offer the resurrection of Jesus to you simply because God loves you and chooses to do so. At the root of all things, this is about God’s love for you and and God’s love for me and God’s powerful love for all of God’s people. God’s love is like spring, only better.

And that brings us to another question. What is heaven going to be like?  We’ve all heard about the streets paved with gold and spacious mansions and melodic choirs and some of us are praying for great libraries and sandy white beaches and enough fresh sea-food for eternity. And there is one old country song that hopes that heaven will be a lot like Dixie!

But, beyond the incidentals, what is it going to be like in heaven?

Heaven is going to be a place where Jesus really feels at home, because heaven is his home. Heaven is going to be like Jesus.

There is a reason that God chose to resurrect Jesus and not somebody else. There is a reason that Easter is about Jesus and nobody else. It is God’s way of saying that Jesus is “my son, with whom I am well pleased”, and my eternal Kingdom is going to just like him.

Now that is really good news, for the most part. If heaven is really like Jesus, that means that some things, and perhaps some people, will not be at home in heaven. The hard part is that there may be some parts of your life that will not fit in heaven.

Paul sometimes refers the church as The Body of Christ. Have you noticed how the body rejects things that do not belong in the body? When a foreign body is introduced, the human body does everything that it can to get it out. When an infection invades, the little white cells go to war and they do everything in their power to destroy the intruder, that thing that just doesn’t belong. In the same way, some things just do not belong in heaven.

Because heaven is like Jesus, the norms will be love and mutual respect and compassion for one another.  Intimidation and manipulation and bullying will be kicked-out.

Because heaven is like Jesus, hatred will not be allowed. Your hatred for another person, your bigotry towards people, your culture-taught prejudice will not be allowed in heaven. Your prejudice will be denied and like a body that rejects the foreign object, it will be pushed-out. Mark Twain once quipped that we all want to spend eternity in heaven with people that we do not want to sit next to in church for 30 minutes!

Because heaven is like Jesus, generosity will be a way of life and every vestige of selfishness and self-centeredness and self-focused ambition will be eradicated.

Because heaven is like Jesus, kindness and mercy will rule. Pettiness and nastiness and  innuendo and meaness will be kicked out.

Is there some grudge that just won’t let you go?  Is there some wrong that you simply cannot forget?  Were you slighted, or belittled and denigrated, or cheated or injured and you will not get past it? Because heaven is like Jesus and  judgment belongs to God, mutual forgiveness will be the dominant reality. Hatred and bitterness and revenge will be checked at the door. Only the spirit of forgiveness will survive in heaven. Heaven is like Jesus.

Are you a little arrogant? You know that the whole world refuses to kneel before your every whim and wish but you wish that were otherwise. You know that the world will finally be right when you are at the center of the universe.  Because heaven is like Jesus, your arrogance will have to go away and humility will be a way of life. Jesus said that” the greatest among you is the one who serves.” Service will be the way that we live in heaven.

Because heaven is like Jesus, heaven is a place of  prayer and worship. In heaven, you will love God with all of your heart, strength, mind and soul. To love God is to worship God. What might that mean to those of us who consider worship to be optional?

And Jesus prayed, oh how he prayed! Will heaven feel like home to those who forget to pray. Thank God that God is merciful.

What is heaven like? Heaven is Jesus’ home and heaven is just like Jesus and if you want to be at home in heaven then, you are invited to become a little more like Jesus!

This Easter is not only about life after death. Easter is about a way of life before we die. Easter is the celebration of life in God on both sides of the great divide that we call death.

Easter says this: Jesus was God’s Son. God raised Jesus from the dead so that we might have eternal life both before we die and after. It is about asking God, who gave new life to the crucified Jesus to give new life to us, to transform our winter-like lives into something more like spring with beauty and color and joy and love and peace and all the things that make life truly wonderful.  

Easter is nothing short of asking the Spirit of God to be at home in us now so that when that great day comes that we find ourselves in heaven, we will be at home there with Jesus.

May God make it so.

Amen