Like the Truth Is True

Like the Truth Is True--May 23, 2019

"...In the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest....when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, 'Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades'." [Revelation 1:13, 17-18]

If Jesus really is alive again, we do not have to be ruled by fear anymore.  We really don't, and it really is precisely that straightforward.

But making that connection--between saying "I believe Jesus is risen" and living without letting fear determine our choices--is a hard thing to do in a time like ours that is full of fearful voices and frightening dangers.  But seriously, no less an authority that the risen Jesus himself insists that because he is alive, we do not have to kowtow to fear any longer.

Nevertheless, taking Jesus' word for it is perhaps easier said than done. It has been often observed that the church is full of people who mouth a profession of faith when we recite the ancient words of a creed, but who live as "practical atheists" outside the walls of the church building.  In other words, our church buildings have plenty of people who say they believe in God, or confess Jesus is the Christ, or affirm that the tomb was empty...but who don't let that translate into a different perspective for living in the world.  On paper, we are believers, but in action, we live like you can't count on God to be real or Jesus to be alive.

We say we believe God reigns... but we still act like there is no voice calling us to love our neighbors or to see all people as made in the image of God, and so we treat other people as disposable, ignorable, or less valuable than "Me and My Group."

We say we believe that Jesus has won the great victory at the cross and resurrection... but we still act like the way to get ahead in life and be a success is to threaten, coerce, cajole, or outgun your enemies, even though Jesus uses none of those strategies.

We say we believe that Christ has given us the sure hope of resurrection, too... but still act like we are afraid of losing our lives--and therefore, we are unwilling to share our faith with a stranger (who might turn out to be a dangerous person), or drive in one of "those neighborhoods," or welcome the visitor to sit with you in worship.  

We say we believe that Jesus is no less than God-in-the-flesh and knows all things... but still we act like we have no obligation to listen to his teaching that we love our enemies and consciously refuse to return evil for evil (much less pre-emptively attack someone because we all of a sudden "feel threatened" and in the name of defending our turf).

We are fantastic at mouthing faith, but still give ourselves over to so many kinds of fear it is like we don't really believe God is real or Jesus is correct when it comes to any practical matters.  We treat the faith as a handful of facts to be memorized but never applied.  It's almost like when you had to memorize the formula for calculating the circumference of a circle back in school (Pi x the diameter, in case you forgot), but when you actually have to figure out the size of your round kitchen table for some reason, you totally blank on how you would even calculate it.  We do a bang-up job of getting the religious words right, but don't dare to live like they apply to real life situations.  As the civil rights leader and co-worker with Dr. King, Bayard Rustin put it so powerfully, "To be afraid is to behave as if the truth is not true."

And over against that, the voice of the living Christ says, "I really am alive forever, and death really has been stripped of getting the last word.  So live like that is true: do not be afraid."

Jesus insists that the day-to-day practical application of the resurrection is that we do not need to be ruled by fear any longer. As John Chrysostom said in his famous Easter sermon, "Let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it. By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive." Those things do not have power to control us anymore... except that we let them have it.

None of this means that the dangerous and frightening things aren't still out in the world--it just means that we know the worst anyone or anything can do to us involves death... and death no longer gets the last word. There are still lots of terrible things in the world and lots of ways we can suffer in life, but we do not have to be so afraid of them happening that we stay locked inside our rooms like the eleven disciples on Easter evening forever. Jesus keeps showing up, meeting us in our fears, to say, "I'm alive--see? The worst anyone could do was kill me, and see, I'm alive--and now I'm the one holding the keys! Death doesn't have final authority over you, either, so don't let anybody else make you afraid of death."

Today, what if we trusted Jesus on this one? What if we moved beyond mouthing the words to acting on our faith, and daring to live like death doesn't get the last word over us? What if we did not allow fear--whether of specific things or just fear in its nebulous, shadowy forms--to control us and keep us from acting? What if we were so confident that Jesus is alive that we were able to live courageously, in spite of our fears?

That's the adventure today: to live like the truth is true.

Lord Jesus, give us the courage to believe your resurrection, and the boldness to connect our head-faith with our actions.