The End of the Story Part IV

The resurrection is everything.  It's the end of endings.

The Apostle Paul was a big shot before he was blinded on the road to Damascus; when Paul was still Saul.  He writes to the Philippians that he was a pure blooded Israelite, born to the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised on the eighth day, a well trained religious scholar, and had a zeal for righteousness which came from the law.  People respected Saul.

However, in another letter, Paul writes that "his physical presence is weak, and his public speaking is despicable."  Or at least that's what other people were saying about him.  How could a guy who was Pharisee number one; who was constantly taking people to court to kill them; who had one of the best pedigrees in the world be called weak and despicable?

What happened?

The main reason I decided to follow Jesus as closely as I possibly could was hope.  Jesus offered me hope that things were going to be made right and that God would not stand for injustice.  The prophecies in the book of Isaiah, some of which state that the hills will be made low and the valleys will be raised, say to me that if there is inequity, poverty, suffering; it just can't last forever.

Something you should understand about me is that I am naturally skilled at almost nothing.  Some people scoff at me when they hear this, but I have proven it over and over.  I've already commented on my inability to understand math, but my lack of skill extends into areas such as social perception, general physical coordination, and most recently sailing.  I don't intend to turn this blog post into a self depreciating joke fest, but I share these shortcomings with you to demonstrate the reason for my hopefulness.

Later in Paul's letter where he refers to himself as weak and a despicable speaker, he says that there is nothing to boast in unless it is in Christ alone.  In fact, says Paul, he would rather be weak because in his weakness, Christ's power is perfected.  Of course, you already see where I am going with this; because I am weak in many areas, Christ has more opportunities to be glorified in my life.  This is true.  But there is more to it than that.

Because the resurrection is limitlessly deep, the hope we have in Christ should be limitless as well.  Because it's obvious that even the most skilled people have a limit to their skills.  Their skill has an end.  But with God the end of the story isn't really the end.  And so you see people doing things that shouldn't be "possible" on earth.  Blindness being healed.  Limbs growing out.  Diseases being slapped out of people's bodies.  All endings to which Jesus said "there's more."  Because of the resurrection, all sorts of death can not stand.

The only things that are forever are God and His Kingdom.  Paul knew this.  That's why he was gladly imprisoned, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, subjected to robbers, hungry, thirsty, and naked.  Because "to live is Christ and to die is gain."  Because the end of the story is not the end with God.  That's also why Paul's sweaty work clothes and handkerchiefs healed people of diseases.

In all things, God is saying the story is not over.  The question is; do we agree?  If we do then it's time to get busy because there is a movement happening where everything is being restored.  The most definitive endings to people's stories are the most surprising beginnings.  The people who live in the most death are experiencing the greatest resurrections.  Those who are foolish are already leading the wise.  The meek are inheriting the earth, the weak are turning out to be the strongest, and the whole world is coming face to face with the idea that to be a winner you actually have to be a loser.

Jesus is standing at the beginning of it all, ready to run with us.  And that's the end of that.

The End of the Story Part III

For every ending we impose, Jesus says "there's more." So when you think it's over, look again, because it has in fact just begun.

You may be wondering why I've convoluted and drawn out a single subject to the point of, now, three separate blog posts. Allow me to break the fourth wall of blogging for a moment. As Christians, it is of central importance that we look at all Scripture through the lens of resurrection and new beginnings. If we look at Scripture and view Yahweh as a God who ends anything, we are creating God in our own image. Because we are the ones who have endings wrapped up in our very nature. Not God. And when we make God in our own image, we have full permission to boss Him around and support just about anything we want Him to.

So we have arrived at a point in which we can look at Scripture in two different ways. A disjointed set of rules and suggestions which serve as the basis of a selfish morality, or as a sweeping narrative that spills over the pages and seeps into our lives. The Apostle Paul actually covers this in his letters to the churches. He tells us that this difference is really the difference between the law and the Spirit. The law leads only death because it points only to our own accomplishments. And that right there is an ending. We do all that we can to highlight our own stuff. The Bible says pretty clearly that if "our stuff" is good that it comes from God anyway, and if it's bad than it's sin, which has already been defeated. So much for that. Living life in the Spirit over the law, however, lets our lives point to the eternal, or a lack of endings.

What Paul is saying is if you want to align your life to an ending, feel free. God's love is big enough to allow that. But with the Spirit, the end of the story isn't really the end.

From the perspective of early Christians, the resurrection of Jesus Christ was an event that meant everything changed. For them, this was the age old promise of their God being fulfilled. The resurrection was everything. So, of course, this meant that everything had to change. Paul's letters are the best example we have of the early Church wrestling with the concept of being resurrection people. For a long, long time, that's what the story has been.

A good example of this is Paul's exposition to the Corinthian church about giving monetarily. In it, Paul commends the church for giving abundantly, and also states that God loves a cheerful giver. This is the same God who makes grace overflow so that all needs are met.

Do you see the resurrection? The Corinthian church is able to give out of poverty because they know that God does not end and they are the people of this God. Paul says it. Whatever is given will be restored to the point of overflow. That's a characteristic of grace. Resurrection. For Paul and the Corinthians this is more than just a good idea that promotes morality. This is part of the embodiment of the resurrection movement which pulses through nature and is emblematic of Yahweh.

There's more to money than just money.

Even Jesus before He is crucified speaks to people about all kinds of resurrection. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells His disciples that whoever gives up their family or possessions to follow Him will have them restored 100 times over. Because the resurrection is that deep. Because Jesus says "there's more."

The resurrection is everything. It is the end of endings. For everything. The early church grappled with this. They absolutely struggled with how to align with the restoration movement of God in every aspect of life.

Do we grapple with this? Do we see the resurrection in everything? Or do we impose endings where they just don't belong. Because the thing about the early Church is that it was early. There's more to that story.

Once again, things were only just beginning.

The End of the Story Part II

Jesus raised a man who was wrapped head to toe in death.  Of course, that was only the beginning.

I am terrible at Math.  My brain just doesn't work in calculations and formulas.  Thank goodness there are people who are good at math and can compute things in their heads.  Because I can't.  

In fourth grade, there were two math classes.  Everyone knew what it meant if you were in room 7.  It meant that you sucked at math.  Room 7 was a place characterized by sorrow, failure, and a terrible view of the white brick building next door.  Room 4, however, was a place of infinite glee where young fourth graders ate cupcakes, solved math problems with ease, and generally relished in the knowledge that they would eventually become the great engineers of the age to come.  The view from room 4 was of the playground and the sweeping fields of Scotland, Pennsylvania.  Room 4 was where you wanted to be.

One particularly terrible day in room 7, I was taking a particularly terrible test.  When you failed a test at Scotland, you had to have your parents sign it; probably so that they could start planning early for what they believed to be their child's downward spiral into oblivion.  Needless to say, I had to have a few of these math tests signed; so many in fact that my parents had  forewarned me that one more of these signatures would result in what I interpreted to be my certain annihilation.

So I sat in room 7, taking my test on fractions; my future hanging in the balance.

By one point, I got a D.  I proudly stood before my parents, exclaiming brightly that I had not failed the test.  My joy was cut short by my parents swiftly observing that the teacher had graded the test incorrectly.  He had forgotten to mark an incorrect answer.  I had failed the test after all.

I tell this story for one reason, really.  For the ending.  The ending you read in the paragraph above shows you only a single perspective.  And perspective has everything to do with endings.

In a different time and a different place, the man who had restored other people from death back to life was dead Himself.  He had been crucified; killed between two thieves.  For some, everything was riding on Jesus.  Their hopes, dreams, and livelihoods.  But now those dreams were dead along with the man who inspired them.  This was probably the perspective of many to all of the disciples of Jesus Christ at the time of His death.  

And you could end the story there.  But for those of us who are Christians, we believe that the end of that story is not the end.

Because three days later Jesus was walking around and talking to people.  He was also walking through walls (but that's another story).  Along with Christ, the first Easter resurrected the hopes and dreams of those who followed Christ then and now.  Because we believe that Jesus beat death forever.  On Easter Sunday, this is the story we get.  Then church is over.

But the story doesn't end there.  Most of us know that.  Lots of amazing things happen after Christ is resurrected.  In fact, twenty-three books of the Bible full of pictures of the interaction of early Christians with Jesus and each other happen after the resurrection part of the story.

But the story doesn't end with the Bible.  Maybe you knew I was going to say that.  

The story earlier ended with my failure because that's where I ended it.  But the story didn't really end there.  If you read the last entry, you would have noticed that I graduated from college.  Obviously, fourth grade math couldn't hold me down forever.  But from our perspective, we impose endings all the time in order to categorize and understand information.  Humans have trouble with the infinite.

In our lives, relationships, and even our theology we impose all sorts of endings for all sorts of reasons.  Control.  Addiction.  Brokenness.  Confusion.  Endings are a result of sin, and sin is death.  Death is an ending.  But Jesus beat that.  And the divine reversal began.  

For every ending we impose, Jesus says "there's more."

For every person we say we're done with.  There's more.  For every tree that withers.  There's more.  For every heart that remains unfulfilled.  There's more.  Because I passed fourth grade math.  Because every cell that dies is replaced.  Because Jesus didn't stay dead.  Because even though our perspective suggests that the story has ended, there is always more.

This is why Jesus must be at the heart of the Gospel.  Jesus is the incarnate pinnacle of a redemptive movement that courses through our very molecules.  So when you think it's over, look again, because it has in fact just begun.

Maybe you know that next I am going to say that this is just the beginning too.

The End of the Story

Recently, I graduated from college.  In many ways, it was an ending.  It was the end of a four year long learning and social engagement.  It was the end of my day to day relationships with many people.  It was the end of my life in a place.  From Shippensburg and its University, I have been dynamically severed and cut off.

That sounds terribly sad, doesn't it?  There are ways I have previously connected with Shippensburg and its people which I will never again be able to do.  That part of my life has come to an end.  That story seems to be over.

In a different time and a different place, a man named Lazarus is dead.  Jesus stands just outside the tomb where Lazarus was lain, weeping.  This is the same Jesus who, three days ago, said that the sickness in Lazarus' body would not end in death.  But life in the body of Lazarus is nil.  That story seems to be over.

Those who are around have varying reactions to the tension created by the presence of death and Jesus in the same location.  Many in the crowd stand confused, thinking that if this is the same Jesus who opened the eyes of the blind then surely He could have healed the sickness of a man whom He called friend.

But another bystander in the crowd, Martha, holds in her heart a strange sensation of hope.  For just a bit ago, Jesus had approached her and had Himself claimed to be "the Resurrection and the Life."  She believed this but did not fully understand it, as she couldn't quite wrap her mind around how this man could be the incarnate version of restoration.  But if there was one thing she did know and believe, it was that restoration was coming.  Because her God had promised this, and the promises of her God were true.

Despite the mysterious claims of Jesus, things were dark.  Martha may have even thought to herself, "Lazarus is dead and Jesus is weeping.  What more is there?"

But there is more.  Because the end of the story is that the story does not end.

Jesus tells the people to roll away the tombstone.  There is protest, but eventual agreement.  Out steps Lazarus, dressed in endings but certainly alive.  And Martha stands amazed.  Maybe amazed that Jesus could raise the dead, but certainly amazed that the resurrection that He was talking about permeated deeper than she had ever imagined.

And that's just it.  God says in Scripture that He is not the God of the dead.  Because death is an ending and God does not end.  And so, while we brought death into the world, threatening to end the story God had begun, God would not have it.  Period.

When we look our world, we see all sorts of death; all sorts of endings.  Endings and death cut us off from things; they sever us from experiencing fullness.  But Yahweh God has a plan to bring all things back to Himself.  And Yahweh is a God who is alive and unending.  So, naturally, God specializes in continuing.

As His followers then, we enter into God's plan to restore everything.  In the name of Jesus Christ we have the power to do all things.  This has all sorts of implications, many of which are explored in Scripture.  The whole Bible is about this mission that God is on to bring everything out of death and back into life.

But the point of all of this is that the end of the story is never the end.  Just when you think the story seems to be over, there's more to it.  Because graduating doesn't mean everything ends.  In fact, everything is just beginning.  That's what they say at every cheesy graduation speech, right?  They're right on many levels.  To illustrate exactly what they are talking about in all of those speeches, Jesus raised a man who was wrapped head to toe in death.

Of course, that was only the beginning.