SCRIPTURE: 1 Peter 1:3-9
TEXT: By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, THEME: Seeing the resurrected Jesus in those who live by faith. INTRODUCTION At the resurrection, the angel tells Mary not to look for Jesus among the dead, but among the living (Luke 24:5). We don’t need to find a body of Jesus to believe Jesus rose from the dead. As theologian Marcus Borg says, “I affirmed that the resurrection was real,” “Jesus was experienced after his death by many of his followers…” The resurrection of Jesus is seen, in the land of the living by those whose lives have been changed by Jesus’ rising from the dead to life. We see the resurrection of Jesus in the way these people live their kindness, in the way these people live their generosity, in the way these people live their caring for others. We see the resurrection of Jesus in the way these people exemplify Christ’s attitude in what they do, in what they say and in how they think. In selecting the next series of passages to preach during this season of Easter, 1 Peter lend itself to finding examples of the resurrected Jesus in the land of the living; with those who live by faith, with those who suffer for justice, with those who pursuit justice, with those who have a forgiving Love, with those who live with integrity and with those whose suffering have created a deep-seated compassion for others. SCRIPTURE Our first look into the land of the living is to see those who live by faith. People who are given a perspective to live their lives differently than how they have been living. With new goals, new values, and a different set aspirations that lead up to a new hope. The resurrection of Christ from the dead is our new reality, which we put into practice right away. Resurrected life begins in our world today with God, and continues throughout the rest of eternity. Salvation is having relationship with God that changes how we live, informs our perspectives, and loves us so we can love others. God dwelling with us is the quality of how we live today (He Lives). Our relationship with God, is with ease, grace, and fluidity. As humans, we like to quantify, regulate, and restrict things to make them more complicated than they have to be. Salvation is being in relationship with God. Love, grace, compassion, and forgiveness are characteristics of this relationship. Live gracefully with God as you would any relationship, testing it to its limits, arguing, enjoying each other, wondering why God has us do these crazy things, and having a sense of accomplishment when good is achieved. Like in any relationship we participate in there are times of struggle, discovery, affirmation, and challenge. And we are not the only ones going through this but there is a whole company, of an amazing people, as companions along the way, that make up the community of God. All along the way are amazing insights about who we are, what God can accomplish through us, Revelations about who God is. Sometimes we have to be willing to deconstruct some of what we have inherited as faith, give thanks for them as the vehicles that have laid the foundation of our faith, but be willing to build something new upon it, for what God is building in the future. We are heirs of what God has and stewards of what God has given. The language of faith, is relational as is filled with words like promises, covenant, inheritance, protection, hope, as well as presence and comfort. Faith is not as quantifiable as we were taught, because faith is relational. Jesus uses the smallest measure of faith, a mustard seed, to indicate this is all we need to be in relationship with God. So, the point is not about how much faith we have, but that we have faith. If we do, then we are in relationship with God, and if don’t, then we don’t know God yet. Belief can come and go, but faith keeps us tethered to God. We are quick to make our salvation plans and cruise to the end. But Salvation is not like making an airlines reservation for a future trip. Salvation means being engaged in relationship with God, the source of life, and engaged in this world with Jesus now and forever. Our flight reservations might be for the future, but we live today as if we have already reached our destination. APPLICATION The world’s aspirations are for wealth, fame, and power. Christ enables us to shift our aspirations towards a new hope, with humanity, community, and right relationships. Where do we see the resurrected Jesus in the land of the living? The world started out being segregated in so many ways. It seems that we are moving towards being less segregated, realizing that we don’t need approval from the myths of a dominant culture. The largest race in the United States today, is mixed. And yet we behave as if the dominant culture is white, males and over 50. Numerically they don’t have a controlling vote, but these few, are good at control, wielding power, fear, and manipulation, to keep the populace off balance. And if they can keep us divided, they benefit from our slavery to them. People of faith push against this kind of racism, segregation, injustice, and liberal rights for some at the detriments of others. In the wake of the shooting at Covenant School in Nashville, 3 elected statesmen joined a protest to voice the heart of their constituents for Gun control, but were threatened with removal by political fascism. Through this we watched faithful people, exhibit the resurrected Christ in the way they handled themselves, suffered persecution and now find themselves in a position to bring about change. The powers that be, thought they could silence their voices, so they would not have to deal with the issue of Gun violence but the truth of Tennessee General Assembly’s actions revealed the reality of who they are and Tennessee 3 were reinstated. The republican lead Tennessee General Assembly, thought getting rid of democratic representation would actually stop the need for gun control. Representative Justin Pearson preached an Easter sermon at a joint worship service of his dad’s Pentecostal church and the Unitarian church in Memphis. From his sermon, it sounds like the Tennessee General Assembly will also be having conversations of the abuse of power by a state Government, injustices towards the poor, the freedom of Speech, Health care for transgender youth, to end lynching as capital punishment, expanding access to abortion and contraceptives, And work on the environment for clean air, clean water, and clean soil. The resurrected Christ in the land of the living is inside of us. I know people who live like this. I know people in our church who are kind generous, giving, self-sacrificing, helpful and gracious. Their lives have been touched by the resurrected Jesus and they are signs that Jesus has risen from the dead. They probably don’t think of themselves as such, or that what they do as being exceptional, but they are, their faith is a sign, amongst us, that Christ is risen from the dead. CONCLUSION The signs of the resurrected Jesus are not found in the empty tomb, but in the lives of those who believe, and live their faith, amongst us, in relationship with God every day. They are not perfect people by any means, but humble, wanting always to do better. They are quiet when they triumph, admit when the make mistakes, apologetic when they have caused harm, ask for forgiveness and work towards forgiving those who have hurt them. They are more concern about humanity, justice, other people’s lives than material gain, money, or fame. From what I can tell, Justin Pearson could have become a preacher, but decided to take his faith and live it in a political setting instead of the church. The resurrected Christ is seen amongst the lives of those of faith and not in the land of the dead.
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