Fr.
Tony’s Midweek Message
April
3, 2012
Frederick
Buechner on the Resurrection (from The Alphabet of Grace):
“We
can say that the story of the Resurrection means simply that the teachings
of Jesus are immortal like the plays of Shakespeare or the music of
Beethoven and that their wisdom and truth will live on forever. Or we can
say that the Resurrection means that the spirit of Jesus is undying, that
he himself lives on among us, the way that Socrates does, for instance, in
the good that he left behind him, in the lives of all who follow his great
example. Or we can say that the language in which the Gospels describe the
Resurrection of Jesus is the language of poetry and that, as such, it is
not to be taken literally but as pointing to a truth more profound than
the literal. Very often, I think, this is the way that the Bible is
written, and I would point to some of the stories about the birth of
Jesus, for instance, as examples; but in the case of the Resurrection,
this simply does not apply because there really is no story about the
Resurrection in the New Testament. Except in the most fragmentary way, it
is not described at all. There is no poetry about it. Instead, it is
simply proclaimed as a fact. Christ is risen! In fact, the very
existence of the New Testament itself proclaims it. Unless something very
real indeed took place on that strange, confused morning, there would be
no New Testament, no Church, no Christianity.
“Yet we try to reduce it to poetry anyway: the coming of spring with the return of life to the dead earth, the rebirth of hope in the despairing soul. We try to suggest that these are the miracles that the Resurrection is all about, but they are not. In their way they are all miracles, but they are not this miracle, this central one to which the whole Christian faith points.
“Unlike the chief priests and the Pharisees, who tried with soldiers and a great stone to make themselves as secure as they could against the terrible possibility of Christ's really rising again from the dead, we are considerably more subtle. We tend in our age to say, "Of course, it was bound to happen. Nothing could stop it." But when we are pressed to say what it was that actually did happen, what we are apt to come out with is something pretty meager: this "miracle" of truth that never dies, the "miracle" of a life so beautiful that two thousand years have left the memory of it undimmed, the "miracle" of doubt turning into faith, fear into hope. If I believed that this or something like this was all that the Resurrection meant, then I would turn in my certificate of ordination and take up some other profession. Or at least I hope that I would have the courage to.”
“Yet we try to reduce it to poetry anyway: the coming of spring with the return of life to the dead earth, the rebirth of hope in the despairing soul. We try to suggest that these are the miracles that the Resurrection is all about, but they are not. In their way they are all miracles, but they are not this miracle, this central one to which the whole Christian faith points.
“Unlike the chief priests and the Pharisees, who tried with soldiers and a great stone to make themselves as secure as they could against the terrible possibility of Christ's really rising again from the dead, we are considerably more subtle. We tend in our age to say, "Of course, it was bound to happen. Nothing could stop it." But when we are pressed to say what it was that actually did happen, what we are apt to come out with is something pretty meager: this "miracle" of truth that never dies, the "miracle" of a life so beautiful that two thousand years have left the memory of it undimmed, the "miracle" of doubt turning into faith, fear into hope. If I believed that this or something like this was all that the Resurrection meant, then I would turn in my certificate of ordination and take up some other profession. Or at least I hope that I would have the courage to.”
Grace and Peace,
Fr. Tony+
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