Surprised by Hope: C14

But with the resurrection there is a new way of telling the entire story. The resurrection isn't just a surprise happy ending for one person, but is the turning-point for everything else.

If Jesus had not been raised, Luke is saying, all you have is hopes raised once more and dashed once more.

If the messenger bringing vital news falls into the river and is then rescued, he isn't rescued for himself alone, but for the sake of those who are waiting in desperate hope for his life-giving message.

...the worldwide mission in which the nations are summoned to turn from their idolatry and find forgiveness of sins. And they are to do this, Luke implies, because in Jesus we see the true God in human form, the reality of which all idols are parodies, and the true forgiveness of sins through his cross, the reality before which all sacrifices are types and shadows.

The word through whom all things were made is now the Word through whom all things are remade.

Easter and Pentecost belong together. East commissions Jesus' follower for a task; Pentecost gives them the necessary equipment to accomplish it.

Jesus' resurrection summons us to difficult and dangerous missions on Earth.

Those who find the risen Jesus going to the roots of their rebellion, denial and sin, and offering them love and forgiveness, may well also find themselves sent off to be shepherds instead. Let those with ears listen.

There could not be a much clearer statement of intent; the kingdoms of the world are now claimed as the kingdom of Israel's God, and of his Messiah.

East was the beginning of God's new world, the long awaited new age, the resurrection of the dead.

Paul declares that the speculations and puzzles of pagan theology and philosophy could now all be put on a different footing, because the one true God had unvelied himself and his plan for the whole world by appointing a man to be judge of the whole world, and had certified this by raising him from the dead.

The difference between the kingdoms of the world and the kingdom of God lies exactly in this, that the kingdom of God comes through the death and resurrection of his son, not through naked displays of brute force or wealth.

And if we ask what on earth can possibly justify such an outrageous statement - that Jesus is already king of the world, even though Caesar seems to be, and death itself is still rampant - there can be only one answer: the resurrection.

We can, if we choose, screen out the heavenly dimension and live as flatlanders, materialists. If we do that we will be buying in to a system that will go bad, and will wither and die, because earth gets its vital life from heaven.

The Spirit, the sacraments and the scriptures are given so that the double life of Jesus, both heavenly and earthly, can become ours as well, already in the present.

Christian holiness consists not of trying has hard as we can to be good, but of learning to live in the new world created by Easter, the new world which we publicly entered in our baptism.