Readings: Isaiah 65:17-25; Mark 16:1-8
Where does one start and finish on Easter Day? I do not know. I could stand here for a couple of hours and simply scratch the surface. As Marcus Borg says, `This is far more than a ghost story.` (1)

Firstly, let me clear the decks and say from the outset that I do not see the resurrection as the physical resuscitation of a corpse. There will be some here this morning who do see it in this way and that’s OK. The thing that unites us on Easter day is the hope that stirs in our hearts – the hope of new life in the presence of death. The resurrection is about new life – that’s the meaning of the word resurrection in the New Testament, about dying to an old way of life and being reborn into a new way of being – and it is about this new life that we are concerned this Easter morning. We are here because of our hope and our belief that although violence and death may be the realities of life, they are not the defining characteristics of life. Resurrection is one of the most striking metaphors in the New Testament. Without the story of the resurrection, Jesus becomes another Jew crucified by the Romans. The resurrection affirms that there is an eternal significance to Jesus of Nazareth. Resurrection points to a force at loose in the universe bringing life out of death. The present power systems are not of God and that they do not have the final word. The resurrection is about personal and social transformation today. As Ched Myers says: `There is only one genuine witness to the resurrection – the one who follows Jesus.` (2) The importance of the resurrection lies in its meaning.

Secondly, for many Christians, and for many non Christians, Easter is about Jesus as a sacrifice for sin. The idea is that God provided Jesus as a substitute who paid the price of punishment on our behalf. There are millions of Christians who believe that this is the central meaning of the Christian faith. There are others who are uncomfortable with it. I am one of those and I have no time for the idea of a vindictive God who demands the sacrifice of his son for the sins of the world. Easter for me is not about what is called substitutionary atonement. This is a view that was developed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Anselm, who lived in the eleventh century. Anselm saw Jesus’ death in terms of God demanding the sacrificial death of his Son as punishment for the sins of the world.

I don’t know whether you saw a recent Q and A (3) where Richard Dawkins outlined the substitutionary theory of atonement as indicative of the Christian Faith and sat there with a smirk on his face. The rest of the panel sat there like stunned mullets while I fumed and my blood pressure rose to dangerous levels. Had I been there I would have pointed out that the theory was pre-Copernican in time, it is one of half a dozen theories of the atonement, and how dare he attribute it to me and my friends. When I see Dawkins on such things as Q and A, I am reminded of my friend Bruce who speaks of the current batch of atheists as `playing in their theological kindergarten constructing caricatures with their grotesque home made blocks and then smashing them down with childish cries of `Look at me! Look at me!``

And thirdly, having said that I do not believe in a physical resurrection, nor in substitutionary atonement, let me immediately go on to say that the resurrection so called is central to my understanding of life – not life after death but life here and now. It is so important to recognise that Jesus did not die a natural death. We are not at Easter talking about death at the end of 70 or so years. Jesus` death occurred in the prime of life. He was killed because he confronted the traditional way of life. He was a threat to the social, political and religious reality. He was crucified because he was a threat to the system. There is no question about this. Caiaphas, the High Priest of the traditional way of life summed it up, `It is expedient that one man should die rather than our whole way of life perish.` (4) If you want a text for today let these words be burned into your mind. `It is expedient that one man should die rather than our whole way of life perish` – and, by crucifying him, they thought they had got rid of him. How wrong can you be! They tried to stop the music and in but within a few days the melody was heard again. That is what Easter is about. It is not about death and resurrection at the end of life. It is about new life in the presence of death here and now. It is about the transformation of life here and now. It is about the Way of the Cross vis a vis the Way of the Sword. It is about the Way of Love vis a vis the Way of Fear and so on, and so on.

The `dopey disciples` of course didn’t get it. They were thinking about their seating in the life to come. And how agonising this must have been for Jesus. Three years he had been with them and they still hadn’t got it – they were still concerned about their personal participation in the life to come. No wonder that when push came to shove they avoided the violence. They went to see Avatar at the movies and didn’t even see the violence, didn’t see that violence is dysfunctional as a political and social instrument. Few saw it then and few see it now. Providing the violence of life doesn’t touch them, most people don’t give a damn, and in so doing they deny the Lord of Life just as effectively as Peter did. Jesus didn’t walk away from violence. He walked towards it! When the sun went down on the Friday the authorities, the dominant system, thought they had won the drama of life and death. When the sun rose a few days later, the world had changed forever. The disciples eventually got the message, they became an Easter people, they saw that in Jesus of Nazareth new life, new insight, and new hope dawned upon the world.

I am reminded of something I read the other day about climate change. The position here has changed markedly in recent times. Recent polling has shown that those who believe climate change is a hoax has doubled since 2008. In the UK those who think global warming is real has dropped 13% in the last 12 months. Mix this with pre-election politics, and the reluctance of people to change, one might even say the sacrifice required, mix all this together and you have a lethal inertia. I am willing to bet that in coming elections we will hear very little of climate change. As Peter Preston put it in the Guardian Weekly (12/3/10) In one sense the heat may be rising; in another, the heat is off. But he said much more which I found fascinating. Those of us who are convinced, who believe in the necessity of action, haven’t changed our minds. But we’re not the point. The audience that matters is out there, sleeping or drifting. And rousing it will require something different, not more of the same . . . not more United Nations panels flying hither and yon . . . not more declarations by hundreds of scientists. The plain fact is that we surely need a prophet. We need one passionate, persuasive, prophet – one who can connect and convince. And here is the punch line We need to be taught to believe by a true believer in a world where belief is the fatal missing ingredient.

In a few days` time some of us here are going to a conference in Melbourne where the principal speaker is a Gretta Vosper. Her book is entitled With or Without God. Why the way we live is more important than what we believe. I think that is a very simplistic approach – to set in opposition belief and the way we live. What we believe is integrally linked to how we live and vice versa. Climate change is an example of this. In fact if I were to be asked what I think is most important missing dimension in today’s world I would probably say `belief and the lack thereof` – and I am not necessarily talking about religious belief but about belief in general. Life for the majority of people today is but one damned thing after another – centred around work, family, security and having a good time – the definition of which increasingly seems to be associated with violence and alcohol. Now, if this is all you want from life – fair enough. You’re welcome to it! What the Christian Faith is about is `life in all its fullness` – a new quality of life. And I would submit that belief is indeed what Peter Preston describes as `the fatal missing ingredient`. We don’t need more of what we have now. What we need, he says, is `a prophet, a passionate persuasive prophet who can connect and convince`.

The world had such a prophet, and they crucified him. But that was not the end of the matter. As Dorothy Sayers has the Centurion say to the person enquiring where Jesus is, `He roams the world where neither Jew nor Roman can touch him.` It is to this we bear witness today, not a resurrected corpse but a new world and a new people, life in all its fullness. Good Friday is the hour and the power of death. Easter Sunday is the dawning and spawning of new life. Easter Sunday is the climax and culmination of what we know as `Holy Week` – indeed Easter Sunday is the climax and culmination of the life of Jesus.

The week began with two processions. Through the west gate came Pontius Pilate with his Roman soldiers – the symbol of secular power that defined the political, social and military reality. Through the eastern gate came Jesus surrounded by peasants. It was what we would call today a `demonstration` – Jesus riding a donkey with the crowd in front shouting out `Blessings on the King who comes in the name of God` and those at the back responding with Hosannahs and Hallelujahs. The scene was set. Caesar of Caesarea Maritima or Jesus of Nazareth – the choice is yours. The confrontation works its way through the week. The overturning of the tables at the Temple – the equivalent of the Stock Exchange of our day. The Temple was far more than a place of worship. It was the financial hub of the district with all the mortgages held within it. The perverted kiss of Judas as he hands over Jesus to the authorities. The disciples who want to use the weapons of Caesar to protect Jesus and Jesus’ refusal to deviate from the path of non violence. The trials of Jesus before Herod and Pilate making it clear that the time has passed for words and rational discussion. The attempted compromise of Pilate and its rejection by the crowd. The ironic choice between the terrorist Barabbas and the transforming love of Jesus, both of them seeking social and political change – one by the wielding of the sword, the other by the law of love. And in all of this, Peter and the disciples, scared even to identify themselves with the one whom they purport to follow. Jesus is crucified and they are nowhere to be seen. And yet in a few days they are in the market place saying Jesus is Lord and Caesar isn’t. It’s all there! This is the week that was! Welcome to contemporary Christianity! Jesus crucified again and again and again! And Jesus rising again and again and again.

The Christian faith, the resurrection, is about Christ being alive in you and me. It is as simple and as profound as that. That is our faith, that is our belief and it is that which determines, or should determine how we live. That is why we started and we finish with the words `Jesus is alive.` `He is alive indeed.` That is why this day is the most important in the Christian Calendar.

(1) p 207 The Last Week, Marcu J Borg & John Dominic Crossan
(2) p 401 Binding the Strong Man` Ched Meyers
(3) 8 March 2010
(4) John 10:50