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The Rev. Christopher Brdlik
April 8, 2007 - Easter Day

Happy Easter everyone! 

Christ is risen indeed, and we are glad indeed to gather and to celebrate the power of Resurrection on this Easter morning. It’s unusually cool for Easter, perhaps even colder than Christmas. Yet we hope, through our prayers and music this morning, to create in our celebration the warmth we associate with the new birth of spring. 

I have learned of the death earlier this week of my New Testament professor from seminary, Dr. Reginald Fuller, just a day after his 92^nd birthday. He has been retired from the faculty for some time, but remained active as lecturer, teacher, writer, and scholar right up to the end. Dr. Fuller brought to the study of Scripture skills in language and history. And it was entirely appropriate that he should die during Holy Week. For he, among New Testament scholars, was the recognized expert in the formation of the Resurrection narratives. Using his gifts as a literary critic, he probed and peeled away the layers of writing and redaction in the four Gospel accounts of the first Easter so that what became clear was the actual historical experience of the Resurrection as lived by the first Christians. Like a scientist he revealed Easter not so much as a story of metaphor and mystery, but as a record of actual human history, the story of the lived experience of the presence of the Risen Lord by his followers. 

But of course I valued Dr. Fuller particularly for his personal side. He was English; his wife, Ilsa, was German. They entertained in their home on the seminary campus visitors from around the world. Every evening they’d walk around the campus with the Fullers’ peppery little terrier, Philo — interesting people, annoying dog. Dr. Fuller had spent many years as a parish priest before serving on a faculty. What he taught me was how the study of scripture informs the spiritual life of parish clergy. He spiced his lectures with practical, wise insight into the day-to-day ministry of life in the parish. Now when it comes to theology, I can think of no other discipline, except maybe for medicine, where theory and practice are the better for being integrated. Academic scholars in theology are better if they started as practitioners of the art. They are dedicated, they are devoted, to sharing their wisdom as effective mentors to those who follow them. 

And that’s not just true of Christian theologians. I think it can be true of scholars of all religions. Franz Rosenzweig was a Jewish scholar, a gifted interpreter of the Talmud who lived a century ago. He suffered, however, from a degenerative disease that gradually paralyzed him. Yet he was dedicated to continuing his writing of commentaries, his work of translation, and his extensive correspondence with students and other scholars. Eventually he could neither move nor speak. He found himself confined to bed, motionless, as if life had already exited his body, though his mind was yet bright and eager to share. All he could do was move his eyes. His wife devised a way for him to communicate. She placed a set of children’s alphabet blocks at the foot of his bed. Following the movement of his eyes, she could spell out his words and sentences, then write his paragraphs. The method was exhausting for both of them. Yet it enabled Rosenzweig to continue his work, which was said still to be witty and genial. One day Sigmund Freud heard the story of Franz Rosenzweig. Freud was Jewish by background, but non-religious, maybe even anti-religious. Nevertheless he was a keen observer of human experience, and he felt some kinship with this religious scholar, some understanding of Rosenzweig’s devotion and dedication. Commented Freud matter-of-factly: “What else could he have done?” Indeed, what else could the man have done? 

It seems to me that question explains much about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What else could he have done? When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan by John he felt a keen sense of vocation, the giftedness of the Holy Spirit, the presence of God infused in his soul. He was tempted in the wilderness to give it all away for temporal gain. But he said no. What else could he have done? He spent three years teaching and preaching and healing among the cities and villages of his home province, Galilee. He achieved much fame and recognition among his own people as a rabbi of distinction. But he felt called to go to Jerusalem and challenge the authorities. And he said yes. What else could he have done? 

In Jerusalem he cleansed the Temple, taught the people, and made friends with sinners. He gathered his disciples together and celebrated the Passover meal with them. Yet he called it his “last supper.” He felt the growing pressure of the Temple Police, and the tension with the Council and government. The people wanted him to overthrow the Romans and reform the priests and scribes. He said no to the people. In the Garden of Gethsemane he said yes to God. What else could he have done? And before Pilate and Herod, who wanted to interrogate him, and the soldiers and thugs who wanted to torture him, he said nothing. He did not answer their questions or taunts, even as they threatened to crucify him. What else could he have done? What else could the man have done? 

The story of the earthly life of Jesus Christ our Lord begins in a stone cold stable and ends in a cold stone tomb. Like two brackets or bookends, the inhospitable beginning and end of his human life are described as little more than caves in the rock. Yet they are the vehicles, they are the locations, for the action of the transcendent power of God. For this is more than a human story. When the body of Jesus was laid in a tomb, people did a rush job of it. They counted on coming back later with spices and ointments to finish the burial, to finish the human story. But the body didn’t lay there. The tomb was empty. Christ was raised up. Death is not the final answer. God’s love and grace can overcome death. Resurrection means the message of Christ lives forever and so we can too. This is the promise of the story of Easter: Not just new life, but a promise of eternal life. God said yes to Jesus. What else could he have done? 

What we can do now is believe the promise, and place our faith in the power of Resurrection. Eternal life begins now. It is lived out in acceptance of being our brother’s keeper and our sister’s neighbor. We access it by trusting God to take us through all the inhospitalities of life, the unfairness of disease, the injustice of society. In the end nothing can separate us from the love God has for us, for Resurrection is more that a myth or a metaphor. Easter offers us an invitation to accept God’s power as the defining, enabling, ennobling feature of our lives.  

Let us say yes to God. What else can we do?

© copyright 2007, Christopher Brdlik

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