It's not quite Easter. We must still share in the supper of the Lord and brace ourselves for the cross. Still, these events as important as they are, stand in the shadow of Easter's grandeur. But for many moderns Easter is more a problem than a joyous event. Whether defined as a silly superstition, a metaphor or historical fact, it's problematic to the modern mind.
I appreciated reading this morning
Diana Butler Bass's reflections on the resurrection -- on that goes beyond this debate about metaphor and science. She points out that progressives often stumble on the resurrection. I've confessed here that I'm still stuck in a physical resurrection of some sort. Something more happened, in my mind, then a spiritual experience. But as of yet, I've not found the words to truly describe what I feel and believe in a logical manner. So I must act in faith.
Diana talks about a conversation between a retired Episcopal bishop, Daniel Corrigan and a parishioner at Santa Barbara's Trinity Episcopal Church, concerning the resurrection. From the bishop's response, Diana got a sense of the meaning of the resurrection.
Bishop Corrigan's comment – a comment upon which I have mediated for some dozen years – points to a different way of embracing, of believing, the resurrection. His answer both defies the conventional approach to the resurrection (as a scientifically verifiable event), and maintains the truthfulness (the credibility) of the resurrection as historically viable and real. The resurrection is not an intellectual puzzle. Rather, it is a living theological reality, a distant event with continuing spiritual, human, and social consequences. The evidence for the resurrection is all around us. Not in some ancient text, Jesus bones, or a DNA sample. Rather, the historical evidence for the resurrection is Jesus living in us; it is the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, bringing back to life that which was dead. We are the
evidence.
Ah, whatever the issues of this debate, ultimately it is our lives that provide evidence of the reality of the resurrection. Something to consider as we approach our Maundy Thursday observance.
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