Transformation

There is a method in theological study called the via negativa. The negative way. It is not as grim as it sounds. The via negativa doesn’t have anything to do with people who are eternal skeptics or naysayers. Nor is it necessarily the perspective of those dour people for whom the glass is always 90% empty no matter what wonders God is working in their lives. The via negativa is a way of describing God that acknowledges that God is so awesome beyond our limited comprehension or description, that all we can do is to say what God is not. We do not have the human words or capabilities to describe God, but using the via negative we can learn something by beating around the burning bush. In saying what God is not we at least get a glimpse of what God may be… along with the ongoing reminder to maintain appropriate humility before the wonder of God.

All this is by way of explaining why I am going to begin by talking about what Easter is not. The reality of Easter is beyond human description. It is helpful to remember that all of our human attempts at description are presumptuous and shortsighted and incomplete, and sometimes totally misguided.

First. Easter is not God’s cosmic do-over. It’s not a redo. It’s easy to use "re-" words when describing Easter… re-newal, re-storation, re-viving. These are all about repairing something broken, restoring something to its former state, refurbishing something that has tarnished over time. These are wonderful things… renewal, revival… and God desires and acts for renewed health and revived hope in our lives all the time, not just today. During Jesus’ life, long before he was raised up from death, Jesus healed and fed and restored broken bodies and souls. But Easter is about much more than getting back something we had before. It is somehow about being given something new beyond even the glimmers of our imagining.

I’m mindful that a word we use a lot at Easter—resurrection—is is a re- word. Interestingly, it’s a not a word the Gospel writers use about Jesus. The Gospel writers speak of Jesus being raised, raised from the dead. And it seems to me that even when we in the church speak of Jesus’ resurrection, we do not mean that he resumed his former life on earth. As the saying goes, he was not resuscitated. What Jesus became when he was raised from the dead was not like anything that had ever been before… beyond description, beyond space and time.

Another thing Easter is not… Easter is not Spring. Spring is not Easter. I’ve preached that sermon before… I will be among the first to rejoice when spring comes this year, but spring is predictable, cyclical. Easter is not. Our celebration of Easter within the church calendar comes around every spring. In fact the date on which we celebrate Easter is tied to the spring equinox. But the real Easter was anything but predictable. And it was a one-time event. Spring is to Easter as some massively produced paint-by-numbers piece is to a painting by Chagall. Do you know Chagall? Explosive joy and color and creativity.

Another thing that Easter is not… and this one may surprise you… Easter is not a procedure by which God granted us the ability to opt into eternal life. Bishop N. T. Wright is a pretty traditional New Testament scholar. In a debate with the not-so-traditional scholar John Dominic Crossan, Wright said: "Those of you who are going to preach on Easter Sunday, please note that the resurrection stories in the Gospels do not say Jesus is raised… therefore we’re going to heaven or therefore we’re going to be raised. They say Jesus is raised, therefore God’s new creation has begun and we’ve got a job to do."

Jesus is raised. Therefore God’s new creation has begun. Jesus’ resurrection is about God’s new creation, God’s creative transformation of this world. Crossan agrees, and Wright and Crossan don’t agree about much. Crossan says: "The end of the world [or the end of our life] is not what we are talking about. We’re talking about cosmic transformation of this world." Easter is about transformation, transformation of this world in this life.

The via negativa helps me realize how little we expect from God, even on this Easter day. In a pale effort to hint at what Easter truly is: Remember that on that first Easter morning crucifixion was transformed to holiness. Crucifixion was not erased or repaired or repressed; it was transformed. All the world, all the lives, that had participated in that crucifixion became radiant with God’s glory. This is transformation, change, new creation beyond anything anyone could ever anticipate, imagine or even hope for. It is so much more than restoration. It is a whole new sort of new. Easter is about even more than the fulfillment of our hopes; it is about God birthing hope in unimaginable places. Easter is about flowers that bloom, not in spring, but in the dessert. About joy that has the power to conquer despair. New life after death is just a part of it. It is a part, but just a part! It’s beyond imagination. For any scientists among you, Easter is about a world where an invitation to salvation displaces the inevitability of entropy. In an Easter world conversion is real. True, deep conversion. God transforming the darkest, hardest places in a human heart. Conversion. In our lives now. In this world in which we live.

The author of the letter to the Ephesians writes: "Glory to God whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever" (Ephesians 3:20, 21). That is an Easter affirmation. God’s power. Doing infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Infinitely more than we can even imagine. God’s power in us. Transforming us right now, in this world today. We are Easter.