Wednesday, April 20, 2011

HE IS RISEN!!!

They sat frozen in fear, wondering if they were next. They looked at each other and saw the tears and felt the abandonment and wondered what it all had meant. There were no profiles in courage among the occupants of that upper room. They had run and hid while their friend and teacher had been taken away and executed. What was it He said? What do they do now? No one wanted to venture outside. All expected to be arrested. Worst of all, all of them were haunted by doubts about Him and His message and what would happen to their lives.

Sometime after that "good" Friday, these same friends, once scared of the sound of their own voices, went out to the people in Jerusalem and proclaimed they had some Good News. Their friend wasn't dead. He wasn't gone. He is alive and death has been conquered. They began repeating His message. They were full of such joy. The fear, which had paralyzed them, was gone. He had promised He wouldn't leave them. He guaranteed if they followed His lead, they too wouldn't have to fear dying and would have abundant lives. You couldn't shut them up. They spread out all over the region and beyond. They continuously proclaimed the life, death and resurrection of their friend Jesus and they said His message, His closeness to God, His love and forgiveness were available to anyone...to us today.

The apostles and disciples weren't just convinced Jesus' memory and message would go on. They were transformed; they were transfigured, by the experience of the risen Jesus. He was dead, but now He is alive. He wasn't a ghost either. They tell stories about him eating and drinking. This wasn't an apparition. It was Jesus. The experience of encountering Jesus caused them to tell anyone they met what had happened. Can you imagine?

There are not a lot of post-resurrection stories in scripture. What there are have one thing in common. Those who encounter the risen Jesus don’t recognize Him. Whatever resurrection is, it is not cosmic mouth to mouth returning you just as you were before. Whatever "it" is, we are different. The essence of who we are, our soul some would say, goes on. Eventually, the apostles in the upper room, the women at the tomb and the disciples on the road to Emmaus recognize Jesus and their joy is impossible to conceal. They weren't guessing. They weren't repeating hearsay. They weren't claiming to have been visited by a spirit. The experience and contact with the risen Jesus ended their fear, tears, anxiety and doubts. The question on this Easter is whether we will open ourselves to the same contact with the same result?

One of the best homilies I have heard on Easter was based on one sentence. "He is risen." "He"...is Jesus of Nazareth. Born to Joseph and Mary. A carpenter's son. He had traveled though Judea proclaiming the message of God and living such a radically loving and caring life, He became as close to God as a son to His Mother. This human opened up a new relationship with God. The distance between God and us had been eliminated. "He" was human, and now all of us could get as close to God as He was. We could lead an abundant life. "He is"...Those scared and cowering friends living in the upper room changed when they re-connected to Jesus. Their message is He is risen. It isn't an event in the past. It isn't something to wait for in the future. This Jesus is with us now and 2000 years later he still is. On Easter, we don't celebrate an event, which happened 2000 years ago. Jesus is as present and relevant and available now as he was on Easter morning. Those of us, who claim to be Christian, aren't reminiscing about some event in the past like the 4th of July or the birth of a friend or loved one. The same Jesus, who so energized and transfigured this ragtag group, is as real today, alive today, available today, and inspirational today, as He was in the upper room. "He is risen"...they were convinced He was alive. The same Jesus who they saw laid in the tomb, behind the stone, is the same Jesus who they encountered and reveled in His presence. He definitely was dead. They were devastated. He isn't dead anymore. This wasn't speculation. He had promised and He kept His word.

We are Easter people. Without Easter there is no Christianity. Christmas is the birth of another Jewish boy without Easter. Without Easter, there is no Good News...no gospel. Death no longer defines human existence. How many of you, like me, think about death and can't get beyond its finality? How many of us have lost someone we love and miss so much there is a hole in our hearts? How many of us, aware of our own mortality, struggle to put off the inevitable any way we can? The message of Easter is one of great joy. Death is not the final answer. We go "on...." We can touch the same grace which energized Jesus. We can be as close to God as Mother to son or daughter. We can have an abundance in life, which does not end. That is the good news...that is why we celebrate...that is the message of Easter...we can all participate. In the end, it doesn't matter what you call yourself...Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist or atheist...what matters is how you live your life. If you can love your enemies, turn the other cheek, forgive an infinite number of times, treat the least of your brothers and sisters with love and dignity, the grace and promise of Easter is yours.

HAPPY EASTER. HE IS RISEN. ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA!!!

4 comments:

  1. He is risen, indeed! Happy Easter, Bernie.

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  2. Thank you for posting "He is Risen", Bernie. I am going to send a copy of it to my son who has been in prison for a month now. He knows who you are because I would always listen to you on the radio. I was just telling my husband the other day that Easter mornings haven't been the same without you. You always said that Easter was what "it" was all about. God bless you, Bernie. My family and I hope you are doing well. Love---The Kennedys

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  3. thanks Bernie, I could just hear your voice on a sunday morning as I read this. you are a good man

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  4. HE IS RISEN INDEED
    ... another New Beginning for us Scissors.
    [Didn't you say "Pray for us Scissors" when you were a kid too?]

    Yes, sometimes I tune into KGO (when it is time to give Green 960 a break) and listen to God Talk, and it is all so academic.
    Bernie, Friends, is there ever a time when a Catholic priest or bishop OR ANY OTHER CLERGY PERSON will stand up and tell his flock:
    THE EMPEROR IS NAKED.
    HE LIES.
    THERE IS NO WAR ON TERROR,
    ONLY A WELL CALCULATED PROGRAM
    TO MAKE THE RICH RICHER
    AND THE POOR ARE UNDESERVING ANYWAY,
    or something to that effect.

    Look, everyone, here are some bits and pieces between me and other chess players at the Open Discussion group on chess.com -- from the forum 'Crimes Against Humanity' which I started on February 22nd of this year:
    __________________________________
    Ask about joining me in celebrating July 4th as Interdependence Day ... for people of all nations.
    Can you estimate the number of tons of carbon and toxic pollutants we Americans explode Every Year into our atmosphere during our traditional celebrations?
    It is all to keep up the mind-control, that Americans are committed to being the best in the world - at waging and winning wars.

    It is time for us to let the rest of humanity know that there are Americans who are committed to INTER-DEPENDENCE, not to the well marketed creation of one 'enemy' after another to dehumanize and control, and when they resist and SURGE BACK at the foreigners who have taken over their country, they do the same thing You and I would do ... they INSURGE against us.
    Then they are branded: INSURGENTS.
    Then we kill as many as we can and get ready for the next retaliation of their family members. THEN WE THINK IT IS BECAUSE THEY ARE MUSLIMS AND IT IS SOMEHOW IN THEIR RELIGION.

    If the support of Americans for our Ruling Class doesn't come soon enough, then we get together the CIA and the Mossad and black ops from GB (I forget their initials) and stage another False-Flag Event, as some people did on 2001 09 11.
    THEN we proclaim that we are bringing freedom and democracy to these 'liberated' people whom we saved from [Name of Enemy du Jour].
    Write back or phone me...
    chessteacher@yahoo.com
    707 921 8423

    Let's make this a 4th of July to remember.
    Absorb all you can from this website and go as your heart leads you: http://www.wanttoknow.info/

    See how the attitudes and abilities of your mind can be applied in dealing with the considerable problems facing humanity today…
    .................
    So, Bernie and friends, would it be OK to use this blog as a place to exchange facts and evidence (not beliefs and assumptions) during the weekend of July 1st through 4th?
    May I ask everyone in the world to come here to read our comments and to inform us of theirs?
    Bernie, are you willing to be the Sponsor of this event?
    No, that would be excellent, but we are not going to request of you anything that could possibly delay your parole date.
    Does anyone reading this have a better online location we can use as a location for this Alternative 4th ..
    "What if they had a Fireworks Show and nobody came?"

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