Perspectives - Espace spirituel anglophone - page 3

Texte en anglais pour nous auditeurs français :
Jesus Christ is risen, he is risen indeed Alleluia!

This basic acclamation of Christian faith that we do on this Easter morning is at the absolute center of what Christianity is. But what does it mean? It certainly does mean that death is not the end. But what I want to suggest ot you is that it means an awful lot more that that.

Many over the years have meet the risen Christ Jesus. Some like Mary Magdalane meet him in person, some like saint Paul meet him in a vision, many of us have meet him the eucharist in the sharing of the bread and the wine, in prayer, sometimes in strangers, some times in silence. All who have meet the risen Lord Jesus ,and have let them selves, have been changed by that encounter. Changed in many ways, not just freed from the fear of death but set deeply free, paradoxically set deeply free through being deeply bound into God.

For me I have always believed to some extent. I come from a Christian family an dI was bought up with it. Over the years rather than having one experience of the risen Lord Jesus, I feel I have had many. I have kept moving away and then being drawn back, and finding myself wanting to walk with Jesus again. This process of returning and walking again with the risen Jesus, has not, if I am honest, stoped me being afraid of death. I remain frighted of death, the occasions I have nearly died, my heart has been in my throat and I prayed like mad for some more life. What I have noticed is my relationship has changed with the risen Lord Jesus. It has changed not because Jesus has changed, but because I have. As I have fallen away and returned, I have come to realise that I am not quite who I thought I was. It is this radical refocusing of our being which is what I think the resurrection is really about.

What do I mean by that? We all have an identity, an identity which if we are honest is not entirely true. We have made a lot of it up. Made up from our own invention. Made up from habits we have picked up even if we think they are silly. Made up from taught behaviours, some of which were wise and some foolish, learnt from parents, from siblings, from friends. Made up of social pressures, the expectations of society around us, for better or for worse. All of this I have come to realise, every time I have returned to the risen Lord Jesus is an illusion. Like all illusions it has some truth in it, but it also has a lot of nonsense.

As I have come to realise this and to walk with the risen Lord, I have come to realise that he looks at me very differently. He doesn't look at me and see all of that identity. All of that which I think I am. All of that which is so scared of dying, so scared of getting things wrong, so scared of being out of control. He sees what I really am, and he sees what you really are as well. While we walk with him, with him gazing upon us we start to discover that we are something else. We are what we were really made for by God.

That is someone, a me, a you. That is kinder, braver, more honest, more passionate for justice, and most of all more full of love for all, seeking the flourishing of everything. That me, that you, is not afraid of death. Because it knows it is real, it is real because it is already with God. That is what is extraordinary about the resurrection.

That is what we are called too. We are called to become what we really are, in Gods eyes. So that through us, with Jesus walking with us, God's way of doing things in this world can start to break in, can start to happen. That changes the world around us. We are transformed, and through us the world is transformed into a place which is for the flourishing of all, friends and enemies, humans and other species. Because Jesus Christ is risen, he is risen indeed Alleluia!