Grave Robbing

The heart of the Christian story is the story of a grave robbing. We human beings are a funny lot. We do so many things that defy a logical explanation. We live in a death denying culture, a society that acts like death only comes when something goes horribly wrong. Yet our society kills thousands every year through our lack of access to healthcare; our instant access to guns; our greed which fuels our addictions to opioids, our insatiable appetite for sugar, salt & fat which has most of us classified as obese, or worse, making us more vulnerable to heart attacks, strokes and cancer and lest I forget the greed which poisons our environment which also increases cancer rates in our country. Add to this mixture a pandemic which too many deny and far too many refuse to take the cure. Yes, we are good at digging graves in spite of our denials.

And yet, in the end death does come to us all. It is the most equitable of the events in life, because we all will come to an end.

The good news of Christianity is that our God reaches down into the graves that we have made for ourselves and says "No!" No matter what dirty, filthy mess of a grave we have made: addiction, obsession, narcissism, greed, or anything else - our God stands ready to dig us out of the pit and breathe new life into us and declare that death does not have the final say.

Even when death shrouds us in grief, when in the changes and chances of this life death comes too soon, when those who seek power or to maintain through violence and oppression, our God says they will not have the final say, "I will!" says our God. "I will and my word is LIFE!"

And to show this to us, God gave a piece of himself to us, his Son, so that we might not only have life but have it in all its human glory. Jesus victory over Death and the grave is our victory, our opportunity to join with God and put aside our death denying, death dealing ways and put our hand in the hand of our Savior who bids us come out of our dark graves and into the warm light and joy of life.

When we say, "Alleluia! Christ is risen" we put our hand, our faith, our trust in resurrection. And as we step out of our graves, let us extend our hands and help others also step out of theirs!

The Lord is Risen indeed!

+Jeff