Easter Dawn
Chaucer wrote, "From the moment we are born, the
tap of life begins to drip and the barrel to empty." Every day brings a gift or two, but with
life as it is the ticking of the clock reminds us of a darker reality. It is a reality which Dostoevsky spoke about
with the question "Is there anything in life which the inevitability of
death does not destroy?" We live
in a world of fear, of uncertainty, of poverty. We live in a world of limits, of incompleteness, of brokenness,
of darkness. The longer we live the
more our experience of futility grows.
We lose more than we gain. Our
bodies begin to groan, just as Paul says the whole of creation groans as in
childbirth. More and more we can feel
the vanity of much of life. For we are
locked in an age where death is the main principle. Where our mortality and everything that goes with it sickness,
disease, disaster, tragedy, robs life of purpose. Where time itself is increasingly experienced more as an enemy
than a friend.
But this morning, can you hear something
cracking? Somewhere, something is
shifting. Somewhere shafts of life are
piercing our darkness. Something, somewhere
is being reversed. Clocks are running
backwards out of control. Something is
unravelling. Something is being revealed. In the night, if you were listening
carefully you may have heard the rumblings of a battle, an escape. You may have heard a howl of indignation as
death and hell itself were humiliated.
This morning things have changed. A new age has begun. It is breaking in like electricity. It is blossoming like flowers in the
desert. It is a new creation. It is a defiant laugh at the heart of the
cosmos. Someone is shouting again, It
is good! It is a marriage between
earth and heaven. Between the human and
the divine. Between dust and
glory. It is carried on the wind. It has sprung from suffering love. From love which has refused the power of
death its Dominion.
In this new age, death is no longer the principle
which governs everything. Tears are
wiped away. Bodies are healed. Senses respond to stimuli in a way we never
imagined possible. Enemies are
reconciled. Fear is banished. The rule of God has arrived. The kingdom has come. It is among us. Time is no longer the enemy because time does not limit but is
always bringing about new potential.
And life is the principle that governs everything. Life, which brings new things, new
possibilities, new experiences. It is
life that springs from the heart of God in an ever flowing stream. It is life that is found in the presence of
a love which was, and is and is to come.
If
you mourn, listen. If you suffer,
watch. If you wait for justice, take
heart. Death has lost its sting. The barrel which we thought was almost empty
has been burst open. Nothing of who we
are can ever be destroyed again. Thanks
be to God.