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Seeking Resurrection!
Why do you seek the living among the dead?
That's what the angels asked Mary on that first day. I imagine she stood there, spices in hand, confused and dismayed. Certainly she had not come seeking the living, but the dead. She was doing the thing she knew how to do--the thing that helped her enact her grief in an age-old, comforting way. She was there to perform ritual, to weep, for the love of their beloved rabonni. Why do you seek the living among the dead? That is the question the angel asked Mary; it is the question we all must ask ourselves.
Why are we here? Why do we call ourselves disciples of Jesus? Whom do we (really) follow? Are we prepared to be seek resurrection? I suspect that we are more like the women at the tomb than we like to admit. There is a lot of other stuff that each of us carry that isn't visible to the eye. Every single one of us comes with secret fears and sorrows. Every single one of us has something that gnaws at us, that wakes us up in the wee hours of the morning with anxious thoughts. Most of us have had experiences that have scraped the varnish off our souls leaving tender places that never seem to quite heal. We need to have our hope rekindled in a time that feels beset with huge problems that seem to be spiraling out of control .
Here is the real rub: Death precedes resurrection. We have to die to live resurrection. And (perhaps even more challenging) are we ready for the transformation born of resurrection? It behooves us to remember that Christ was so transformed even his closest disciples did not recognize him. To seek resurrection is not for the faint of heart. It involves pain and loss. It is death, and then life. It threatens our existence with a new way of living and being in the world.
How might we live as a church if we knew the point was not to survive, but to thrive in the Spirit of the living and resurrecting God? What might we risk, who might we serve, how far would we go if we knew that at the end of it all we would be consumed in the love of Christ? Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!
Resurrection blessings, 
Debbie Rundlett
General Presbyter
Holy Habit: Seeking Resurrection Resurrection puts us to the test. It tests our willingness to move into new territory, to live a larger life than the one we are so familiar with. Death and defeat are no fun, of course, but at least they're understandable. We know what to expect. Resurrection forces us out of our comfort zone, into a whole new lay of the land. The word of challenge and invitation of this season of Eastertide is to be like Mary. To linger, to stay, to encounter life in the garden. When we are confronted with signs of resurrection, even when they frighten and confuse us... Stay. Linger at the empty tomb, and look in. Even when there is an unseen world out there, that feels unsettling, but promises new life, stay. Wait for the encounter with the risen Christ. Wait until Jesus calls you by name. To stay at the empty tomb, is to dare to ask ourselves some challenging questions: - If I lived as if resurrection were real, and allowed myself to die for the sake of new life, what might I be called upon to do? - What strange and difficult tasks might be laid upon me? - What comforts taken away? - How might my life be changed? May God give us courage, may God give us grace, to live as resurrection people!
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