Resurrection Hope

May 20, 2019

Day to day we might not think much about it, but sooner or later the day comes when we cannot escape it—Death visits us all. Today I had the sad honor of officiating the funeral of my good friend Willie. As I mentioned yesterday, I last saw him as we left breakfast at a diner in town where we have been meeting almost every Tuesday morning for nearly ten years, fully expecting that we would see each other in a couple weeks. 

While I was gone, death came knocking, which is why I am so thankful tonight for the promise and hope of the resurrection. Some would say it’s all just wishful thinking, religious delusion, and there’s really no way to prove otherwise, but we aren’t hoping in some vague immortality of the soul, some shadowy existence in the spirit world. The Christian doctrine of resurrection is rooted in the Biblical doctrine of Creation which values this bodily, physical life. We are seeing in our society today the result of fuzzy philosophical and theological thinking, not to mention biological. Our bodies were given us by God, and are a vital part of our identity. Jesus’ resurrection is confirmation of this doctrine, and is the basis of our hope. 

I am sad tonight that tomorrow I’ll go to the diner and eat alone. I am comforted in the knowledge that death does not have the final word; Jesus Christ, our risen and reigning Lord has that word. So I lay my head down in sorrow, but also in peace and gratitude. Peace, knowing Christ and knowing Willie did, too. Gratitude for the nearly twenty years I have known him, and the nearly ten years we shared breakfast together.