Bring Everyone Along: Resurrection Stories
Lisa Allgood, Executive Presbyter
Why do you look for the living among the dead?” – Luke 24:5
At a recent Council meeting, we asked each Council member what word they wanted us to hear/apply this year as we seek, together, to do the will of the Lord on behalf of the Presbytery.
One word was “resurrection”. A great word. A big word.
Joe Boyd, in his amazing substack post, recently talked about resurrection in the traditional epic heroes story context, but it speaks also to how we are facing the changes in our own faith and in the structure of church today.
He starts by recounting the story of Nelson Mandela – how he was arrested and sentenced to life in prison by the apartheid regime in South Africa. Mandela was held in an 8×8 cement cubicle on Robbin Island, within sight of Capetown, for more than 25 years – no bed, no plumbing, a window and a bucket in the corner. I’ve been to Robbin Island – it is frankly unimaginable. Boyd says “He entered that prison as a revolutionary. He emerged as a sage.”
And, of course, we know that four years later, he was elected President of South Africa in the first multiracial democratic election the country had ever seen. Because he forgave the system that harmed not only him, but his people.
And of course – our Lord and Savior. And no, please don’t misunderstand me – I am not lowering the awesome resurrection of God’s only Son to the level of political stories. But hear me – and think of your own church as you do:
When the women come to anoint the body, an angel tells them: “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He has risen.”
That’s the question, isn’t it?
Why do we keep looking for life in things that are already dead?
Why do we cling to identities, roles, stories that no longer fit?
Why do we sit beside the tomb, waiting for something to come back, when it’s already moved on?
The story of resurrection isn’t about getting back what you lost. It’s about becoming who you were always meant to be. About how ou become what God is dreaming for you, and for your church.
In every heroes story, the old self has to die before something new can live.
Jesus said as much: in John 12:24, He says “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
We are, however, as a rule, humans who are afraid to die. I’m not speaking bodily death, I’m speaking of church death. Congregational death. Afraid of “losing people.” Afraid of not being comfortable in our worship. Afraid that changing might either drive us away – or maybe drive us to a deeper faith that requires something uncomfortable of us.
My friends, it’s time to move the stone of fear away. Because on the other side of that stone – is life. Life eternal. Life that is shared to bring life to others. It’s time your church had the blazing life-giving light of an Easter morn.
It’s time to change.
My friends – Move the fear-stone away and become the church God is dreaming for you. Lives depend on it.
