There is a wonderful website out there, dedicated to the collection of six word messages. It is run by the online magazine “Smith.” In a perpetual gallery of offerings, people post their current state of mind in exactly six words – no more, no less. The site has spawned several books with people’s six liners and the stories behind it. The first was called “Not Quite What I Was Planning.” How many of us could have said this at various points? A recent one is titled “It All Changed in an Instant.” It’s fascinating how popular the site is and also what a challenge it is to try to fit something about you into such a narrow form. I find it compelling that sometimes you can very well describe the essence of where you are in your life in such a brief message, and it invites others to ask you questions.
Part of me is tempted to ask people in our congregation, all of you, to try and distill your current life into a six word message. What would you come up with? And might that requirement of brevity cut through some clutter in your current affairs? Six words will keep you focused! Some six-word stories can be downright poignant: “I still make coffee for two,” writes someone recovering from a breakup. “Well, I thought it was funny,” is the offering of comedian Stephen Colbert. Some are tragic: the inspiration for the project was an old tale about Ernest Hemingway, who, challenged to write a story in six words, is said to have come up with this: “For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
And this made me think that, for all the joy and fanfare of Easter, for all the complexity and mystery of our religious life together, and for all the billions of words we have used to try and explain it all, Christianity has a simple six-word autobiography, and it is this: “Jesus is risen from the dead.” I know, I know, there doesn’t seem to be much intrigue to these words anymore. After all, we hear and celebrate and shout and repeat them every Easter. What’s more, to people who come to church mostly on the high holidays, it may even be worse: you only hear the six word distillations of Christianity: “Jesus is risen from the dead.” And “Unto us a child is born.”
Well, these are wonderful beginner statements. They aptly describe the beginnings and the pillars of our faith. But they are not all there is. Just follow me in this thought experiment: if Christianity had been founded by a website with six-word liners 2000 years ago, the opening statements would have been the ones I just mentioned: “Unto us a child is born!” and “Jesus is risen from the dead!” But since then millions of people would have added their own six liners, born from their own journeys and experiences. Paul would have added a few years later, “By grace I have been saved.” St. Augustine, the 5th century theologian would have added, “Love, and do what you like.” Hildegard of Bingen, the creation loving medieval mystic might have posted, looking at the wonders of nature, “What delight God gives to humankind!” Some theologians of the 20th century, facing tough ethical choices would have posted, “What would Jesus have done here?” Mother Theresa, the popular saint of recent times might have added, “Sometimes I am tormented by doubt.”
And all those people, all those witnesses, including you and me today, are part of an ever expanding experience of faith. I compare Easter to the Big Bang that scientists say started the universe as we know it. Easter morning is the Big Bang of the Christian faith. It started an ever expanding universe of hopeful faith. So let us not make the mistake of fossilizing and imprisoning Christianity in that Easter story as if that’s all God ever had to say. What did the strange men, the fellows with their gleaming clothes, say to the women at the gravesite? “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” If you want to find Jesus, you need to go out into life. You’ll find him there! They might as well have said that to you and me: “He is not where you think he is, certainly not in an empty tomb, certainly not in some glorified past, certainly not in some nostalgic narrative of yours. He is risen!” Get it?
It has not even been a million days yet since Mary uttered the first six words of happy belief. And we have been invited to check out the Son of God in our own lives, to add our own questions, answers, hopes, fears, – to acknowledge and recognize the hand of Christ in the mighty miracles that happen every day, to breeze an air of hope into the hopeless places of our world, to take to task those who want to turn religion into a hopeless and rather dangerous ideology, instead pointing to the miracles that happen every single day on this planet. Do we even notice? You can read your newspaper or your online subscriptions and find traces of the resurrection every day.
I recently heard about the story of Roger Frisch, a solo violinist from Minnesota. He suffered from a tremor in his hand, impairing his ability to play the violin, impacting his life severely. Doctors performed an “awake” surgery where they used an experimental deep brain stimulation technique. Keeping the patient awake during surgery allows surgeons to interact with the patient, to make sure they are hitting the right part of the brain. This isn’t a new concept. Back in 2008 someone was playing a banjo while they performed the same deep brain stimulation. And while they are awake, an important part of their body is resurrected. Isn’t it amazing?
Therefore I think God is calling us on this Easter Day to find Jesus out there in our world. As children hunt for Easter eggs this morning, looking for the bright colors of eggs under the cover of evergreens, nestled in the first spring grass, hidden in a hole, so we Christians should be on the hunt for the colors of the risen Christ in our world. The English philosopher C.S. Lewis once said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” How good is our spiritual eyesight? How many times do we stumble over something in our life that deserves a heartfelt “Alleluia” and we walk right by? Let us stop and see and maybe join in this six-word exclamation: “Jesus Christ, this is truly amazing!”
Amen.