The In-Between Place: An Easter Sermon

​We can think of resurrection in at least two ways.
 
Resurrection is a fact that happens out there somewhere. Christ rose from the dead two thousand years ago in a faraway land. That’s true no matter how we happen to feel about it.
 
And resurrection is also something that happens to us whenever we encounter our Risen Lord. Resurrection in this sense is personal. Resurrection happens here and now.
 
We can see the distinction between resurrection as a fact and resurrection as an encounter in our readings.
 
On that first Easter morning, resurrection happened sometime before the early dawn, before the women arrived at the tomb. Christ was risen. The tomb was empty.
 
But on that first Easter morning, none of the disciples had yet experienced Christ’s resurrection for themselves.
 
On that first Easter morning, the disciples were still living in a world dominated by death. They had seen saw their friend and master arrested and then killed. They feared that they themselves would be arrested as collaborators.
 
And they were wrestling with guilt. One of their own had betrayed Jesus to the authorities. They had all failed to stand by Jesus. Peter had denied three times that he even knew Jesus.
 
But the brave, faithful women among them could do one thing anyway. They could care for Jesus’ dead body. And so, first thing that morning, they set out for the tomb.
 
When they arrived, the women got the news that we are still celebrating two thousand years later: Jesus was not dead but alive. Jesus had risen, just as he had promised.
 
But even now, the women didn’t experience resurrection for themselves. Jesus was risen. But the women didn’t yet meet the risen Christ.
 
The same was even more true for the male disciples. The men were still cowering in the upper room when the woman came back with the story of the empty tomb. And the male disciples weren’t buying it. The women’s “words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”
 
But Peter, goofy, loyal, eager, fallible, hopeful, doubting Peter, “got up and ran to the tomb.” Peter saw that the tomb was empty. Peter saw the abandoned burial clothes. Peter realized that the women’s story was true.
 
But Peter didn’t meet the risen Lord either, not yet. So, Peter went home, amazed and unsure about what had happened.
 
That leaves Peter and the others in an odd, in-between kind of place.
 
Resurrection has happened, and it is good news, and at some level Peter and the others know that.
 
But resurrection hasn’t happened for Peter or the others, not yet. All they have so far are traces, signs that something has happened.
 
Meanwhile, their world still looked more or less like it did before Christ’s resurrection. Peter could still be arrested at any time. Peter still has to struggle with his guilt and his failures.
 
And that is where our Gospel reading leaves Peter and the gang, in that in-between place. The tomb is empty. Jesus’ promises stand. The disciples know, more or less, that Jesus is alive and on the move. But at least so far, the disciples don’t actually see Jesus risen from the dead, and their world has not fundamentally changed.
 
This may sound odd, but I love that. Because I live much of my life in that in-between place.
 
Like the disciples on that first Easter morning, I know Jesus rose from the dead. I know resurrection has happened. But it can seem like resurrection happened a long time ago, or in a place far, far away, or to other people, more faithful and deserving people. It can seem like resurrection has not happened to me, not yet, certainly not in its fullness.
 
And our world doesn’t reflect the reality of resurrection very clearly.
 
In our Old Testament reading, Isaiah gives us a powerful vision of what a resurrected world looks like: new heavens and a new earth, a world in which we can be glad and rejoice forever, a world in which there is no weeping and no cry of distress, a world where everyone lives long and prosperously. That’s the world Jesus promises will come. That’s the world of resurrection.
 
But that is not how our world looks.
 
So, like the disciples, I spend time in the in-between place, knowing resurrection happened to Jesus and longing for an experience of Christ or a vision of Christ’s healing power in our world.
 
Thankfully, the disciples don’t just remain stuck in their in-between place. Thankfully the Gospel story keeps going. Over the next few weeks, we will see them repeatedly meet the resurrected Christ. And the world may not change in obvious ways. But the disciples sure do.
 
We see that change in Peter in this morning’s reading from Acts. It’s like Peter is a different man. Gone is his hesitation and doubt and fear. Gone is his paralyzing guilt. Now Peter preaches powerfully about Christ’s resurrection to Cornelius and other Gentiles, inviting a whole new class of people into covenant with God.
 
Resurrection is what changed Peter. Resurrection was no longer just something that happened out there. Resurrection happened to him. The resurrected Christ appeared to Peter, and Peter was made new, reborn, given new life after the death of hopelessness and despair. I suspect no one was more surprised at the change in Peter than Peter himself.
 
And on the outside, Peter’s world probably still didn’t look all that different from how it looked before Christ rose from the dead.
 
But the resurrection world looked different to Peter because Peter was different. Peter could see signs of God’s love. Peter could see reasons for hope. Peter knew what it meant to be forgiven. Peter knew true joy.
 
And Peter could share his experience of resurrection with the people around him. Peter’s experience of resurrection could give others a glimpse of resurrection life and open them up to a life-giving encounter with the risen Lord.
 
And that can be true for us, too. Resurrection is not just something amazing that happened two thousand years ago, although it certainly is that. All around us are signs of resurrection, signs of God’s grace and love. We just have to open our eyes to them.
 
One way to open our eyes is to come here, to gather as Christ’s people to celebrate Christ’s resurrection, to remind each other that God’s love is stronger than death, to hear God’s word, to share the sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, to share each other’s journeys.
 
We meet the resurrected Christ here. And then we go out into our world, a little more prepared to meet the resurrected Christ in a world that may be broken but is also beautiful, among people who are often broken and yet can be remarkably graceful and loving.
 
I spend a lot of time in the in-between place that the disciples inhabited on that first Easter morning. But thanks to many of you, I sometimes tip over into a fuller experience of resurrection, I sometimes glimpse God’s hand at work in our world around us, I sometimes encounter the risen Lord in all kinds of surprising ways.  
 
And so, on this Easter morning, I give thanks to God for Christ’s resurrection two thousand years ago. I give thanks to God for the many ways the resurrected Christ continues to invite us into a fuller experience of resurrection today. I ask Christ to bless us with ever more resurrection life. And I ask all that in Christ’s name. Amen.