Acts 10:34-43 Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
1 Corinthians 15:1-11 Mark 16:1-8
1 Corinthians 15:1-11 Mark 16:1-8
After more than a year of living under the restrictions of the pandemic protocols, I think that we are ready for the afterlife, that is, the life after the pandemic living conditions. For more than a half million Americans, who died because of the corona virus, they entered their afterlives and their families have had to adjust to them being gone from normal accessibility, not for just three days, but forever.
I think that most of us are ready to begin a hopeful season as we get to universal vaccinations, and learn how to respond to the new strains, and get back to what used to be "normal" life. Imagine "normal" life being the very definition of hope for us. And the contrast of what we lost should help to appreciate the hopefulness of the normal.
How are we going to characterize what we have gone through in the future? The pain of the pandemic has been uneven in how people have suffered. What is our afterlife going to be like after the Covid-19 era?
Many may have to work on losing the so-called Quarantine-19, the nineteen pounds which were put on because we needed comfort food more often and had less activity because we were so homebound. We are still in the throes Covid-19 to be able to fully appreciate the changes which this has caused in our lives. And will be ever be able to write a "revisionary" history of what happened to us ending in some good outcomes? Are perpetual Zoom meetings the good outcome of Covid-19?
The term "revisionary history" is in historical scholarship, a negative appraisal of how someone has recounted a previous event. It means "unreliable to what actually happened." To be called a brilliant "revisionary" historian is not a scholarly compliment.
Why? Past events are absolute; they happened. One cannot change the fact that something happened.
There is a problem though. We cannot get to events without the human recollection of what actually happened. And this means that we cannot avoid human versions of what happened. We see that even when we have video evidence of an event that people have different explanations and interpretations of what is seen to have happened.
When can "revisionary history" be meaningfully true? An event which happened in the past can take on new meanings as it is coupled with subsequent events. We can say that the future can alter the meaning of a previous event without changing the fact of what happened.
On this Easter Sunday, I would like to confess on behalf of the Gospel writers that they had been totally affected by the "revisionary" meaning for the events of what we have been commemorating in Holy Week and today on Easter Sunday.
In the lives of people of faith, the meaning of future redemption and future reconciliation is important. Why? Because some bad things happen to people. And in faith, we try not to let a few bad things come to characterize life itself. And because we are not exempt from bad things happening in life, we need to frame and contextualize bad things with some surpassing good things and so be able to confess the general goodness of life.
The "post resurrection appearances" of Jesus, which we celebrate today, brought revisionary meanings to many events.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ resulted in the revision of the meaning of his death. One of the meanings meant that the death and resurrection of Jesus would be paired together forever. They will always go together as completely mutually related and dependent on the other event.
They are so paired together forever, that we cannot even pretend their separation. By being paired together, the early Christians believed that God's answer to death was resurrection life. And why is this answer important? It is important because it indicates that God's time is on our side. Why do we need God's time on our side? Because the life in one's body does not allow us to fulfill everything which hope has shown to us. We want and aspire for much more than we can ever attain. Like peace on earth, like friendships being more complete, like coming to forgiveness and reconciliation with everyone. We, have hoped for the impossible and know that we don't have enough time. And we want to know that God's time is on our side.
What do we need to know about revisionary meanings regarding the past? First, they don't not alter the facts of what happened or how people experienced them in real time. Revisionary meanings happened because people have survived to be able to reassess what has happened, and filter them through the hindsight of what has happened since the original events.
Today, I hope that you and I are being inspired to come to new and revisionary meanings of what has happened in our lives. We need not revise meanings in our lives to deny the harshness of the past, or over value something; we revise meanings in our understanding of the past so that we can live better lives now.
One of the chief meanings we can take from the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is that we can always have new revisionary meanings about our lives. These meanings need not alter what happened in our lives, but with resurrection hope, we look to use such words as redemption, reconciliation, thanksgiving, appreciation, penance, empathic ministry, and forgiveness as words that might characterize our relationship with the past.
No matter how many revisionary insights and meanings which we come to in our lives before we die, there will be new meanings which outlive our lives. God and those who outlive us will also come to new meanings for our lives.
The promise of eternal life through the witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is the hope for us that further revisionary meanings and insight will never cease. It is the promise of being able to come into better relationships with God and everyone else. And it also means we will come into better relationship with ourselves regarding the meaning and purpose of our lives. The resurrected life gives us the hope that we will significantly surpass ourselves in a future state.
I submit to you today that our lives should be continuously revisionary in the meanings of our lives; and this can be done without changing the truth of what actually happened.
The resurrection of Jesus, revised the meaning of his death. And so we build our faith upon continual revisionary meanings toward fuller meanings of hope for us and for the people of world.
And so today, we ride on the coattails of the resurrection of Jesus Christ into the eternal life of hope. And may this hope provide for you and me and our world today, the ability to revise the meaning of our lives, consistent with living in God's time, everlasting life.
Alleluia, Christ is Risen. The Lord is Risen indeed. Alleluia. The Risen Christ, revised the meaning of his death on the cross. The Risen Christ can help you and me revise the meaning of our lives toward hope. Amen.
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