Preaching Resurrection in a Pandemic

Preaching Resurrection in a Pandemic

            How do we preach resurrection in a pandemic? How do you do Easter, when it is done alone, done remotely… how do you proclaim bodily resurrection via disembodied bandwidth and through screens?

            How do we preach Easter while millions are sick and tens of thousands are dead—whole countries crouched in their homes sheltering in place, anxiety all around—caught in a defining moment no one wanted to be in, carried away by a disease spreading without our consent or awareness?

            How do we preach resurrection in a pandemic?

            The same way we always have.

            Prayer

            Though it might seem more acute now—we’ve always been proclaiming life to a dying world. Pointing to Jesus Christ and the ongoing resurrection we have through him.
We’ve always been echoing the early morning words of Mary, “I have seen the Lord.”

            She, who had seen her savior, her lord, her friend, betrayed, denied, tortured, and publicly executed. Saw the hope of her life, die.
Yet she keeps coming back
—back to prepare the body,
back even when the other disciples go back home
—talks back to this man who seems to be the gardener.
First to receive the revelation—he is back!

She is first to hear the words of gospel,
first to be named by our resurrected teacher
—first to, in the face of death and despair, preach the good news, “I have seen the Lord!”

            Her words echoed by Peter—having denied his Lord, witnessed the stoning of Stephen and the scattering of the disciples,
preaches a new thing to Cornelius and his household
—promises a new resurrection life.
Preaches, “Peace by Jesus, who healed and did good, whom God raised from the dead on the third day.”

            Mary, echoed by John of Revelation fame, locked up on a small island, alone save his pen and his words, preached life in the face of death—that grand paradox, “The slain lamb is enthroned!”

            Another John—300 some years later—John Chrysostom, after losing a confrontation with religious and political forces of his day, he was sent into exile and eventually died there, and yet echoed Mary’s “I have seen the Lord” in his celebrated Pascal Homily, read Easter morning by many Eastern Christians to this very day, where he insisted, “Life reigns.”

            1000 years later, Mary’s words still echoed, echoed in the midst of a popular revolt and its violent suppression, echoed even in the heights of the bubonic plague, as Julian of Norwich preached, “All shall be well, all shall be well, and in all manner of things, all shall be well.”

            

            How do we preach resurrection in a pandemic? The same way we always have. Speaking life to death.

            And so too today, the ongoing echoes of Mary’s witness… “I have seen the Lord.”

            To the Pastors running around the sanctuary like Young Sheldon with red rubber gloves and unholstered Clorox spray bottles.
“All shall be well!”

            To the bread winners feeling the pinch, no the jabs, of jobs drying up and doing the best you can even when it isn’t enough, but has to be enough.

            To the essential workers, who just don’t want to be essential any more—bearing too much, stuck serving, sacrificing, for the sake of the whole, they hope.

“I have seen the Lord.”

            To the interns, short of breath, but unable to discover why because the country is short on tests.

            To the students and teachers jilted by online classes that just aren’t the same as what they signed up for.

            To the families stuck inside—scared and bored at the same time—the anxiety of invisible threats too much. 

“Peace by Jesus.”

            To those living alone in this time when social distancing easily becomes social isolation.

            To the couples married irregularly, their big day overshadowed, but not overcome, by the pandemic.

“I have seen the Lord.”

            To the sick patients cut off from those they love, for lack of a bedside telephone.

            To the children of elderly parents and family members lurching toward death’s door.

“The Slain Lamb is enthroned.”

            To the doctors, good doctors, quarantined and feeling guilty because they can only do their duty remotely.

            To those people who just can’t get social distancing down.

“I have seen the Lord.”

            To the infected and quarantined.

            To all who mourn, especially those whose dead are too far away to go see,

“Life reigns.”

            How do we preach resurrection in a pandemic?

            The same way we always have. 

we echo the testimony of Mary, “I have seen the Lord.”

            And that echo expands out into Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia!