Sermon for: Easter Day_March 23, 2008_A_RCL
Brian McHugh, priest & vicar
[Ezk 37: 1-14][Ps 130][Romans 8: 6-11][John 11: 1-45]


This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love:
the more they give, the more they possess.

Words of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke.

It seems illogical. It seems counterintuitive. Human logic would say that the more you give, the less you possess.

But I know, in my spirit, however faulty my or our love may be, that Rilke’s words are true. Those who love, and give, discover the truth. Jesus is recorded as saying that, in following Him, we would know the truth and the truth would set us free. I am convinced that is not some theological doctrinal “truth” that makes us “right” that He wanted us to know. What Jesus means us to discover is a way of Life: Rilke has spoken it: “This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love: the more [you] give, the more [you] possess.”

This paradox - that for those who really love, the more they give the more they possess - I know and passionately believe is at the heart of the Mystery of God, of the Christ, of the Gospel, and of our humanity. We ponder the hints of our holy writings. We listen to longings and hopes that rise up in our hearts and minds. From these, we have imagined a God who pours out unconditional love endlessly. In my view, no other God is worth knowing. No other God can lead us to a mature and authentic humanity.

As “church”, we spend year after year in our worship. We walk with Jesus. We recognize a true child of the God of Love. We listen to His Good News, His teaching about Life. In the week before this day of His rising from the dead, we see His unswerving love of His God; His compassion for God’s oppressed people; His firm clear loving servanthood in washing feet; His mystical gift of Himself in bread and wine; His refusal to compromise God’s integrity in willingly accepting suffering and death.

However and at whatever level we grasp it, Christ’s death and resurrection is a sign to us about the great Mystery of being alive. It is about the mundane miracle of Love. This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love: the more they give, the more they possess. We will not grasp this truth by reading the tortuous sentences of the Letter to the Hebrews. We will not grasp it by comprehending intellectually Paul’s or Aquinas’s doctrine of salvation. We will only grasp it by embracing Christ’s commandment to “love one another as I have loved you”. This is what it means to “take up his cross and follow me”. It is why the cross is the core symbol of the Christian faith. It is why our primary “work” is exploring what Love is.

Paul the apostle tells us what happens if we love: He wrote in his second letter to the faithful in Corinth:

People are watching us as we stay at our post … working … in gentleness, holiness, and honest love ….. terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; 10 immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, (yet) possessing all. [1]

Jesus had set the standard for authentic discipleship and authentic humanity, as recorded in John’s Gospel: “See how they love one another”. And Jesus has requested, putting aside as secondary the whole Law of Moses, only one thing: “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Hanging on the cross, Jesus looked as if His love brought Him nothing, took away everything, including His life. But on the morning of the third day, the angel says to the women, “Why are you seeking the living among the dead?”

Here is the pattern for our life, yours and mine. Paul understood it when he said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” The Christ lives in each of us, and to live we must become One with that Christ. It might seem that pouring ourselves out in love will bring us nothing. But Jesus and His Gospel and His Cross and Resurrection says, with Rilke, “This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love: the more they give, the more they possess.

The invitation this Easter morning, my friends in Christ, is the same as always: Really love; the more we give, the more we possess of what gives meaning to our lives. It is Love that broke open the tomb in which the dead Christ was buried. It is Love that breaks open the tombs we so often are buried in and gives us Life. It is love that liberates the Christ Who lives within the heart of each of us.

The Rich Young Ruler asked Jesus what he must do to have Eternal Life. The answer he was not ready to hear was, “Really love” – and though you give up all the worldly goods you have, you will possess everything. “

On this Easter morning, may we take one step further on the path of Love. It is our calling as the Body of Christ and as the Beloved of God. The more we give, the more we will possess. And the World will be transformed.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen. Let us be raised with Him!

[1] 2 Cor 6: 4-10 [MSG]