COME ALIVE !
“My son was dead but is alive!” (Luke 15:24)

         I actually prepared seven Easter sermons for today! The various stories are so full of messages and theology and hints of disputes among the early Christians, not to mention serious scholarly differences about whether any part of the Resurrection stories are historically true. Preachers will be giving different opinions all over town.
         These ideas interest me. Somewhere during the week I saw the Peanuts comic strip where Lucy asked Charlie Brown, “What is the meaning of life?” So he begins a long, long response. He is still talking when in the last panel she hauls off and hits him and stomps off.
         Everyone probably wants to know the meaning of life, but it’s not something you can get from someone else.
         The same thing is true about the Easter story. Nobody can tell you what it should mean to you. If I told you all I think I know, you’d probably whack me and walk off as well.
         So we sing and read the traditional story, sometimes with some reports of what scholars say, But mostly we don’t try to tell you what it means. Although today I am going to give a two word answer to think about: The Easter message is: “COME ALIVE!” “I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.”
         Which raises the question: “WHAT IS LIFE?”
         This is the questioned raised by the Terri Schiavo situation. Is a brain dead person alive? The idea is dealt with in the stories surrounding Jesus. He is always raising people up. From illness or paralysis. From sin. All of his stories are resurrection stories. The blind see, the lame walk, the sick are healed. His message was “Come alive!” Now these people were not physically dead, but they were half-dead, or half-alive. He called some men “Whitewashed tombs, looking good on the outside but inside full of dead bones and corruption.”
         You know how we do. Fix ourselves up on the outside to give the appearance that we’re younger and more alive than we are. How alive are you? 100% 75% 50% 25%? Are you as alive as you could be, or should we pull the plug?
         Now, Jesus had this deep conviction, this great belief. People can come alive again. He told Nicodemus, “You must be born again.” Nicodemus didn’t get it. He was already alive. How could he be born again? But Jesus insisted.
         One of my favorite Bible stories is the story of the Prodigal Son. He’s the one who thinks he knows more than his dad and goes off and blows his life pretty much away. He’s living like a pig when it occurs to him that he’s mostly dead. He chooses to come alive! He goes home to his father. The father is delighted. “This my son was dead, and is alive again!” So there’s more to life than the body, and many degrees of being alive.
         I was thinking about my pastoral work. Through the years I’ve ended up with people in some of their dark times. I call them tomb times of sickness, depression, trouble and grief. You know, I couldn’t do that kind of work if I didn’t believe that people can rise again, be renewed, come back to life!
         Just last night I got word that I am on the visitor’s list for a friend of mine who is in Benton County Jail. He wants to see me. It’s been 30 years since we worked together. Now he’s in trouble and at the bottom rung of his life ladder. Why go? What do I have to offer? Well, I offer presence, because that’s what people need at such times. And maybe I can offer the Easter promise and call him back to life again.
         An e-mail last night came from our friend Marylou. Paul did a memorial service for her daughter Lyndi a few years ago, and a wedding for her son. She wishes us a happy Easter, and explains why she can’t be with us…”exactly the reasons why I should be there and psychologically can’t be there right now. Easter is for celebrating HE LIVES!!!! I would have tears, not the joy that message should bring. I would hear Paul sing and probably simply sob.” She also spoke of the Schiavo situation, reminding her of the hard decision they had to make to let Lyndi die. Easter is for people like Marylou, who for various reasons are in dark places in life. What we all need to know is that we can come alive again.
         I know that many preachers worry about whether you believe the story of the Resurrection. Believing it is not as important as living it. Lots of people believe the story. Maybe 60 – 75% of Americans. Hitler believed in it. His countrymen who elected him believed in it. Catholics and Evangelicals supported him. Even Time Magazine named him Man of the Year in 1939. Believing is not what matters.
         Being alive as Christ was alive is what matters. We are alive when we get outside our guilt and greed and selfishness and become sensitive and compassionate. Remember that judgment story when the man asked, “When did we come to you?” “I was hungry and you gave me food, thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you took me in, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to me. In as much as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.”
         To be alive is to be like Christ. To be alive is to be awake. To be alive is to live with open eyes and hearts.
         He invites us to Come Alive!
“I am the light of the world. You people come and follow me.
 If you follow and love you’ll learn the mystery, of what you were meant to do and be.”
—Art Morgan, Easter 2005