“The Lord is Risen!”

 There is no service of worship more characteristically “Moravian” than those based upon our Easter Morning Liturgy. Indeed, so central is it that Moravians often self-identify as “Easter people,” not because they believe they have any special claim to the promise of resurrection, but rather because the celebration of God’s raising of Jesus from the dead embodies the core of our faith and hope. How stirring it is to be among a congregation when the pastor’s profession: “The Lord is risen!” is answered by massed voices responding “The Lord is risen indeed!” I cherish childhood memories of Easter Dawn services outside of Home Moravian Church in Winston-Salem, NC where over ten thousand persons voiced those words. 

 Yet as moving as such collective affirmations of faith are, they are no substitute for our individual experience of relationship with God through the risen Christ. An account of an exchange between Moravian Bishop August Spangenberg and a young John Wesley during the height of a violent storm at sea on the voyage to America brings the matter into sharp focus. Spangenberg asked Wesley, “Do you know Jesus Christ?” Wesley replied, “I know he is Savior of the world.” “True,” said Spangenberg, “but do you know that he has saved you?” It is one thing to profess the Lord is risen in a crowd on Easter morning; it is quite another to profess it at home with just as much hope, joy, and faith in the midst of this present storm. Yet that is the challenge – and the gift – of these times. Alone or in small family groups we have the time to ponder what we really believe and to make it our own. 

 It is worth remembering that according to the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene was alone when the miracle of the Resurrection was revealed to her. Though she testified to the other disciples regarding what she had seen, they had to go and see for themselves. Though we traditionally celebrate Easter together, the truth at its heart must be discovered and owned by each of us individually. That truth – that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness shall not overcome it; that the power of death, sin, and separation has been broken by God; that hope shall prevail over despair – is not diminished by our inability to gather together. Rather it becomes all the more necessary and compelling. 

 As I write, the flowers spring from the ground, the trees bud and bloom, and life in the natural world goes on. So too, Easter will come. We will celebrate the best we can on the day of Resurrection – remote from one another in body yet close in spirit and heart. Even if there is no one else to hear it, even if unuttered, I invite you to lift your heart to God on Easter morning and know that the Lord is risen indeed!

Easter Blessing to You All,
Pastor Derek

Claiming the Resurrection

The resurrection of Jesus Christ lies at the heart of Christian faith. According to the Apostle Paul, it was through God’s act of raising Jesus from the dead that God definitively identified Jesus as God’s Son and thus conferred the ultimate stamp of divine approval on Christ’s ministry and message. As Jesus’ followers, we share in the promise of the resurrection and eternal life. The blessings of resurrection are not restricted to the existence after death. God raised Christ from the dead so that our present lives might also be transformed and renewed. To embrace resurrection is to live a life of faith, open to new challenges of discipleship which God places before us.

resurrection of christ by raphael

Resurrection of Christ (Raphael)

As a community of faith, it is important that we are accountable both to and for each other. Writing to the congregation in Thessaloniki, Greece, the Apostle Paul advises believers: “Therefore, encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing. … admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit.” (Thess. 5:11, 14-19) This Spring at East Hills Moravian Church, we will be looking for ways to put the Apostle’s timeless advice into practice as we seek to grow into the promise of vibrant new life heralded by the resurrection of Jesus Christ on that first Easter morning.

“The Lord is risen.” “The Lord is risen indeed.”

Raised With Christ

This year April begins on Easter, the holiest day of the Christian year. Again we will gather as a family of faith to recall the miracle of God bringing new life out of death and declaring Christ “to be Son of God with power…by resurrection from the dead.” (Romans 1:4) Yet Easter does not stand alone.

Death precedes resurrection.

resurrection of jesus

Resurrection of Jesus by Hans Rottenhammer

 

As followers of Christ, our lives are to follow the pattern of life-death-rebirth which our Lord
established. In the early church, it was understood that baptism, the sacrament by which believers entered the community of faith, was symbolic of death. A liturgy from the Apostolic Constitutions (late 4th century A.D.) is explicit: “Sanctify this water so that those who are baptized may be crucified with Christ, die with him, be buried with him, and rise again for adoption.” Even today the Moravian Church baptizes persons “into the death of Jesus.” “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:5) Eternal life is assured. So certain is apostle Paul of God’s promise that he writes of our resurrection in the past tense! For Paul, sincere gratitude blossoms into righteous action.

“So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3: 1-2)

The Resurrection of the Body

“I believe in … the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”
– (Apostles’ Creed)

Resurrection of Christ by Noël Coypel, 1700.

As reflected in the 2014 movie, Heaven is For Real, and the 2012 book Proof of Heaven, stories of near death experiences and the survival of the human soul have found a positive reception in 21st century American culture. Even as belief in God and participation in organized religion continues to decrease, more persons believe in an afterlife now than did in 1972 (80% vs. 73%), according to a study conducted by three universities (San Diego State, Florida Atlantic, and Case Western Reserve). If one were under any illusion that belief in heaven was a uniquely Christian tenet of faith these findings should challenge that perspective.

Like persons of the present day, many in Jesus’ time believed in an afterlife and thought it possible for the souls of the departed to return from the realm of the dead to this world as ghosts. What they did not expect was God’s resurrection of Christ and his walking among the living with a body through which he could interact with the material world.

Our Moravian Easter Liturgy opens with the words, “The Lord is Risen!” This distinctly Christian message of hope is the original Gospel – “good news” – spread by apostles who had encountered the risen Christ and could testify to his resurrection. Indeed, being a witness to Christ’s resurrection was the criteria for being an “apostle” (Acts 1:22). So we read of the Apostle Peter proclaiming: “you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.” (Acts 3:15). Similarly, the Apostle Paul writes: “Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” (1 Corinthians 15:8).

Throughout subsequent centuries, followers of Jesus have proclaimed that, just as God raised Jesus from the grave, so God “will also give life to our mortal bodies if the Spirit of God has dwelt in us”. This affirmation is expressed in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds.

Why does belief in the resurrection matter?

Like belief in God’s Incarnation in the person of Jesus Christ, Christian belief in bodily resurrection affirms the essential goodness of nature and embodied human existence. While taking seriously problems of suffering, sin, and death, the goal of Christian faith is not to escape earthly existence but rather to open ourselves to God’s ongoing acts of redemption. Because God’s plan is to redeem this world, our task is to help God in this endeavor by becoming agents of transformation ourselves rather than simply enjoying life or passing time until we depart for a better place. We work with our Savior for justice and righteousness during our earthly lives and pray as he taught us: “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. With Job we can claim: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God.” (Job 19:25-26).

Pastor Derek French

 

Salutary Coincidence: Ash Wednesday & the Anniversary of the Moravian Church

This year Ash Wednesday, a movable holy day which marks the beginning of Lent, falls on March 1st (2017) , which is the 560th anniversary of the organization of the Moravian Church. Both observances embody themes of repentance and personal recommitment to Jesus Christ.

ash wednesday

Ashes on our forehead remind us to turn away from behavior and patterns of thought which separate us from God or others. There is an element of urgency to our repentance for none of us know our length of life. As a token of mortality, ashes can also prompt us to consider our life as a whole. What will be our legacy? Will our presence on earth have made the world a better place for others or have amounted to little more than an extended exercise in self-gratification?

It seems to me that the founding of the Moravian Church in 1457 can also be interpreted as a collective act of repentance and recommitment by a group of believers who earnestly believed that Christ’s example and God’s grace made it possible for them to break free from the tangle of sinful behavior, injustice and oppression which characterized the society in which they lived. According to Gregory, an early Moravian leader:

“What made a Christian was not doctrine or what he or she believed, but that a person lived his or her life according to the teachings of Jesus Christ. He described these first Moravians as “people who have decided once and for all to be guided only by the gospel and example of our Lord Jesus Christ and his holy apostles in gentleness, humility, patience, and love for our enemies.“ (Source)

The apostle Paul notes that offering our lives up to God “as a living sacrifice” is “true and proper worship.” Faith is more a matter of knowing God and following Jesus than it is knowing about God and Jesus.

The calendrical coincidence of Ash Wednesday and the anniversary of the Moravian Church is a timely reminder that there will always be a pressing need for repentance and recommitment to our Lord, Jesus Christ. The world, our nation, our communities and our congregation desperately need those who decide “to be guided only by the gospel and example of our Lord Jesus Christ and his holy apostles in gentleness, humility, patience, and love for our enemies.”

March 1st is an invitation to recommit ourselves to being “Jesus people” as we reach out in the name of Christ to all persons but especially to those the Moravian Church has always felt called to seek – the world-weary, impoverished masses overlooked or rejected by others whether overseas or here in America. The Moravian Church’s history of mission is reflected in its current demographics with 39,150 of us in North America, 204,980 in the Caribbean and Latin America and 907,830 in Africa.

  • Pastor Derek French