Second Sunday of Easter (1 Peter 1:3-9)  4/27/2014

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Last week I mentioned the important meaning of this year’s Boston Marathon, especially in light of the tragic events of last year’s race. The Boston Marathon is significant in many ways for those who run the race. There is, first and foremost, hundreds of hours of training…an act of dedication on the part of the runner. Although I have never run a full marathon, I have spent a few months training with friends who have run marathons and I can attest to the commitment they put forth. After countless hours of training and preparation, the day of the big race finally arrives. This year’s Boston Marathon included more than 35 thousand runners (the second most in the race’s history) and was blessed with beautiful weather! Cheering fans lined the streets of the 26.2 mile course and provided excitement and support to all those who pass by. As the moments passed by and after the elite runners quickly ran past, the cheering fans remained to support the competitors who run because they love it; for many runners, the Boston Marathon is a very special moment in their lives. This year, there was a man from Massachusetts who was running in the race and he had nearly reached the 26 mile point, just a few hundred yards from the finish line…and he found that he had run out of energy, the muscles in his legs giving up on him. It is not uncommon to see runners taking a rest during the race, but with just a short distance remaining this man collapsed to his knees, unable to move. I can imagine his lonely agony, surrounded by thousands of people, yet feeling alone in the moment as he slumped to his knees unable to move. Runners continued to pass by, focused on that line just ahead, but there was one man from Illinois who did something surprisingly different – he stopped and supported the slumping man by lifting him under his arm. And then another man from Texas stopped to support the other arm. As the three runners moved slowly forward, unable to sustain their forward movement, two additional runners stopped as well, a man from Minnesota and a woman from Seattle. The group moved toward the finish line, a weary man supported by four exhausted runners: time didn’t matter, the rules of the race that prohibited assisting others didn’t matter, nothing mattered except helping each other, and in helping each other, everyone was dramatically transformed.^[i]

As we begin these 50 days of Eastertide, the season from Easter until the day of Pentecost, we are reminded of the dramatic transformation of life we experience as a result of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So surprising, so unexpected, many may doubt the possibility of this transformation of life. Of course, this is the point of our yearly reading of poor Thomas and the story of his doubting…but I would like to give Thomas a break this year and reflect on the meaning of Peter’s letter, which we hear this morning in our Epistle reading. His letter, likely written in Rome just before his death, provides us with Peter’s outlook on life, an outlook filled with faith and strengthened with great hope. What did Peter know that filled him, and should fill us, with such hope? After all, in the last few days we have heard Peter denying that he ever knew Jesus, we find Peter locked in an upper room hiding from the authorities, and immediately following the story we hear in our Gospel lesson this morning we discover the disciples have returned to their familiar lives of fishing, seemingly giving up on the idea of spreading the Good News of Christ. What did Peter learn in the days following the resurrection of Jesus Christ that inspired him to write the words we hear this morning, “By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” (1 Peter 1:3-4)

In the days following the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the men and women who dedicated their lives to following Christ became aware of the full measure of the Good News of the Gospel, their eyes were opened to the powerful transformation of life made possible through Christ’s resurrection. The miracle of Easter transformed what seemed to be a horrible loss just a few days ago into the powerful and living hope of Christ, the promise of new birth into a living hope, as Peter wrote. This living hope in Christ is the realization that although the challenges and sorrows of the world remain before us and Christ does not appear plainly in our midst, we are blessed with the grace and love of God, through Christ’s body in the world. We receive this blessing not by sitting in our favorite pew in church or by singing our favorite hymn in an effort to bolster our spirits; no, we receive this blessing by our participation in the Christian community, strengthened through our relationship with God in Christ. Henri Nouwen, a 20th century Dutch priest and author, wrote of the transformational impact of the Christian’s participation in the world when he said, “[understanding and internalizing our own unique existence, with all its sorrows and joys] is a hopeful, courageous, and self-confident way of living. It is standing in the world with head erect, solidly rooted in the knowledge of who we are, facing the reality that surrounds us and responding to it from our hearts.”^[ii] Nouwen’s words make us realize that Christ’s death and resurrection changes our lives, transforms our lives, and brings us into relationship with God and each other forever.

The weakened and weary runner, crumpled on his knees just a few hundred feet before the finish line might be any one of us; and those four tired angels that swooped down and lifted him up on their wings might be any one of us as well. The powerful miracle of the resurrection of Christ is rooted in the promise that we are given new birth into the Body of Christ, the promise that we are united in our lives as children of God. Peter understood that our new birth and our living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ came not by standing behind a locked door or returning to the old comfortable habits that feed us alone; the promise of Jesus Christ is fulfilled as we stretch out into the world and share the blessings that have been given to us and respond to God’s promise from the depths of our hearts. May this season of Eastertide fill your hearts with joy, knowing that you have been made alive through the new birth given to you in Christ. AMEN

^[i] “The story behind that Boston Marathon photo of runners carrying a competitor toward the finish line,” by Wesley Lowery, The Washington Post, April 22, 2014; accessed online April 24, 2014. http://wapo.st/1iHsbxv.

^[ii] Henri J.M. Nouwen, Can You Drink the Cup?, (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 1996), 81-82.