Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord – March 31, 2024

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

What Is the Resurrection?

Today, I want to begin with a simple question: “What is the Resurrection?” We’re all here, it’s a pretty big day, pretty important! If I asked you, “What is the Fourth of July?” you could probably give me a decent answer, talk about the Declaration of Independence, the Revolution, Freedom. But today’s question: “What is the Resurrection?” Seriously, think. Formulate an answer. Pretend that you have to stand up here and give an answer.

Many people will say it’s the day Jesus rose from the dead, when Jesus came back to life. Some will say it is Jesus’ greatest and most powerful miracle. But think: if that’s the answer, why is this such a big deal? Why is today such a big deal? Jesus raised at least three people from the dead during his life—one was dead for four days, not just three. Jesus isn’t even the only person who has raised someone from the dead; the prophet Elijah raised someone from the dead. My point is we don’t show up on other days for that, so why today? “What is the Resurrection?” 

Here is the Christian proposal, the proposal since the beginning: the Resurrection is the first new thing to happen, ever. Everyone dies, that’s nothing new. And even those people Jesus and Elijah raised from the dead, they died again. In other words, there’s something completely different about Jesus’ rising from the dead, something completely different! completely new! So much so that St. Paul (our patron) in his Letter to the Corinthians went so far as to say, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is in vain” (1 Cor 15:17). But what does this mean? What is the Resurrection? Why do we care? Seriously.

What Is the “Faith” You Profess?

I think it comes back to that simple phrase: “Your faith is in vain.” What do you hear when you hear that phrase, “Your faith is in vain”? Paul is saying, “Jesus’ resurrection is so significant, that if it didn’t happen, or if he just came back to life and died again, then your faith is in vain.” So what does that mean? What does it mean that faith is in vain?

Think of it this way. Many people here have experienced a cancer diagnosis, either personally or of a close family member. I want you to think about that experience, first hearing the news, either about yourself or about your family member. What was that like? Ok. But now think: what happened? The doctor talked about all the options, often involving surgery, radiation, chemo. And let’s say the doctor decides to go the chemotherapy route. And week after week, you’re going through these treatments, literally injecting poison into your body. It’s painful, you’re sick, weak. Or you’re watching your loved on go through that: your wife, mom, dad. Ok, here’s the question: why do you go through that? Because you have faith in the chemo to heal you, right? 

But now think: what if the whole time the doctor knew that there was no treatment that would help, and the chemo would not be helpful? But he puts you through it anyway. Real chemo, but totally ineffective. You still get sick from taking it, but the whole time it isn’t doing anything. And the doctor knew it! The doctor put you through this, and the whole time, this chemotherapy thing wasn’t doing anything to help you. The doctor was lying; it was a scam, a fraud, a waste of time. And you end up dying. Ok, this is “faith in vain”: you placed your faith in the doctor and the chemo, and it was a complete waste; your faith in the doctor and the chemo was in vain. In that case, where there is no available treatment, what would the better option be? Just enjoy life while you can, right? Right! Instead of going through chemo, chemo that won’t help, poisoning yourself and going through that pain—just enjoy your life while you can. Uncoincidentally, that’s exactly what Paul says. “If this resurrection thing isn’t real, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’” (1 Cor 15:32).

So here’s what I’m getting at: Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is in vain,” Paul is saying that if this isn’t real, we’re wasting our time! In a way no less real than a cancer patient going through chemo that doesn’t work, our faith is in vain too.

What Do You Choose?

But that leads to the next question: what exactly are we placing our faith in? In the analogy, chemo is the cure (or supposed cure) for cancer. So what’s our condition? And what’s the cure?

Let’s play doctor, ok? What do you do when someone has symptoms of cancer? First, your get a diagnosis, you need to figure out what you’re dealing with. Second, you need a plan, whether that’s surgery or radiation or chemotherapy, or a combination of those.

Ok, but now turn that on humanity, on you, on your heart. What is the human condition? You, me. What “disease” do we carry. It’s a huge question. And there are a lot of symptoms, but the underlying disease? Death. Death itself. This is the one thing we all know for certain: you are going to die. That’s the diagnosis. So what’s the plan? There are two options. One is very common today: “Get over it. People die. Get over it! Enjoy life while you can, do what makes you happy, live your best life. Stop complaining about what you can’t change. Get over it!” That’s one option. That option (in our analogy) is that there is no cure, no chemo, no nothing. “Eat and drink, tomorrow we die.” “YOLO. You do you.” But there is another option. The second option, the only other option is Jesus Christ and his resurrection. This is the situation we’re in: place our faith in nothing, resign ourselves to death; or place our faith in Jesus Christ.

But here’s the thing: many, if not the majority of people are choosing option one (listen)—they are choosing option one but calling it option two. Let me say that again: many, if not the majority of people, are choosing option one, saying that death is inevitable, live your best life—but they say they have faith in Jesus. What do I mean? The majority of people in America, the majority of people here in Lyons, if you surveyed them—they would say that they believe in God, in Jesus Christ, in the Resurrection, on and on. They would say that. But if you look at their actions, you get a different story. And the story you see is, “Eat and drink, tomorrow we die.” 

And this looks like a lot of different things. People focus time and energy on their job and making money—but haven’t prayed in months. People will sacrifice time and money and energy and weekends and even their marriage in order to support their son’s football career—but haven’t gone to church in months. People (and this is a big one)—people are so busy that they feel stretched beyond their ability—and the first thing to go? Church. 70% of Catholics in Rice County come to Mass between 0 and 2 times a year. Some haven’t been in decades. This is what I mean: all of these people will say that they believe in God, and in Jesus—they say that they’re choosing option two, choosing Jesus—but their actions, what we say with our actions is that we choose option one; they do not have any faith in Jesus, because their actual faith is in option one. And look: I really hope this doesn’t sound like I’m upset, or judging people! No! I say this because it breaks my heart. Why? Because the problem with option one is that it leads to dark places, it leads to anxiety and fear and depression and death.

And when we look around, that’s precisely what I see. If we look around, we see things falling apart, more and more and more. We see communities falling apart, schools falling apart, families falling apart, marriages falling apart, kids lives falling apart. Why is the life expectancy in America, the best-est country in the world—why is the life expectancy in America steadily decreasing? It’s not because of pandemics, war, famine. Sociologists will tell you that it’s dropping because of three things: an increase of death related to drugs, cirrhosis of the liver (so alcohol), and suicide. I doubt there is anyone here that hasn’t been affected by at least one of these. The statistic that I love to quote but I hate that it’s real is that among 10-14 year olds, the second leading cause of death right now (in the best-est country in the world) is suicide (it’s up 300% since 2000). And this is very real, very close to home. Here in Lyons, the data from our high school says that over 50% of high schools kids have seriously contemplated suicide in the past year—25% have attempted it. And if it’s not that extreme, it’s still this phenomenon of people numbing out. Why is it that we love binge-watching Netflix? The infinite scroll on social media, and Tik Tok, and shorts? Twelve hours of football on Sunday. People are numbing out and giving up. Why do we do those things? Perhaps something’s wrong. Do you see my point? The majority of people here in Lyons, in Rice County would call themselves Christians, Catholics—but we’re choosing option one, and it’s destroying us.

An Invitation

Today, I want to speak in a particular way to people who are only here today, and I’m not talking about our visitors from out of town. I know this is the big “no no,” I know that I’m supposed to pretend like I see you every Sunday and you’re not only here today. But I want to speak to you on behalf of the parish, I want to speak on behalf of myself. We miss you. And we love you. I know that many of you have struggles when it comes to the Church. I know that many of you think it’s a waste of time. I know that many of you think, “Well, I’m a nice person, and I don’t need church to help me be a nice person.” I know that church has been underwhelming, and that the music isn’t good, the preaching isn’t good; church is boring. I know for some, God has left you feeling betrayed. I know that our community isn’t perfect. I know that you would rather spend your time doing other things. I know it can feel like “chemotherapy” that doesn’t work. I know. 

But the reason we miss you, and the reason my heart breaks that you aren’t here, is because I know where option one leads. I know how busyness can feel like purpose, “If I’m busy and my kids are busy, then we have a purpose”—but that it just drains us. I know that even though you believe in God and Jesus, and you are a good person (you are such good people)—I know that there is an emptiness inside that no amount of work, or money, or sports, of Chiefs’ super bowl titles, or trips to the lake, or cars, or houses, or accomplishments, or parties or anything will ever satisfy. I know it’s a dead end. 

And the other thing I know is that when we finally say “Yes” to Jesus Christ, to following him, he will gives us infinitely more than we could ever ask or imagine. I’ve literally staked my life on that. And so my simple invitation is this: come home. I hope you know that the door is open, that we aren’t going to judge you. We just want you to come home. Why? Because Jesus Christ is what your heart is truly looking for.

The Day We Can’t Live Without

Friends, what if we actually lived with our faith in Jesus Christ and his resurrection? What if we actually believed it? And not just believed that it happened, but believed all the implications of it! believed that it changes everything! 

“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is in vain.” Paul was making a rhetorical point. Paul is saying, “But he has been raised. And so our faith, this faith, is not in vain.” “YOLO. You do you. Eat and drink, tomorrow we die”—that doesn’t have to be our life anymore. That’s what the resurrection is. The resurrection is the promise that death is no longer the end. Finally, there is a different story, a different narrative. Finally we can ditch option one and place all our faith in Jesus Christ, in a narrative that doesn’t end in death. Finally there is hope. And it’s this faith, this hope that changes our lives even now.

The way the first Christians lived this was by gathering every week, on the same day Jesus rose—Sunday. Every week, they stopped working, stoped the busyness, just stopped and marveled in the newness promised to them in the resurrection, the newness they were already experiencing. They called Sunday, “The day they couldn’t live without.” Why? Because this was the first day of their new hope, their new faith, a faith that is not in vain.