I find myself in need of regular Easter Reminders. I find those reminders through scripture, song, prayer, and the encouragement of others amongst other tings. We are approximately in between last Easter and the Easter to come. Just as I often sing “Joy to the World” a few times during the year (I am by myself when this spectacle occurs, fear not), I regularly read this poem by John Updike at anytime during the year as part profession of faith, an affirmation of the resurrection.
Jonathan Wilson first put me in touch with this poem. On this side of the resurrection I remain eternally grateful to him.
Warmly,
In Christ,
Jeremy
Seven Stanzas At Easter
Make no mistake; if he arose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the
molecules reknit, the amino acids
rekindle,
the Church will fall.
It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and
fuddled eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His flesh: ours.
The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that – pierced—dies, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.
Let us not mock god with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping, transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted
in the faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.
The stone is rolled back, not papier-mâché,
not a stone in a story, but the vast rock of
materiality that in the slow grinding of time
will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.
And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Plancks quanta, vivid with
hair, opaque in the dawn light,
robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.
Let us not seek to make it less monstrous, for
our own convenience , our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we
are embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.
Acts 3: 29 – 37
“Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,
” ‘The Lord said to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.” ‘
“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”