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Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! |
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by
the Rev.
Joshua H. Varner
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| This is the greeting that we
use to begin our
worship
every Sunday, and indeed every day, during the season of Easter.
The call and response is taken, in part, from Luke's Gospel, Chapter
24, Verse 34. The scene is the end of Jesus' appearance to the
unnamed disciples on the road to Emmaus. After Jesus vanishes
from the disciples' sight they return to spread the good news among
their fellows and find them saying "The Lord has risen indeed, and he
has appeared to Simon!" I have often wished that our Book of Common Prayer printed this acclamation with the exclamation marks that I have included above. This call and response is a joyful shout! This is the resurrection after the tomb! The Brightness of the new and unlooked-for dawn has broken in upon a world seemingly broken by evil, and Christ is risen! Our opening acclamation is not, primarily, a historical statement. Of course, we believe that Jesus' resurrection did in fact occur, and that he was raised in his body. But our statement is not concerned only with what happened two thousand years ago. When we say "The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!" we are making a claim about the present time, about the now. Now is when Christ is risen. Today is the time that Christ is alive! Christ was not raised in order to die again, but was raised to eternal life. Christ was raised from the dead, but he is risen! He is still risen from the dead and still present with us today. This is what we affirm when we say "The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!" I once heard that this greeting was used by some Christians in their daily lives during the season of Easter. If they saw one another, instead of saying "Good morning. How are you?" one would say, "Alleluia! Christ is risen!" and the other would reply with "The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!" I freely admit that I don't know if this image is historically accurate or not, but it is a beautiful image. Imagine if, just for Easter, we all greeted each other in this way. If we made the truth that Christ is risen central to our encounters with one another, would that change the way we behave? Many of us live and work in situations where it is very difficult to talk about our faith. But I hope that all of us, even if we cannot greet each other with these spoken words, will keep in our hearts the truth that Christ is risen and is present with us today. I hope we will allow this truth to inspire our spirits, affect our minds, and even impact how we live our daily lives. Living in light of the resurrection we can remember to think to ourselves, and even say to other "Alleluia! Christ is risen!" And then we will hear the answering shout of joy, "The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!" Joshua † |
This page updated 15 April 2006