What Resurrection Looks Like

There are all sorts of debates about the resurrection. Was there really a resurrection? What do we mean by resurrection? Can someone really come back from the dead?

And, in our gospel this morning, we read about Thomas. We always point to Thomas as the doubter; we call him “Doubting Thomas.” As the man who could not believe unless he actually saw proof. Of course, we forget that none of the disciples believed without seeing Jesus.

Honestly, I am one of those people that likes to see before I believe.

I like the concrete. The real. I want to see the resurrection.

That is why I love our Acts reading today. It says that the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection with great power.  

And then it tells us how.

The apostles didn’t give a powerful testimony to the resurrection with complicated arguments. Or long sermons.

They gave powerful testimony to the resurrection because they lived the resurrection.

They lived new life.

They lived a new way, in the face of empire, in the face of violence, in the face of so much poverty and so much oppression.

The resurrection is not a one time event, not according to this text in Acts. The resurrection keeps happening. Every day. And we get to witness it.

That early community in Jerusalem lived the resurrection. “There was not a needy person among them.” A community was formed, a revolutionary community. In the face of deep poverty, they shared wealth. In the face of repression, they stood together. In the face of a culture of greed, they cared for the common good.

I love this.

I love this because I too get to witness the resurrection. I have witnessed the resurrection in Southern Mexico, where small Oaxacan farmers were banding together to take care of their communities and heal their land. I have witnessed the resurrection on the streets of Boston, where I first worked in street ministry while in seminary, as a whole community of people who had lost everything came together as pilgrims, committed to eating and praying together and helping each other.

This week, in my ministry, I have witnessed the resurrection.

I work in both Aberdeen and Westport.

As you probably all know, and as you probably experience here too, GHC is deeply poor. Almost half of our residents are accessing DSHS services in order to survive, half of our residents are poor and low income.

And, I work with a lot of folks experiencing homelessness. A few weeks ago, Aberdeen’s largest homeless camp was issued an eviction notice. People had a little over two weeks to leave the property.

And we did a lot of things. We went to city council and asked for more time. People told their stories and the news ran articles.

But the miracle, as we reached holy week, was not all of that. It was the community that was formed. It was the folks on the street who came together and discovered their own leadership. They took ownership of their own story. They supported each other. And members of the wider community stepped up to support, to get to know people, to help clean up camps.

This story is not over. We don’t know what will happen with this encampment; the mayor decides this coming week. While we ask for your prayers, I can also say that I have witnessed the resurrection in the courage, the bravery, the community that has been formed.

I also felt like I witnessed the resurrection in Westport with our first Easter service. We’ve been open at the church that used to be St Christopher’s for just two months. On Easter eve, we had a vigil and 55 people showed up for our potluck. 35 people stayed for a bilingual service. It was amazing, not so much because so many people showed up, but because I was really completely unprepared.

It was the folks in our community, the folks who have taken their own leadership who fed each other, who found extra food when so many people showed up, who took care of each other. As we lit the new fire, surrounded by children, as we processed into the church speaking both English and Spanish, we experienced the resurrection in a tiny fishing village in the middle of nowhere.

The resurrection always comes in unlikely places.

A bunch of fishermen and sex workers and women from Galilee are the first witnesses to resurrection.

A bunch of folks experiencing homelessness find community and hope and their own leadership.

A little fishing village celebrates Easter in two languages.

The resurrection is here and now. It is all around us.

For those of us like Thomas, who must see to believe, the resurrection is all around us.

We can see it. Touch it. Experience it. Witness it. Every day.

In little towns and big cities all over this diocese. In the things that are small and week in this world. In the most unlikely places.

Alleluia Christ is Risen! [Christ is Risen indeed, Alleluia]

Alleluia—Christ is risen in you and you and you—in this town of Seaview and in Westport and Aberdeen. Christ is risen as the poor take leadership and as people stand with each other and churches are reborn.

Alleluia, Christ is Risen. Cristo ha resusitado.