The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti

Easter Sunday - 1999

Easter 1999

"It was on the crucified that God let his and our future dawn. " "Jesus is Risen !" the most joyous and dangerous proclamation ever announced by human beings. And those that announced it, like Peter, had stolen away scared and terrified, hating themselves for abandoning and betraying Jesus when the cross came, but soon after were seen proclaiming that Jesus, the One crucified, had been raised and had forgiven them. Now, those frightened and terrified men, Peter and the others began to announce the decisive act of God the Father---that this Jesus crucified as a blasphemer and political agitator has been raised!

Such a joyous and dangerous proclamation startled people then and can startle us today. This is a joyous proclamation because the pain and the terror of the cross could not defeat the Father of Jesus, the God of life, the God whose love transforms the worst fate into new life. Jesus is raised, transformed into a new existence in which death has been defeated. What's more, and this is decisive, it was the crucified, the one who identified with the oppressed, the poor, sinners and the suffering--the one who surrendered himself in complete trust and vulnerability, that was raised ! It is the one who brought God's incarnated compassion to all, who spoke of justice, peace and reconciliation, that could only be won in a crucified love for others and the world. This is the dangerous part of the message!

Resurrection is dangerous to anyone, any structure or power that believes, and would insist others believe, that this world is all there is and use the terror of death to bully and oppress ! The resurrection of Jesus is the Father's insurrection against the lords of this world--and as Paul reminds us in I.Cor., against the lord of lords, Death ! It is the insurrection of God's vulnerable and nonviolent love in the life and death of Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Jesus is the ratification by the Father that all people and creation are destined for God's glory. In effect, that all things and peoples are created to share in the fullness of God's eternal joy. This joy, this glory, is one that dwells with us in a compassion that champions justice and works to bring shalom, wholeness, peace to all creation ! Therefore, such a message is dangerous to those who would bring death and destruction. it is dangerous to those who bring injustice or indifference to the situation of suffering of so many in the world. It is dangerous to any who would insist they are god. Such is the temptation and action of the "ceasars" of this world. But, Jesus has been raised , not Caesar ! In that truth we renounce the god "wanna-be's" of the world as unjust and illegitimate usurpers of God's reign. Peter himself does so in announcing the Lordship of Christ and leading us to the central truth that:

"If the crucified one is Lord, then the Caesars must renounce the title. "

J. Moltmann, Crucified God, p. 195

The future of humanity and the world is illuminated in the transformed existence of Jesus. We are not merely speaking about individual eternal life--though it is included to be sure--but of universal transformation. We have a messianic hope for all people and the creation ! That is, we are a people on that work with God and others to incarnate this transforming power of resurrection life in the world. It is a lifestyle of following Jesus in the same crucified love that enables the light of Easter to shine through in the world. What's more, Easter tells us that the whole Jesus was raised ! His bodliness was glorified too. That points to an important truth--what we do here in the body matters ! Any act of love, large or small is noticed and shares in the eternal life of God.

The resurrection of Jesus also tells us that the Father identifies with the Son's whole life, ministry, words and death. This is the one who spoke of reconciliation, justice and peace. This the Father says yes to, and this is what we are commissioned to say yes to as well ! That is what it means to be a messianic people, the witnesses to the resurrection and its commsumation in the return of the Lord ! We know, based on the cross and history that such a witness will take place in the face of threats and violence.

Nevertheless, the resurrection of Jesus empowers us to resist death, and the fear of death, and to struggle against it with all that gives life in the Spirit of the Crucified and risen Christ. It will take the form of resisting the war addiction, the death penalty, euthanasia, poverty, homlessness and other destructive realities. Resurrection is the ground of our hope that believes that the way things are, are not the way they will always be--and this goes especially for death.

Jesus is risen, never to die again. Jesus is Lord--his crucified love the source of our completion and revelation of the depths of God's love for us and the world. This Jesus who was crucified is now the standard by which all lives and communities will be measured. This Jesus crucified is the risen Christ that is the guarantor that God will not forget us, will embrace us and set the seal of life over our lives and the creation. This Jesus crucified is the decisive revelation that we will know a love that transforms everything into a new day. Now, empowered by the Spirit of Christ, the resurrected Christ, we can truly live in a love that brings God's life-giving Easter power to the world. Indeed, a joyous and dangerous message and mission--a message and mission that works with God and others to transform all creation in the image of the resurrected Christ that echoes the reality of God's message to us in Easter--"Yes you may live--you may have life!"

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Uploaded January 14, 2000