How do we explain new life? We use bunnies, eggs and chicks, butterflies and other images. I like all of these.聽 They reflect our need for images to describe things when words fail. We use these images to try and describe the indescribable events of this weekend. What image would you use to describe or represent resurrection?
There are a variety of stories about resurrection but for Christians the events this weekend celebrate the resurrection by God of Jesus from the dead. 聽Jesus who had been crucified on a Roman cross and was put in a tomb, dead. 聽After three days when the women went to the grave they were told that he was no longer dead but alive. How can we explain such a thing?
Resurrection is bringing back from the dead. How do we explain this great mystery? 聽Therein lies the problem.聽 We try to explain mystery and in doing so fail.聽 Our words are lacking so we use images. Mystery has to do with silence, attentiveness and listening with the 鈥渆ars of our heart.鈥� It cannot be explained.聽 It must be experienced. 聽It is something that happens deep within us. It is a knowing that cannot be explained.
In her book Lost in Wonder, Esther de Waal, tells the story of being in the prehistoric chamber tomb of Knowth in the Boyne valley in Ireland. She tells of the response of the guide when he was asked the meaning of the designs and decoration found on the huge rock slabs. He responded, 鈥淚 am happy to stay in the mystery.鈥�
There is a deep knowing to be found in the experience of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is central to who we are as Christians. Our life is to be shaped and formed through this historical event. For every generation Jesus brings the dream of a world where the good news is lived out - the broken-hearted are healed, the captives are freed, and the prisoners聽are released from darkness.
It is not just resurrection for Jesus 2000 years ago.聽 It is resurrection for us now. It is resurrection for me as an individual, as part of a faith community.聽 It is resurrection in our neighbourhoods and in our political worlds. It is the promise of a new life; an opportunity to begin again, to live and do things differently, and to build a better world starting with where we live. It calls us to live in a particular way when we do not engage in the details of how. It calls us to a life of peace, non-violence, diversity and inclusiveness, and an ability to love. I cannot explain how this works. I just know it does.聽
I love the bunnies, the eggs (particularly the chocolate ones), the chicks and the butterflies. I don't know how all this works together. It is a mystery and I am content to live in the mystery of what the Creator has done and is doing.
The Right Reverend Logan McMenamie is the Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of British Columbia
You can read more articles from our interfaith blog, Spiritually Speaking,
*This article was published in the print edition of the sa国际传媒 on Saturday, March 26, 2016.
