Not Just More Floorspace (Easter Sunday)

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As we began Lent this year, I joked that I was going to give up sanity for Lent, because just as Lent began, I was also beginning a big construction project at my house, primarily intended to turn my small one car garage into essentially a 2 ½ car garage which I can use to expand and improve my woodshop.

It’s been a great and exciting project, and it’s been a lot of fun in spite of the fact that it is a really crazy time for a Pastor to be doing something like this.  But even before construction on my new garage/shop began, I started planning the layout for my new shop.  When the project is complete, which will be soon, I will have two and half times the floor space I had in the old shop. The shop will have a mini-split which will heat and cool it, so I can work in the shop regardless of the outdoor temperature.  And I will have enormously more outlets and better lighting which will make it possible for me not to have to run extension cords all over the place where I can work.

So I made a copy of the floor plan and cut out little pieces of Post-It notes for the workbench and big tools which were scaled to the floor plan, and I began playing around with the layout and exploring possible placements of tools and accessories. 

I tried various placements of things on paper, and tried to envision what it might look like in real life.  But as I was doing so, I started to realize that I was thinking about the layout as though it were my old shop, only bigger.  For example, I sometimes reflexively placed a tool where it was before, even though it didn’t need to be there anymore.  I often found myself planning to put a tool up against a wall because I always had to do that before, but I don’t necessarily need to now.  And often, I kept forgetting that I now have the ability to put accessories and components in places where I actually need them, instead of putting them in a place where, in the old shop, it was the only place it would fit.

There’s an old saying about “thinking outside the box.”  But in this case, sometimes I was just envisioning a bigger box instead of re-imagining new and creative possibilities.

I’ve thought about that as we move into Easter because sometimes the new life promised to us through the Resurrection of Jesus – whether now or in the life to come – can feel like “this life, only bigger”!  At least for me, I sometimes imagine eternal life as my life now, only without problems and pain and which will go on forever.  I don’t think those ideas are completely wrong, but sometimes that’s just imagining more floorspace.

Yet in the Resurrection, Jesus shows us a transformed life complete with new and creative possibilities.  After all, as we read about Jesus’ Resurrection, Jesus seems to be able to be in more than one place at the same time. As we read beyond this morning’s Gospel reading, it’s clear that Jesus can be walking down the road all day with a couple of disciples heading to Emmaus, and also appear to Peter at the same time.  Jesus can enter rooms which are shut and locked, and yet he’s not a ghost.  And he can still be seen and touched, and most importantly, he can still eat (I mean, what’s eternal life without being able to enjoy a great meal!)

Moreover, Jesus called his first disciples to live into the Resurrection right now in this life.  He called them to do more than simply live in a bigger box.  He called them to think more creatively; to try things they hadn’t tried before; and to trust him now, in this life, to be with them as they went places they probably had never imagined.

But that’s not always an easy thing to do.  As with my old shop, we’ve all spent a lot of time and energy trying to adapt to the constraints and realities of the way things are right now.  Even envisioning something new and different can be difficult.

In today’s Gospel reading, the women go to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body, which they hadn’t had time to do on Friday, because the Passover and the Sabbath were beginning.  As they get there, they find the stone rolled away, and are met by two men in dazzling clothes (presumably angels) who ask them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you…?”

Well, yes, they probably did remember Jesus saying those things.  But what did those things really mean?  How were they supposed to envision what Resurrection would actually look and feel like?  The only place they knew to start looking was in the old place – at the tomb.

Then they go back and tell the other disciples, who don’t even believe that more floor space is possible, even though they probably also remembered Jesus’ words.  And finally, Peter gets up and runs to the tomb and sees the linen cloths by themselves.  And Luke says he’s “amazed” at what happened, but the actual Greek word Luke uses really means more like “wondered and confused.” At first, none of the disciples can even imagine that the Resurrection could even be a real event in this life which even provides additional floor space for right now!

But as the stories go on, the disciples come to see and experience Jesus as an actual living person. And they’re all relieved.  But they also at first think that this means they can all now get out of Jerusalem and resume their old lives and have a little more time following Jesus around – just like, you know, having a little more floor space.

But Jesus makes it clear that Resurrection is more than that. The new life Jesus brings isn’t simply a bigger box than we’ve had in the past, but a new opportunity to live in new ways, to try new things and to boldly trust Jesus as we live into the future.

That’s what the Risen Jesus called his first disciples to do, and that’s what the Resurrection is supposed to be about for us as well.  Today is not just a day when we celebrate something special happening for Jesus.  Nor is it simply a day to remember that we’ve been given the promise of eternal life after we die.

Instead, like those first disciples, we’re called to live into the Resurrection right now by living as people who envision new possibilities.  The first disciples were called by Jesus to be open to going to new places and to take initiative to do the things he had done in the lives of others; just so, we live into the Resurrection when we shake off the idea that we have to live just like we’ve lived in the past “until Jesus comes.”  In the Resurrection, in one sense, Jesus has already come and sent us to be his living representatives in the life of the world around us.

Like those first disciples, we’re called to live into the Resurrection right now by doing things we haven’t tried before, and doing old things in new ways. One of the things I’m looking forward to in my new shop is being able to work on projects no matter the weather outside, which I was never able to do with a non-climate controlled shop.  The first disciples, also, were often amazed at what Jesus empowered them to do, even though many of them had never tried to do things like speak publicly or heal anybody before.  And just so, living into the Resurrection for us sometimes means being willing to try something we feel called to do even if we’ve never tried it before.

And like those first disciples, we’re called to live into the Resurrection right now by projecting hope for this life, not just the life to come. To be sure, the Resurrection means hope for the life to come.  But Jesus didn’t have to be raised in this life to show that – he could have simply been a vision from heaven.  Instead, Jesus called his disciples to be living signs of the world to come right now, in this life. And we live into the Resurrection not when we pretend we can make this world into heaven, but when we live and speak and convey the confidence that even when this world is dangerous and scary (as it was for those first disciples), there is a bigger and better future ahead, and it’s not just more floor space!

Amen.