To Resurrect Daily

Yesterday being the first Sunday of Advent, Fortwilliam & Macrory marked the occasion by coming to the Lord's Table for communion. I love communion Sundays and I think the practice itself is one of the most humbling and grace-filled traditions in the church. I remember taking communion as a child and trying to hurriedly confess all my sins so I would be worthy to receive the small cracker and shot glass of grape juice. Truthfully, I never felt worthy and rightfully so. For me then, communion did little more than make me feel guilty and, of course, prolong church and delay Sunday lunch. Only in the last several years have I been able to appreciate the experience and only in the last few years have I been opened to the beauty of the sacrament. I now understand it to be a beautiful act of faith for precisely the same reason I once dreaded the occasion. Communion is beautiful because it's a commemoration of a gift that I indeed do not deserve. The gift is the sacrificial death of Christ. It is a gift, free and blind to the perceived worth of the recipient. Here is the body and blood of Christ given for anyone who will receive it, without regard for position, class, education, race, sex, profession, background, or any other category that serves to divide, segregate, oppress, or denounce people. When we come to the table we come as equals. This is the body of Christ, broken for the rich man and the homeless man. This is the blood of Christ, shed for the prostitute and the pastor. This is the body and blood of Christ, given for YOU and everytime you eat the bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death and resurrection of Christ.

It's been amazing to witness the many different ways the church in Belfast proclaims the death and resurrection of Christ. As I just mentioned, we do it in the sacrament of communion but there is another way the church can testify to resurrection that in some ways is unique to Northern Ireland. The church here testifies to the resurrection through the work of reconciliation. Having now been here only three months I've still been able to catch a glimpse at the work the church is doing to reunite divided communities and to mend broken relationships. In a sense, reconciliation is resurrection. To reconcile pride must be crucified and from that crucifixion comes the rebirth of a relationship or community. I believe the substitutionary atonement of the cross and the physical resurrection of Christ but the scene of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus also serves as an object lesson in reconciliation. We must sacrifice our pride and hate and bury them to be able to witness the glory resurrection of a once dead society. Believe me, it is glorious.

I have had the privilege to meet some very strong and wise women through my work with WAVE Trauma Centre and one of the ladies, Tillie, lost her husband in an indiscriminate attack by the IRA on a Protestant pub. A few masked gunmen came in and shot into the crowd of patrons simply because of the demographic of the patronage (protestant, loyalist). She shared with me that she had struggled with hate and it would be hard to blame her. She said that in the early days after the shooting she just wanted to die. She eventually began to forgive the men who had killed her innocent husband and now she prays for them. This woman comes before the God of the universe on behalf of men who murdered her husband out of pure hatred for his perceived religions and politics. Hate brought death but forgiveness has resurrected her. We can actively participate in the resurrection when we yield to forgiveness and reconciliation. We don't just proclaim it, though that is glorious in itself, we actually take part. Afterall, Jesus didn't just resurrect, he was and is resurrection himself(John 11:25). Through his triumph over death we now have the privilege to resurrect daily.

This is the body of Christ, broken for the murderer and the victim alike. This is the blood of Christ, shed for Tillie and terrorists alike. Whenever you eat the bread and drink the cup you proclaim the death and resurrection of Christ.