What are we Remembering?
Remembrance Day is a challenge for Christian preachers. For most of us our permanent default is to be peacemakers. And that makes it difficult to stand before a congregation and praise the work of soldiers. At first glance, Remembrance Day is all about war…and thus is presumed to be the opposite of peace, But I’ve never met a soldier who hasn’t been all about peace. They, who have seen the worst humanity can do to one another, are passionate about ending the violence of war even as they know that sometimes war is inevitable. Albert Camus once wrote: “peace is the only battle worth waging.” The soldiers I’ve known understand that and have committed their bodies to following it up.
Today is Pentecost Sunday. The day we see and hear about some of the great symbols of faith. The day we all see red! Traditionally Pentecost is about being surprised, and being fully enlivened by God’s spirit, as Jesus was. And Pentecost is about hearing and experiencing the present-ness of God in a language we can understand... Not just in English or French or Korean or German, but also in the language of unemployment, television commercials, supermarket shopping and school playgrounds.
Alleluia, Christ is Risen! Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia! This morning, I want to say a word about Easter, a word taken from one of the great Eastern images of the mystery of the resurrection, an icon that has been a part of the Christian vision of what the Resurrection is all about since around the year 600. I have been powerfully drawn to this icon lately, and I want to talk about it a bit this morning. Let’s take a look. Remember: icons are about the theological meaning of people and events; they aren’t representative art like we might typically encounter. Icons are never depictions of exactly what happened. They’re pictures of what things mean. So, an icon of the Resurrection doesn’t show what the resurrection might have looked like back then—an icon of the Resurrection shows what it means now.