April 10, 2020
“But the angel said to the women, ‘Don’t be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He isn’t here, because he’s been raised from the dead, just as he said. Come, see the place where they laid him,’†Matthew 28: 5-6, Common English Bible
The coronavirus pandemic will forever change our children. I know this because our 12-year-old son has begun counting deaths. “How many have died since last Thursday mom? How many today?†He insists on me finding the number of cases and deaths in our home state of Michigan, in our country, and around the world. And he compares the numbers from one day to the next. My son has lost some of the innocence of childhood and some of the joy of life. And he, like many others, now goes looking for death.
The women in the story in Matthew also went looking for death--not because of morbid fascination or because of fear but because they knew the finality of the injustice, persecution, and horror of a crucifixion. They went looking, assured of the inevitability of Jesus’ death.
But they did not find that for which they were looking. An angel declared that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Instead of an end to a life, the women found the beginning of hope.
In the midst of this pandemic, surrounded by so much death and fear, people are looking for the beginning of hope:
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Hope for love instead of hate, for community instead of isolation and fear of the other.
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Hope for honor and care for the farm workers, the grocery store clerks, the truck drivers and delivery workers who help bring food to tables.
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Hope for compassion and concrete help for healthcare workers and first responders.
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Hope for jobs for the jobless, shelter for the homeless and food for the hungry.
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Hope for a quieter, cleaner planet.
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Hope for children who can enjoy life instead of look for death.
This is the kind of hope that our world needs in the midst of a pandemic. And we can share that hope because the resurrection of Christ is the beginning of our hope. The great Methodist theologian and social activist Georgia Harkness wrote a hymn which proclaims the resurrected Jesus as the “Hope of the World.†One stanza of that hymn goes:
“Hope of the world, who by thy cross didst save us,
From death and dark despair, from sin and guilt,
We render back the love thy mercy gave us;
Take thou our lives, and use them as thou wilt.â€[1]
Our hope began with the resurrection, because in his resurrection Christ defeated persecution, injustice and death. The risen Christ calls us to be his disciples, to declare resurrection and new life and to use our lives to render back the love of God to the world. And in so doing, we can show the world what the beginning of hope looks like.
This Easter season United Methodists around the world are doing just that by fighting poverty in their communities, by insisting on fair wages for grocery store clerks, by sewing masks for health care workers, by being present with the lonely, and by sharing resources with those who do not have enough. United Methodists around the world are making the resurrected Christ, who is the hope of the world, real in people’s lives.
One day this past week it rained, snowed and hailed in the same day. When it was hailing, our 12-year-old son put on a bicycle helmet, went outside and danced and played as ice fell from the sky. In that moment, he was not counting deaths. He was fully alive, wrapped in the love of a Christ who died for him and rose again on Easter morning. Because of Christ’s resurrection, death, despair and fear do not have the last word in our son’s life or in anyone’s life!
Christ has risen! He has risen indeed! And he is the beginning of our hope.
Wishing you a blessed Easter season and praying that we would all find and be the beginning of hope in a hurting world.
Rev. Kennetha J. Bigham-Tsai
Chief Connectional Ministries Officer of the Connectional Table
[1] United Methodist Hymnal, Hope of the World, UMH 178, Georgia Harkness, 1954.