Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
(1 Peter 1:3-9)
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“Christ is arisen,
Joy to thee, mortal!
Empty his prison,
Broken its portal.
Rising, he giveth
His shroud to the sod;
Risen, he liveth,
And liveth to God.”
Those words were written in 1808. They come from the Easter Chorus in the play Faust, written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Goethe was many things. He was a writer, a poet, a scientist, a diplomat and a civil servant. Faust was a play that in many ways depicted Goethe’s own personal struggles with Christian faith. Goethe was born a Lutheran and for a time was a very devoted member of the Lutheran Church. As sometimes happens, though, events over the course of time caused him to begin to question faith and he became an early example of what we call today an SBNR – a person who’s “spiritual, but not religious;” someone who believes in God – and maybe even in Jesus – but who rejects the church and any other form of so-called “organized religion.” Goethe was one who continued to believe throughout his life that being a Christian and being a part of the church were two different things. He rejected much of the church’s teaching; he rejected much traditional Christian doctrine. Friedrich Nietzsche – a German philosopher who lived several decades after Goethe died – was heavily influenced by Goethe, and wrote of him that he had “a kind of almost joyous and trusting fatalism” that, in Nietzsche’s words, had “faith that only in the totality everything redeems itself and appears good and justified.” In other words, Goethe had faith that whatever happened in the world - good or bad - was somehow being worked out to be something positive and productive.” But Goethe had more than just a belief in a sort of positive fatalism. Among other things, Goethe was a passionate believer in the resurrection of Jesus. The Easter Chorus from Faust actually did represent Goethe’s sincere beliefs about the issue. I want you to hear a couple of these lines again:
“Christ is arisen,
Joy to thee, mortal!
...
Risen, he liveth,
And liveth to God.”
That was faith. It may have been lived without church or Scripture or deliberate Christian fellowship – but it was faith. Goethe may have rejected every other aspect of Christian belief – but here was a passionate conviction about one thing: Christ had risen! Christ was alive! That was faith. We can learn something about faith from Goethe.
Faith is a living and growing thing. It’s not something that we can allow to become stagnant; hemmed in by traditions or by culture or even by doctrine. Faith goes beyond those things. Faith in Christ demands that we go beyond those things. Faith is not an end in itself, but is rather a beginning. Faith spurs us on to something better; faith motivates us to look for something greater. Faith becomes stagnant if it takes possession of us and we simply rest satisfied, letting it sit. If that happens, then eventually faith rots away and becomes worthless. Real faith – faith in something meaningful and important - has to be a living faith – constantly growing, constantly expanding, constantly pushing us to new heights, constantly challenging us to explore in greater depth. That’s a living faith that has an impact on our lives. And what do we have faith in? What is this meaningful and important thing that changes our lives? When all else is stripped away and if we’re left with just one leg to stand on – what is it? “Christ is arisen. Joy to thee, mortal! … Risen, he liveth, and liveth to God.” We are a people of the resurrection. And living as a people of the resurrection will inevitably lead us to joy. As Peter wrote, “Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy ...” This is faith. We love one whom we cannot see; we believe in him whom we cannot see – and in spite of the fact that we cannot see him, the joy he brings us (that “joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart”) changes our lives and pushes us forward and makes it possible for us to change lives and to change the world.
The resurrection – faith in the risen Christ - leads us inevitably to joy, for as Peter says, we “are receiving the outcome of [our] faith, the salvation of [our] souls.” It’s important that Peter wrote that this is what we are receiving – not that we have received it. This is similar to Paul saying in Philippians that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling – not because we gain our own salvation (it’s a gift from God) and not because we are afraid of what will happen if we don’t, but because we are awestruck not only by the work of God that has already been accomplished within us, but by what God’s work will continue to accomplish within us. In this letter that we read from today, Peter I believe is trying to push us forward; to prevent his readers from becoming stagnant in their faith, satisfied with themselves and simply content with what they already have. He also knows that they are facing great hardships because of their faith and that they are taking great risks because of their faith and he doesn’t want them to abandon faith for an easier and safer journey. He knows that there’s so much more to be discovered; so much more to be experienced, so much more joy to be found. I find it interesting to reflect on this passage from 1 Peter today, the Sunday after Easter.
Today is actually more than just the Sunday after Easter. As the Sunday after Easter, this day came to be known as “Low Sunday.” No one actually knows why. One theory is that Easter is the greatest feast day of the Christian calendar, so whatever came after it inevitably paled in comparison. More practically, some suggest it’s because church attendance today is – well – generally just a little bit lower than it was the Sunday before. But today is more than the Sunday after Easter and today is more than Low Sunday. Today is actually the Second Sunday OF Easter. Easter goes on. Christ did not rise from the dead and immediately return to his Father. Christ rose and stayed with his disciples for a time – walking with them, talking with them, eating with them, helping them forward. And Easter didn’t just end with a benediction last Sunday and an invitation for us to go about our daily business as if nothing much happened. The Season of Easter challenges us to continue to walk as a people of the resurrection – with our focus being not on ourselves and not on the church and not on our doctrine and not on our traditions but with our focus being on the risen Christ – and on the risen Christ alone. Everything else flows from that, and whatever doesn’t flow from that is meaningless.
With our focus on the risen Christ, we “are receiving the outcome of [our] faith, the salvation of [our] souls.” We are receiving them. The process is ongoing; the journey continues; the joy is deep in our hearts. We gather together today and whenever we gather only because by the great mercy of God we have been “given ... a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” As a people of the resurrection, we offer this joy, this journey and this faith to others, inviting them into this “living hope,” inviting them to plumb the depths that we have plumbed and to discover what Paul described as the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. Because it’s the risen Christ who matters. Goethe rejected almost everything that the Christian faith and the Christian church stood for – but he held on to the risen Christ. He could not let the risen Christ go – or, perhaps more accurately, the risen Christ would not let him go.
“Christ is arisen,
Joy to thee, mortal!
Empty his prison,
Broken its portal.
Rising, he giveth
His shroud to the sod;
Risen, he liveth,
And liveth to God.”
And with Christ arisen, and with Christ leading us, we move forward – always forward, because we know that with Christ, no matter what struggles we might experience and what obstacles we might encounter along the way, the best is yet to come.
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