Shirin McArthur

Dear friends,

There’s a thread of disbelief running through the stories in today’s readings. In our Epistle lesson, Paul is attempting to convince the Corinthians that Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. Presumably, he’d told them this in person, but after he left, doubts arose in the community. Perhaps newcomers, who hadn’t heard Paul’s persuasive teachings in person, began asking questions about this seemingly impossible event.

For Paul, the entire Christian story is predicated on the fact that resurrection is real—for Jesus and for us. Without it, “your faith has been in vain.” Yet there were clearly people who didn’t, or couldn’t, believe it. Perhaps they weren’t willing to believe that God could, or would, do the impossible.

Of course, Jesus’s own followers had trouble believing in the resurrection too—at least at first. Mark relates how the disciples didn’t believe Mary Magdalene, nor the disciples who encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Both then and now, it seems we need first-hand evidence in order to believe something. We find it hard to trust each other’s word—especially about something as unlikely as resurrection.

Yet the thread of belief also runs throughout our tradition. Today’s Hebrew Scripture story of the Exodus reminds us of how those powerless Hebrew slaves had to have faith and belief in the message of Moses and Aaron. They left behind the only land and society they’d ever known for the hope of freedom—the resurrection of a community from death in slavery.

Psalm 103 instructs us to bless God because God “redeems our life from the grave.” For the psalmist, that means being “crowned…with mercy and loving-kindness,” receiving “good things,” and having our strength “renewed like the eagle’s.” Resurrection is more than a future promise. It is a present reality.

Where do you find the hope of resurrection in your life today?

 Shirin McArthur
More of my reflections can be found on my blog.