Resurrection in a World of Contradictions

This Easter we look around and see a world of contradictions.
While one person experiences great joy, another mourns great loss.
While one person is overcome with laughter, another is overcome with tears.
While one person is filled with peace, another is filled with anger.
While one person experiences love, another experiences hate.
While one person recovers from this virus, another doesn’t.

The contradictions are real, maybe now more than ever. We have been told for several days that on Easter Sunday our nation will reach its peak for the virus. We have been told that this week and the next could result in a loss of life as great as 9/11. In New York it did. We are told that on Easter Sunday we will run reach the height of shortages in medical resources and beds, leaving many neighbors without a safe place to heal or very literally, breathe.

The tyranny of the reign of sin and death is intersecting with the most holy of days in the Christian calendar in a way that reminds us of the depth of contradiction we feel. We grieve global and national loss while celebrating a different kind of life-redefining victory. We worry over our health while we worship our risen King. We know that throughout this world and our nation, our brothers and sisters in Christ are overcome by this virus and the terror it brings, while at the same time remembering that Resurrection Day will not be overcome. Death has been overcome by the empty tomb.

In all of this there is a strange paradox, a contradiction in what we see when we look back on the Cross of Friday from the Resurrection on Sunday. In Christ’s resurrection His woundedness becomes our healing, his ruin becomes our redemption, his loss becomes our gain, and his tragedy becomes our triumph.

The resurrection tells us that darkness will turn to light, pain will turn to peace, brokenness will turn to beauty, and death will open up to resurrection life.

Death cannot take away life anymore because new life has already been given through death.

Christ’s first resurrected breath frees us from the chains of death.

About Fred

Fred came to serve greater Williamsburg and WCC as lead pastor in October of 2010 and is grateful to be a part of the family. He is a husband, father, certified trauma professional, S.T.A.R. (strategies for trauma awareness & resilience) practitioner, community organizer, TEDx alum, founder of 3e Restoration, Inc. and co-owner of Philoxenia Culture LLC. He received his B.S. in Ministry/Bible at Amridge University and his Master’s of Religious Education in Missional Leadership from Rochester University. Currently he is a candidate for a Doctorate of Ministry in Contextual Theology in at Northern Seminary in Chicago. Fred has also served as an adjunct professor for Rochester University and Regent University where taught courses in philosophy, ethics, leadership, pastoral care, intro to Christianity, and ethnography. He has also served as a guest lecturer on the subjects of racialized cultural systems, poverty, and missiology at various universities, such as William & Mary and Oklahoma Christian University. Fred has authored on book (Racialized Cultural Systems, Social Displacement and Christian Hospitality) and several curriculum offerings, including The FloorPlan: Living Toward Restoration & Resilience. Fred enjoys hanging out with his family anytime, anywhere. He is deeply grateful for how God graciously works through the Church in all her various forms, despite our brokenness. He is passionate about seeing the last, least, and lonely of every neighborhood, city and nation experience God’s in-breaking kingdom, and come to know Jesus as King. Oh, and his favorite season is Advent and Christmas. Fred is a founding member of the board of directors for Virginia Racial Healing Institute, a member of the leadership team for Williamsburg's local chapter of Coming to the Table, and a member of Greater Williamsburg Trauma-Informed Community Network's Racial Trauma Committee and Training Committee.

View all posts by Fred →

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.