BECAUSE HE LIVES
The Rev. Harold Shepherd, CD, M.A., LL.B., S.T.M., LL.B.,
LL.M., Ph.D.
Sermon from Easter
2003
“Where, O death is your
victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of
death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks
be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Rom. 15:55-56
Christ the Lord is risen today.. Alleluia! This chorus will
be sung in any Churches throughout the world today,
celebrating one of the fundamental elements of our faith.
Death does not have the final say. Through Christ, life
triumphs. But, what is life? It can be defined on a number
of different levels. (1) First, life exists as biological
activity. From a simple cell to complex organisms, life as
a biological process surrounds us and sustains our own
bodies. We, like all life on this planet, exist as a
complex form of biological life that is part of a cycle
that is marked by birth, life, reproduction, death and then
return to the earth. (2) A second level of life is
instinct. This force is separate from the conscious mind
and ensure the survival of all forms of life. Some sort of
innate programing helps birds to fly south for the winter
or salmon to return to their spawning ground. Instinct
ensures the continuity of life through sending the signals
necessary for building shelters, having offspring, defining
and defending territory and entering into forms of
socialization that make a community viable. This is a very
powerful and rudimentary force that has been viewed with
great suspicion in the teachings of the Church. Paul, for
example, laments in Romans 6 that he does the things that
he does not want to do and does not do the things he wants
to do. This tension between the impulses of instinct and
the desire of the conscience is resolved by putting the
former to death that we may rise to new life. At one level,
Paul is quite correct. If every person gave in to all of
his or her instinctual impulses, society would disintegrate
into chaos. Furthermore, we would become so absorbed with
self gratification that we would have no interest in
promoting the common good. In order to exist in community
and in order to realize fully one’s potential in
life, we all need to learn self discipline. This puts our
moral self in conflict with the powerful forces of instinct
found deep within our subconscious minds. However, the
mistake that Christian theology has often made is to view
instinct as an evil that needs to be suppressed. Because
this is impossible, the inevitable result will be the
generation of much guilt and angst. The psychologist Karl
Jung was aware of this problem and developed a theory of
psychoanalysis that believes that instinct needs to be
embraced, not fought against. He labels this the
“shadow” that needs to recognized and
integrated in a positive and life-affirming way into our
conscious lives. He calls this process
“individuation.” It requires that we accept
ourselves as we are, with all of the impulses that are
potentially destructive, but to channel them in such a way
as to make us fully alive people who make a positive
contribution to siciety. Life is like a river. If you try
to block it, it will find other ways to break out and
continue. If we try to suppress fundamental forces of
instinct deep within our psyches, they will likely
eventually emerge in a destructive form. Creation and the
forces at work in it were created by God for a purpose.
They must to be embraced and channelled in such a way as to
affirm life in others and to build vibrant and loving
communities. (3) The third level of life has already been
alluded to- the conscious mind. This is the seat of reason
and deliberation. Through experience, upbringing, training
and the like, we develop a world view and set of values
that guide our decisions as moral beings. (4) Finally,
there is a dimension of life that can be thought of as
spirituality. This is what Christian theology teaches
distinguishes us from other animals. We have the ability to
think with a level of intellect and awareness of self,
others and God that is unique to human beings. Although
secular humanists see no substantive difference between us
and other mammals, we, as Christians, know better. As St.
Augustine, said, we have been created for God, and our
souls are restless until find fellowship with him. Easter
not a story of the resuscitation of a dead body as was the
case with Lazarus. Rather, it is a story about us and our
future. Although our bodies may die, there is more to life
than the biological life cycle. Jesus rose with an immortal
body that can never die again. As the first resurrection in
the Kingdom of God, this points to our own resurrection.
We, as sentient, spiritual beings, are called to enter into
fellowship with God and each other. The bonds that knit us
together in the communion of saints can never be broken. As
we embrace and celebrate life in all its fullness and
complexity, we know that it, like a river, will go on until
it flows into the vast ocean of God’s presence. Life
is what God’s creation is all about. At Easter, we
celebrate Jesus’ victory (and our victory) over the
forces of death and destruction. As we embrace life with
all of the its powerful and daunting forces, we know that
we are in God’s hands and that in him, we have won
the victory. Thanks be to God!