Risen! 
April 1, 2018 
Rev. Britt L. Aerhart 
salisburyuc@telus.net 
 
Scripture Passage:   
Risen! 
That’s the word of the day for Easter.   
Throughout Lent the most common word has been “journey” as in, we are on 
a journey with Jesus. 
On Palm Sunday it was “hosanna”, as in hosanna to the king. 
On Good Friday it is “crucify” as in “crucify him”. 
An on Easter it is “risen” as in, wait for it, Christ is risen! (Christ is risen 
indeed!) 
“Risen” can mean many things. 
It can mean “morning has come”, as in the sun is up! The day’s a-wasting and 
there’s easter eggs to find. 
Risen! 
Or it can refer to the way your heart leaps into your throat when, too late, 
you remember that it’s also April fools as saran wrap on the toilet seat or the 
salt in the sugar bowl will tell you once you discover them.   
Risen! 
Or risen can mean something like getting to your feet, just standing up right 
where you, willing to join the song that is being sung or the protest that is 
being organized, that declares that today is the start of something new.   
Risen! 
Risen is meaning-laden word - associated with the dawn of new beginnings 
and the desire for a fresh start. 
 
 
Salisbury United Church, Sherwood Park, Alberta 1 
 

 
 

Notice that our Easter declaration, that traditional declaration that goes back 
to the earliest years of faith is “Christ ​is​ risen! (Hallelujah, Christ is risen 
indeed). It’s not “has” risen, as if it is a past event, over and done with. It is 
Christ ​is ​risen, as in something that is still going on today and will go on 
tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that. That is perhaps the 
biggest challenge that this easter word “risen” gives us. It is not, as some will 
say, about whether or not we believe it happened historically. About whether 
or not it’s a fact that Jesus got up bodily after he had well and truly died. We 
could quibble about that forever, scientific and literal-minded 21st Century 
people as we are. But it is about whether or not we have faith that 
resurrection is happening now in our midst, this very moment, all over the 
world, and will go on happening long into the future. It is to believe that the 
arc of everything in life, the world, the universe, is toward rebirth, toward 
transformation into something radically new and different. It is to believe 
that resurrection is the gift of God which goes on giving, even when the 
evidence seems to be to the contrary.  
The signs are all around us.   
Two days ago I hear the first call of the geese flying overhead on their return 
from the south and summoned my awareness that another cycle of spring 
and growth must be on the way, even though it is not quite apparent yet.   
Risen! 
This past week or so, somewhere and everywhere, an unknown exhausted 
mother or father, was summoned from sleep by the sound of a crying child, 
and stayed up to walk the floor through the night holding their sick child in 
their arms. 
Risen! 
This two weeks past a French police officer exchanged himself for a hostage 
who was a complete stranger in the hopes he could negotiate and save a life. 
And although he died, still,it was for life and not death he acted. 
Risen! 
This week, somewhere and anywhere, unremarked words of forgiveness 
were given and a relationship and an estrangement began to be mended and 
someone let go of anger and recrimination and hostility. 
 

 
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Risen! 
Recently, someone who will never be called a hero continued to take their 
medication, facing up to their struggle with their mental health, so that their 
life can be the best it can be for the sake of their children and grandchildren. 
Risen! 
This weekend Malala Yousefsai, the girl who was shot to stop her from 
promoting education for girls, returned to her home in Pakistan for the first 
time since the attempt on her life, while the google doodle celebrated the life 
of the first woman doctor in India, Anandi Gopal Joshi, who persisted even 
when girls were not sent to school.  
Risen! 
The story of Easter, or resurrection, of ongoing transformation, has been 
going on all the time in our midst. In our world. In us. And it is still going on 
today in a thousand thousand places and a million million lives. It is not just 
a declaration but a way of living life in the midst of death, a way of going ​in 
the world which is not ​of​ the world.   
And so when we say, Christ is risen! (Christ is Risen indeed!), 
we are saying that what is going on in us and with us and in the world and 
with creation, right now, is resurrection. We are saying that it is a power and 
force and principle the compels the world toward balance and toward life. 
We are saying that we are compelled to practise resurrection as part of who 
we are in Christ. In fact practising resurrection is what we ​must​ do if we are 
to live in Christ in the world, and here I quote some selected words by a 
farmer and poet named Wendell Berry, who talks about resurrection as a 
kind of resistance method we are given to help us overcome a downward 
spiral of death and decay in the world: 
“So friends, every day do something that won’t compute. Love the
Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be
poor. Love someone who does not deserve it … Ask questions that
have no answers … Plant sequoias … Laugh. Laughter is
immeasurable. Be joyful though you have considered all the facts …
As soon as the … politicos can predict the motions of your mind, lose
it. Leave it as a sign to mark the false trail, the way you didn’t go. Be
like the fox, who makes more tracks than necessary some in the wrong
direction. ​Practice Resurrection.” 

 
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Today is Easter and resurrection is for every day of our lives! 

And so Christ is risen! 
Christ is risen indeed! 
 
 
 
 

 
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