He is Risen - and that means?

He is risen!
I notice it more and more - maybe even more now that I am retired and taking six months away from church life. Yesterday I drove by a small church that has been sliding downhill for years. Over the years I noticed that they had their parking lot driveway closed off by a gate. I'm sure it was because of traffic that may have been using their parking lot as a passage way from one road to another. From my outsider perspective - which is not always good - that passage way from one street to the other appears to have been the only community outreach done by that congregation in years. Slap me - I know.

Yet, there was that small church sign with the words: He is risen! What does that mean? What does it mean to the life of that congregation? It may mean much to them. It simply may be the required banner to put forth in the season of Easter. It may be an attempt to have people who are driving by give a head nod or a heart nod. But to what? The same message is placed on and around even big congregations that seem to be thriving with programs and good attendance. To hang out a sign that says He is Risen!  is an internal statement - a congregational proclamation - a word with a context - a witness meant to inspire life. To folks who are driving by, it means nothing. It is nothing more than the language that is so often tied to churches - language as strange as many of the terms that are thrown around as though everyone knows what they mean. Yet, most folks don't know the meanings.

I always appreciated the Lutheran question: What does this mean? We are not to be users of insider language outside the doors of our buildings - for it means nothing to an outsider. And yet I would also say that much of the language used within the gathered community needs to be questioned. Without language that carries life-meaning - life-connection - life-power - we do not have much to offer the world or much to share within the congregation. Rather we have passwords - insider buzzwords - magical words. I could be that a better sign to hang out for the community to see is one that draws into question our language. How about: He is Risen! So?, He is Risen! Now What?, He is Risen! What's changed? Who is He and why does it matter to us?

Banner theology - Signboard theology adds up to nothing more than an empty sound - a mystery no one is really wanting to solve. We even toss up to the world around us words like, Jesus Saves - Come! Holy Spirit! Come! - God is so Good - Have a blessed day. Each one needs to be unpacked. Each one would probably be unpacked differently by different insider groups. From the outside, it sounds like a code language that has no outside evidence of changing life - entertaining peace and justice. That, by the way, is a critique of our life together that the world makes all the time.

Dare we ask ourselves - the church insiders - to unwrap He is Risen! Dare we listen to what it means to some - its lack of meaning to others - the conflicting ways we hear it and want to use it. In the closing days of the season of Easter, I imagine the first followers of Jesus could not contain their questioning - there confusion - their embarrassment - their frustration - their disappointment and anger - in regard to that simple proclamation: He is Risen. And then, in all that wondering and acts of imagination and remembering the life of Jesus that was raised up out of the tomb - He is Risen, had flesh put on it. I wonder if they came to a point when they said in one voice - We have Risen - and then dealt from day to day with what it means for each of them to be risen from the power of death every day. To come to that statement, we need to talk about how 'He is Risen' is a comment about how the life of this day will unfold before each of us and draws us into its death-defying display of life. Now, that is a sign that will come to mean something to the world around us as it sees and hears and feels and may even be repulsed by the sign of life we bring into the days at hand.
TRRR