The resurrection of Christ was not a return to mortal body. It was not resuscitation, as with Lazarus; nor was it the escape of immortal soul. It was the transformation of body, the reconciliation of flesh and spirit. The Risen Lord was not a ghost: "A spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." (Luke 24.39) The disciples were incredulous. Clearly, in spite of what Jesus had said, they expected no such thing. They hoped to embalm his body, and preserve it as a sacred relic. Their immediate reaction to the resurrection was fear and dismay. They knew the limits of the possible. "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe," said Thomas. (John 20.25) But they saw, and they believed, and their lives became a witness to the resurrection.

But what does that witness really mean? I think that for many modern people, as for the Ancient world, the resurrection story seems not quite credible. We would accept more readily a more "spiritual" salvation. Men die, but their ideals live on. The flesh decays, but the human spirit is unbeatable, and triumphs over the ravages of time. We live on in our descendants, and find in that a kind of spiritual immortality.

But that supposedly "spiritual" salvation has a terrible emptiness about it, an incompleteness and inconclusiveness. As St. Paul says to the Corinthians,"If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." (1 Corinthians 15.32) And we all know, all too well, the truth of those famous lines of Isaac Watts:

Time, like an ever-rolling stream/ Bears all its sons away;/
They fly, forgotten as a dream/ Dies at the opening day.

The doctrine of the Resurrection attests to the wholeness of man's salvation in Christ, which must include the redemption of the body. It must involve a redemption in which nothing can finally be lost except for sin. Our longing is "not to be unclothed, but to be clothed upon." (2 Corinthians 5.4) "if Christ be in you," says St. Paul, "the body is dead because of sin: but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."

The manner of that quickening transformation is beyond all explanation, and "we know not what we shall be, but we shall be like him." (1 John 3.2) God has established resurrection in Christ, and what is Christ's belongs to those who are his. "For our citizenship is in heaven, from whence we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." (Philippians 3.20-21) Amen. +

Fr. Crouse's paper from the 2008 Mere Anglicanism conference in Charleston on Anglican Sacramentalism is available here or as a Word document.

Marriage Sermon - GRACE & DAGLEY Posted Sept 9

Do not put asunder your marriage individually with God, and God will teach you all you need to know about marriage with one another.  And you will shine in your lives together as an ever and ever brighter image to the world, an icon, a living picture, of the mystical marriage of Christ and His Church.  (click for full text)

MICHAEL HAWKINS, BISHOP OF SASKATCHEWAN! Posted Mar 16

The Rt. Rev. Michael Hawkins, a former rector of the Parishes of Petite Riviere and New Dublin, was consecrated Bishop of the Diocese of Saskatchewan on March 6.  He is shown here with family - wife Kathryn, and children Matthew and Allie. Click the picture for a larger version and click here for more photos of the night.   We join in with gratitude and the praise of heaven singing Te Deum laudamus!