The Story Is Just Getting Started

Alleluia! Christ is risen.

The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

We’ve been following the journey of these bowls all week. They started with chips and cracks and brokenness on Palm Sunday.

Then they were washed, as broken they are, on Maundy Thursday.

Then, they were smashed open with Jesus on the cross on Good Friday.

And they’ve just been sitting in this bag, this tomb, for three whole days.

The story seemed over, but God was up to something.

God is always up to something.

God is always out ahead of us making all things new.

Like this bowl that’s been sitting in the tomb for three whole days.

Let’s see what God was up to…

The bowl was put back together…but it’s different.

It’s something new.

It’s something more beautiful.

Maybe you’ve heard of the Japanese art form of Kintsugi. It’s where broken pieces of pottery are restored using gold to fill in the gaps, making it more beautiful than it was before. 

And in the resurrection, Jesus’ broken and dead body wasn’t “repaired.” He still had scars in his hands and feet.

He was raised into a whole new way of being truly and fully alive.

He is also more whole and beautiful than anyone could ever imagine. 

And the same thing happens for us.

In Jesus’ death and resurrection, our chipped and broken and shattered pieces are made new.

Made whole.

Made beautiful.

This is the most outrageous promise of the Bible…that broken things can be made new.

We prayed a prayer on Friday…it’s maybe my favorite prayer in the whole prayer book. It says…

let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord…

Even in our brokenness—especially in our brokenness—God is remaking us. Taking the chipped and cracked and broken and shattered pieces of our lives and making us into something new and whole and beautiful.

That’s the Easter story.

That’s our story.

And the story is just getting started…

Alleluia! Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!