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By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead… – 1 Peter 1:3
There’s an old Methodist hymn, written by Charles Wesley, and is often believed to be the opening hymn of the early Methodist Conferences. Each time the pastors and laymen would assemble together to talk about new possibilities in ministry, and to report on what had been done so far, they would first sing this hymn – And Are We Yet, Alive.
To this day, each time Methodist gather for Annual Conference, General Conference and many other times of holy conferencing, that same song is sung. It reminds us that through times of trials and testing, through troubles and fears, in glory, preserved by power divine, we are yet here, we are yet alive. Perhaps, when this time of quarantine and social distancing is over, and we can gather at St. Mark, again for worship, we should bring out that old hymn and remind ourselves that we have made it through.
I bring this up, today, because we enter now into the Second week of Easter. Easter is so much more than a day, it is an entire season, and beyond that, Easter is a way of living into the greater hope of life eternal. The passage from 1 Peter, today, reminds us that when we come to the foot of the cross, when we witness, and experience the death, and the resurrection of Jesus, when we believe in the power that overcomes the grave; then we enter into a new life. We are born again. We might remember some old revivalist talking about being a born again Christian and we may or may not have understood what that meant when we heard it. But to be born again, is to start fresh, to recognize the new life we have been given in Christ. This new life, is one that comes with a new kind of hope too – a living hope.
A living hope, another phrase we might not fully comprehend yet, but a living hope is what Wesley and many Methodists of old had as they made their way through trials and troubles, as they persevered to start Methodist bands and societies, as the circuit riders forged from place-to-place with only what they could carry on horseback, so that churches might be established all across our land. No one does so without a hope in something bigger or better, no one does so unless they know the joy of a living hope that is found in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Today, we continue to celebrate the resurrection, and strive forward, because we are yet alive. The final verse of that hold hymn give us this hope in which we strive:
Let us take up the cross / till we the crown obtain,
and gladly reckon all things loss / so we may Jesus gain.
Grace & Peace,
Sam