But it is a very subtle kind of life, this resurrection life. And it is a very subtle kind of power, this power of God that we celebrate today. It is not the kind of power which beats an axis of evil into submission through military might. It is not the kind of power which enables a wealthy person to dominate the highway with a high-tech sports-car. It is not the kind of power which enables an intelligent person to rise to the top of the class and into a successful career. It is not the kind of power that helps us roll up the rim and win a thousand dollars. It is not the kind of power that makes our challenges magically disappear - the challenges of broken relationships, ill health, social problems, HIV/AIDS, West Nile disease, SARS, and our own mortality. We would love to have that sort of power, but the power of the resurrection, even though it speaks of victory over the powers of darkness and death, is not a power that makes those things go away. And it is not a power that gives us a ticket to good fortune and worldly success.

“So what good is it then,” you might ask. What good is that Easter story, that resurrection of Jesus Christ? What am I doing here in church today? Maybe I should have gone to the golf course after all, to get in that first game of golf this year, and dream about getting to be like Mike Weir, instead of a loser disciple of Jesus Christ.

Each of you, of course, gets to make up your own mind about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and whether or not it means anything to you, but on this Easter Sunday the church claims and proclaims the Resurrection and that is what we do today, and what I do today, in these few minutes allotted to the sermon. There are many things to be said about the power of the Resurrection, but today I invite you to see the resurrection through the lens of one thought, which is: that the Resurrection empowers the imagination of the human spirit; and that without such imagination, we might as well be dead.

Let us return to some of the examples of powers that we might like to have, and consider what sort of imagination is required to be engaged with them. I would submit to you that it takes very little imagination to roll up the rim or enter the “649.” Apparently you can even get the machine to pick your numbers for you. What happens in your head in these games of chance is nothing more than fantasy and superstition, hardly imagination, and certainly not inspired imagination. So it is rather ironic that one of the ads for the lotteries urges us to “imagine the possibilities.” To me that is a cheapening of the idea of imagination. Take another tempting thought: If only we had the power to make SARS go away; surely the Resurrection could help us with that. But no, the Resurrection will not take SARS away; it does not take our diseases away; it does not take our mortality away - all of us will die one day! Again, we can fantasize about keeping disease and death away. We can be superstitious about it - and we often are - don’t we knock on wood and cross our fingers. I haven’t been sick yet this year (knock on wood) and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that I never get pneumonia. Now this knocking on wood and crossing of fingers is exactly the sort of unimaginative, superstitious invocation of the Resurrection that I am preaching against today. These superstitions are references to the wooden cross of Jesus which is supposed to give me some sort of magic protection from the power of evil.

True faith in the Resurrection leaves all fantasy and superstition behind. True faith in the resurrection is the product of a sacred, a prophetic, an inspired imagination. Before I tell you something more about this inspired imagination, I have to acknowledge that such an imagination takes a while to develop. It needs to be nurtured and allowed to grow. It is actually not possible, all of a sudden on Easter Sunday, to bring this imagination into being. The inspired imagination comes out of the application of our whole selves to a serious faith journey. A whole lot has happened in that faith journey since Christmas. The baby Jesus has grown up, invited us into all sorts of experiences and learning, a process which required our attention and our attendance along the way. Along with our minds, our hearts, spirits and bodies also had to be involved, in eating and drinking at the communion table, in sitting around other tables: tables of study, discernment, planning the work of ministry; and then of course also in doing the work of ministry along the way. Most recently it was important, if not essential, that our bodies, minds and spirits experienced the spiritual discipline of Lent and the events of Holy Week: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday. Our spiritual imagination needs such nourishment in order to function. Moreover, we need each other in our spiritual journeys. If you have never sat in spiritual solidarity with someone who is suffering or dying, or, on the other hand, with someone who has just discovered the amazing grace of God, then your own spiritual imagination is not yet equipped to enter into the mystery of the Resurrection, let alone to sense its power.

Our life journeys are no different from those of the first disciples when it comes to being empowered by the Resurrection. Our scripture readings today tell us that this was no instantaneous process. The first persons to get wind of the Resurrection were confused and terrified, but gradually their imaginations were awakened and they realized, in communion with each other, that Jesus was alive among them; and that the Risen Christ gave them an incredible power to live their lives in a whole new way. From the Risen Christ, they received the power of courage, the power of hope, the power of love. At first, they were completely dis-empowered by the crucifixion of Jesus; they hid themselves away and huddled, full of fear in locked rooms. Death scared the hell out of them. They would have been terrified of SARS, and what they considered to be sinister looking Iraqis, and traffic accidents; they were scared of the bully down the street. But then they realized, that even though all of those things were certainly frightening, and also potentially dangerous, they nevertheless could choose, by choosing to exercise their God-inspired imaginations, to embrace the Risen Christ. And then they felt the power - the power of the Spirit of God enabling them to live abundantly in the face of anything and everything that life might throw their way. It is exactly that which the Resurrection of Jesus Christ has in store for us today; nothing more, but nothing less.

Having said these things, I can now say with genuine profundity, “Imagine the possibilities!” Imagine the possibilities offered to you through the power of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Imagine the possibility of living in peace even though all hell is breaking loose around you. Imagine the possibility of being whole even though disease is knocking at the door. Imagine the possibility of being profoundly content even though you have given away a good chunk of your wealth. Imagine the possibility of setting aside anger and bitterness, of accepting and offering forgiveness, of conquering the demons of fear, anxiety and depression, of being able to sleep at night and jump out of bed in the morning with a shout of “Hallelujah!” Imagine the possibilities found in a life which is empowered by the Resurrection of Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit of God.