Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. The central, eternal, enduring proclamation of the holy catholic church. The Easter Proclamation. Nothing that we do, say, sing, pray, nothing we hope, believe, teach, or proclaim remotely approaches the significance of this Easter claim of triumph: "Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia." In proclaiming the Resurrection, it is important to stress that we proclaim "Resurrection", not "Immortality". Immortality of the Soul is a Greek concept, an idea that there is something intrinsic in humanity over which death has no power, the concept that there is a life-force, an essential self which survives bodily death, so that death is not something much to be feared by the intelligent, philosophical person. Well, the New Testament knows nothing of such a sweetly benign death. In the New Testament, death is real, it is man's ultimate enemy, it has a power and sting which cause man to recoil in horror. When it happens to those we love, we are torn apart by grief. The very thought of death made Christ sweat blood. The proclamation of the Gospel, the faith of the New Testament, the Easter claim of glory, is that there is a power greater than the power of death, the power of God in Christ, the power of the Resurrection. Resurrection is a special gift from God. It is not something that God built into the natural order of things at Creation. The New Testament is clear that Jesus did not rise on his own, as though it were something to be expected from his sinless life. The New Testament everywhere speaks of "this Jesus, whom God raised." The Resurrection was not Jesus claiming, a normal, natural legacy of immortality. The Resurrection was the breaking into this world of the power of God and the life of the world to come. Reversing everything. St.. Paul throughout all his Epistles, assures us of the consequence of this intervention, this reversal: "as God raised our Lord from the dead, so will he also give life to our mortal bodies through him." To the Romans he elaborates: "For if we have become incorporate with him in a death like his, we shall also be one with him in a resurrection like his." But the resurrection is more than even that glorious and surpassing proclamation and assurance of the life to come when all is fulfilled and accomplished. It is historical fact, but it is more than that. It is a description of what surely will be, but it is more than that. It is a present and continuing reality. The Resurrection of Christ is a continuing and ongoing reality, the Resurrection-life promised to each of us is already a reality, has already begun. We are already living the risen life, and sharing the Risen Life of him whom God raised from the dead. What happened, then, when the tomb was discovered empty, is happening now to us. Christ, risen from the dead now and forever and always. And with him, us, now and forever and always. He is risen, and by his grace we too are risen from the dead. Called out of our tombs. Called to leave the grave clothes behind. Called out of all sorts of present tombs. Tombs of guilt, and remorse, and despair. Tombs fraught with anxiety and filled with worry and self-doubt. The view from the tomb is one of decay, decomposition, and despair. The view from inside the tombs in which we live and from which we are called forth is wrong. It is no longer reality. That view has been destroyed, and must be abandoned by us. For from inside the tomb, from that perspective, is matters very much whether or not you are good and upright in your ways. It matters very much whether or not you are accomplished, committed and well-regarded. Inside the tomb, it even matters if you are attractive and clever and successful. Inside our tombs it matters very much that you actually are what you appear to be, it matters very much that you manage well, do well, that you have creative and fulfilling work, that you have talents and gifts, it matters very much that you have abiding and satisfying relationships, admirable and well-ordered lives. From inside tightly sealed tombs, all of that matters very much, and it brings death and grief to all of us. The Easter Acclamation is that all of that does not matter. On the Day of his Resurrection, all of the mocking and the scourging, the humiliation and the denials he endured, the betrayals and the suffering, the rejection and the desertion he a suffered, all of that, this day, no longer matters. And on the Day of his Resurrection, all that is askew in our lives, the worry, the shame, the foolishness, the embarrassment, the inadequacy, the loneliness, the frustration, no longer matters. Only Jesus Christ matters, and him risen from the dead. And with him, us. All of us, this day, now and forever called out of sad, dark tombs of our own, or another's, making, summoned into new and risen and unending life. Now that, is all that matters. Alleluia.