Calvary Episcopal Church
Memphis, Tennessee
THE CHRONICLE
April 27, 2003
Vol. 48, No. 17

Dual Citizenship
When I'm grilling on our patio, or doing Tai Chi, I stand under a majestic old elm
tree. Its branches reach over me. I trace the seasons' ebb and flow through the elm's changes. It is my companion, in a way. Because it's an elm, and old, the arborist says it should be taken down. But my neighbor and I always agree- "Let's give it another year." Each year the decay of disease takes a few more branches. The roof of my car has a dimple where one of those branches left its mark when it fell.

I wonder at the Elm. Its branches are so long and supple, they seem to embrace the sky as they reach up and out. Each spring it produces more little round green seed pods than any other tree in our neighborhood. They cover our cars, they send up shoots almost immediately after landing in my herb garden, and I have to weed them out. Prolific. Yet dying.

The idea of resurrection existed in the mind of God from before time. Even stars are
born, die, and regenerate. Yet even dying and rising stars are not resurrected,
they're regenerated. Humans work to etch our significance into the annals of history so we will not be forgotten. Yet all of us, all living things, have life spans measured by when we will no longer be. Jesus did too. He died at the age of 34 (or 35), on across just outside of Jerusalem. But unlike any other living being, three days after dying, he was alive. Not just fully alive, but alive in a new way, in a new existence. The word for resurrection in the New Testament has its roots in the verb "to stand." Jesus stood anew in this world, resurrected, on the first day after Passover in 30 a.d. The effects of his resurrection spread and spread. But not just because Jesus lived anew. He was not a visitor of eternity imposed on our world. His resurrection affects all humans in every age because he sacrificed his life in loving so well.

Jesus lived in such a way that God's love became known personally to lepers,
women, rough-hewn fishermen, even non-Jews. Like the seed pods of the old Elm
tree, Jesus' love was prolific, penetrating. Jesus planted seeds of love and hope in
hearts where darkness and despair ruled. Jesus' resurrection was the wild,
unanticipated breaking forth of God's love into eternity in the Christ of our faith.

As we live through the great Fifty Days of Eastertide, we Christians might do well to consider how Resurrection claims all of us. We carry dual citizenship, both in this
world and in God's eternal domain. The Resurrection of Jesus is the only reason we
have for being the community of Christians today. We live with one foot fully
planted in Memphis, and one tip-toe in that startling resurrection life Jesus lives
now. With Christians across this world and in the next, we can muster only this
giddy shout at God's extravagance: "He is Risen!"

G. Yandell

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