April 5, 2026 - Easter Sunday / Resurrection of the Lord

April 5, 2026  Easter Sunday
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Matthew 28:1-10
“Unafraid of Becoming the Sea”
Douglas T. King

“Spirit is life like a river unafraid of becoming the sea.”  These words are scripted in gold at the top of a thirty foot tall painting of a luminous and numinous, flowing river displayed in the sculpture hall of the Saint Louis Art Museum.    Like many of you I was awed by the Anselm Keifer installation, “Becoming the Sea.” The moment I entered my breath was taken away by the collection of gargantuan paintings rising up around me.  This one painting particularly captured my attention because those words are from the beat poet, Gregory Corso, “Spirit is life like a river unafraid of becoming the sea”  

It is an evocative piece of verse.  But something struck in my ear as a little different.  I am familiar with some of Corso’s writing and had a friend at school who knew Corso.  Corso led a wild and woolly life.  He was abandoned by his parents in New York City.  He learned to write poetry while he was in prison for stealing a suit from a tailor’s shop for a big date.  You have to love a romantic!  

As I was standing there I pulled up the poem on my phone to see what was different.  The entire poem is this,  

“Spirit
is Life
It flows thru
the death of me
endlessly
like a river
unafraid
of becoming
the sea”

It is inscribed on Corso’s tombstone in Rome, at the foot of his hero Percy Shelley’s grave.

For some reason Keifer had removed a portion of the poem, “It flows through the death of me endlessly...”  I cannot speak to Kiefer’s artistic intent and choices but I was not surprised that if a portion of the poem would be removed, death would be that portion.  On this Easter morning, like every Easter morning, this sanctuary will repeatedly fill with glorious, celebratory major chords and alleluias, accompanied by the bright and victorious sounds of brass and timpani.  We are full steam ahead with the empty tomb, the risen Christ, and eternal life.  We are riding Keifer and Corso’s luminous and numinous river into the everlasting love of God’s sea. It would be so easy to glide over the death portion.

Of all the gospel accounts of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, Matthew brings us the most drama.  He makes sure we know the defeat of death is no small task.  We get an earthquake, and an angel like lightning, and guards so paralyzed with fear we are told they are like “dead men.”  

The women at the tomb are also filled with fear.  However, with the angel’s plea and urging, “Do not be afraid” they are not frozen like the guards but speed off with fear and joy to share the good news with the disciples. On the way they meet the risen Christ, and even in the midst of worshipping him, their fear arises once more.  But once again they are told, “Do not be afraid” and on they continue with their journey.  

We hear of two distinct responses to resurrection and the fear of resurrection in this text.  The paralysis of the guards and the movement forward of the women.  Clearly, we do not wish to be those guards who are paralyzed by fear.  We aspire to be those women continually moving beyond fear and able to step into the future.

When we gather on Easter Sunday, we are all a bit like Anselm Keifer.  We want to enjoy the victory and flow with that luminous and numinous river into the everlasting sea.  But the reality is there is no journey to resurrection that does not include death.  What this means for us today, is that if we want to experience the transforming power of God’s resurrection in our lives we have to be willing to die to certain things.  Those women were left with the choice of allowing their fear to paralyze them or dying to that fear and moving forward.  Ironically, the guards, being unable to die to their fear, become like dead men.  And those women, who were able to die to their fear, become fully alive, encounter the risen Christ, and continue to move forward.  

In his famous poem, Sunday Morning, Wallace Stevens wrote,
 
“Death is the mother of beauty;
hence from her, Alone, 
shall come fulfilment to our dreams…”

While it is true that the defeat of death itself and the journey to eternal life in the resurrection is entirely God’s purview, we are called to die to the debilitating things in our lives, and thus participate in God’s Spirit leading us to other iterations of God's eternal love.  
We can share in the resurrection countless times in our lives.  The first step happens this morning.  Today we are seeking to own the belief that there is indeed nothing more powerful than God’s love, freely offered to us.  And in recognizing the power of God’s love we are invited to let go of other lesser things that have power over us.  

We all have elements in our lives that inhibit us from living fully and abundantly as God’s beloved children.  For me it is my numerous neuroses, just ask my colleagues.  For some of us we need to die a confounding cocktail of fear and anxiety.  Our worries for the world and our future, as relevant and real as they may be, play on an obsessive loop in our consciousness and hold us hostage.  When we own the reality of the transforming power of God’s resurrection love, we can die, perhaps not entirely to those worries, but to the ways they own our thoughts and actions every minute of the day.  

For some of us we may need to die to ego and entitlement.  When we own the reality of the transforming power of God’s resurrection love we can die to needless privilege and arrogance and be invited into a thoughtful humility.
 
For some of us we may need to die to our obsession over superficial things, our outward appearance, our career accomplishments, our possessions.  When we own the reality of the transforming power of God’s resurrection love we can die to the importance of surface things and recognize what is truly most valuable.

For some of us it is an addiction which holds us tight.  When we own the power of God’s transforming resurrection love we can begin to die to the illusion that we cannot live without the object of our addiction and thus gain the courage to take the first steps toward treatment and freedom.  

What do you need to begin dying to today that you may welcome the transforming power of God’s resurrection love?  What is it of which you need to let go that you may be in the motion of that luminous and numinous river leading you to the sea of God’s transforming resurrection love?  

Death can be a scary thing, both death with a capital “D” and these smaller deaths to the things to which we needlessly cling to in this world.  But the word from the divine is clear, “Do not be afraid.” We need not be afraid of letting go of what hinders us, for God’s transforming resurrection love is well worth the challenge of the change.  

Humor me, while I offer one more art reference this morning. There is a painting at the Met by Pieter Bruegel, entitled, The Dirty Bride. It shows the most unlikely of pairings on their wedding day.  What is most striking about the painting is the Latin inscription inscribed just below it.  In English it translates as “what may not we lovers hope for?”  It speaks to wide-open possibilities, even the most improbable of ones.  When we are willing to die to those things that limit us, whatever they may be, or however they may serve us in certain limiting ways, we can own the phrase, “what may not we children of God hope for?”  

If God can transform death into life there is no part of ourselves that cannot be transformed. There is nothing in our lives or in our world that cannot be born anew by God’s love.  There are infinite ways we can be welcomed into that endless luminous and numinous river that promises us freedom from all of our burdens.

Do not be afraid.

“Spirit
is Life
It flows thru
the death of me(us)
endlessly
like a river
unafraid
of becoming
the sea”

Indeed.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.