Two gifted historians, theologians and good friends wrote a book titled - The Meaning of Jesus.  I found the book in a used book store autographed and dedicated, "For Cathy with all good wishes" Tom Wright, Marcus Borg - May '02  I would like to share the concluding paragraphs of Tom Wright's writing on the resurrection. (my editing - by replacing pronouns with proper nouns and the word "it" - the legacy of a college professor who would not allow us to use the word "it" - "No one knows how to use the word it properly!"

In his concluding paragraphs of chapter 7 "The Transforming Reality of the Bodily Resurrection" page 126 Dr. Wright wrote,
"The deepest meanings of the resurrection have to do with new creation.if the stories are metaphors for anything they are metaphors for the belief that God's new world had been brought to birth. When Jesus emerged, transformed, from the tomb on Easter morning, the event was heavy with symbolic significance, to which the evangelists drew attention, without wishing to detract from the historical nature of what they were talking about. The resurrection was the first day of God's new week, the moment of sunrise after the long night, the time of new meetings, new meals, of reconciliation and new commissioning. The resurrection was the beginning of the new creation.

"The resurrection was, therefore, the sign of hope for the future, not only for individuals but for the whole world....

"Because of this hope, the resurrection of Jesus means that the present time is shot through with great significance.  What is done to the glory of God in the present is genuinely building for God's future. Acts of justice and mercy, the creation of beauty and the celebration of truth, deeds of love and the creation of communities of kindness and forgiveness - these all matter and they mater forever.  Take away the resurrection, and these things are important for the present but irrelevant for the future and hence not at all that important after all even now. Enfolded in this vocation to build now, with gold, silver, and precious stones, the things that will last into God's new age, is the vocation to holiness: to the fully human life, reflecting the image of God, that is possible by the victory of Jesus on the Cross and that is energized by the Spirit of the risen Jesus present within communities and persons. "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above"; get rid of all the dehumanizing behavior that destroys God's good creation and the creatures made in his image, all anger and lust, greed and pride." The resurrection thus opens the door to a new world: a new mode of life for the whole cosmos and all who will dwell in this new world here and hereafter."
 
Where any of us are in this world -  from any nation or with any worldview - the resurrection of Jesus brings hope for almost unheard of new beginning!  Which our world truly needs as do each of us.

HAPPY EASTER