Aliens

By Rev. Ethan Brown
Pastor and Minister of Care & Discipleship

I hate to inform you, but our city has been invaded. These invaders certainly look like they could be from some other planet with their bulbous red eyes and black and orange carapace. They are not extraterrestrials, however, but intra-terrestrials, having lived in the ground—literally beneath our feet—for 13 years only to burst forth now from the ground like zombies from a grave. As I write this article, their incessant white noise forces its way inside even the brick walls of my office. Their bullet-shaped bodies bombard anyone who dares walk among trees and bushes. Though our son wants to catch the “cicados,” our dog feels personally harassed by them and hunts them religiously. These cicadas from Brood 9 are impossible to ignore as they leave behind the dried husks of their bodies filling gutters and clinging as mementos upon every tree and bush.          

Despite their intrusion into our daily lives, I have been fascinated to watch these strange bugs. Last weekend I stumbled upon some in the process of shedding their outer shells. I was surprised to see how pale their new bodies were while they warmed in the sun. These strange bugs live hidden lives, but every now and then they emerge into the sunlight and are reborn. Perhaps this rebirth is not the same as the rebirth of the resurrection about which Paul speaks, yet it is similar. Paul says that our spiritual bodies will look as different as a plant looks from its seed, “Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength” (1 Corinthians 15:42-23).

I think there is a newness available to us even now in this life. Perhaps for many of us, it happens slowly and out of sight before bursting into the light of day, and at other times it is an ongoing reality, but each of us is being formed into new creations, ones of love and grace and goodness. Perhaps we leave a little bit behind in the transformation, something old and dried out. And perhaps in the leaving, we find ourselves more fully alive, more fully ourselves. Thanks be to God.