"Jesus At Large: Glimpses of Grace, Weapons of
Mass Attraction,"
Which one is scarier, crucifixion or resurrection? I really wonder. I
think we have learned to do "death" pretty well in this world.
In fact, death seems in control most everywhere we look. Crucifixions of
persons and peoples grow so common only one in a movie gets our
attention much any more. But, resurrection! Life! A new way of living!
One that’s really different from all the old ways leading to death!
That’s what I call scary.
So Good Friday was double-jeopardy for me. Not only does it leave us
silenced, intimidated, -- helpless and hopeless --betraying, denying,
abandoning. Only a preacher would dare speak when there’s nothing to
say. So they told me for the noon ecumenical service at Trinity to speak
just ten minutes or so. I did. Now the congregation knows I can do that!
I don’t need to be John Auer-and-a-half all the time! Dangerous
precedent.
If Good Friday leaves us silenced, Easter Sunday leaves us
speechless! Awestruck! Breathtaken! Dumbfounded! The news we are getting
is so far beyond amazing, shocking, a "stretch" for us as we
say. It is downright incredible. Literally, not credible. Beyond belief.
Totally without reference to anything else, of our experience or of the
world’s! Nothing to do but fall back on the church’s historic
proclamation of this day: Praise the Lord! Christ is risen! CHRIST IS
RISEN INDEED! (3 times)
A reading of the beginning of this year’s pastoral letter from
Episcopal Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal, Diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle
East: "Salaam and grace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ the risen
from the dead, and from Jerusalem, the Mother City of our faith, the
city of the Resurrection. . . .
"It is Easter again. . . . We are still first century
Christians! The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus is not only the event of
yesterday. It is the event of today, day in and day out, until His
coming again in Glory." Amen!
"The stone which the builders rejected, "sings the
psalmist, "has become the cornerstone!" A brand-new creation
is born this day, decisively out of the dregs of the old, -- the
rejected, the outcast, abandoned, denied, failed, and forgotten,
-- the incorrigible and irremediable, the dispensable and the
disposable. The one who was most alone in the sight of God and all
people, most isolated, most ignored, fell into the earth like a seed
giving up its own singularity, to be raised again from the earth,
bringing forth many fruits, even the fruit of a mustard seed now grown
to accommodate everyone! Every last nation and people on earth.
And Jesus is just the first fruits, says Paul, the last thing those
in authority want to hear! They thought they were putting an end to him,
not getting him started again! This is not just one valiant savior
raised in response to his unfailing witness and service to suffering and
death. This is a whole new ball game! The Adams have yielded the field
to the Jesuses! Can we imagine, trying to keep up with all the Jesuses
spotted this week, -- appearing first here, then there, to this unlikely
person, to those unlikely ones! (As with his birth Jesus relies only on
the witness of those who are inadmissible under the law! Then the
shepherds, now the women!) The road to Emmaus! The tightly-locked room!
The lakefront!
Jesus has busted out all over! Completely at loose and at large! Out
of this and of every box -- a proverbial cat from every bag, a genie
from every bottle! God in Jesus is over the top! Out of Egypt! Out of
the tomb! Out of bondage to sin, oppression, exploitation, death! Out of
all banks! Breaking all banks! Out of control! In another world! Jesus
is "river rising," in the image of Wendell Berry (our
"Words for Meditation") – What excitement! What
unexpectedness! Everything transposing instantly! The difficult and the
easy! The distant and the near! The waterline wipes away one world,
revealing another! Cornfield lagoons! Pasture canals! Downstream is
upstream! Through tops of trees! Gone with the current! Gone with the
flow! "Our starting place already diminishing behind us!"
"Once the connection with shore is broken, the journey has begun .
. . . " Sisters and brothers, the journey has only begun . . . .
Mari Evans says how this day is for us, in her poem entitled
"The Rebel" -- When I / die / I’m sure / I will have a /
Big Funeral . . . / Curiosity / seekers . . . / coming to see /
If I / am really / Dead . . . / or just / trying to make /
Trouble . . . The God we know from Jesus’ witness and action this
past week is out to make big-time trouble! Even for death itself. This
day means to overcome death! Not in our lifetimes, perhaps, but at least
in our lives. In as many lives as our lives can reach and touch.
Brothers and sisters, it is the power of death itself that has this
world fighting death with death in nearly every last corner of it. Our
deaths cannot defeat death. Only, for us, in the death of Jesus is death
ever defeated, for such a life cannot stay dead. If we believe death can
serve as an end, in our lives or in any others, then we die as we live,
in vain. We cannot go on, sings Holly Near, killing people who kill
people, to show killing people is wrong. Only life, only love, only
justice as organized love, love in nonviolent systemic action, has any
chance of defeating death, of transforming power, of establishing peace.
So that is the mission of resurrection, the mission impossible for
which Exodus and Resurrection themselves set the bar, -- the mission to
which Jesus invites us to give our lives. If we are willing, Jesus is
able. If we are willing, Jesus is able. Thank you for making such a
faithful beginning with Holy Week. It took all of us to make Holy Week
and this day responsive to God, in our lives and in our life together.
The big activist part of me had to read this week, "Christianity
begins not with a big do, but with a big done. We begin
our Christian life by depending not upon our own doing but upon what
Christ has done. . . . No Christian experience begins with walking, but
with a definite sitting down!" I thought our Holy Week began a week
ago yesterday, when Christopher Larsen sat down in the river to be
baptized. We have come a long way in a week. Truly, rivers of rain and
of resurrection are running through deserts of dust and of death.
Looking just ahead, the family of our vibrant sister Mim Davis
invites us to celebrate her life Saturday at 11 am by wearing
"fun" clothes to the service. I hope we will do so, and I hope
those who can will wear outrageous hats! Such as Mim wore! And wear them
to church next Sunday, for Jewish-Christian Relations Day. Call them
Easter bonnets. Call them "Bella bonnets," for Bella Abzug,
first Jewish woman elected to Congress, -- a real "Jeanette
Rankin" of our time! -- who died just before Easter six years ago.
When she was breaking in as a young attorney for labor unions, women of
the time were not taken seriously unless they were wearing hats! So, she
said, she wore the most outrageous ones she could find! Of course, we
also do serious witness next week. We light candles for victims of the
Holocaust on Yom Hashoah, Day of Remembrance, even as Jesus goes to his
death saying, "Do this, remembering me." Re-member me,
re-connect with me, in your lives and in your life together.
No matter how horrible the circumstance of being human in this life
may be, an indomitable spirit, a spirit of life, keeps running through
it, keeps running through us. The Episcopal Bishop of Jerusalem,
"Mother City of our faith, the city of the Resurrection," goes
on to say –
We are the community of the resurrection, of the risen Lord who
overcame death by dying and blessed us with life . . . . Death
will not have the last word. Life will: Life with dignity, life
with freedom, life with harmony, life with integrity, life with
peace – just and truthful. Such a life will not only have the
last word, it will be a life that is worth living. . . .
On we go. He walks with us. He walks with you. He will
accompany us until we arrive at our Emmaus and will open our eyes
to see Him risen at the breaking of bread. We travel the land, we
cross checkpoints, and border stations, we climb up walls, we weep
with those who weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice, sharing
hope and bringing life to those who are dying to live.
Sharing hope and bringing life to those who are dying to live . . . .
Praise the Lord! Christ is risen! CHRIST IS RISEN INDEED! (3 times) And,
amen.
Rev. John Auer
