Easter: In the Silence of God

Christ is Risen.  Alleluia.

The Book of the Acts of the Apostles contains the essential message of the Christian faith.  John the Baptist prepared the way; Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed; he was put to death on a cross; he rose from the dead; he appeared to the faithful; he sent the disciples out to preach good news; he will come in glory to judge the living and the dead; he is the one the prophets expected; belief in him will mean salvation and forgiveness of sins.  This is it, from beginning to end.  It is now up to us to live our lives faithfully in response to this good news.

The theologian Richard Niebuhr said that in teaching theology he told his students:  "What you come to believe, what you come to love, will lead you to the future; and by those beliefs and loves you will build the future." 

“Believing is the path of love, and to love is to cooperate in creating that which is lovely, that which is good and overflows…. To create is our highest dignity.  Creating is our means of liberating, of setting free what is potential and bestowing actuality upon it.  We create one another;…we bring life where death reigned."

The resurrection of Christ brings life where death reigned.  When it comes to believing in the resurrection of Jesus we encounter the most radical event in human history.  Jesus, who died on a cross, was buried in a tomb, and then raised on the third day: how are we to believe in this?  In the Gospel of John Mary Magdalene used common sense to conclude that the body of the crucified Jesus had been moved.  She had gone to the tomb to add more aromatic spices to Jesus' body but she saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.  

Peter and the other disciple challenged each other in their attempt to verify what Mary told them, "they have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."  Peter and the other disciple went into the tomb, saw and believed, but "they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead."  This remarkable story reminds us that believing the resurrection is a matter of faith; it is not a matter of reason.  There is no objective proof.

The gospels were written by Jesus’ followers during the months and years after his death and resurrection.  The evangelists’ main concern was to preach the 'good news' of Jesus Christ.  There were no witnesses to the Resurrection.  Ignatius of Antioch wrote in the first century, “Jesus rose in the silence of God.”  There were no witnesses and the New Testament writers do not describe what or how it happened.

Some biblical scholars have pointed out that a tradition in Hebrew Scriptures "helps to explain what the first Christians saw in Christ's resurrection....'The Glory of Yahweh' -- meaning the divine presence -- appeared at key moments and places in Jewish history; in the Exodus cloud at Mount Sinai, and over the temple, among others.... For the early Christians the Resurrection was another of those moments....The Risen Christ, the Glory of Yahweh was made manifest in a new and unexpected way.  It revealed the dawn of a 'new creation' -- the church -- and a new hope, that 'in Christ everyone could reliably expect his or her own resurrection from the dead."

Death and resurrection are mysteries.  Jesus rising from the dead is a statement of Christian faith and hope.  Together, death and resurrection is a bond of trust between those who live in the presence of Christ and those early followers of Jesus centuries ago.

To live in the presence of Christ today is to stand in the shadow of the cross and all the suffering and death experienced during Holy Week.  Our Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry has said that in the shadow of the cross we are in the shadow of those who have been killed in Brussels, of those who have been wounded and maimed, of those who weep and mourn.  It is a world in mourning, and not too sure how to move forward. 

The meaning and impact of the stories of death and resurrection make it clear that God's love, God's life, is to be proclaimed and shared.  Death and resurrection are mysteries we can never fully understand.  By proclaiming and sharing God's love with others we can bring life where death has reigned.  Richard Niebuhr's maxim is true:  "What you and I come to believe, what we come to love, leads us into the future; and by those beliefs and loves we build the future."  So today we come to the empty tomb.  Jesus is not there.  Christ is risen, risen into the glory that binds us all together in faith and hope for our future.  Christ is risen!  Alleluia.  Happy Easter.

Good Friday Meditation

Today there is no honor and no glory.  Abandoned to suffering, torment, and rejection, Jesus is abandoned to death.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theologian who died at the hands of the Nazis seventy year's ago, wrote, "In the passion Jesus is a rejected Messiah.  His rejection robs the passion of its halo of glory.  It must be a passion without honor.  Suffering and rejection sum up the whole cross of Jesus."

In the earliest centuries of the Church, Christians celebrated Jesus’ death and resurrection as a single event.  It was not in separate commemorations over three days as we have it today.  Christ's death, burial and three days of waiting, finally the Resurrection victory all come together when we understand that tragedy and desolation cannot be avoided.  The resurrection is not an insignificant triumph.  There is no Easter joy apart from the death of Good Friday.

Jesus identified himself by his intimate relationship with God.  He often went off alone to pray, to be with God.  This intimacy gave him the courage to endure everything the world threw his way.  It had sustained him against temptation.  In betrayal by one of this disciples, and abandonment and rejection by others of his followers, he was bereft and forsaken.  Peter could not look at him.  Only a few women, and his beloved friend, John, were there, but he could not reach them.  He was forsaken by those he loved.  Finally, even his closeness to God was pulled away.  God abandoned him.  God left him.  This is the only time in the New Testament that Jesus calls God, "God."  "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Our discipleship and our belief in the Word of God begin to take on significance and real meaning as we come to terms with our life and our death in relation to Christ's suffering and rejection on the cross.   When we understand what Jesus was saying when he cried out, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" we can know what our discipleship is all about, and then we can also begin to live in real hope.

The words that Jesus cried are the opening words of Psalm 22:

            My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?

O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.

The Psalm is about one who was utterly assaulted by the power of death.  The psalm bemoans the agony of death by crucifixion, and it tells of the helplessness of humanity when confronted by death:

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax, it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.

Our discipleship, our suffering and rejection, our life and death as we stand under the cross, means that we are to live here and now in a way that upholds the Word of God in this life.  We are to practice a belief, a hope and a love in our world that trusts the judgment of God in human history. 

Our discipleship involves freedom from all collusions and conspiracies with death, freedom from the fear of the power of death, freedom from the mockery and idolatry of death, and freedom to live in hope for the Easter resurrection to new life that is the coming kingdom of God.  Amen.

Maundy Thursday: Remembering, Sharing, and Serving

Earlier this week I attended a reception at Brown University for a former chaplain colleague, Rabbi Alan Flam.  Alan was the Hillel Chaplain prior to moving across campus to work for the Swearer Center for Public Service.  He served the Brown community for 34 years.

The reception featured a panel of recent graduates who talked about their experiences at Brown and how they were led into community service.  One of the speakers has been working in South Africa helping forgotten people to understand their oral history; another has been working in urban education; and another has focused on feeding those who are homeless and malnourished. Following their presentation. Alan spoke about his own commitment to community service and what it meant to have been in relationship with these and other former students.

In his remarks one of the things he wished for was that the gates surrounding Brown’s campus would be kept open to foster a continuing reciprocal relationship between the city and the university.

Brown’s principal gates, the Van Wickle Gates, open only twice a year – once to let students in as they begin their four years of study, and once in the spring as they graduate and move into the greater world of their future. The panel and Alan’s remarks illustrated the importance of being open and building relationships that make a difference in all our lives.

The graduates and Alan focused on remembered formative events, sharing food with those in need, and the service they gave to others. Remembering, sharing and serving are normative acts in family and community life.

The scripture readings we heard this evening are about remembering how God delivered the Israelites from bondage, sharing as Paul instructed in breaking bread and sharing the common cup,  and serving those in need. 

In the biblical account of the Passover, God instructed Moses and Aaron about the religious  practice of remembering.  The sacred Passover meal is to occur in the springtime. Selecting an unblemished lamb and its sacrifice reflected a careful liturgical formula.  The liturgy is to be performed in the home rather than in a public place.  The description of the blood on the doorposts echoed a very ancient rite used as a sign to ward off evil in the family dwelling.  In addition, the liturgical act provided life for the first born of the Israelites.  In this context the term, “Passover” denotes protection and freedom.

The Israelites were instructed to roast the Passover lamb “over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.”  It was the custom to use unleavened bread and wild plants of the desert to flavor the meat.  God commanded that they eat this meal with “your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly.  It is the Passover of the Lord,” a time for remembering freedom as the Israelites made their exodus from Egypt. 

The account of the Last Supper in the Gospel of John occurred during a time of preparation “before the festival of the Passover.”  John focused on washing feet and the importance of service that the followers of Jesus were to learn from it.  For us today it is about entering into relationship with Jesus and experiencing and sharing his loving service for those in need.  By sharing a meal and by serving those in need we learn to give and to love as Jesus loves.

Every time we celebrate the Holy Eucharist we invoke God’s blessing on the bread and wine recalling Jesus' words at the Last Supper:  "This is my Body, which is given for you.  Do this for the remembrance of me."  "This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you,… Do this for the remembrance of me."  The origin of remembrance is in the Passover meal.

St. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Church at Corinth that the first Eucharist took place on the “night when [Jesus] was betrayed.”  The sacred formula of taking the bread and then the wine, giving thanks, breaking the bread and offering the cup, doing these acts “in remembrance of me,” suggests that the Eucharist occurs as a unified and communal thanksgiving to God. Offering thanksgiving to God as a community unites us in God’s love.

The Eucharist, a visible sign of a spiritual grace, represents the love that belongs to everyone because of the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”  The death of Jesus is a complete and selfless act of love for his followers.  As the early Christians did, and as all Christians throughout the centuries since Jesus’ death have done, we remember his self-giving love in the action of celebrating the Eucharist.  Tonight, as we wait for Christ's coming again in glory, we vow  to treat one another and everyone with selfless and compassionate love.  Amen.

Hope Rising from Grief

Today is a solemn day, a holy day and an awesome moment in human history.  We have processed with branches of palm while singing “All glory, laud and honor.”  Our emotions rise to an incomprehensible level of triumph and hope.  But then, through the dramatic reading of Luke’s gospel, our emotions plummet to feelings of rejection and frustration.  We are left to envision grief-stricken images of suffering and death.

The gospel account of Jesus’ crucifixion tells us that “all the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!’ The disciples, the women who followed Jesus, and all the people stood by.  What were they feeling?  Were they in shock?  Were they traumatized by what they were seeing?  It must have been an unbelievable and horrifying experience.

What really happened?  What does it mean?  Why was Jesus killed?

Luke’s account of the crucifixion is based on earlier remembered events translated from Aramaic into Greek, and augmented with his own theological interpretation of the events.  The gospel writer gives us an interpretation of the meaning of those events and inspires admiration for Jesus the innocent sufferer who went to his death willingly on behalf of all humanity.

There are two points to stress about Jesus' death.  They are stated well by Marcus Borg in his books, The Meaning of Jesus, and The Heart of Christianity.  The first point is that “the passion stories are not straightforward historical narratives.  They are a mixture of history remembered and early Christian interpretation….Whatever happened was not witnessed by Jesus’ followers; they had fled and were not there…. Peter followed from a distance…. The events were essentially hidden from public view until the crucifixion itself.”

Jesus was executed under Roman authority, and crucifixion was commonly used for two categories of people: political rebels and chronically defiant slaves.  Both of these groups shared a systematic defiance of established authority.  It follows that Jesus was crucified as a political threat to Roman order.

The second point refers to our understanding of the gospel stories as "passion narratives."  Passion means suffering, "but it has an additional meaning as well.  The death of Jesus, his execution, was because of his passion for God and God's justice.  And because we see Jesus as the revelation of God, we see in his life and death the passion of God.  He discloses both the character and passion of God." 

During his life an ministry Jesus was passionate about justice.  He was a social prophet and was killed because of his criticism of the domination system that was so unjust to the poor, to women, children, widows, orphans, and all the outcasts of society.  Jesus was killed by the Roman oppressors because of his passion for God's justice.

Today we stand centuries away from the events surrounding Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion.  Jesus’ followers were so stricken by his death, and they were so oppressed and persecuted for political reasons both by Roman occupation and their own Jewish authorities, that they had to find a way of making sense out of what happened.  The gospels tell us about their historical memory, their theological interpretation, and their profound hope rising out of their grief.  That hope is the hope we live with today as we move through the events of this coming week and wait for the good news and joy of the Resurrection on Easter Day.  Amen.