Sunday, April 24, 2011
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
The Rev. George D. Smith
Easter Day
I want to begin my homily with three words: welcome, welcome, welcome! I really mean it. And I want you to know that this welcome is full and complete, not just for the beautiful parts of you that you have brought here today – your smile, good looks, Easter best but also for those parts that perhaps aren’t visible – the sadness, mistakes, secrets, troubles and fears that you and all of us have within us. The welcome is for those of you who go to church every Sunday and those of you who may be darkening the door for the first time. Taking a line from the marriage ceremony, “With all that you are and all that you have, we honor you.” Beginning with the opening acclamation, “Alleluia, Christ is Risen!” today’s worship service invites us to offer all that we are before God and to face with full authenticity the biggest challenge of our lives. There are many challenges facing us and our world. Consider the national debt. Compared to the biggest challenge, it’s fairly easy to solve – we all know it’s going to take some combination of raising revenues and cutting expenses. Consider ending war and poverty. We know how to do that – in the Book of Isaiah, the prophet announces “they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” Indeed, the great challenge that I am talking about is figuring out our own lives. Plainly put, Easter is about making sense of our lives and finding the right orientation for today and the days, months, years ahead. If you look around and follow the service carefully, the reality of our lives is fully represented. The cross, first and foremost, reminds us of our mortality. This is one place where a primary symbol reminds us that each of us has a limited amount of time, and there is one hundred percent certainty that no one escapes suffering and death. In our Scripture readings, creed, prayers, praise, hymns, exchange of peace and in the bread and wine, the totality of our lives is spread out before each other and God. No secrets are hidden and the reality of life is fully cracked open to the sunlight. And the amazing thing is that in revealing all, we will not be struck down, punished or humiliated. Because all that we are, and all that we have is today taken up by God, made holy, blessed, and given back to us for the rest of our lives.
Easter reminds me of a scene from the 1987 movie Outrageous Fortune starring Bette Midler and Shelly Long. Long plays a refined actress who falls in love with her renowned theater professor. Midler plays another actress, who is loud and brash and in love with the same man. When the professor “dies” in a gas explosion, the women figure out that his death was faked. They form an alliance and follow leads to try to track him down. In the process, they end up being chased by the CIA. The scene I love is when the two women go to Midler’s apartment. They open the door, and the place is ransacked. For ten seconds, the camera captures the devastation as it pans from one side of the room to the other. Drawers are open, chairs upended, clothes and papers are everywhere. Long, who takes in the scene, turns to Midler and says, “They’ve been here.” Midler pauses and says, “No they haven’t.” Why is this like Easter? As the camera pans across the earth, from one end to the other, what we see is a mess – poverty, injustice, corruption, pollution, sickness and so many problems at the personal and societal levels. I think we are tempted to say, “He hasn’t been here.” If Jesus was raised from the dead, and if what he said is true, “I will be with you always,” then the world wouldn’t be in such a mess. But that’s the rub. The events of Easter are not about fixing the mess. Easter is about living in it, knowing the God has blessed the mess and is present in it.
And before I go any further, I want to offer an apology to those of you who have been harmed or discouraged by the church. In its desire to show authority, strength and truth, it has been and remains very hard for the church to apologize. And by the church, I mean all churches and all denominations. They have all done harm. The first words spoken after the resurrection, at least according to Mark and Matthew’s Gospels are these: Do not be afraid. In so many ways, Christianity has forgotten those words. People have been taught to be afraid of questions, of doubt, of their own problems, of the sacraments, the clergy – and even of Jesus himself. When the church was the only game in town, people had no choice but to buckle under. Many developed a wooden and flat faith. Now when people truly have freedom to not go to church, many have stopped going. In seeking loyalty to God, the church sought control and obedience to the point of poisoning the gifts of curiosity and passion that make us human and in the image of God. So if the church has hurt you, thank you for being here, for your time and willingness to perhaps give the church another chance.
Along with my apology is a bit of an explanation. Christianity is without a doubt a complex faith. At its beginning, Christianity was born out of experience and practice. Friends and neighbors gathered in homes for prayers, discussions and the sharing of bread and wine in the name of Jesus. The way of Jesus was practiced and experienced within church families. Practice formed belief, not the other way around. As Christianity became highly organized, uniform and hierarchical, the power and survival of the institution became more important than people. The leadership didn’t have the resources or relationships to deal with individual doubts and questions. When these cropped up, they were dealt with harshly. A few extraordinary individuals emerged over time and broke through, bringing reform and change. But so often, the new movements became institutions themselves with hardened shells and attitudes. A quick survey of the landscape shows a Christianity that has lost its way. Certain churches seek regular attendance for its own sake, with a penalty of divine punishment for failing to do so. Other churches have reworked the Christian message into one of ultimate escape. If you believe in Jesus, upon your death you will be rewarded with an entrance into heaven, an exclusive realm of bliss far from the multiplicity and mess of the earth. Other churches have become exclusively focused on individual unworthiness and the importance of achieving moral purity. By taking a few Bible verses, adding political agendas, the message looks a lot like a roadmap back to a white, middleclass America of the 1950s – the way it looks in pictures from Life Magazine. There are also churches that seem to have no claims at all. In the pursuit of tolerance, openness and a reasonable religion, they have ended up with no soul or substance. The resurrection is the heart of our faith. If Jesus isn’t raised from the dead, Christianity is a lot of work for nothing.
The heart of Easter and Christianity is an all-out shout and affirmation that Jesus is risen. The resurrection is why we are here today and why we gather Sunday after Sunday. It is why people in 1897 gathered in Glen Ellyn to start an Episcopal Church. It is why people gave their lives, talents and money to build the great Cathedrals in Europe. Remember the first words spoken after the resurrection: Do not be afraid. You don’t tell someone to be afraid when paint is drying on a wall or Jello is setting in the refrigerator. The resurrection of Jesus is amazing, overwhelming, terrifying, upsetting, hair-raising and gut-punching. It isn’t terrifying in the same way that a horror movie of zombies and mummies is. Walking mummies are terrifying because they are out to hurt you. The resurrection of Jesus is terrifying because it upsets the ways of the world, everything that we’ve come to expect about each other and God. Jesus, a figure of complete compassion and non-violence, who respected all people regardless of their religion, gender, age or social status, is the one who is raised. The resurrection is God’s ultimate blessing on a way of life that seeks healing, justice and forgiveness among every person. The resurrection tells us that Jesus had it right in a world that was and still is convinced that violence is the means to safety, security and the good life. Even and especially the church itself has so often forgotten this most essential of all truths, finding excuses to use violence or giving itself completely over to the means of force and death – think crusades, inquisitions, and Qur’an burnings. You can say Christ has died, Christ is risen every Sunday, every day, but if you are given over to violence, it is empty and leads nowhere.
To be a Christian means following in the path of Jesus. Jesus, who was the living Word of God, was not a wall flower. His non-violence was not passive. He was constantly on the move and took risks to cross over political, social and physical boundaries – he touched the sores of the leper, held dirty, beggar children, healed the infidel, blessed the traitor. The cross was an attempt to stop him, to stop the healing and social disruptions that he was causing. On the night he was arrested, a violent mob carrying swords and clubs surrounded him. One of his disciples drew a sword and cut off the ear of one of the soldiers. Jesus reached out, touched the ear and it was healed. He did not resist their violence, their chains, their beating, taunts and nailing to the cross. He did not overrule the pain and suffering of the cross. The death machine of the world had done its work again, and no one expected anything to be different.
The resurrection is the difference. Jesus, revealing the heart of God’s desire for the world and all people, washed the feet of his disciples and did not resist violence. The resurrection is God’s blessing on this way – the way of Christ. Today, we are all invited to continue this way – in your family, neighborhood, workplace, in the way you drive, in the way you meet anyone, friend or foe. We will fail – but like Peter who betrayed and Mary at the feet of Jesus, we will remember, remember the way of Jesus, be forgiven and blessed for another day.
Amen
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