Practice Resurrection

April 12 – Easter Sunday

Readings: Acts 10:34A, 37-43; 1 Cor 5:6B-8 (or Col 3:1-4); Jn 20:1-9

Happy Easter, my friends!

It is always hard for me to believe that we have arrived at the “end” of our Lenten time together.  I have really appreciated all of you for being on this journey with me and I hope that these writings have helped you connect more deeply to your own faith commitments.  I have also really appreciated all of the comments and reflections that you have posted along the way.  They sustained and inspired me.

There are so many voices that I would have loved to hear more from, and so many people who could have written amazing daily reflections.  It’s our hope that different people at Spiritus keep posting on the blog throughout the year – so keep checking your inbox for offerings.

From its earliest origins, Lent was meant to be both an individual and a collective journey.  It was meant to be a time when we took stock of our own spiritual lives as we utilized prayer, fasting and almsgiving (all forms of self-denial that help to keep the small self in check)  to open us up to bigger mysteries and realities.  Collectively it is meant to do the same – open us up to bigger realities.  And this year, we got more than we bargained for.

My hope is that we do not try to move out of the moment we are in too quickly (at least spiritually).  While I know that it is a time of hardship, there is much that we need to keep letting in about this current time.  And my sense is that there are resurrections happening in our midst that we need to pay attention to.

But what, exactly is Easter?  (I wonder how you’d answer that question?)

For me Easter is a lot of things.

At one level Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus.  It may go without saying that no one has a great explanation for what happened to Jesus.  People know that he was killed as a criminal by the political and religious authorities on Good Friday.   Like any state execution, they certified that he was dead.  Then a few days later, his body is no longer there, and soon after his followers have experiences of him in which he is the same but also very different (the only gospel that doesn’t is the gospel of Mark – at least the early manuscripts do not).

We should also probably note that it is Mary of Magdala who is the first to hear of Jesus’ resurrection and brings this message to the disciples.  This is not insignificant.  Once again the gospel is trying to teach us that good news is always coming from unexpected (and unsanctioned!) places.  In this case it is a woman who tells the men of her experience (an experience that they have not had).  They listen to her experience and act on it.  We would do well to learn from this model of letting in the teachings and good news from the margins.

But beyond being an event that happened a long time ago, Easter is meant to be an ongoing reality in our lives.  We are called to be resurrection people.

As we notice in the post-resurrection accounts, Jesus is recognized by his followers, but he has changed.  We’re supposed to have that happen to us as well.  Because of the Easter reality, we don’t move through the world in the same way anymore.  We know that death does not have the final word, and so we become free to live and act and think in new ways.

Because our God is a god of wild possibilities and unexpected endings, we, too, start to throw wild cards of generosity, kindness and hospitality into the mix.  Even in the midst of suffering and hardship, we’re able to tap into what St. Paul called a “peace that passes all understanding.”  We trust in a new way that we will be cared for – even if everything does not go as we wanted or planned.  God’s got us.

And an Easter people do not just keep it to themselves.  Once we experience liberation from the things that bound us, we strive to pass that on.  In fact that’s kind of a litmus test as to whether you have had a spiritual awakening or not.  A true spiritual awakening strives to be shared – not privatized – much like the 12^th step in Alcoholics Anonymous which says that “having had a spiritual awakening…we try to carry this message [to others]…and to practice these principles in all of our affairs.”  Resurrection consciousness starts to seep into all areas of our life not unlike what Paul says in the second reading about “a little yeast leavens all the dough” 

And if we ever need examples of resurrection, we need only look around us – particularly at this time of year.  Nature is the first teacher of resurrection.  Everywhere – and I mean everywhere – new life is springing forth – even from places where it might not be expected.

Lest we become tempted to think of resurrection only in spiritual terms, I would remind us that Jesus died at the hands of the state machinery of violence.  His life was a testimony against oppressive powers and so is his resurrection.  Jesus’ resurrection says, “No,” to all the forces of empire that diminish life (and there are many).  Resurrection means that we must practice justice, work to end violence, free people economically, etc.  Resurrection must have real-world consequences and these, of course, will place us in opposition to the powers and principalities that benefit from human suffering.

For today, celebrate all the new life that has come to you.  Celebrate all the new life that has come into this world.  Celebrate all of the unexpected openings and possibilities that have come into your life.  Hold onto hope for all that is yet to emerge.  Our Lenten journey has led us to this place.  Find some rest in this place of arrival (knowing that another journey will soon begin).

And as we part, I will leave you with some of my favorite Easter words from Wendell Berry in his amazing poem Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

So, friends, every day do something

that won’t compute. Love the Lord.

Love the world. Work for nothing.

Take all that you have and be poor.

Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace

the flag. Hope to live in that free

republic for which it stands.

Give your approval to all you cannot

understand. Praise ignorance, for what man

has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.

Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.

Say that your main crop is the forest

that you did not plant,

that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested

when they have rotted into the mold.

Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus

that will build under the trees

every thousand years.

Listen to carrion – put your ear

close, and hear the faint chattering

of the songs that are to come.

Expect the end of the world. Laugh.

Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful

though you have considered all the facts.

So long as women do not go cheap

for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy

a woman satisfied to bear a child?

Will this disturb the sleep

of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.

Lie down in the shade. Rest your head

in her lap. Swear allegiance

to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos

can predict the motions of your mind,

lose it. Leave it as a sign

to mark the false trail, the way

you didn’t go. Be like the fox

who makes more tracks than necessary,

some in the wrong direction.

Practice resurrection.