Living Hope – Easter 2013
By Charles Rush
March 31, 2013
Isaiah 65 and Luke 24: 1-12
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is story doesn't really begin here. It begins with a mother watching her son being tortured to death. No mother should have to go through that but she does because she is his mother. Just as things are coming to a head, his own disciples flee into the night, afraid, as we all are of what might happen to us. They disappear into the dark. The crowd turns into the masses and we all cry out together, ‘Crucify him, crucify him'.
He is mocked and jeered and left to die the ignominious death
made infamous by the cruelty of the Romans. In the end, it is just his Mother
and a couple of her friends. How like a mother to love a child like that, to
hold onto them in that way.
I am quite sure that one of the reasons that this story has
such power is because so many people have been through it. My church in
Princeton had a three hundred year old cemetery. Two thirds of the headstones
were little squares. No names, just a D or an S, for son or daughter. It was
just so sobering to walk by and realize how many people have had to endure such
deep sadness.
We had friends that were graduate students at Princeton, all of us were having babies at the same time. I
remember going to their baby shower, everyone crammed into their apartment, and
a couple weeks later they learned that their baby would only survive a few
hours after birth. What terrible news. After they adjusted to it, if that is
what you can call it, they decided they would simply celebrate their daughter's
very short life.
I
remember when she went into labor and her husband had that same nervous
excitement that father's have the world over. It was a joyous birth. They had a
few hours together and then the same heart ache Mary had watching this miracle
that you brought into the world taken from you and there is nothing you can do
about it. And with them, whether you want it or not, a piece of you goes with
them. It is a type of crying when you are afraid that you might not stop. It is
just terrible.
And
then the message of Easter morning. Death does not stop
God. There is this piece to the Easter story that we had pure goodness in human
form in our midst and we killed it. What is it about us that we behave like
this?
The
divine answer is not to eradicate the species. Because God's
nature is redemptive. God is reconciliation. We may reject God. We may
reject God's own. But God doesn't reject us. Isaiah says:
I
create a new heaven and a new earth,
For the former things are not remembered
No
longer will you build your house only to see an enemy live in it;
No longer will you plant your vineyard
only to see bad men drink your wine;
For
your labor will not be in vain;
Your children will not die in tragedy.
Behold,
I am doing a new thing…
And the wolf and the lamb will lie down
together.
They
shall not hurt or destroy in my holy mountain.
In
the resurrection, God promises us redemption at the heart of the universe. It
is a promissory hope spoken to all those Mother's.
Your child did not die in vain. Their too short life will not be forgotten.
Their life will not be without meaning. God is about healing. God will redeem.
That power of redemption transcends time and space. You are not forgotten. Your
suffering is not meaningless.
That
word comes first to those who have been sitting in the darkness, to those who
have been at the back of the line, to so very many of our ancestors over the
past 100,000 whose lives were ‘nasty, brutish, and short' in the words of Thomas
Hobbes.
And
after that, it is a word also for the rest of us, who have been fortunate
enough to live fulfilling and meaningful lives.
For
all of us, it is an open invitation to live out of our reconciliation. The God
of second chances, whose love will not let us go, anymore than the prodigal son
could change the response of his father who runs down the road to greet him,
the road opens before us to live out of our reconciliation.
I
think of William Lloyd Garrison, who had a spiritual awakening when he was
about 30. It was in the Congregational Church in Boston where he became a
Christian and he decided to dedicate his life to something of moral substance.
The year was 1835 and he was sure that the cause was the abolition of slavery.
So he started a paper called ‘The Abolitionist' in Boston.
I'll
spare you the details, but in 1835, with slavery in every state and so deeply a
part of every aspect of the American economy, it was just not possible to
imagine that it would ever actually be eradicated. Even 4 of the first 5
presidents of the United States owned slaves.
But
he dedicated his life to working to end slavery, through many setbacks and
difficult days, through one horrific civil war, he
lived to hear the emancipation proclamation read in Washington D.C some 30
years later at the end of the Civil War. It must have really had an
otherworldly feeling to it. In one day, all of these slaves were suddenly free.
It is over. A new day.
But
what to do next? Who has any idea? The slaves were free
but they had nowhere to really go, so people were just congregating in public
squares in cities and towns around the nation, incredulous.
Garrison
traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, one of the three main ports for slave
ships coming from Africa. Charleston was filled with newly freed slaves
everywhere downtown. As the word spread that the editor of the Abolitionist was
in town, all of these freed slaves got organized and held a worship service in
one of the churches. They invited Garrison and several other abolitionist
leaders to be honored.
In
the service, a group of children brought Garrison a bouquet of flowers and then
Mr. Samuel Dickerson got up to speak on behalf of the freed slaves. And this is
what he said, “It is with pleasure inexpressible that I welcome you here among
us, the steadfast friend of the poor, down-trodden slave. I have read of your
work. Here you see before you, your handiwork. Three children were robbed from
me and I stood desolate. Many a night I pressed a sleepless pillow from the
time I retired to my couch until the close of the morning. I lost a dear wife,
and after her death the baby with her mother's countenance was taken from me. I
appealed for her with all the love and reason of a father. The rejection came
forth, “Annoy me not, or I will sell them off to another state.' I thank God…
you have restored them to me. And I tell you, multiply my gratitude by all of these
mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers… the greeting they would give you
is impossible for me to express; but simply sir, we welcome you as a savior and
we thank you for what you have done for us.”
Garrison
was quick to put the focus on God rather than himself, as you are daily aware
of how these movements are so much bigger than whatever you contribute. But how
deeply fulfilling to receive the heart felt gratitude of people that have
experienced a redemption in their lifetime they never
expected to see.” ‘Here see before you, your handiwork.'
Redemption
is what God is all about. It is the deeper, more fulfilling way to live. I hope
for you that you, that when your time comes, you will access your instincts
towards redemption and that you will find yourself rich with meaning as to what
your life is all about. And I genuinely hope that you will be able to drink the
wine from the vineyard that you planted, that you will be able to look on the
lives of those around you who consider you a deep blessing that they did not
deserve.
And
you know also, that it is just as likely that you will, like Jesus, encounter
the forces of injustice, arbitrary power. It is entirely possible that you will
be mocked and spit upon. Indeed, we only have to read our daily papers to be
reminded that you may even endure torture and premature death. The places in
our world that are the most broken are also the most dangerous. But all this
too, will be taken up into the redeeming purpose of God.
And how shall you then live? It is an
open road ahead and you will pass this way but once. Be aware of the adventure
ahead. Start the day in gratitude and cultivate redeeming love into the fabric
of your character. Lean forward in hope for God will work wonders in and
through you, quite in spite of your weakness. Heal what is broken around you
and become a blessing to others. And may you leave a generation of redemption
as your legacy. As Jesus said, “My Spirit I give to you… and lo, I shall be
with you and go with you, even unto the ends of the earth. The
Blessing of Easter upon you. Amen.
