Resurrection?

Having just in the last few months found a number of my high school classmates on Facebook, I am newly intrigued with reading about their lives and looking at whatever pictures they put up. It is interesting to me that I am this fascinated, even with those I did not know well, did not like or who appear to have religious and/or political affiliations that I do not share.

Many of them I have not seen since that post graduation summer of 1978, a sweet time of parties, concerts on the lawn at an outdoor pavilion, picnics and liminality, dwelling in that space between childhood and young adulthood. But somehow I care what they think of me and I want to know how their lives turned out. Are they happy? Did their dreams come true? Who are they now? Whose are they now? Why does this all matter to me?

In the midst of this holy week contemplation I noted the status of a classmate who I knew just barely who had previously identified himself to me as a pastor. His status says: Can you really celebrate Easter if Jesus didn't rise from the dead?... If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless & you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.... But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead! 1Cor 15:17-20 nlt..

Hmmmmm. This is a conundrum, the whole "sinner needing to be saved" thing doesn't really work for me and I intensely dislike the atonement theology. But what really bothers me about this is that it does not consider that the resurrection might be available to all of us, that all people might be able to see resurrections occur in their lives, whether or not Jesus was raised from the dead, died for our sins, or even existed at all. Resurrection does not belong to any one religion, the idea of it did not originate with Jesus and it does not belong to the religion about him. It belongs to all people everywhere. Did you notice that this whole Easter thing really brings out the Universalist in me?

Then I went back to wondering why I cared about what my classmates of long ago thought of me and why I wanted to learn about them and I discovered that these two subjects were related. All humans want resurrection, not the bodily kind that is in the Christian Easter story, but a kind that lets us have a "do-over", that allows us to change the course of our lives when they run off the rails, to mend our relationships, to right a wrong done by us or to us and, yes, to get those popular kids from high school to finally like us.

And here's the thing: this resurrection that I believe in always gives us hope that we will get a second (or third, fourth or ninety-seventh) chance to be what and who we always wanted to be, an opportunity to finally reveal our best selves. It promises that we can be defeated today and have another chance tomorrow. To me that covenant with all peoples is much more miraculous than a one-time raising of one dead body. But, that's just me.

Here's my Easter benediction:

As we celebrate today the newness of life, the rebirth of the earth and the continuance of the circle of life, let us be reminded too of the resurrection
Not the raising from the dead of a single person through a divine miracle, but the resurrection we see each day in our midst

From the glimpse we get of one we have loved and lost when we look into the eyes of a child, to the rebirth that we witness when those around us triumph over challenges great and small.

May we know that resurrection is indeed a promise, not a divine one, but one that we make with one another.

Let us hope that in each day we can find a way to keep that promise
And be agents of resurrection for each other.
Blessed Be
Amen

Happy Easter and Passover,
Suzanne

The arc of the moral universe can be seen today to be bending towards justice....

Today is January 20^th, a historic day in the story of my beloved country. My country has a distinctly checkered past, many of our actions have not been things I would have chosen for us to do, but what’s done is done. Today the first African American president will be sworn in as President of the United States. I have chills writing that. It is indeed a marker of a remarkable change in the making, a distinct sign that the shadow side of the America of my childhood is stealing away into the night. Not a moment too soon.

I choose to believe that today is a new beginning, that something extraordinary is in store for us. We will begin today to take baby steps towards an America that cares for its people, no matter what or who they are. An America that is more kind and just, an America, where the taking care of each other is everyone’s responsibility. In other words, the village is returning.

I do not believe that Barack Obama has superhuman abilities or the solution to everything. I do believe he is a decent and principled man, and that he will lead us from a place of humility and a desire to serve rather than a place of personal aggrandizement and hubris. That alone will make the coming years inestimably better than the last.

I will not always agree with him and sometimes he may make me grumble. He will make errors and stumble, for that is what human beings do. I will not abandon him nor forsake him, for in a village that is what we do for each other, we help each other when we stumble, we engage in decent and respectful discourse when we disagree and we forgive each other, again and again and yet again. Out of this we create beloved community.

President Obama I am filled today with light and hope. I have never had a President I felt I could really trust. I believe in you and your model of servant leadership. May you find the strength and courage to guard these ideals and bring humility and sanity to our country and its policies. When you look behind you, I will be there.

May the Spirit hold and guide you.

Praying for courage and wisdom for us all, Suzanne