Somebody upstairs was smiling when the calendar came out with
the Easter celebration coinciding with April Fool’s Day. Perfect.
The absurd and the sacred are mixed together, and I don’t know where to
go with this. What are other preachers
doing this morning? Did someone move the
body of Jesus as a joke? But the church
is saying that resurrection is no joke at all.
It really happened, and we should never get comfortable with the resurrection
of Jesus. It’s a crazy idea, one of
overwhelming optimism, no matter how dark your present reality is. Jesus is risen. Resurrection is powerful and wild, just as
spring will blossom all around us. The
birds are singing now.
Easter is a triumphant day when new life overcomes death,
and the world is righted by the hand of God, lifting his son Jesus to a new
awakening. But what about Good
Friday? What about all that suffering of
Jesus? Three hours on the cross, after
being whipped and spat upon. Where was
God then? Good Friday and Easter are two
sides of the same coin, and you can’t have one without the other. Joy and sorrow are woven together, and
they’re impossible to separate. That’s
life. The cross is in the middle of our
reality, and so is new life.
But what is the right balance between sorrow and joy on
this Easter day? The Protestant cross
emphasizes the resurrection victory. The
body of Jesus is gone from the cross, lifted up to new life by God. The cross is left empty, and becomes symbolic
of God’s power, the Easter victory. The
cross is no longer an implement of violence and torture, which it was at the
time of Jesus during the Roman Empire.
It took time—centuries actually--for the church to accept the cross as a
positive symbol. Now it can be worn as
jewelry. On the other side of things, the
Roman Catholic cross always includes the body of Jesus, called the
crucifix. This emphasizes the centrality
of suffering, and the resurrection energy is diminished. The sacrifice of Jesus is the holy suffering
that saves our souls. He died for our sins,
so Catholics portray this, viscerally, with a physical Jesus on the cross. Here at Kent, we’re somewhere in between in
St. Joseph’s Chapel. Jesus is freed from
bondage, but the cross is still close behind him. His arms are still in the cruciform position,
but they seem free to embrace others; to embrace the world. This morning Jesus is surrounded by beautiful
resurrection ribbons made by Ms. Lynch.
Jesus is risen indeed.
The gospel lesson from Mark shows the excitement with the
first news of this resurrection. The
most striking element in Mark’s Easter miracle is the presence of three women
at the tomb of Jesus. Mary Magdalene,
Mary the mother of James, and Salome go to anoint Jesus’s body. These three women stayed with Jesus at the
cross when he suffered and died, and here they return to anoint Jesus’s body
with spices. Women are more faithful
than the male disciples; they are with Jesus all the way, while the male
disciples have scattered, fearing for their lives. Inside the tomb is a messenger who addresses
the women. The text doesn’t say that he
is an angel. The only thing mentioned
about the man is his white robe. In
other gospels he is an angel, or two angels, or two mortal messengers. The messenger says that Jesus will be found
in Galilee; that he is risen from the dead.
In our ordinary rounds here at Kent, we hear an extraordinary story, an
amazing testimony. This kind of thing
doesn’t happen very often. How can we
integrate this crazy reality into our daily lives? The women do it by being faithful in response
to suffering, by sticking close to the cross.
Life is tragic, but don’t run away from it. Your presence will be needed shortly, for
those you love. Stay close to the cross
in everything you do. The women do
that. They are faithful in suffering,
and they hear the good news before anyone else.
In my English class in Native American Studies, we have
been reading Sherman Alexie’s Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.
For Native Americans, stories have real power in the oral tradition of a
people. In the language of the Native American world, stories have mighty
medicine. They have healing power. My study of Native
American literature has taught me more about how to go to pain, to human
suffering, without there being an immediate answer. It actually takes a
lot of faith to do that. The collection of stories by Alexie was
eventually made into the powerful movie Smoke Signals about two Indian
young men on the Spokane Indian Reservation. The movie is based largely
on one short story “This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona.” The
occasion of the story is the journey of Victor and Thomas Builds-The-Fire to
Phoenix, Arizona, to pick up the ashes of Victor’s father after his sudden
death. The entire purpose of the journey is to go into suffering--to go
deeper into that mystery.
Victor doesn’t have enough money to take the trip, and the
Tribal Council doesn’t have any ready funds to help Victor. So Thomas
offers to help pay for the trip, on one condition: that Thomas gets to go on
the journey. The history between the two is not so good. Thomas is
a loner; he talks to himself; he’s pretty weird. In their childhood,
Victor and the other boys made fun of Thomas. Victor even beat him up
once. But now they both need each other. Thomas is an orphan, and
he saw Victor’s father as a surrogate father for him as well. The one
thing that Thomas Builds-The-Fire can do is tell stories, which he does
whenever someone asks.
“’Hey,’ Victor said. ‘Tell me a story.’
Thomas closed his eyes and told this story: ‘There were these two Indian boys
who wanted to be warriors. But it was too late to be warriors the old
way. All the horses were gone. So the two Indian boys stole a car
and drove to the city. They parked the stolen car in front of the police
station and then hitchhiked back home to the reservation. When they got
back, all their friends cheered and their parents’ eyes shone with pride.
You were brave, everybody said to the two Indian boys. Very
brave.’
‘Ya-hey,’ Victor said. ‘That’s a good one. I wish I could be a
warrior.’”
Sherman Alexie’s writing is inspiring and healing, even as it goes to places of
sorrow and suffering, like the journey of two people to pick up a father’s
ashes. It holds tightly to sorrow, like the women at the cross.
“Thomas Build-the-Fire closed his eyes and told this story: ‘I remember when I
had this dream that told me to go to Spokane, to stand by the Falls in the
middle of the city and wait for a sign. I knew I had to go there but I
didn’t have a car. Didn’t have a license. I was only
thirteen. So I walked all the way there, took me all day, and I finally
made it to the Falls. I stood there for an hour waiting. Then your
dad came walking up. What the hell are you doing here? He
asked me. Waiting for a vision. Then your father said, All
you’re going to get here is mugged. So he drove me over to Denny’s,
bought me dinner, and then drove me home to the reservation. For a long
time I was mad because I thought my dreams had lied to me. But they
didn’t. Your dad was my vision. Take care of each other is
what my dreams were saying. Take care of each other.’”
When the journey ends, the two men who have come of age now split the ashes of
Victor’s father, half and half. They fulfilled the father’s command: to
take care of each other. Jesus says the same thing to his disciples: love
one another as I have loved you.
“Thomas took the ashes and smiled, closed his eyes, and told this story: ‘I’m
going to travel to Spokane Falls one last time and toss these ashes into the
water. And your father will rise like a salmon, leap over the bridge,
over me, and find his way home. It will be beautiful. His teeth
will shine like silver, like a rainbow. He will rise, Victor, he will
rise.’”
On Easter Sunday, we have constellations of hope and new
life surrounding us. With the Easter faith, we know that tomorrow will be
better than today. The universe is on
our side; a victory has already been won.
We just need to live into it, day by day. We remember the women at the cross, and then
at the tomb, who show us how to be faithful in sorrow. If you do this, you will be the first to see the
new thing that God is doing. These three women became the first witnesses
to resurrection because they were steadfast in the face of suffering; they knew
the truth first. And two Native American boys become men, sharing the
ashes of a father, as they forgive him and forgive each other. Both
groups are holding the same Easter message. Take care of each
other. Take care of the planet, because she is the mother of us all.
Love is the mightiest medicine in the world, and today we share new life;
and seek its source with faith in God.
Happy Easter to all of you. The
Lord is risen.
