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En el nombre del Dios: Creador, Redentor, y Sanctificador. Amen.
Happy Easter!
I want to share with you the closing statements of Martin Luther King, Jr’s prophetic “I have been to the mountaintop” speech, which he gave in Memphis TN the night before he was assassinated. Dr. King said: “Well, I don't know what will happen now; we've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter to with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life – longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And so I'm happy tonight; I'm not worried about anything; I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” Source
As a prophet, Dr. King gave hope not only to African Americans but to all Americans. He assured us that despite all appearances and the entrenched practices of the established system, we could live together as one people, in freedom and in unity. He knew this because he had “seen the Promised Land.”
As we continue on this journey of our life together, it is up to us to continually discover where the established system is divisive and oppressive and work to set those captives free. Freedom takes sacrifice; and if it is to be achieved, both the oppressor and the oppressed must work together to break those bonds that deny freedom.
Each age has a Promised Land to reach. Moses led the oppressed people of God out of bondage in Egypt to freedom in Canaan. In the 1960s Dr. King led us onto the path toward racial freedom. Today, God has made us aware of a variety of oppressed communities we can align with and work for their freedom and dignity too: gay and trans people, migrants of many nationalities, people of color, Native people, the poor – to name a few.
It’s a pattern that’s part of our spiritual DNA and one our Savior made eternally true for us. On the day Jesus stood up in the grave, shook loose his burial linens, and left that tomb empty, he made marching to the Promised Land a continual journey for us until his coming again.
It’s been this way from the beginning of our Christian narrative. As the women stood in Jesus’ tomb,
trying to understand how it could be empty, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes are standing with them, and they are terrified. But the two men simply ask the women a question, “Why are you here looking for the living among the dead?”
That might be an awfully strange question in almost every other circumstance, but not this time, and this is why: “Remember what Jesus told you…” the men said. The women did remember and returned to tell the others – who, of course, didn’t believe them.
They had all heard Jesus say these things, and yet, they still couldn’t comprehend it. So Peter runs off to see for himself. Finding it just as the women described it, Peter returned home amazed.
What amazed Peter? That Jesus hadn’t lied to them? That the women hadn’t lied to them? After all, this is the disciple who had been to the mountaintop with Jesus.
So what amazed Peter? Everything was just as Jesus said it was going to be.
I think what amazed Peter is that death was no longer what Peter thought it was – neither was life, for that matter. I think what amazed Peter was the power of the love he had witnessed in Jesus, the Messiah, now risen from the dead.
The resurrection ushered in a new thing, a new age, a new life - just as Jesus said it would, and it took some time for his followers to let go of what was and live fully into this new thing.
Luke tells us in the first chapter of Acts that the disciples were “constantly devoting themselves to prayer” in that upper room. The good news of Jesus’ resurrection isn’t something we can understand without devoting ourselves to continual prayer as a community.
The reason is, resurrection isn’t about bodies or breathing. It’s about presence. As we heard in Isaiah, God says, “Before they call I will answer.” God is present before, during, and after our understanding of anything. That is the hope we proclaim – living in the eternal presence of God - and it is, as Bruggeman said, subversive.
God, whose mercy endures forever, who is our strength and salvation, is always with us, dwelling in us, redeeming all things before we even recognize the need for it. In fact, that’s how we recognize the need for it. That’s how we know God is sending us on another march to another Promised Land.
As we go, it helps to remember that God shows no partiality. God didn’t pick Peter because he was so astute. Right? God chose Peter, gifted him, and sent him to live out his purpose. And Peter did just that – in all his imperfection.
God chooses each of us too. We were created and gifted for a purpose and that purpose is simple: to do God’s will.
And what is God’s will? According to our catechism, Episcopalians believe that it is the will of God that the whole world be reconciled to God in Christ. Reconciled people live in harmony and unity with one another and with God. The final destination of every march to every Promised Land is always reconciliation.
Sin is what separates us from God and one another. Sin builds walls between us and God, between us and one another.
Living the resurrected life Jesus gave us restores us to right relationship with God and one another, and all we have to do is remember. A way to understand this kind of re-membering is to think about how a surgeon re-attaches a body part that has been cut off. All the tissue, all the nerves, all the blood vessels have to be re-connected so that the blood of life can flow into that re-attached part.
Our purpose as Christians is to ‘re-member’ anyone who has been cut off from the body of Christ: the oppressed, exiled, or lost, and reattach them, reminding them and everyone who would exclude them that God shows no partiality - which means, neither can we.
My daughter told me of an online discussion she was having with a Christian friend who kept condemning a group of persons (in this case homosexuals) using the usual verses from the Bible to support their position.
Here was my daughter’s response (and I can’t make a better point on Easter Eve than this). She said, “All those words [in the Bible] are different ways of illustrating one message: lovelovelovelovelove. God is love. Period. You don't have to understand it. You don't have to agree with it. You can try to collect all the rules you want, and I'm sure that's a comfort. It's just not the point. I will say it until I die: God is love.”
We, the members of the body of Christ here at St. David’s, have been chosen and gifted to be a local embodiment of the Promised Land; a place where people gather to live in harmony; to confront and discuss the difficult issues of our time – the ones that tend to divide us – and find our way forward together in reconciliation and peace.
It’s a good day to be a Christian; the kind of Christian who will say until the day we die: God is love.
Happy Easter!
Amen.
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