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Bishop Joseph Sprague, retiring
bishop of the Chicago area, asked this question: “What is the
most important issue facing the United Methodist Church today?[i]
What would your answer be to
that question? A sense of declining financial resources,
especially at the denominational level? The issue of
homosexuality? Bureaucratic overload? The seeming declining
number of new clergy?
Bishop Sprague’s answer is this:
“The most important issue facing the United Methodist Church
today is the near absence of hope.” I find the
word “near” interesting. Bishop Sprague does not say the
absence of hope, but the near absence of hope. Is
he right?
Martin Marty notes something
interesting in the writings of Charles Peguy. Peguy was a
French philosopher and poet and a deeply committed Christian.
In one of his pieces Peguy writes as follows:
“I am,” God says, “Master of
three virtues: Faith is a loyal wife. Charity is a fervent
mother. But hope is a very little girl.”
Martin Marty notes that Peguy
uses upper case letters for the first letter of Faith and
Charity, but a lower case letter for hope. Why is that?
Marty comments on the issues
that face us: some financial distress and job uncertainty; the
ethical collapse in corporate life; a spiraling national debt;
the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Marty concludes, “I find little
reason for optimism, but I find reason for hope.”[ii]
I don’t know about optimism, but
Easter is a day to celebrate hope. Ours is a hope that
transcends and transforms every issue of life. The writer of I
Peter says, “Blessed be the God of our Lord and Father Jesus
Christ. By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living
hope…”
My mother, who died recently,
did not have much reason for optimism. She was not optimistic
about old age. She was not optimistic about her increasing
frailty, or her severe vision loss. She was not optimistic
about any kind of cure for her recurring bouts of depression.
Her world kept getting smaller and smaller. But she held on to
a great hope: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
In one of those inimitable
children’s letters to God, a little boy writes, “Dear God,
what is it like when you die? Nobody will tell me. I just want
to know; I don’t want to do it. Your friend, Mike.” Easter
Day—this day—is about hope, in life and in death.
I think we can celebrate a very
specific hope today. Let me illustrate.
THE EASTER STORY TAKEN
LITERALLY
First, I think we can take the
Easter story literally. This is not always true with the
Biblical narratives, and sometimes we need to be very careful
with literalism. I read a story about a man who went into a
seafood restaurant. He said to the waitress, “I’d like a
lobster tail.” The waitress smiled and said, “Once upon a time
there was a beautiful lobster who…”
We have to be careful with
literalism. However, I believe Easter is literal, and Easter
is true. Jesus rose from death. I’m not sure about the
details, but I am sure that Easter happened.
Lee Strobel, quoting several
sources, says it very well.
The evidence for the
post-resurrection appearances of Jesus didn’t develop
gradually over the years as distorted memories of his life.
Rather the resurrection was the central proclamation of the
early church from the beginning. The appearances of Jesus are
as well authenticated as anything in antiquity. There can be
no rational doubt that they occurred.[iii]
I do not know in what kind of
body Jesus returned. I’m pretty sure it was not this flesh and
blood body. I only know he returned.
There’s an old story of an Irish
drunk who repeatedly came home each night totally inebriated.
One night his wife met him at the door. He stumbled in and
fell down in a stupor. The wife had had enough. She called the
priest. The priest came, and together they loaded him into the
car and took him to the cemetery. They dumped him into an
empty grave and left him there. The wife thought that perhaps
if he woke up in a grave the next morning it might scare him
out of his drunkenness and he would reform his life.
Morning came, and the drunk did
wake up. He stood up and looked around at all of the
tombstones in the cemetery. “Good Lord, it’s the Resurrection
morning and I’m the first one up!”
Jesus was the first one up.
Jesus is the firstborn of the dead. Easter happened.
TRANSFORMING ALL OF LIFE
But we can also say that Easter
transforms all of life here and now. Everything is changed.
Everything has a new purpose.
Two seminary students decided to
go door-to-door to share their faith with people in a given
neighborhood. At one house a very tired and haggard looking
young mother opened the door. Inside were screaming children
and barking dogs. The seminarian said, “We would like to tell
you how to obtain eternal life.”
The young mother looked back
inside the house, then looked at the seminarians and said,
“Thank you but no thanks. I don’t think I could stand it.”
Easter transforms life and gives
it new meaning. There’s an interesting ending to I Corinthians
15. The Easter message for Paul is complete. Then he adds
these words: “Therefore, be steadfast, immovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord
your labor is never in vain.”
A Newsweek report featured a
letter from a social service agency in Greenville, South
Carolina. The letter read as follows: “We have received notice
that you are deceased. Your food stamps will be stopped
effective immediately. You may reapply if there is any change
in your circumstances.”
Easter brings a transforming
change in life circumstances.
OUR POWER CENTER
I would also add that Easter
becomes our power center for the journey. There is a large
United Methodist church in Houston, Texas that has several
campuses for worship. One of those campuses is a former
shopping mall. The church calls the mall “The Power Center.”
Easter is your power center, and
mine. Easter is what kept my mother going for many of her last
years. Easter also kept my father going before her. Easter
keeps me going.
I came across a reading recently
by a woman named Roselyn Aronson. It’s built on the idea that
we live for a while in this earthly tent. The writer addresses
God as the tentmaker, and then the tentmaker responds. Listen
to the words.
It was nice living in this
tent when it was strong and secure and the sun was shining and
the air was warm. But Mr. Tentmaker, it’s scary now. You see,
my tent is acting like it is not going to hold together; the
poles seem weak and they shift with the wind. A couple of
stakes have wiggled loose from the sand; and worst of all, the
canvas has a rip. It no longer protects me from beating rain
or stinging fly. It’s scary in here, Mr. Tentmaker…
Why did you give me such a
flimsy tent? I can see by looking around the campground that
some of the tents are much stronger and more stable than mine.
Why, Mr. Tentmaker, did you pick a tent of such poor quality
for me? And even more important, what do you intend to do
about it?
O little tent dweller, as the
Creator and Provider of tents, I know all about you and your
tent, and I love you both. I made a tent for Myself once, and
lived in it on your campground. My tent was vulnerable, too,
and some vicious attackers ripped it to pieces while I was
still in it. It was a terrible experience, but you will be
glad to know they couldn’t hurt me…
O little tent dweller, I am
now prepared to come and live in your tent with you, if you’ll
invite me. You’ll learn as we dwell together that real
security comes from my being in your tent with you. When the
storms come, you can huddle in my arms and I’ll hold you…
Some day, little tent
dweller, some day your tent is going to collapse; you see,
I’ve designed it only for temporary use. But when it does, you
and I are going to leave together. I promise not to leave
before you do. And then, free of all that would hinder or
restrict, we will move to our permanent home and together,
forever, we will rejoice and be glad.[iv]
Easter becomes our power center
for the journey. Paul says in Philippians these words: “All I
want is to know him and the power of his
resurrection.”
THE BEST NEWS THERE IS
Quite simply, Easter is the best
news there is. Dr. Thomas Long, who is professor of preaching
at Candler Seminary in Atlanta, tells a story of a friend’s
young son, about 5 years of age. The little boy was a great
fan of both Mister Rogers and Captain Kangaroo. The boy
faithfully watched both shows every day. One day it was
announced that Mister Rogers would be visiting on Captain
Kangaroo’s show. The boy was ecstatic. Both of his
heroes—together on one show at the same time.
Every morning he would ask his
father, “Is this the day? Is this the day?” Finally the day
arrived. The whole family gathered around the TV. There they
were—Mister Rogers and the Captain together. The boy watched
for a minute or two, then he got up and walked out.
His father followed him out of
the room. “What’s going on, son? Is anything wrong?”
The boy looked at his father and
responded, with tears in his eyes, “It’s too good, Dad. It’s
just too good.”
The Easter story is just too
good. It is hard to assimilate all at once. Easter is real.
Easter is transforming. Easter is our power center. Easter is
our living hope.
And Easter is—quite simply—the
best news there is.
[i] The question is found in
Sprague’s little book entitled Affirmations of a
Dissenter
[ii] From a recent M.E.M.O. column
in the “Christian Century.”
[iii] From The Case for Christ
[iv] I’m not exactly sure of the
source of this piece; however, it appeared in a journal
called “The Encourager” in the summer of 2003
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