“Easter Reflection: Because It Is Good”
Thought for Contemplation: “A story is like a painting. It doesn’t have to look like what you see out of the window.” Barbara Kingsolver, the Lacuna.
“Easter Reflection: Because It Is Good”
The Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson
First Parish in Cohasset
April 24, 2012
Readings (attached at end): Mark 15:42-47
Mark 16:1-8
from Pro Ecclesia, Winter
It was dawn. The sun was barely risen; shades of red and pink oozed out from the sky and sea, spreading a film of color upon the ever expanding beach.
A young man stood on the beach gazing at out at the receding tide. He bent, picked up a starfish, lifted his arm and with all his might threw the stranded star fish back into the sea.
Then he bent and picked up another. Repeating the arc with his arm, he threw the next starfish back into the water. He had been doing this for awhile.
A stranger had been watching him from afar. Walking toward the young man he scanned the beach. Hundreds of starfish lay stranded out of the water.
The young man bent and took another starfish. Lifting it high over his head he prepared to fling it back into the sea.
“Why are you doing this?” asked the stranger. “There are there are miles of beach, on each hundreds of starfish are stranded. Too many for you to make any difference.”
The young man looked at the stranger then looked up at the starfish in his hand. He shrugged and threw as hard as he could. “It will make a difference to this one.” he said.
Hope,” says Va’clav Havel “is an ability to work for something because it is good.”
Not because it will succeed, but because it is good.
It is an Easter message that can carry me.
I think of the words by Reinhold Niebuhr :
“Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore we are saved by hope.”
And I think of the story we remember today. The story of Jesus’ ministry, his death and resurrection.
Now many of us are comfortable with the story of Jesus ministry. And many of us accept the likelihood that Jesus of Nazareth, challenger of the dominating status quo was punished severely for that crime with crucifixion.
But resurrection? That is a harder story to swallow.
There are Christians who believe that Jesus was resurrected bodily three days after his death. And there are Christians who believe that he was resurrected in a spiritual body. And there are followers of Jesus and his teachings who do not really care about what happened to him after he was murdered by the state. But most folks recognize Jesus as one who worked for something because it was good, and not because it had a chance to succeed. Certainly it did not have a chance to succeed in his lifetime…and maybe it never will.
Will there ever be a time when peace and justice are a reality?
Will there ever be a time when everyone will be welcomed and included in the power and fabric of society?
Will there ever be a time when we will love and protect our neighbors as much as we love and protect ourselves?
Jesus called that time, the Kingdom of God, the time when God’s values would be lived out in the social order, the time when hearts would be opened and people would know that we are all kin, all the beloved.
He called us to live that truth.
Jesus didn’t ask that we perfect the world in our lifetime. He asked only that we do our part.
“… he said, ‘To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’ (Luke 13:20-22)
The Kingdom of God is like yeast; it is like the leaven someone mixes in with three measures of flour.
When I have read this, I imagined that I was to be the leaven – sometimes I am…and sometimes you are. Whenever we act as agents of peace and justice we are the leaven in the loaf.
When high school students in Swampscott wore hoodies to school last week to express their solidarity with Trayvon Martin, when people around the country sign petitions demanding justice, transparency and accountability in relation to the death of the 17 year old boy, they are working the leaven into the loaf, the leaven of justice…for surely there is no peace if there is not justice.
But Jesus does not say that when we behave like that woman, and work our leaven of justice into the loaf of life, we are working toward the kingdom of God.
That is what I always thought he said and meant but Jesus doesn’t say that.
Jesus says:
… ‘To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’
Jesus doesn’t say that the leaven we mix in will cause the loaf to rise, becoming the kingdom of God.
He says:
To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.
The kingdom is not some far off time and place. The kingdom of God is like the yeast, not like the outcome!
Whoa!
That is very different.
The kingdom of God is not about the end time or about outcomes. The kingdom of God is about us, now, about what we are doing and how we are doing it. When we stand on the side of love, when we try to “do justice and love kindness,” when we recognize that our self interest is not separate from the well-being of all citizens of our land and our planet, when we throw a stranded starfish back into the sea, we are not just the leaven in the loaf, we are dwelling in the very kingdom of God itself.
I didn’t make this up! It is right there, in scripture. In Jesus words. I find that compelling.
Some religious folks argue about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. And some argue about whether Jesus was resurrected in the body or in spirit. And you may enjoy participating in the arguments. Many do. To each his own.
As for myself, when I am fed by Jesus’ wisdom and sustained by his message of infinite love, I feel his presence is with me. When I lift my voice for justice, or act to strengthen love, I am in the kingdom of God. Regardless of the set-backs and the fatiguing long term prospects, when I act for love and justice, Christ is risen within me, and I am dwelling in the kingdom of heaven.
Each of us can be the leaven in the loaf of peace with justice. Each of us can act, not because we know the loaf will rise, but because it is good. And when we do good, we are dwelling not only in hope but in the very kingdom of heaven. May it be so for you. And may you cherish those moments when you find yourself there, in the kingdom of heaven.
Amen.
Readings:
Mark 15:42-47 The Burial of Jesus
When evening had come, and since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate wondered if he were already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he had been dead for some time. When he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the body to Joseph. Then Joseph bought a linen cloth, and taking down the body, wrapped it in the linen cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. He then rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses” was laid.
Mark 16:1-8 The Resurrection of Jesus
When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.They had been saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.’So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
——————–
“The late Va’clav Havel the dissident Czech writer who became his country’s president after the fall of the iron curtain, differentiated between hope and optimism. Hope he said, “ is not prognostication. It is an orientation. It is an orientation of the spirit, and orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons…It is an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed…(Hope) is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”
Pro Ecclesia, Winter,
as quoted in the Christian Century, Feb. 22, 2012, p. 8

