First Parish Unitarian UniversalistHope Arising
Easter Homily given by Megan Lynes, Ministerial Intern
First Parish, Unitarian Universalist – Canton
March 27, 2005
At school, my Christian colleagues sometimes ask me why I celebrate Easter, if I don’t believe that Jesus was resurrected. They can’t understand why I seem to be missing out on the most important part of the whole deal. “What about being saved?” they ask. “What about sin and redemption?” Me, I’m not worried. Having grown up UU, I have my own ideas about Easter and they mean an awful lot to me.
Easter is a time of great becomings, the springtime season of hope, of life, and of all things filled with light, wonder and trust. These messages burst forth in so many places at this time of year: in the shimmer of melting snow, and in the smell of earth awakening. Life becomes tangible like warm soil between our fingertips, and we find the voice of Easter at every turn.
My friends are passionate about the resurrection and eternal life of Christ. I am passionate about the resurrection and eternal life of hope. I think we are speaking the same language; we’re just using different words.
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Whenever anyone asks me what my favorite movie is, I never have to think for long. I’ve had the same answer since I was eight. It’s a movie about waiting and believing that something is possible even against the odds. It’s about kindness and magic and the joy of being alive. But mostly it’s about the triumph of hope.
Well, a lot of movies might fit that definition, but this one is really something. It’s a snuggle-up-on-the-couch and be ministered to kind of a story. It’s a movie I’d guess most children here have seen, and one most adults remember well. See if the plot sounds familiar…
Two children, Jane and Michael Banks, live in an upper class British household, with a cold banker for a father, and an air-headed suffragette for a mother. Because they are saddened by the absence of attentive parents, they end up crafting a secret letter for the perfect nanny. She must have “a cheery disposition, rosy cheeks, and play games - all sorts." Although their father tries to ensure that the nanny be nothing but a firm disciplinarian, magic and determination take their course and soon the children are blessed with none other than Mary Poppins herself.
Now clearly, this isn’t the traditional Easter message of salvation, even though Jane and Michael may have felt “saved” by Mary Poppins. But it does speak to many of the ideas that Jesus the rabbi taught during his lifetime. And if there is to be a theological message to Easter, let it be in celebration of Jesus’ life work on earth and the great hope he had for humankind.
In that light, we’ll consider the movie. Don’t you love it that the children with the great ideas about how they should be treated have a voice and win out? Ah, it’s a good day when the meek do inherit the earth.
And I marvel at the mystery of Mary Poppins’ small carpet bag, from which she pulls curious items galore, last but not least, to Michael’s astonishment, a hat stand! Jesus, whose generosity was so great that it seemed at times miraculous, would have loved Mary Poppins’ and her magical, (dare we day divine?) twinkle. Let it be seen that passion and compassion go hand in hand. Throughout the movie, the children’s disbelief and distrust wash away as they find that Mary Poppins holds them to high standards, but does so only through the motivating forces of kindness, fun and a trace of the unexpected. Remember how a single medicine jar contained a different flavor of medicine for each child? And what about how that spoonful of sugar helped the medicine go down? Yes, ministry must be given first for the soul, and second for the body. And lastly, I love how the children’s longing for love and respect are the staples of the story. Surely, this message is timeless and universal.
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This year for the first time ever I decided to participate in the season of Lent by giving up sweets. Some people, especially Catholics, give something up because it symbolizes letting go of sin and turning their lives over to Christ. Well, fundamentally I don’t believe in sin, and the word “Christ” doesn’t speak to me theologically, but I decided to join in for other reasons. If I am to live by the Gospel of hope, then let me do so only after having sought out a deeper understanding of the power behind despair.
A number of my dearest friends struggle with life threatening addictions. I’d wager that most of us face addictions of some sort, somewhere in our lives. Cigarettes, food, shopping for things we don’t need. It’s amazing how close desire can feel to despair sometimes. Sometimes the pull to give in, just this once, is tremendous. When my family came over with ice cream cake on my birthday I could barely stand it. Some of my friends in AA who count the days, months and then years since their last drink know what I felt times a thousand. They attest to the painful process of choosing anew each moment, a better life.
Saint Augustine, a fourth century theologian, once said, “Hope has two daughters: anger and courage.” Some rage keeps you saying yes when everything around you insists on saying no. Yes to sheer will. Yes to that tiny thriving heartbeat of rationality within. Yes to believing in a bigger life. Yes to hope.
It takes courage to stand up to ourselves, for ourselves. So often we are our own worst enemy. And it takes courage to stand up for one another. So I gave up sugar for 40 days, so what? Perhaps you’ve given up alcohol every ten minutes for ten years straight. But if we fall for feeling like our voices don’t matter, how can we vehemently hold out for everyone that the fight is worth fighting? Because it is. And we are winning each and every day in a million tiny ways. Our hopes for ourselves and for others, for the planet earth and for all existence guide us through every battle we take on. There is a great upward trend in the universe today.
But being hopeful is not simply about being optimistic. Optimism tends to ignore the uncertainty of the world in which we live and the presence of so much evil within that world. It would be a mistake to say that hope is simply positive thinking. No, hope wrestles with the ambiguity of existence and responds to it by creating new possibilities and alternative action. It is principally in the midst of darkness and out of darkness that one can truly struggle in hope towards the light.
Gabriel Marcel put it this way, “The truth is…there can be no hope except when the temptation to despair exists. Hope is the act by which this temptation is actively or victoriously overcome.”
From Jane and Michael Banks we can see that even when a great hope seems unattainable, taking action gets things headed in the right direction, often motivating others to act too. The children wanted their dad, but instead first fought for a nanny. Even though they didn’t know how to obtain their ultimate goal, they chose to do something, and because they did, the eventual result was that they did slowly win back attention from their father. As this began to unfold, the magic of the universe, the great upward trend that works wonders for all of us over and again, whisked off Mary Poppins with the changing of the wind. She was a much needed and much loved crutch, but it was her time to go. We all have a crutch or two in our lives. And this is not bad. But perhaps it is time to leap wildly free into the wind.
I believe your deepest hopes for yourselves, for others and for the world are absolutely possible. Why choose any other philosophy about life? Despair and giving up produce far less interesting results. I’m not a pure optimist, but, like Jesus, I am a believer in the powerful force of love in action. Dare then to spring from firm ground. Play fiercely. Invest energy, laughter and hope. One good leap encourages another. Your leap - or someone else’s. On then with the dance!
Happy Easter.
Blessed be.