First Parish Unitarian UniversalistEaster
A sermon preached by the Reverend Diane Teichert
First Parish Unitarian Universalist - Canton, MA
April 15, 2001
Many of us find may meaning in the stories about the life of Jesus, his teachings and parables, whether we were raised on them or not. "Consider the lilies of the field...they neither spin nor weave, and yet I tell you Solomon in all his grandeur was never robed like one of these." "Where your treasure lies, your heart will lie there also." "No one lights a lamp to put it under a bushel, but on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light." "Judge not, and you will not be judged." "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." For me, these stories about the life of Jesus linger on as sources of truth and wisdom.
Not so, the story about the death of Jesus. The Easter Story raises unsettling questions. Is Easter to us just a rite of spring and renewal, a celebration of new life, of the rebirth of the natural world? Or can we also find meaning in the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus? Why did the followers of Jesus say he reappeared to them in the flesh after his death?
Jesus is risen is the message of Easter. But is Jesus risen?
In Maya Angelou's book of essays, Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now, there's a passage which may be especially appropriate on Easter. Maya Angelou writes that she is "taken aback" when people walk up to her and tell her they are Christians. Her first response is the incredulous question "Already?"
It seems to her, as it does to me that it is a lifelong endeavor to live the life of a Christian, just as it must be a lifelong endeavor to live the life of a Buddhist, Muslim, Jew, Hindu or that of any faith path...Unitarian Universalist, too. Isn't each a state one endeavors to become...more than it is something one is?
A quick review of our Principles and Purposes printed on the back of the order of worship reminds me of this: that even though I call myself a Unitarian Universalist, it is more truthful to say I am trying to be one, because it's a lot to live up to!
Kenneth Patton, the twentieth century Universalist minister and adamant humanist whose words can be found in many of the hymns and readings in our hymnbook, responds to the question "Is Jesus risen?" in a similar way:
"You can [say Jesus is risen] only if you have raised him within yourself. The question is this: Have I brought Jesus to life within me? Does his spirit work in my ways, in my thoughts, in my feelings? Does his courage survive in my courage?...Is Jesus risen? He is if you are a maker of peace. He is if you love your enemies; if you forgive and labor to make things right between you and your brothers and sisters. He is if you have conquered hatred in your heart and replaced it with love. He is if you love truth and goodness with all your thoughts and actions. Jesus is risen if people look at you and are reminded somewhat of Jesus by the way you live."
Jesus is risen. That, of course, is the message of Easter. But is Jesus risen?
I remember encountering this question "is Jesus risen?" in a conversation on Easter, oh, about twelve years ago. I spoke without thinking. And blurted something out I very quickly regretted, at first anyway. Have you every had the experience of blurting something out, completely unrehearsed, only to find that what you just said was a brand new revelation even to yourself?
That year, on the Easter following the death of my father, I got involved in a somewhat heated conversation about the Easter Story. I exclaimed in my characteristically indignant way, "I don't believe that Jesus rose from the dead any more than I believe my father rose from the dead!"
It brought me up short. I was shocked to then realize that in fact, in some way, I do believe my father rose from the dead.
It was my experience, you see, that after seeing my father so thin, so ill with cancer, so wanting for it all to end... and being with him as he hovered in unreal spaces, as he said his good-byes and we ours... his pain, my pain, everyone's pain...after essentially begging from the depths of my soul that he die... when he was dead, there was his body. But where was he?
So, after speaking without thinking that Easter after his death, I did begin to think. Perhaps the triumphant cry on Easter of "he is risen" is not about a supernatural occurrence, a literal and impossible reappearance in the flesh of someone who is known to be dead. Perhaps "he is risen" is simply a description of the experience of being with the body of someone you have loved whose life spirit no longer resides there. Where did it go? Well, it rose out of him with his last breath, and was gone. He, who he was, had risen. That is how I felt about my father. Who he was, all he had been to me, was gone. It rose with his last breath.
So, too, Christians say, "Jesus is risen." His life spirit was gone. His followers' love for him was so intense, their involvement with him so real, that they soon experienced him again as if alive. Reading the earliest Christian writings, it is easy to imagine that Jesus and his followers were a tight and intense group. There was a lot of emotion in all they shared together. Being persecuted greatly strengthens the bonds between the persecuted. His followers were not ready to say good-bye. They needed to feel he was with them, even after they knew he was dead.
Although I have not experienced my father after his death in that way, one hears of people who feel a deceased loved one has returned in their presence. In bodily form. Or more often, as a presence.
What I have experienced is an ongoing process, not always conscious, of integrating who my father was to me into my own life--what I understand of his strengths and weaknesses, his hopes, his fears, what he loved, what baffled him. What he gave me, what he didn't; the good and the bad. I am raising him within myself.
Kenneth Patton said, "You can only know if Jesus is risen if you have raised him within yourself."
Is Jesus risen? He is if we endeavor to be peace and justice makers. He is risen if we endeavor to love both our neighbors and ourselves, if we forgive and labor to make things right between ourselves and others. He is risen if we endeavor to replace the hatred and false judgments in our hearts with love. He is risen if we love truth and goodness with all our thoughts and actions. Jesus is risen if people look at the way we live and are reminded somewhat of his teachings.
Amen.