Easter: Resurrection Or Renewal? by Rev. Michael McGee, Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011

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“Easter: Resurrection Or Renewal?”

Reading: from the Beatitudes:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Reading: by Richard Gilbert

Easter is paradox;
It is the leap over the chasm between life and death,
Between victory and sorrow.
Easter holds together the reality of crucifixion,
And myth of resurrection.
The Jesus of history and the Christ of faith.
Those who lose their lives for others will be saved.
Those who save their lives for self will be lost.
Love is real only when we give it away.

Sermon:

        O Lord, what a morning! Happy Easter everyone! I love Easter! I love to see the children dressed in their Easter outfits, and women with their bonnets, and men with their handguns. You may have read that our renowned Virginia Attorney General has decreed that people can now carry guns into churches – that is, if they are allowed by the church. I don't know about you, but that makes me nervous. I already have congregants taking verbal potshots at me for making controversial statements, and now I have to fret about a more lethal form of disagreement. I guess the idea is that if someone does open fire, then everyone else can pull out their firearms and start blasting away. Isn't that pure lunacy? So please keep your weapons at home folks, especially on Easter.

        I say, especially on Easter, because this is the most controversial of all holidays for Unitarian Universalists. And the reason is that Easter is so confusing for us. While Christian churches are celebrating the resurrection of Christ, we're sitting on our hands wondering what to do. Most of us don't get the resurrection, but we want to celebrate something inspirational and hopeful and joyful this time of year.

        So what do we celebrate? Nature, of course, is worthy of our praise. How can you not be joyful about nature, especially when you live in Virginia in the spring! Nature is at the heart of our Unitarian Universalist theology, as Rev. Linda pointed out in the Earth Day service last Sunday.

        And yet I believe we're missing something vital if we insist that Easter is only about the renewal of nature. Though we may not believe in the traditional Christian interpretation of the Easter resurrection, we can still find a transforming meaning and personal inspiration in the life and teachings of the man Jesus.

        In fact, the religious roots of our faith grow deep in the soil of the Jesus tradition. Unitarianism did not become an established faith until the Protestant Reformation, but it was our spiritual ancestors who challenged the divinity of Jesus from the beginning. Our faith defined itself as Unitarian because we believed in one God as opposed to the trinity, thus affirming the humanity of Jesus over his divinity.

        But Jesus has gotten lost for many Unitarian Universalists today. It's hard for some to distinguish between the man Jesus and the caricature of the Savior as preached in many churches, a regally robed divinity who has been drained of his compassion and turned into a protector of the status quo. I'm reminded of the words of George Bernard Shaw who said, "Christianity might be a good thing if anyone ever tried it." And that's probably why many of you are sitting in these pews today: because you, at some point in your life, grew tired of the inconsistencies between the religion of Jesus and the religion about Jesus.

        But there are many Unitarian Universalists who do affirm Jesus as their central religious figure. A recently published study by the Pew Forum showed that there are an estimated 600,000 plus people who identify as Unitarian Universalists within the United States – though fewer than 200,000 are actually members. And within our membership, between 9 and 10% of UUs consider themselves to be Christian. That means there may be more than 50,000 self-identified UU Christians nationwide, a sizable group. We have an organized group of UU Christians here at UUCA as well, led by Madelyn Campbell, one of theological students.

        But what does it mean to be a UU Christian? Within our congregations, there are Buddhists, Jewish, Pagan, humanist, and other UUs, who focus their spirituality on a specific religious path, but within the freedom of our faith that allows them to search without any creedal prohibitions.

         As with the other identity groups, Christian UUism can mean different things to different people. But the primary purpose of Christian UUs is to find and follow who they see as the real Jesus. In doing so, they reject the traditional portrayal of Jesus that ranges from a milk-toast savior whose only purpose is to save souls to the right-wing Jesus who is a patriotic, pistol-packing, dogmatic, pro-death penalty, anti-gay, anti-poor, anti-Muslim, anti-taxes, pro-corporate guy. Have you seen the bumper sticker that reads, “Jesus protect me from your followers”?

        The vast majority of Christians, as with followers of other faiths, are of course true to their religious and ethical principles. But their Christ is not authentic for Christian UUs. For Christian UUs, Jesus was a man, a prophet, and teacher who gives them great sustenance and hope for themselves and the world. Their sustenance and hope come from three affirmations.

        First of all, they affirm the humanity and love of Jesus. The Jesus path is one with heart for Christian UUs because they believe that this man had a humanity that was godlike in his deep compassion and love. When we see Jesus as a human being instead of a God, we can be immeasurably inspired by this man who refused to be bound by all that binds most of us to tribe, gender, sexual orientation, religion, finitude, and fear.

        Certainly, the Jesus path is not the only path with heart, but it's apparent that when we read the parables of the New Testament, and the Sermon on the Mount telling us to feed the hungry and heal the sick, and when we hear his message that we should love our neighbor as ourselves, we know – we know – we are in the presence of a great love, a great truth, and a great man.

        Jesus's message was not that he was the Messiah and not that he wanted to start a new religion. His message was that the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are on the margins – the disabled, women, the poor, and not to the rich and powerful. And he sought to wake people up to the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

        Jesus was of course a Jew speaking to his fellow Jews. Judaism, he said, was laden down with rituals and laws, with hierarchy and religious red tape. But you cannot regulate love; you cannot legislate ethics; you cannot prescribe hope; he proclaimed.

        The Sermon on the Mount is at the heart of UU Christianity because it's in those words that we understand clearly the essence of this man of peace and compassion. He did not judge or condemn those who did wrong, but instead he blessed those who suffered, who were condemned by others, who had so little in their lives.

        And there's no doubt in my mind that he would roll over in his grave – so to speak – if he knew how his name and his teachings were being used to undermine the very principles he preached and lived. Jesus was a radical in his politics, a heretic in his religion, and he was a troublemaker for all those who used their power and privilege to diminish the humanity of others. And if he lived today I'm convinced that he would once again, as has happened in every age, be dragged up on the cross and crucified.

        The second trait Christian UUs affirm is that Jesus gave meaning to suffering and power to healing. The Jesus Path has always been especially appealing to those who suffer terrible pain in their lives. It's the stranger in a strange land, the cancer patient, the parents who have lost a child, the poor and outcast, who can relate best to Jesus' life.

        The image of Jesus nailed to the cross has helped many people to accept and transcend their own pain. What an incredible image that is: this man hanging on a cross – not a god who feels nothing – but a human being who feels every crushed nerve, every bleeding vessel, every puncture and wound. How many times have we seen the crucifixion in our mind's eye? How many times have we flinched with pain and shuddered with empathy? Through our compassion for the crucified Jesus we're able to feel the suffering of all those who have been persecuted throughout history.

        Jesus knew and accepted that the prerequisite for resurrection is crucifixion. Mahatma Gandhi said that, "To make any progress we must not make speeches and organize mass meetings but be prepared for mountains of suffering." What Gandhi and Jesus taught is that we are saved not from pain but through pain. By facing the pain of being human, of being victims of crucifixion upon crucifixion, of being lonely and afraid, we can embrace our fears and awaken to the blessings of forgiveness and love.

        Jesus reached out to heal the lame, the blind, the crippled, the possessed, and even the dead. We don't know if he was able to actually heal people physically, but he certainly did heal people spiritually. He told us that we can be healed when we stop making ourselves the be-all and end-all of existence, and when we reach out to others with compassion and love.

        The third trait Christian UUs affirm is that Jesus showed us how to experience resurrection and incarnation. Have you heard the country song titled, “Get Off the Cross, We Need the Wood for the Fire?” Each of us knows what it means to be on the cross of grief and persecution, and like Jesus, we look for a way to get off that cross, to rise from suffering to wholeness.

        But the mythological resurrection emasculated the message of Jesus. The so called “good news” that spread around the world was not "love your neighbor," but instead, "He has risen!" People avert their eyes from the cross, from the pain, from the absurdity of a good man mercilessly murdered, and instead embrace a Hollywood resurrection that gives us the proverbial happy ending.

        Jesus was not a man who yearned to escape from life. He sought to bring about the Kingdom of God on earth. He was a life-giving, life-loving, whole, free man who feared death but feared even more a life without hope and meaning. I believe resurrection for Jesus was not a bodily ascension to heaven, but even more stunning, his resurrection took place and takes place even now in the hearts of those who live out his love. Jesus so fully incarnated the ever-flowing, cosmos-filling, creative energy of life that his presence among the human race could not be destroyed by death.

        This mysterious truth so baffled the people of his time that they projected a physical fantasy onto this spiritual reality. They perceived Jesus as returning from death in the flesh, when in fact, his love became incarnate in our hungry hearts.

        The good news is that everyone can be resurrected! That's our universalist tradition, isn't it? And we don't even have to die to do it. To be resurrected is to be awakened to our own divinity. When we realize that we are all God incarnate, the universe embodied, the Holy manifested, then all kinds of possibilities open before us. No longer can we accept the role of victim. No longer can we give way to boredom, pettiness, and cynicism. No longer can we run from the darkness within us or the death that awaits us. We have no excuse for not transforming ourselves and the world.

         This is the power of the man Jesus: the power of a human being who had the courage to die for what he believed, to die for the betterment of humanity, to die rather than live without love and hope. This means that we cannot just babble about our beliefs; we must become prophets and activists who live out the values taught by Jesus and other great religious leaders. In the words of William Sloane Coffin, "It is one thing to say with the prophet Amos, 'Let justice roll down like mighty waters,' and quite another to work out the irrigation system."

         I stand with our Christian UU sisters and brothers in wanting to take back this suffering, healing, loving, militant, crucified, and resurrected Jesus. Let's take back the Jesus who overturned the tables of the money-changers, the Jesus who stood up for those who had no voice, and who confronted the corrupt leaders of his day.

        And whether you're a UU Christian or not, let's take back Easter, making it a time for renewing and resurrecting the human spirit, a time to challenge those who use the Bible to justify their prejudices, a time to break through the barriers of fear and the boundaries of privilege, and a time for each one of us to become Messiahs of hope and healing in our world.

View the Service

Resources

• "Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography," Dominic Crossan
• "Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary,"Marcus J. Borg
• "Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism," John Shelby Spong
• "Why Christianity Must Change or Die," John Shelby Spong