What is it about Easter that makes Unitarian Universalists so confused? It seems to me that we have a pretty good idea about what we don't believe at this time of year, but what we do believe, well that's an Easter egg of a different color, isn’t it.
There's a story I want to tell you that gives us an excellent idea of what Easter means to Unitarian Universalists. The story is adapted from a fellow UU, Jim Wallace:
A group of friends of various religious denominations were seated in fellowship discussing the true meaning of Easter one Sunday when the Baptist said: "I believe we place too much emphasis on chocolate bunnies, colored rabbits and Easter eggs instead of the spiritual aspects, which is the real meaning of Easter. That's what I believe," said the Baptist. "Me too," said the Methodist. "Me too," said the Lutheran. "Me too," said the Catholic. "Me too," said the Nazarene. --And the Unitarian Universalist was silent.
"I believe the real meaning of Easter is that Christ died on the Cross for our sins," said the Methodist. "Me too," said the Nazarene. "Me too," said the Lutheran. "Me too," said the Baptist. "Me too," said the Lutheran. --And the Unitarian Universalist was silent.
"I believe the real meaning of Easter is the triumph of Jesus over the Grave," said the Lutheran. "Me too," said the Catholic. "Me too," said the Nazarene. "Me too," said the Baptist. "Me too," said the Methodist. --And the Unitarian Universalist was silent.
"I believe the real meaning of Easter is not only what each of you have said, but also that all people who believe in the sacrifice and Resurrection of Jesus are cleansed of original sin through baptism and are restored to the favor of God and many share in His eternal Life," said the Catholic. "Me too," said the Nazarene. "Me too," said the Baptist. "Me too," said the Methodist. "Me too," said the Lutheran. --And the Unitarian Universalist was silent.
"I believe the real meaning of Easter, in addition to what has already been said, symbolizes that the bodies of all people will be resurrected and joined to their souls to share their final fate," said the Nazarene. "Me too," said the Baptist. "Me too," said the Methodist. "Me too," said the Lutheran. "Me too," said the Catholic. --And the Unitarian Universalist was silent.
The group then turned to their Unitarian Universalist friend, whom they all recognized as a little strange, and said, "Your silence is a mystery to us. Just what do you believe as a Unitarian Universalist is the real meaning of Easter?"
[Now this is a good place for you to reflect on what your answer would be in this same situation...]
The Unitarian Universalist ... said: "I believe the real meaning of Easter is the appreciation of life's renewing cycles and, that for all things there is a season. I believe the real meaning of Easter is the acknowledgment, with its accompanying sadness, of a very human Jesus who was forced to die on the Cross because of his liberal religious views and beliefs. But most important of all, I believe the real meaning of Easter is the Celebration of Thanksgiving for the presence of the sacred in each and every living person and thing; for the presence of the sacred in the birds that sing; for the presence of the sacred in the flowers which sway and the grasses which rustle in the gentle breezes of spring. This is what I believe is the real meaning of Easter," said the Unitarian Universalist.
"Me too," sang the birds. "Me too," waved the flowers. "Me too," rustled the grasses. "Me too," sighed the wind. -- And all the rest were silent.
Well, are there any questions? I believe that's a beautiful and accurate description of what Easter means for most Unitarian Universalists. And it's one we should all memorize for such occasions.
This is not to say that our views are any better or truer than anyone else’s, but it is important to know what we believe and why we believe it. And we need to realize that Easter is just as much our holiday as anyone else’s. We don’t have to feel left out. It is a time for us to affirm our beliefs and commit ourselves to living them out.
And we do not have to give up on Jesus. For me, the figure of Jesus is especially meaningful during this season. That is why I conducted a Good Friday Tenebrae Service where we gathered in the darkness to listen to the Passion Story of how Jesus died and to find meaning in that drama for ourselves and our world.
I also participated in the Sunrise Easter Service at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church this morning. Though I don’t believe in the literal resurrection of Christ, and I don’t even believe God actually gets up that early, it was an opportunity for me and our other members to remember the life and teachings of Jesus with our friends from Our Lady and Mt. Zion Baptist Church.
There is no doubt that the Jesus we affirm at Easter is a different one than the risen Christ celebrated by our Christian friends. Why is there such a discrepancy between these two views of Jesus? Primarily because there are two different religious traditions that have grown out of the New Testament.
In his book, The Hebrew Lord, John Shelby Spong, the retired Episcopal bishop whom many UUs have adopted into our faith, tells us that though most people assume the religion of the Western world was shaped by our Hebrew background, and that the secular, modern outlook of our day came from the worldly Greeks, actually it is the other way around. Our traditional religious beliefs are a direct outgrowth of Greek culture, and the more modern attitude – worldly, liberal, scientifically oriented – is far more Hebraic and biblical than we realize.
Those of us who proclaim liberal religion, who affirm this life and this world, are actually following in the footsteps of the early Hebrews. And it is the Greek tradition that has stamped Christianity with an otherworldly, escapist mentality.
A reflection of these two different views is seen in my favorite movie of the year. How many of you have seen “Chocolat?” It is a beautiful film set in a small French village in 1959. I love “Chocolat” not only because it is about my favorite food group, but because it is a delightful fable about courageous people struggling for human dignity and freedom.
The small, dreary French village is dominated politically, socially and theologically by a pompous nobleman mayor, the Comte de Reynaud. He and his stodgy ancestors have ruled the village for centuries.
The mayor forces the villagers to adhere to a rigid Roman Catholicism that tolerates no change from the past. Everyone knows precisely what is expected and what is required to survive in the private fiefdom of this obsessed man. The mayor’s longtime ally, the village priest, who served the community for five decades, has recently been replaced with a still-wet-behind-the-ears priest who has the audacity to like American rock and roll music.
Into this theological mine field strolls Vianne Rocher, a beautiful single mother, and her young daughter who arrive in the village and open a world-class chocolate shop replete with exotic flavors and delectable confections that miraculously arouse lust, passion and sensuality among those who eat the delicious creations. Though it is never mentioned, there is no doubt that Vianne is a Unitarian Universalist at heart.
The mayor’s response to this daring young woman is to pressure her to attend church services, and when she refuses, he tries his best to drive her from the village. He begins by convincing the priest to deliver hostile sermons specifically aimed at the owner of the popular chocolate shop. And he even starts ghost-writing the sermons himself -- something I definitely frown upon.
What follows is a struggle between the mayor’s spiritually suffocating religion and those who embrace a joyful and sensual spirituality. The film can be seen as a metaphor for the universal conflict between the status quo in religion -- those who use their power to control and dominate -- and those who attempt to live life in its fullest and freest.
Our religious tradition has been a part of that struggle since its inception. Unitarians and Universalists have long proclaimed a liberating theology and a human Jesus -- though for some reason chocolate has never made it into our principles and purposes.
There are actually two different Jesus’ in the Christian scriptures. The human Jesus was a specific person in history who was born about 4 B.C.E. and grew up in the town of Nazareth. He taught in the countryside, towns and cities of Israel. And he died during the administration of Pontius Pilate, about 30 C.E. in Jerusalem.
Jesus of Nazareth was not born in a vacuum. Many people forget that Jesus was a Jew. When Jesus walked, he walked in a land with a deep and rich Hebrew heritage. His life was shaped by the culture he lived in.
Jesus was taught the scriptures of his people. He studied the law of Moses; he knew the Psalms; he embodied the prophets. Jesus was a Jew who loved Judaism, and yet he called it to task for straying from its basic principles.
And yet when the Jewish Jesus was transported to the Greek culture, he was put through a shredder. “Underlying the Greek view,” writes Bishop Spong, “was a very basic dualism that contradicted the Hebrew understanding of the relationship between God and the world... There was in the dualistic mind of Greek philosophy a separation between the spiritual and the physical, between God and the world... In this view... if you wanted to meet God you would not turn toward the world but away from it; you would not become involved in life but would rather retreat from it.”
The differences between the Jewish Jesus and the Greek Christ are significant. Jesus the Jew was a person whereas Christ is a theological principle developed by the Greeks. Jesus was of history; Christ is outside of history. Jesus had a mother and a father, an ancestry, a human heritage. He was born as all babies are born. Christ is God born of God.
“The simplistic suggestion that Jesus is God is nowhere made in the biblical story,” claims John Shelby Spong. “Nowhere! But time after time in historic episode after historic episode, the claim has been made that through Jesus, God was revealed...”
Are you beginning to get the picture? We’re talking about two extremely different views of spirituality. When many people hear the word “spirituality” today, they think of it as meaning pious, detached, contemplative, life-denying, and otherworldly. And that is what it did mean to the Greeks.
But spirituality for the Hebrews was something completely different. “Nephesh” is the closest Hebrew word for spirit or soul, and it literally means breath or the breath of God.
God breathed nephesh into our bodies so that we could come alive. The purpose of spirit was not otherworldly, but to bring us life itself. We are filled with spirit just as we are filled with breath.
Spong tells us that, “Biblically ... the function of the spirit is to make vital, to call into being, to free, to make whole, to establish community based on life. To be spiritual means to be alive. To be filled with the spirit means to be free to live. It does not mean to be turned toward the nonphysical, to be pious, to cultivate the virtues of the soul.”
It’s delightful to see how Vianne breathes spirit into the small, repressed town simply by being herself and doing what comes naturally. People gravitate to her not only because her chocolate is so delicious and potent, but because she recognizes their true potential and helps them realize it.
One elderly woman who is dying and bitter finds comfort not in the promise of another life but in the friendship and nonjudgmental listening of Vianne. The young chocolatier is a symbol of the Jewish Jesus, healing those who are suffering with a loving presence and taking on the battle against a repressive church.
To be a good person for the early Hebrews did not mean that you were pious, moralistic and otherworldly -- as was the mayor. A good person was a free person who lived a whole life and embraced the physical world with vitality -- as did Vianne.
To the Hebrew, God and the world were one, not separated and antithetical as with the Greeks. God created the world and it was good. There was no difference between the sacred and secular. Everything was interconnected, woven together in one interdependent web of being.
Resurrection was a Greek concept that saw the soul as pure spirit incarcerated in the flesh. And death was the opportunity for the soul to escape the body, free at last of its fleshly burden.
Have you heard about the videos being distributed now by a group of fundamentalists? The videos are for people to play when millions of Christians are suddenly raptured on Judgement Day. It explains why it is that we were not raptured so that we can prepare ourselves for eternal damnation. I can hardly wait for my copy.
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 meaning and purpose.
But in that dualistic Greek culture, Jesus the Jew was buried deep beneath the assumption that the worldly and secular was evil while that which was otherworldly and of the spirit was good and holy. And so the story of Jesus’ life and death became embedded in miracles instead of a hopeful, life-giving message.
As Spong writes: “It was as if someone had placed a gigantic vacuum cleaner on the Hebrew view of reality and sucked all the goodness out of the world, all the wonder, the glory, the divinity of life – all the holiness, all the presence of God – and isolated these in opposition to the world in a realm called spiritual, leaving only the base, the physical, the material, the evil as the domain of the world.”
The result of this giant vacuuming was that there was no motivation to change or improve the world. There was no need to reform life, to promote justice, and to throw off the shackles of human bondage. What followed was a thousand years of darkness with no scientific, cultural, or spiritual progress.
The movie, “Chocolat,” ends on Easter morning when the young, Elvis-loving priest stands up to give his Easter sermon. By this time, the mayor has been revealed as a tyrant, and most of the villagers have beaten a path from the confessional to the confectionary.
The priest too has realized that he has been manipulated and so on this glorious morning he ignores the sermon written for him by the mayor and stands up to tell the congregation for the first time what he really believes. He tells them that he doesn’t want to talk about religion but about life. And he proceeds to preach a Unitarian Universalist Easter sermon about the goodness of creation and the joy of being in this world.
Let us remember that the real meaning of Easter for us is the appreciation of life's renewing cycles and of a very human Jesus. But most important of all, Easter is the Celebration of Thanksgiving for the presence of the sacred in each and every living person and thing.
And when we hear, “Christ has risen!”, let it remind us to (adapted from David Blanchard):
Rise to hope,
Rise to love,
Rise to heal,
Rise to forgive,
Rise to courage,
Rise to foolishness,
Rise to wisdom,
Rise, even to die.
But most especially, let us rise to life.
Let us love life and live it to the fullest.
Amen, Amen and Amen.
