A Random Act of Resurrection

It's not quite Easter.

On Holy Saturday I am sitting at my desk at home praying, contemplating, imagining.   The pondering is almost overwhelming as I consider all the implications that tomorrow brings.   The defeat of death.   New life.  Newborn hope.  An opportunity to begin again.  As one who knows the story, it all awaits me, beckoning me to step forward out of tombs of my own making.

It occurs to me that we as United Methodists tend to live in tombs of our own making.    We dwell in the self-induced angst of the myth that says we are a dying Church.   We stumble in the graveyard of our ideological convictions, placing them above community, above relationships, above even the Gospel we claim to follow.    We wallow in the darkness of our own narrow preferences, unable to see a larger vision.   And friends, we remain in these tombs because in truth, we do not really believe...or more to the point...trust in this Resurrection thing.

We speak of it, of course.   We poke at it like medieval children provoking the bear tied to a pole in the public square.   God forbid it should get loose.   We accept it, more or less, as an arid and brittle article of doctrine.   We argue about it, write papers, preach sermons, and show up in our Churches on Easter morning  only to leave essentially unaffected by the power that surges just beyond our comprehension.

I know.  This sounds harsh.  But in the nearly thirty years I have served in this United Methodist community, I have observed this and feel compelled to name it.   We are not actually a Resurrection People.  If we were, both we and the world we inhabit would be much different.   The time has come, however, for this to change.   On this Easter let us receive the power of the Resurrection anew.
Let us claim the Resurrection, not as an article of religion, but as a way of life.

 I am reminded about the old Gospel tune with the lyrics that go like this.  "Everybody wants to go to heaven.  Nobody wants to die."    If we are honest, we do not wish to let go of our own egos and our hard won sense of self.  And yet the Gospel call is to "die to ourselves (Luke 9:23, Philippians 3:8, John 12:24, Romans 12:1-2)," and to live into new life in Christ.    It's time, today, for us to release all the "stuff" we are holding onto that keeps us from embracing the power of the Resurrection.   It's time, today, walk out of the "Church of what we want..."   and begin to build the Resurrection Community once again.

And sisters and brothers, the Good News is that this is actually happening!   The Resurrection of the Body of Christ is taking place even as my fingers dash across the keyboard of my computer.   I am here to witness today to the fact that a new day is emerging and revival is bursting forth.

I know that I will be in one of our Bridges District Churches tomorrow morning shouting, "Christ is Risen," and with his Body....the Church... too will rise.

Let me share just one story about such Resurrection power.

Elmhurst United Methodist Church in East Oakland could be said to be a dying Church.   It's in a tough neighborhood and it doesn't have very many members.   The building has seen better days and the means to repair the structure really are not there.   We could look at that, shake our heads and walk away.   Or we could step in and look a bit more closely.

The truth is that this is a mighty Church.   As a DS I strive to get into every one of my ninety-two Churches and visiting Elmhurst was part of this commitment.     I remember pulling into the parking lot and catching my breath as I surveyed the buildings.    But then I got out of the car and I met Jason Eckles.    We shook hands and exchanged the niceties one would expect.   And then I began to listen to his passion and his vision.

East Oakland is what we call a "food desert."    There are no grocery stores anywhere near this neighborhood.  There are few ways for residents to gain access to healthy food and it's not a situation that exists just in this neighborhood.  This is the case in many urban settings.   But Jason didn't just see things as they were in the moment.   He had a vision of how things could be different.   He has a vision of community reborn and people working together.

At the core of this vision is the creation of a community garden on the Church property.   This garden wouldn't just feed members of his Church.   This garden would be a place where the people of the community could come to work, to share and to receive the benefits of fresh food and fresh relationships.

At the risk of being a little too Wesleyan perhaps, I felt my heart strangely warmed as I listened to Jason share his vision with a light in his eyes.    Thirty minutes with this guy and I was hooked.   This Church wasn't dying!  God had called this Church to Resurrection Life right here in East Oakland.   So Jason and I spent the next couple of hours praying, sharing and dreaming.  

And together we came up with the idea of holding a "Random Act of Resurrection."    We put out the word to the whole Bridges District, inviting folks to come on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend to "Labor together in the Vineyard"  to build enough raised beds for this garden to get off the ground.
Word went out through email, through the District Office, through Word of mouth and more.
We even asked them to bring their own tools and some supplies.

On that Saturday we had no idea really how many people would come.   But as we sipped our coffee we saw car after car after car pull into the driveway.

At the end of the day seventy people came, some from as far as 100 miles away, and build 23 raised beds for this new community garden.   It is a sight I will never forget.   African Americans, Latinos, Pacific Islanders, Chinese, Korean, Euro-Americans all coming together in laughter and community to be the Body of Christ, alive and full of power.

This kind of event is a Resurrection Act.   It is staring right into the face of what seems like death and leaning into life together.   It is real.  It is powerful.   And I am convicted that God is calling us to live out these Resurrection acts all over our District.   Be mindful, though.   This was a wonderful Church before we all arrived to build raised beds.   Pastor Carol Estes leads a wonderful community in this place.   Their worship is full of hope and wonder, and that choir?   Wow!    All we did was join the party as members of one Holy Spirit Community.

All this leads me to utter a call to all of us to commit random acts of Resurrection.   What's going on in your community?  In your Church?  In your life?   Where can you gaze into what seems like the face of death and dare to live out the Resurrection hope?    Remember on this Easter Sunday that the victory is already won for us in what has happened this day.   All we have to do is live into it with all our passion and joy.

Indeed on July 11th we will be doing this again at the Bayside Cambodian Fellowship in Alameda.   Plan to spend the day as we paint, repair and join our sisters and brothers in this New Church Start who have given their lives in hope!   Watch this blog and the Bridges District Facebook Page for details.

Friends,  In the hopes of spreading the Resurrection power we participated in at Elmhurst UMC, we have made this a centerpiece of our ministry in the Bridges District.   We are indeed a people of the Resurrection!  We are holding "Resurrection Conversations" throughout our area in an effort to shift our discourse from death to new life.  Instead of watching our communities decline like someone watches the air go out of a tire with a slow hiss, we want to insist on the Resurrection.    In our own spiritual practices, in our families and our relationships, and yes in our United Methodist Churches! So we are gathering to ask the questions that lead, not to death, but to life.  

Christ is Rien!
As of today, let cynicism die and let hope be born.   As of today let the negative energy that binds us fall away and give birth to an unreasonable optimism.   As of today,  let us embrace the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that is coming to each person and each church as we step together into revival, into the Resurrection Life.

Wishing you a blessed Easter, and looking forward to an ever growing number of Random Acts of Resurrection across the Bridges District!

DS Schuyler  

Atonement: I do not think it means what you think it means....

It's Good Friday.

This day picks us up and sets us squarely into the matrix of Christian understanding known as the "atonement."    Increasingly these days I hear people decrying atonement theology.   The claim is that atonement has to do with God killing (his) Son as a blood sacrifice to make up for our horrific and countless sins.    This is a mean, vengeful God.  This is not the God of love.    We want to put as much distance as possible between us and a God who would murder (his) own son, and that's exactly what we do.

I also hear a growing number of voices telling me and anyone who will listen that they don't like any mention of blood in their Christian story.  We like the nice Jesus who has the children on his lap and leads the gentle sheep into safe pastures.     So, away with all those songs about the blood of Christ.  Away with references to being "washed in the blood."    Moreover, let's not even have the Good Friday worship service.  Really?   I like the Resurrection pieces, but all that blood?  I don't think so.

Such images of gore and bloodshed offend sensibilities of contemporary people and set us on edge because it is about.....suffering.    Suffering is a non-starter.  It's not something we want to witness, ponder or consider.    Mind you, we willingly pay for it with our taxes and thus cause unspeakable suffering around the world, but please please don't put it in our religion.    And not only religion, but in any corner of our comfortless, numb lives.

This traditional or prevailing understanding of the atonement betrays a stunning misunderstanding of two things in our Christian tradition.  The first is the understanding of "The Trinity,"  and the second is our understanding of "sacrifice."

Let me begin with the much maligned and seldom understood notion of the Trinity.  The trinity is an ancient church understanding that names God is a unity of three "persons."   The Creator, the Word, and the Holy Spirit.   This understanding was born in the days of the early Church as people of faith began to grasp that Jesus was "Emmanuel," or God with us.   Simply put, it dawned on people to ask the question, "If Jesus is God among us, then who was minding the universal store when Jesus was here with us?"  Add to this the powerful scene in the Gospel of John where Jesus breathes the Spirit into the Disciples (John 20:23f) and poof, we have the recipe for the trinity.   One God, three entities or persons.

For more than two millennia we have had a hard time grasping this idea of One God in Three Persons.  But there it is.    God is One and self expressed in three entities.  And if we understand the unity of these three persons in One God then the whole notion of God killing (his) son kind of falls apart.     God didn't kill another person, God, in Christ, gave (him)self on the cross for us.  It was a willing act of self-giving love, not infanticide.

And this, friends, brings us to the notion of sacrifice.  

Sacrifice in our culture is seen as a bad thing.  Indeed, someone who sacrifices themselves for others is seen to have a psychological malady known as a "martyr complex or syndrome." This is so much the case that this complex has been codified in to the "Diagnostic and Stastical Manual (IV)" as a diagnosable illness.    In other words, someone who routinely sacrifices their needs to meet the needs of others has a personality disorder.

But the truth is that sacrifice is not a bad thing at all.   In fact, without others sacrificing for us, many of us would not even be alive today.   If parents didn't sacrifice for their children, if husbands, wives and partners did not sacrifice for one another, if soldiers did not sacrifice on the battlefield, if our heroes did not give their lives, the world would be a much different place.   From Jesus himself to Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr and beyond, sacrifices have brought, not evil, but good.  

Indeed, if a people are no longer willing to give of themselves for the greater good, then the whole culture is in danger of collapse.

Here we are, at the crux of the atonement.   Allow me to offer another view based on the forgoing.

The sacrifice made by Jesus was not murder, but in fact, was an act of self-giving love.    God didn't kill Jesus, God gave God's self for us. The typical wording here would be that this happened to save us from our sins.    But let's forget that language and go to the core of it all.

When we give ourselves for others, things change.  It's really that simple.

This is the atonement.
It is also at the core of contemporary nonviolent theory lived and written about by Tolstoy, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Daniel Berrigan.

When you pour out yourself for others, for something larger than yourself, things change.   You change.   The people for whom you give yourself change.   It is this transformational dynamic, rooted in self-giving love that sits at the center of Christian understanding, on this Good Friday it is something I challenge us all to ponder.

What happened on the cross is not some distant vaguely historic event that we are called to accept as a matter of doctrine.   It is, instead, a call to action.   God gave God's self for us and calls us to go and do likewise; to pour our lives out for the healing and hope of the world.     The cross and the pursuant resurrection of Jesus is a model for how we are to live.

Think of the new life that grew in so many places because of the willing sacrifice of Martin Luther King, Jr.   He poured himself out, and new life was the result.    Think of the millions of self-giving acts of love performed by parents, lovers, siblings and friends every day.   All these acts create a storm of grace, a current of new life, a table for us all to gather round in community and joy.

So there it is, having sat long in my heart, but unrehearsed here in the writing.

This Good Friday is not some religious dictate or savage act of violence.

It is, a loving God pouring God's self out for us and yearning for us to go and pour ourselves out in love for the world.

My utterances shared here come with prayers that we might all give ourselves for others so that healing, hope, and new life might spring up in our wake as we pass through this life.

SR