A sermon by Lanny Peters
Oakhurst Baptist Church, Decatur, Georgia
Easter Sunday, March 27, 2005
“Practice resurrection.” These are the words that end a poem by Kentucky farmer, novelist and poet Wendell Berry. “It is a reminder that resurrection is more about practical matters than it is about belief systems; it has a lot more to do with what we do than what we think.” (Kyle Childress, The Shepherd’s Staff newsletter, March 2005) Jesus did not want people to just believe in him; he wanted people to follow in his way of radical love and non-violent resistance to evil. Even when faced with a horrible death on the cross, he would not turn back from this way, even to save his own life. When they came to arrest Jesus, one of his followers pulled out a sword, attacked and injured one of those who had come to arrest Jesus. But Jesus rebuked him saying, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you not think that I can appeal to my Father and he will at once send me a vast army of angels?” (Matthew 27:52-53) Jesus was clear that his purpose was not to continue the long, bloody, violent history of humankind, but to change history entirely and offer a radical new model.
Jesus’ way seems so preposterous that the plan of the guy with the sword seems more realistic than Jesus’ way. We find all kinds of ways to sweeten and soften and just plain ignore what Jesus taught and lived. Perhaps you saw in the paper yesterday that one popular thing this year is chocolate crosses that you can use for a centerpiece on your Easter table and then enjoy for dessert afterwards. What! The cross was a Roman torture instrument used in capital punishment of criminals as well as political revolutionaries who threatened the government’s absolute power. It was the equivalent of the electric chair. Who would want an edible version of that as a table centerpiece!
The Wendell Berry poem I mentioned is called Manifesto: The Mad Farmer’s Liberation Front. It begins, “Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready-made. Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die. And you will have a window in your head. Not even your future will be a mystery anymore. Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer. When they want you to buy something, they will call you. When they want you to die for profit, they will let you know.”
The alternative that Jesus offers is to be crazy enough to follow God. The poem goes on to say, “So friends, every day do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it. Denounce the government and embrace the flag. Hope to live in the free republic for which it stands. Praise ignorance, for what man has not encountered he has not destroyed. Ask the questions that have no answers. Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias. Say that your main crop is the forest that you do not plant, that you will not live to harvest.”
Later the poem includes these lines: “Laugh- laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.” That reminded me of an old interview with Bishop Desmond Tutu, from 1985, in the midst of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. He said,
If it weren't for faith, I would have given up long ago. I am certain lots of us would have been hate-filled and bitter…. In the middle of our faith is the death and resurrection. Nothing could have been more hopeless than Good Friday—but then Easter happened, and forever we have become prisoners of hope.
Apartheid says that we are created for separation; the Scriptures say ‘Rubbish.’ We are created for unity, for fellowship, for communion. Apartheid says that people are fundamentally irreconcilable; the Scriptures know nothing of this. It is denying what we might call the central work of Christ: attaining reconciliation. God was concerned with reconciling the world to (God’s) self.
Apartheid goes on to inflict an unnecessary and unjust suffering and misery on God's children just because they are black. Therefore, we are calling on Christians to say that they oppose this not for political reasons, not even for economic reasons, not even for the fact that they are worried that human beings are made to suffer—but because the people supporting this are behaving in an un-Christian way.
We are not saying it in any self-righteous kind of way. We are saying we are trying to be as true to the imperatives of the gospel as we can. And almost always it will expose you to suffering, to ridicule, and to worse.
If after the horrible event of Good Friday, when even the physical nature seemed to mourn, and darkness covered the earth—if after that you see the glorious resurrection, what can ever be worse than that moment?
And what can ever again make you doubt that if God be for us, who can be against us? If that has happened, what can ever again separate us from the love of God? What chance does the South African government stand? There is just no hope for them. And they really ought to listen to us when we say, ‘We are asking you to join the winning side.’ When we say we are on the winning side, it isn't that God is on our side because we are good; it is because (God) is that kind of God. (“Prisoner of Hope. An interview with Desmond Tutu” by the editors of Sojourners. Sojourners Magazine, February 1985.)
Bishop Tutu demonstrated what it means to be joyful though you have considered all the facts. He and others like him refused to take up the sword but instead practiced resurrection in dismantling apartheid. It enabled him to overcome his fear even when confronted with enormous evil.
I don’t know about you, but something that can keep me from practicing resurrection is fear. Jesus understands this. In Matthew’s account, the first word he says when he appears to the women after the resurrection is, “Do not be afraid.” This thread runs throughout the entire Bible. God, angels, and Christ himself says these words, “Do not be afraid.” (Thirty-nine times in all).
Jesus then instructed the women to go and join the others. We are more likely to be scared when we are alone. That is why we need church. We need a faith community to practice resurrection. Former Oakhurst member and Baptist pastor in Nacogdoches, Texas, Kyle Childress points out, “To practice resurrection is somewhat similar to what we mean when we say that a physician has a medical practice or a lawyer has a legal practice; she practices medicine or he practices law. In the case of (our church), we practice resurrection. But to practice resurrection means we have to work at it over time under the supervision of competent teachers, coaches, and mentors. Like hitting a curve ball or playing the scales on the piano, or reading a book, resurrection takes practice, practice, practice. When we do the things Jesus did and we keep at it day after day, and we keep doing those things- prayer, worship, feeding the hungry, forgiving and receiving forgiveness, loving the least of these, etc.- and we do these things under the tutelage of the saints, teachers, writers, and pastors from across time and around the globe, then we will become competent in seeing the Risen Lord. We practice resurrection until we see the resurrected Christ. It is in the practices that we will see him and know him.”
I need Wendell Berry and Bishop Tutu and the Christians in South Africa, Kyle Childress, and the Christians at Austin Heights Baptist Church in Texas, and most of all, you folks at Oakhurst Baptist Church, to help me face my fears and practice resurrection. Last week about a dozen people sat in our living room and shared their spiritual journeys with one another. I was deeply touched and strengthened by the amazing variety of experiences of these soon to be new members seeking a place to practice resurrection. I look around this sanctuary and I see people who have been teachers and mentors here twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, and even sixty or more years. What incredible resources we have to help us practice resurrection.
Another former Oakhurst member, now a pastor in Greensboro, North Carolina, Michael Usey says, “To practice resurrection is to put the power of resurrection into our lives; it is to live in the way that Jesus calls us to live…. We must think of new ways to bring the power of Easter into this world. We must act it out daily. We must become conduits of the love and energy of the Almighty God. We are to be every day reminders to people that death-in all its forms-is not the final word. As citizens of the coming kingdom of God, we are called to be heralds of God’s incredible power, which even now, is bursting forth. Death could not hold Jesus; it will not be able to hold us, by God’s grace and power.” (College Park Baptist Church Newsletter, March 2005.)
As we practice something, over time it goes from being awkward and uncomfortable to being natural and even graceful. In fact, the time comes when it no longer even seems like work, but is full of joy. May it be so with us as we practice resurrection. Amen.