The Eastertide

We are still in the Easter Season and this means the Sunday Gospel lessons continue to tell of the appearances Jesus made to the disciples after his resurrection. He came to them on the mountain at Galilee, he walked with them on the road to Emmaus, he cooked fish for them on the beach at daybreak, and he broke bread with them at table in Emmaus. The Gospels clearly want to show that Jesus was raised from the tomb.

Last Sunday I preached on the resurrection. My text was from Luke 24, when Jesus came and stood among his disciples and invited them to touch and see that it was indeed he and not a ghost. "Look at my hands and my feet," he said, "It is I myself. Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."

After church a woman from the congregation met me in the Grand Hall with a profound thought. The story from Luke reminded her of another resurrection story in the book of John -- when Jesus appeared before all of the disciples except for the disciple Thomas. Thomas didn't believe a word of it. "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe," Thomas told the other disciples.  

A week later Jesus came and stood among them again and this time Thomas was present. Jesus showed Thomas his hands and his side. "Stop doubting and believe," Jesus said.

"My Lord and my God!" Thomas exclaimed.

"Isn't it interesting," the woman on Sunday said, "how even though Thomas did not believe what the other disciples were saying about the resurrection, he was still allowed to be with them."
  

Her point was clear. One does not have to believe in order to belong. The early church left room for doubters; today's church ought to do the same.

               
 I've been reflecting on that conversation ever since Sunday. It was a week later that Jesus appeared to Thomas. On one level that tells me that a lot can happen in a week. Somebody shows up Sunday after Sunday because they want their children to be taught good Christian morals in Sunday School, but he really doesn't believe — never has. Next Sunday something happens. Suddenly he's walking the aisle and the preacher has that deer in the headlights look like, "What is he doing? We've talked, I know he doesn't believe." But he does. One Sunday he doesn't and the next he does. A lot can happen in a week.

               
In the liturgical calendar Easter is more than one single Sunday. It's fifty days — seven whole weeks. Easter is a whole season.

                
The church mothers and fathers used to call the Easter Season the Eastertide. I like that. Easter is like a tide. It doesn't come all at once. It washes ashore, wave after wave. It doesn't hit everybody at once. The tide is inevitably rising, but it comes in its own time. You can't rush it.

               
I imagine that there are plenty of folks reading this who feel a little like Thomas — doubting, skeptical, not quite sure about all this Easter business. If so, then I ask that you go ahead and give yourself permission to be a Thomas. Go ahead and doubt. Insist on proof. Wait and see. But wait with us. Don't leave. There's room for doubters among us and we will give you that room. Wait and see and we'll wait with you. Because a lot can happen in a week. A lot can happen this week.

                
And just imagine what can happen in seven weeks . . .

On the Freedom of Forgiveness

Here's something to think about during Holy Week . . .

Will Willimon, Bishop of the North Alabama Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, says a few years back he got a call from a Methodist parishioner who was just livid her pastor had the gall to stand up in the pulpit on a Sunday morning and pray for Osama Bin Laden. Willimon picked up the phone and called this pastor to see if it was true and to see if the pastor could under- stand how this woman and others might have been offended. The pastor said it was true and that he understood how offensive it might have been. "But," the pastor said, "the only one I have ever known God to raise from the dead was the same man who taught us to pray for our enemies."

Jesus did indeed teach us to pray for our enemies. And more than that, he prayed for his own enemies — even as they mocked, flogged, and crucified him. As the nails could be heard driving into his hands, "Father, forgive them," was heard coming out of his mouth.

Jesus lived by his own teachings. He died by them also. And that is the reason God raised him up also. As Peter it in his sermon before the very same people who conspired to have Jesus killed, "This man was handed over to you . . . and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him on the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him" (Acts 2:23, 24).

Are there people in your life you need to forgive? Have you been wronged or betrayed or utterly abused? Holy Week is the time to pray for our enemies. It is the time to put into practice Jesus’ teachings — even his most of- fensive teachings. It is the time to say, "Father, forgive them."

A people who dare to forgive like Jesus are already raised like him also. When we pray "Father, forgive them" we unlock the door of sin and death, not only for them, but also for us. In other words, it is impossible for death to keep its hold on forgiveness.

And so in forgiving we are made free —- and we are free indeed.

The deaths of two Martins: A Call for a New Nonviolence

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. died forty-four years ago today. Given the momentous life Dr. King lived, and the place of honor he has come to receive, it is easy to forget how young he died - only 39 years of age. Like Jesus of Nazareth, Dr. King was struck down before even turning forty, and yet like his Lord and Savior, his life, legacy, and dream lives on.

As we solemnly remember Martin Luther King's death this year, we cannot help but also having in our minds another Martin who died too soon - Trayvon Martin, who was killed by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain was appointed to help protect the neighborhood after a rash of breakins. For reasons we are all speculating about, Zimmerman found Martin suspicious, followed him, and claims he was then attacked by him. When police arrived Martin was lying in the grass in a pool of blood.

We will never know exactly what happened between Martin and Zimmerman which led to Martin's death. Whatever did happen, we can all agree it ended in tragedy. I would like to suggest this tragedy underscores our need to learn more creative and non-violent responses to crime, suspicion, fear, insecurity, and intimidation - the kind of creative and non-violent practices Dr. King himself embodied throughout his life and ultimately even up to the day of his death.

Most people know that the King-led Montgomery Bus Boycotts of 1955 were Gandhi-inspired demonstrations of non-violent, direct resistance to evil. It was Dr. King's insistence on the power of non-violence which began the Civil Rights movement in earnest. What most people do not know, is that it was Dr. King's continued belief in the power of non-violence which brought him to Memphis on that fateful day thirteen years later.

In March of 1968, Dr. King was planning a "Poor People's Campaign" where he intended to bring busloads of poor people to the Mall on Washington, DC in a massive demonstration against policies which Dr. King saw as keeping millions of Americans endemically poor. Prior to the Washington campaign, however, Dr. King answered a plea from Rev. Jim Lawson to come and assist Memphis sanitation workers - mostly black - in a protest for more decent pay and working conditions. On March 28 Dr. King led an ill-prepared march which was interrupted by rioting and mass looting. Dr. King left the march and soon Memphis and 4,000 National Guardsmen were called out to quell the rioting.

The March 28 march would be King's last. It was perhaps the nadir of his involvement with mass demonstrations. Never before had a march led by Dr. King broken out in violence among his own ranks. The lack of training among the marchers on March 28 is rightfully considered a blunder on the part of the King and the other march leaders. Critics seized on this as an example of Dr. King's waning ability to lead mass groups of young blacks. If this is what happened in Memphis, what would happen in Washington?

Dr. King needed to act quickly to come back to Memphis with more staff trained at leading non-violent demonstrations in order lead a more disciplined march through Memphis, lest both the campaign in Memphis and also in Washington be lost. This was the reason why Dr. King was back in Memphis on April 4th - to continue his insistence in the power of nonviolence and to put it into better practice.

For as Rev. Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays said in his eulogy at Dr. King's funeral just five days later, "[Dr. King] went up and down the length and breadth of this world preaching nonviolence and the redemptive power of love . . . Nonviolence to King was total commitment not only in solving the problems of race in the United States, but in solving the problems of the world."

George Zimmerman insists he does not have a race problem. He did, however, have problems for which more creative and nonviolent solutions must be sought out. Breakins were a problem and a neighborhood watch program was a good response. Vigilance is needed; vigilanteeism is not. The purpose of watch programs is to reduce incidents in a neighborhood. Zimmerman failed flat out on that and it came at a great cost for him and an even greater one for Martin. On the flip side, if we take Zimmerman at his word and suppose he is telling the truth when he says Martin attacked him, certainly we could understand the desire to defend oneself from a perceived threat. Yet, I have to wonder what else would be expected of Martin in response to being followed by an armed man? Run away? That's pretty unlikely.

The killing of Trayvon Martin underscores just how desperately we need alternative solutions to the violence in our streets today. Dr. King, Rev. Lawson, and the other leaders of Gandhian resistance, knew that nonviolent direct action takes creativity and discipline that must be learned and practiced in advance of an incident. Turning the other cheek, and walking the extra mile do not come naturally, but they are necessary tactics for survival in volatile situations.

Perhaps what is most needed is a new generation of such leaders who can teach neighborhood watch groups disarmed and disarming ways to deal with criminals in their neighborhoods. Likewise, they could teach young people like Trayvon Martin the skills necessary for engaging antagonistic situations without either suffering the indignity of running or the danger of fighting. What we need is the "third way".

The Quakers have a saying: "If in seeking to kill the beast, you become a beast, then beastiality has won." We must confront the beasts, but we cannot confront him by becoming him. What we need is another way; the nonviolent way - what Dr. King called "the only road to redemption."


For a great essay from King on nonviolence please see his article "Nonviolence: The Only Road to Redemption" at:

http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=1426

For more information on King's role in the Memphis sanitation workers' strike and the place where I got much of the history for this essay see and listen to:

http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/king/