THE TRIDUUM—SO WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

It's not about getting into heaven. It is about making this world a place of justice and peace.

J U S T P E A C E F O R A L L A N D N O T H I N G L E S S W I L L D O

What does it mean that "Christ was born...Christ had taught and healed and brought forth miracles...Christ was crucified...Christ is rise...Christ will come again"? It would seem that these proclamations about Christ form the core of the Christian gospel. But, what do these acclamations mean to us, here and now? These assertions about the Christ are at core ontological statements of being. Each of these statements is based on expressing who the Christ is. Continuing in a rich tradition of a God who asserted the name of that the divine name was in fact a statement about who God is. In the biblical witness, God shares the divine name with Moses. "Who shall I say has sent me?" asks Moses. God replies, "I AM". This name is far from being just a personification. The person of God is so much more than those two words. The mystery of "I AM" is that it can be only imperfectly understood. "I AM" lends itself, intentionally, to all that it can mean. As an idiom, there is certainly no single meaning of God's divine name. I AM who I am. I will be who I will be. I will become whomever I become. I will become who I choose to be. I will prove to be who I prove to be. I AM who is, who was, who is to be. I AM that is being, that was becoming, that will become. I AM who I am. I AM the "doer" of what I have done, what I am doing, what I will do. I AM the "one" who is. In keeping with this tradition, Jesus—through the writing of the Gospel acclaimed to be of St. John—the following statements are placed on his lips: · “I am the bread of life; the one who comes to me shall not hunger.” John 6:35 · “I am the light of the world; the one who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John 8:12 · “I am the gate; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” John 10:9 · “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.” John 10:11 · “I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in me shall live even if he dies.” John 11:25 · “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” John 14:6 · “I am the true vine, and ABBA is the vinedresser.” John 15:1 But the most profound of statements to be placed on the lips of Jesus is: "Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” John 8:58 In John's Gospel, the ontological nature of the Christ is that God's Beloved and Begotten One existed before the human life that was lived on earth. So, what are we to make of all this? First, I would suggest that we do well to remember that God is bigger and beyond anything we can attribute to God or God's being. Second, I would also suggest that attributing anything to God is not only a slippery slope but an exercise in expressing how limited our human understanding of the divine may be. And, third, I would finally suggest that those who have called upon God's name and have said something of God's name that is bound to our human insight and imagination have often got it wrong. With these acknowledgments, why would I choose now to do that very thing: write about the meaning of God?  There is something about the season that begins with Ash Wednesday and culminates in 50 days of Easter that begs for explanation. What is the significance of Jesus' suffering, death, and resurrection for us and for all humankind? As was shared by the Rev. Traci Blackmon yesterday (i.e. Good Friday) Pastor William H. Lamar IV a pastor in the AME Church said on TODAY (paraphrase):  "Y’all done sanitized the cross so much that you can’t even smell the blood! Who throws a praise party at a public lynching?" And, I would say that he nailed it—spot on! What I mean (and what I think his words indicate) is that we have missed the point! We have domesticated God and the work of God to a context that is more ordinary than extraordinary, more lame than powerful, more comfortable than engaging, more self-serving than tending to the actual needs of humankind, here and now. When we proclaim Christ as suffering, Christ as crucified, and Christ as risen, what we are witnessing is the awesome reality of redemption that we too often exchange for a pie-in-the-sky explanation. Christ suffered. Christ crucified. Christ risen. What these prophetic words mean have more to do with our here and now reality than some future of getting into heaven and spending eternity in peace and joy. At the heart of the issue, a Christ suffering, a Christ crucified, and a Christ risen is the divine announcement that: · Black Lives Matter · No one based on their gender identity is excluded and other than loved by God · Racism is evil · People of color are in fact people · Misogyny is evil · Poverty is the reflection of evil mirroring those who have more than they need · People in Manymar, Asia, Africa, Afghanistan...Palestinians, Latinx, and South Americans...Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, and those of other religious traditions...People otherly-gifted, people who suffer from mental illness, people who suffer from any of the multitude illness and/or injury...People imprisoned, those on death row, those with a minor infraction, and the criminally innocent...whoever you are, where ever you are, regardless of the context within which you live your life—are loved by God and our sisters and brothers in Christ. The cross is drenched in blood. The smell of suffering and death is all around us. The dead among us include more than those whose life here has ended simply because they are mortal. What we do as a church—orthodox, catholic, protestant, evangelical —is not so much about teaching correct belief and saving souls for heaven's sake. Rather, it is about justice and peace. We cannot truly sing "Alleluia!" if even just one person is in need. The reality that Christ is risen means that we have been freed from self-interest ways of survival and delivered unto being liberators whose spirituality is as much an engaging in flesh and blood as it is the soul. Praise is not what one does in the presence of suffering and death. Praise is what results when people are healed, given equality and equity, liberated from all and any oppression that burdens their life and elevates others to a false sense and practice of superiority. So, then, the cross and the empty tomb are not about helping us feel better about ourselves. Instead, it is a call to live within our incarnation as people created in God's image who have been given the ability to come together as a community and work for the common good of all. What is crucified on the cross is our racism, bigotry, bias, discrimination, violence, power plays, manipulation, wealth, privilege, and ego. What is risen is our ministry of inclusion, love of all—where all means all—excluding no one even those different than ourselves. Easter is the reality that the reform of gun control is necessary, the redevelopment of role and actions of police officers is necessary, the lies and conspiracies that create hate and harm needs to end, an election process to international, national or local leadership based on gender, race, and wealth needs to be undone, the glass ceilings based on gender or race needs to be deconstructed. Believe it or not, Easter is all about cancel culture. It is about making things right, not only because right is right, but because doing and being right is a reality. We live in a world where resurrection means giving life to those whose life has been negatively affected by injustice and evil. Lynching still occurs in so many ways. When a person of color is treated differently by police, merchants, political parties, employers—a lynching is occurring. When someone is able to get a gun and use it to murder others, one or many—a lynching is occurring. When immigrants who are fleeing for their lives are denied entrance and citizenship—a lynching is occurring. When a tri-structured government fails to legislate and re-legislate laws that are of justice and peace—a lynching in occurring. When politics is about maintaining a status quo of racism, wealth, white male privilege—a lynching is occurring. Lnychings are manifold and many, We cannot rest until they end.