A
Reflection for Easter Sunday All Saints Episcopal, Southern Shores,
NC March 27, 2016 Thomas E Wilson, Rector
Eater
Rising
One
of my favorite lines of poetry is from William Butler Yeats in his
poem about the Easter Uprising in Ireland on Easter Monday, the 24th
of March 1916. The uprising ends in the short term tragically for the
rebels but it the beginning of a new spirit which ends in the long
run in freedom and dignity. There is a refrain “All is changed,
changed utterly; a terrible beauty is born.” Even those people who
were not “good” people were changed. Yeats writes:’
This
other man I had dreamed
A drunken, vainglorious lout.
He had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near my heart,
Yet I number him in the song;
He, too, has resigned his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
A drunken, vainglorious lout.
He had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near my heart,
Yet I number him in the song;
He, too, has resigned his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
In
the Hebrew Testament lesson for today, Easter Sunday, a prophet from
the school of Isaiah is speaking to the exiles who have returned from
Babylon. Scholars suggest that the Book of Isaiah is written over the
space of a couple hundred years. The founder of that prophetic school
works in the 8th
Century BC was hearing the same messages of those contemporary
prophets, Amos, Micah and Hosea whose central message was “What
does the Lord require of you; to do justice, love mercy and to walk
humbly with your God.”
Isaiah
of Jerusalem continued warning the Northern Kingdom of Judah to not
follow the path of the Southern Kingdom of Israel whose greed and
corruption exploited the weak and powerless and undermined justice
and mercy. That Kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians in 721 BC and
the people went into exile. The Southern Kingdom was able to
withstand the Assyrian assault and tried to reform. The prophecies of
this founder of the school are contained in chapters 1 through 39 of
the Biblical Book of Isaiah.
The
school of Isaiah continued to treasure and repeat Isaiah’s visions
and warnings as joined with other prophets of that era Jeremiah,
Zephaniah, Nahum and Habakkuk. However, the patterns of exploitation
and corruption came back until the Babylonians conquered the Northern
Kingdom and took its leaders into exile in Babylon in 587 BC.
The
School of Isaiah changed tact and tried to minister to those in
Babylon by urging them to hold on to hope for a return to the
Promised Land where they could try to follow God’s justice, mercy
and love. Those love songs of God’s promises of deliverance are
found in Chapters 40 to 55 and these messages were supplemented with
prophetic visions of Ezekiel. These are the songs that formed the
basis of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Jesus came to his people who were
under the yoke of Roman oppression and sang to them of a hope of
something yet to come where God’s will can be done on earth as it
is in heaven.
Babylon
falls in 539 BC, conquered by the Persians and the exiles are allowed
to return home. However, the returning exiles keep forgetting that
they had been given the stewardship of the promise from God when they
were returned to the community and their stewardship was humility
with God, justice and mercy for those whom much has been given by
God, much is expected.” The school of Isaiah raises up a new
generation of prophet to speak to a new situation and these urgings
are conveyed in Chapters 56 through 66. This is the time that other
prophets Haggai, Zechariah, Obadiah and Malachi were hearing similar
messages from God. These love notes from God are a reminder that God
is recreating something new. We did not come back in order to do the
same old thing over and over again. where the predatory nature of
humans, which the poet uses as the imagery of wolf, lion and snake,
will no longer take advantage of the weak and innocent, the lamb and
child. The Prophet sings:
“for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,
and
its people as a delight. . . They shall not hurt or destroy
on all
my holy mountain, says the Lord.”
The past is gone and forgiven and the future is a new beginning. The
old past is dead it is time to live fully into God’s peace, God’s
Shalom, in the present time. “All is changed, changed utterly; a
terrible beauty is born.”
The
Psalm for today is a Thanksgiving Psalm and starts off with “Give
thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his mercy endures for ever. Let Israel now proclaim, "His mercy
endures for ever.
. . . .The stone that the builders have rejected has become the chief
cornerstone.” God’s mercy is so great that the past, the rejected
stone, has been changed by the forgiveness. Forgiveness is not just
ignoring the past, overlooking it, but entering into a new depth of
relationship. The old past is dead and it is time to live into God’s
peace,
God’s Shalom,
in the present time. “All
is changed, changed utterly; a terrible beauty is born.”
Jesus
continues this prophetic tradition of stewardship of justice and
mercy. Luke remembers Jesus telling a parable which ended with “From
everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from
the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”
This is the message of the resurrected Christ on which the followers
of Jesus bet their lives and they continue the practice of their
Rabbi Jesus and preach and live peace in the present time. They
proclaim, “All
( did you notice the number of prophets over hundreds of years) the
prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives
forgiveness of sins through his name." The past is dead it is
now time to live fully into God’s peace in the present time
In
the Gospel story for today the women come to the tomb and find it
empty and when they enter in they find two beings in dazzling clothes
who ask them: “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not
here, he is risen.” In essence the women are told; “The old past
is dead and it is now time to live into God’s peace,
God’s Shalom,
in the present time. All is changed,/ Changed utterly/ A terrible
beauty is born.”
The
disciples however did not initially believe all has changed is
possible, especially boundaries between life and death, and Jesus has
to do a couple more visitations before they come to understand. Some
of you come like those disciples not sure if you believe that a new
life is possible where the past is redeemed and the present calls us
to live into God’s peace,
God’s Shalom. I am encouraged to know that that Peace, that
Shalom, that freedom from the past is not based on merit but on God’s
abundant Grace. As I look deeply into the dark parts of my soul, I
see more than a little of the man Yeats called “drunken
vainglorious lout who has done most bitter wrong” and it can be
time to resign my part in our casual comedies and live into a new
life of God’s Shalom.
Peter
had heard many myths of the treasure
is
only found in entering the monsters caves.
Fearing
deep mysteries of his heart’s waves,
he
leaned into the tomb finding no pleasure.
It’s
empty as his soul with cloth remnants,
old
of a lover whose body has been moved.
Blood
stained clothes which only proved
bitter
wrongs fury for a thirsty vengeance.
Empty
tomb is not proof of any new rising,
having
to walk back home to join the others
joining
entering caves of hearts of brothers
united
in finding some meaning surprising.
It’s
the gathering of faithful of two or three
remembering
a promise made long before
by
the lover saying when what they ask for,
intercession
of community’s heart felt pleas.
He
vowed he‘d be there in the midst of them
changing
with his own sacred breath theirs.
Of
his father’s kingdom they are now heirs,
stewards
of heaven’s will on earth to come.
Christ
is in that space between them arising
bringing
treasure of beauty comes to us here
as
sisters, brothers share what we hold dear
sends
us all out with the spirit’s energizing.
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