{"id":784,"date":"2025-04-21T12:47:44","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T11:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rebelrebel.org.uk\/?p=784"},"modified":"2025-04-21T12:47:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T11:47:45","slug":"easter-awakening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rebelrebel.org.uk\/?p=784","title":{"rendered":"Easter Awakening"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reflection #103 (20th April 2025 at Essex Church \/ Kensington Unitarians)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I hinted at the top of the service, Easter can be a tricky day for Unitarians, as each of us is likely to sit in a different relation to the Christian tradition. And the Easter story is challenging in a lot of different ways at once. In the mainstream churches there will be much more of a sense of having gone on a journey of preparation through Lent, and the build-up through Holy Week, giving a lot more time and space to linger over the story of Jesus\u2019 downfall and suffering in worldly terms, before arriving at Easter Day and the sense of triumph that goes with the story of his resurrection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

We didn\u2019t have a service on Maundy Thursday, or Good Friday, or Holy Saturday \u2013 but we can\u2019t just skip to the end of the story \u2013 that\u2019s why our readings this morning have taken us on that journey (albeit in rather an abbreviated fashion). Still, I wanted us to rewind a bit and consider some of the resonances between the horrors of the passion narrative and the horrors of our own times. And I kind-of intentionally didn\u2019t include any scriptural telling of the story in today\u2019s service \u2013 let\u2019s work with the version of Easter that we\u2019re each carrying in our own minds and hearts (no matter how sketchy that might be for some of us) \u2013 and let\u2019s skip back a week and think about all the events which led up to the crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus\u2019s entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday when he is lauded by the crowds. His turning over tables in a rage and throwing the money-lenders out of the temple. The Last Supper where he instructs his disciples to remember him (and he also predicts that he will ultimately be betrayed). Jesus\u2019 deep anguish as he prays in the garden of Gethsemane and asks to be delivered from his suffering (but ultimately accepts God\u2019s will for him). His betrayal, his arrest, and the scattering of his disciples. Peter denying that he knows Jesus. The trial, by Pontius Pilate, who supposedly gives in to the arbitrary will of the mob, and sends Jesus to be crucified. And then the horrible account of Jesus carrying the heavy cross to Golgotha, being flogged and mocked, and finally put to death. There are a number of sayings attributed to Jesus on the cross but the one that speaks to me is \u2018My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?\u2019 That sense of \u2013 after all this \u2013 this holy life \u2013 there\u2019s no happy ending \u2013 he\u2019s just abandoned to his fate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, the Easter story speaks to all human suffering, be it on a personal, societal, or global level. My guess is most of us won\u2019t have to dig very deep to find resonances in our own lives \u2013 times when triumph has turned to disaster almost overnight \u2013 when we\u2019ve been enraged by other people\u2019s bad behaviour, unfairness, or injustice, and we\u2019ve lashed out \u2013 when \u2018the mob\u2019 have turned against us, or a group we belong to, and we\u2019re going to get hurt \u2013 indeed when the state itself, the powers that be, the empire, is coming after us \u2013 or when we\u2019ve felt betrayed and abandoned by friends or family \u2013 or times when we can see we\u2019re heading for some terrible car-crash of a situation and there\u2019s no way out. And I suspect a lot of us feel that way about world events right now \u2013 whether it\u2019s the rapid and terrifying rise of fascism, or war in Gaza and Ukraine, or the climate catastrophe \u2013 the horrors abound. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In every life, sometimes, suffering and pain arrives at our door, and it can\u2019t be swerved. And in some lives, let\u2019s be honest, it just keeps on coming, life rain downs so many blows. Some people \u2013 and some communities (that\u2019s particularly in my mind this week) \u2013 get far more than their fair share. We need to acknowledge that suffering isn\u2019t entirely randomly distributed, and a large part of it can be attributed to unjust human systems, and those who profit by those systems, intentionally driving others into desperate circumstances, and persecuting the most marginalised in order to \u2018divide and conquer\u2019. Still, suffering and pain come to us all, even the most privileged, and we mustn\u2019t dismiss or discount our own or anyone else\u2019s suffering just because others have got it worse. Human suffering is universal. Bob Janis listed many sufferings in our first reading, \u2018Good Friday\u2019, which Brian read for us: \u2018those who are witnesses to the death of life and end of love, those who are broken open like crumbs upon the water, those who are sick and crying out, those to whom no music is playing anymore, anyone lost, anyone lonely, all thieves and trespassers\u2026 the poor whose dreams are low to the ground enough to be reached by the jackboots, the forsaken under a stormy sky.\u2019 In the end that\u2019s all of us human beings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how does the Easter story speak to such suffering? I\u2019ll return to the words of Kathleen McTigue: \u2018We are a troubled tribe, we human beings. The unfolding story of our time on earth is clouded with pain and cruelty, with missed opportunities, unthinkable heedlessness, and indifference. It is also marked by the bright notes of decency, kindness, freedom, and courage. Easter proclaims that we each have a part to play in how the story unfolds, if we are willing to wake up.\u2019 Easter is a call for us to wake up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, we can\u2019t rush to resurrection. In the face of suffering our first task is to remain with it, to face it, to endure it, as best we can. As we heard from Anna Blaedel in our second reading: \u2018the call of Holy Saturday is\u2026 to remain with pain, bear witness to wounds. These are practices of new life, practices opening new possibilities, practices of resurrection. Redemption is encountered\u2026 through remaining\u2026 in a way that honours both life and loss, gift and grief, fear and wonder. No easy answers. No quick fixes. No superficial platitudes. God meets us in deep, complicated, and messy ways and places.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we endure suffering \u2013 and I want to acknowledge here that not everybody endures, not everybody survives<\/i> what life throws at them \u2013 but the Easter message addresses those of us who are still here<\/i>, for now \u2013 those who are, somehow, still standing (or perhaps we\u2019re crawling, on our knees, or curled up in the foetal position) \u2013 but we are nonetheless still here<\/i> after the worst possible thing imaginable has happened, and we ask ourselves \u2018what now?\u2019 or \u2018how on earth do I pick myself up and carry on?\u2019 and then, perhaps, \u2018how can I help to make things better \u2013 ameliorate suffering \u2013 mine and others?\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us look to the disciples who are left behind. Mary Magdalene especially, who goes to the tomb, and finds it empty, the stone rolled away. She is distraught. And then someone calls out her name \u2013 \u2018Mary\u2019 \u2013 and she instantly recognises who it is standing there next to her \u2013 and she responds \u2018Rabbi.\u2019 Kathleen McTigue reflects on the significance of this moment of profound spiritual awakening: \u2018When Mary heard her name called, suddenly her eyes were opened to a new reality. She was called out from\u2026 her grief and despair, and from within herself she found a new way to see and to understand what had happened to her\u2026 the story points to the moments in every life when something within us is called out, called forth, called to a deeper understanding of our world. Easter\u2026 is a time that calls us to open our eyes in a new way, to see not just what we expect to see, but perhaps some bright and mysterious truth we could not fathom before, something completely new and unexpected.\u2019 Words on Easter as a call to spiritual awakening from Kathleen McTigue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As this reflection was coming together I happened to listen to an interview with a Buddhist teacher, James Baraz from the Spirit Rock Meditation Centre, and he dropped some wisdom from the Buddha which seems surprisingly pertinent. He said: \u2018suffering is usually what wakes us up\u2019. Not that it always works out that way \u2013 sometimes suffering can lead us to shut down, lash out at others, become embittered and circle the wagons \u2013 but it might also lead us to become \u2018woke\u2019 in the modern sense (a label I am more than happy to claim, though many use it disparagingly) \u2013 I\u2019d understand \u2018woke\u2019 as meaning \u2018awake to the sufferings of others and the social injustices that so often cause that suffering\u2019. Or it might wake us up in the sense of giving us insight into our own part in creating, perpetuating, or unnecessarily aggravating our own suffering, through our own habits of mind (this is quite a Buddhist angle). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As our final reading from Victoria Weinstein reminds us, awakening is not enough, insight alone is not enough: we need to roll up our sleeves and live differently \u2013 be the resurrection ourselves \u2013 as she says, \u2018lay healing hands on the reviled and rejected\u2019, \u2018rage for righteousness\u2019, and \u2018treat each one so tenderly\u2019. If we are still here, if we are awake to the world\u2019s woes, then we still have a chance to make things better \u2013 to help build the Kingdom of God, the Beloved Community, Heaven on Earth. \u2018Easter proclaims that we each have a part to play in how the story unfolds, if we are willing to wake up.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To draw things to a close I want to invite you to join in with a responsive reading \u2013 it\u2019s becoming an Easter tradition for us \u2013 and an acknowledgement of our varied and uncertain Unitarian responses to the traditional story \u2013 the words are in the middle of your hymn sheet and they\u2019ll appear on screen shortly. The words are by Daniel Budd \u2013 it\u2019s called \u2018We Don\u2019t Know What Happened\u2019 \u2013 and I invite you to join in with speaking the responses which are printed in bold. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’re not sure what happened. But we know what it’s like,
\nwhen someone appears in our life whose message we feel offers hope,
\nwhose way of being inspires us with new ways of living.
 
\n\nWe know what it’s like when they fall short of our expectations,
\nor worse, when they are cut down and cast aside
\nby the forces of hate, bigotry, and closed-mindedness.<\/b>
 
\n\nWe’re not sure what happened. But, we know what it’s like
\nwhen someone has grown profoundly into our own lives,
\nwho seems as much a part of our living as our own breathing.
 
\n\nWe know what it’s like when they are taken from us,
\nperhaps prematurely, by unwanted change, or by death,
\nand the empty place now in our souls is much like an empty tomb.<\/b>
 
\n\nWe’re not sure what happened. But, we know what it’s like
\nto feel sorrow and loss, despair and grief. We know
\nthe waves of tears and the thoughts of the past which flow through us.
 
\n\nWe know that memories and stories begin to fill the emptiness;
\nwe integrate their gifts to us, and our lives are shored up with
\na different presence, which will live with us all our lives.<\/b>
 
\n\nWe’re not sure what happened. But, we know what it’s like
\nto realize, to have it dawn upon us, that what we have known
\nand loved lives on with us and within us, forever, a part of who we are.
 
\n\nWe know that somehow, in our hearts and souls, resurrection is real;
\nnot that of the body, perhaps, but of the spirit \u2014 a spirit
\nrenewed, even reborn, in the midst of our lives and our living.<\/b>
 
\n\nWe’re not sure what happened. But, we know there is a difficult hope,
\na faith, that through whatever sorrow or grief we are feeling,
\nthere is also a growing sense of grace and gratitude, of joy and thanksgiving,
\nin the mysterious and abiding astonishment of being fully human.
 
\n\nIn this wonder, may we find strength, within our own sense of Easter. Amen.<\/b>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflection by Jane Blackall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n