[Oe List ...] Easter

[Margaret Aiseayew via OE]

I am always slow.  My life is circumscribed by demands that don't fit the
normal weekly schedule of most.  I struggle with my small congregations and
am intent on speaking to them of the reality of their faith in the world we
live in.  This was my Easter witness.  If you are not interested, please
delete.  If you find theological error, please help me.  Margaret

Living in Christ

 

Grace be unto you and Peace from God our Creator and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

This has been a week of formidable challenges. We have been compelled to
live our lives in Jerusalem.  Have you found yourself focusing on yourself
in this journey or focusing on others and how they were managing the
journey?

 

For me, there has been some whiplash in this week.  I am focusing on myself
and then Peter denies Jesus.  I really struggle with this one.  If you try
to think of what might have happened if he had not denied Jesus, I quickly
end up in a morass where I wonder if we would even be here in the Church.
Then again, denying Jesus?  I have to wonder how I have denied Jesus this
week-in every week?  Am I a proclaimer or denier?

 

It felt a bit to me this week like we got to watch the crucifixion first
hand, and then thanks to the cameras in everyone's phone we got to watch it
over and over.  Do you know what I am talking about?

 

The characters are almost all the same.  Instead of the perfidious Roman
government you have a business giant named United Airlines.  This overly
sanctified organization decided that four of its passengers must leave the
plane.  Three leave and one stays.  He says he is a doctor and has patients
to see the next morning.  Just as the priests handed Jesus over to the
Romans, so the pilot or stewards of the flight handed the passenger who said
no over to the Chicago Police.

The doctor was battered and drug off the plane.  The passengers took
pictures and screamed that it should stop, that the airline shouldn't be
doing this.  (If you listen carefully to all the replays you can hear more
than one person saying, "Oh God! Oh, my God.")  Some passengers were in
tears.  It has been said that some of the passengers became ill.  The doctor
ended up in the hospital.

 

Were people praying to God?  Were they cursing God for letting this happen?
What were they saying with their "Oh God! Oh, my God."  No one stood up and
said, "Take me."  No one said, "Here I am Lord, send me?"  None of the
officials of the airline suggested reconsidering the arrangement.  The good
doctor was left alone after he was drug to the lobby and he came back to the
plane-bleeding profusely from his face.  He stood holding on to the divider
between the first and regular class sections of the plane.  Did you hear
what he said?  "Just kill me."  He stood there holding on to the partition
and begging, "Just kill me."  Then he was drug off a second time.

 

No one of sound mind intervened.  No one volunteered to bring any
rationality to the situation.

 

In the story we know, the people were given the option of choosing to
release a different prisoner.  They all chose to release Barabbas rather
than Jesus.  What does abba mean in the Bible? (Father)  What does bar mean?
(son of)  They chose to release the son of God.  How could it be that no one
on that plane could see the doctor as a Child of God?  How is it that no one
found the courage to take responsibility for a situation they knew was
wrong, negative, divisive and dehumanizing?  A situation that was hurting
everyone on the plane.

 

At what point do we say, "Not my will, but thine?"  At what point do we
stand up to the Romans?  What are we waiting for to know that it is time to
stand up to the priests and Pharisees?

 

You may be more than ready to say that I have carried this analogy too far.
You may want to say that the doctor did not die.  You may be wanting to
remind me that the doctor has acquired a lawyer to sue the airlines.

 

Imagine your life after this has happened to you.  There have been millions
of views through news organizations and You Tube.  Once you are out of the
hospital do you imagine that you can just go home and start seeing patients
again?  How do you get home?  Do you have enough nerve to get on another
airplane?

 

I want to assure you that the crucifixion and resurrection are real.  They
are present in our world today.  If we are moving through the world with our
eyes open, we will see them.  We have the opportunity to participate at any
moment.  We can say no (and yes) to the crucifixion through intervention.
We can enable the resurrection, by being the neighbor prepared to lift
another up.

 

We need to see God in each person we meet.  We need to love the God in
ourselves so very much that we are not stopped by fear or anxiety or even
the thought of what others might think.  We need to love our Creator so
completely that we are compelled to protect the God in others.

Look around.  This is where the journey to Jerusalem leads us.  The
challenges will always be formidable.  Let us embrace God's blessings and
face them together.  In the times we are apart, pray for one another.

 

 

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