by Rev. Dr. Mary Susan Gast, Conference Minister, April, 2005
Monthly Reflections from The Pacific ~ News and Events of the NCNC United Church of Christ

CHRIST'S RESURRECTION RINGS THE EARTH LIKE A BELL

Words of encouragement and support for those ministering "in the fields."

On the day after Christmas, beneath the Indian Ocean, one huge tectonic plate wedged itself below the tip of another.  This was the earthquake which launched the tsunami which set off death and injury of staggering degree, devastation of homes and livelihood beyond imagining, and grief that will send shuddering shockwaves through generations. And there are planetary reverberations yet to be understood.

“The quake rang the earth like a bell,” researchers from Columbia University reported. The earth wobbled on its axis. The North Pole moved an inch. Our planet spun 3 millionths of a second faster, “causing the length of a day to shrink permanently,” according to calculations from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory here in California.

We had just been reading John the Baptist’s word that “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough ways made smooth.” He was referring, of course, to a geography of the spirit, and a preparation of human hearts and history, a transformation of creation so profound that all that had been fierce and terrifying would be gentled. The stony mountains of oppression and resentment would crumble. The valleys of grief and desperation would no longer lurk as pits. The twisted pathways of our hearts would unsnarl so that we would not wander off onto dead ends or constantly coil back upon ourselves. And we would be flooded with good news of great joy. That to us is born a Savior. Someone who rescues us from all that is death-dealing by offering us the full and abundant life of all-embracing reconciling, compassionate love. That this baby—this Messiah, this bearer of New Life—crushes mountains, raises valley floors, causes earth tremors by upending the foundations of everyday politics and economics; sloshes through the spilled waters of the rivers of pain and woe, in rushing wild exuberance just to be with us.

And now we have passed through the rigors of Lent’s wilderness, into Easter. The demands of The Most High thunder onto shore like the majestic rolling surf. And as they recede we find ourselves not only chastened, but awed and replenished. The sparkling sand at our feet shimmers with the promise of resurrection.

One of our sages, Browne Barr, wrote about resurrection in an article that appeared in The Christian Century over 20 years ago. If the Resurrection is real—if Jesus is the Messiah—then life makes sense for us as Christians, Browne wrote. But it only makes sense on God’s terms, not ours. The Resurrection means that The Author of the Universe is intent on the fulfillment of just and loving purposes, the Ancient of Days is in dead earnest about the establishment of a realm of equity and peace. It proclaims that all our narrow allegiances are doomed if they are not prompted by love for God and neighbor. “For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” [I John 3: 11] The resurrection rings the earth like a bell.

“Are you the Messiah?” the disciples asked the risen Jesus.

“Look around,” Jesus said, “see what I have done.” The sick are healed, the needy are made whole, the rejected are loved. the guilty are unburdened. People crushed by guilt are not let off the hook for their evil deeds, but are granted restoration to life. Creation testifies to strength in weakness, wisdom in foolishness, victory in defeat, life in the barren caverns of death, the triumph of powerless love over loveless power.

The resurrection sends shockwaves through generations of stolid despair and gelid complacency. The Messiah has come—as Jesus of Nazareth who collided with the mighty and colluded with the needy, in league and in love with this hodgepodge humanity. This is the no-holds-barred, full-tilt, in extremis truth of the Resurrection. It wobbles the earth on its axis and dislodges our old point of reference. Its reverberations are yet to be fully understood.

                                                                  ~ Mary Susan

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