Surprised by Hope and Possibility

Easter Sunday ● April 9, 2023

Readings: John 20:1-18 (The Inclusive Bible)

Rev. Jeff Wells © 2023

You can view the full worship video recording at:
https://youtu.be/T8sR9iefivM?feature=shared

Let me reprise for you the nuggets of the scripture lesson I would like us to focus on today. Mary goes to the tomb and finds it empty. Someone has either moved or stolen the body, possibly with nefarious intentions. She is distraught and runs to tell Simon Peter and the other disciple. They run to the tomb and see what Mary saw, but then they go home. They don’t stick around to look for the body. Perhaps they think preparing Jesus’ body for burial is women’s work. I think it’s more likely they were very depressed and couldn’t handle the situation.

In either case, they left Mary standing there weeping beside the tomb. Her beloved teacher and friend had recently been executed on a cross. The disciples were hiding in fear of arrest or persecution. What would happen to their community? Their movement for love and justice? The situation must have seemed hopeless. And, as if things weren’t bad enough already, now the body was missing. If she could do nothing else, Mary at least wanted to give Jesus’ remains a proper burial. Perhaps she imagined that would lessen her grief and sadness.

Then, through her tears, Mary has a vision of a person nearby, who she thinks is the gardener. She says, “Sir, please, if you have carried Jesus away, tell me where you’ve laid his body and I will care for it.”

Then, she hears the man say her name, “Mary!” Suddenly, perceiving that this is Jesus, she cries out, “Beloved teacher!” Could it be, was it possible, that Jesus was alive? In an instant, her tears of sadness turn into tears of joy. Her despair turns into hope and possibility. 

I have had people who I know well tell me about experiences in which loved ones who have died, communicated with or even appeared to them – most often in dreams, but sometimes in waking moments. As in the story about Mary’s encounter with Jesus, the deceased persons appear not quite as they were before, yet in some way are recognizable. Sometimes those telling of these encounters perceive a message from the loved one. More often they simply experience relief from knowing, somehow, that the loved one is okay.

According to the Gospel of John, before he was arrested, Jesus prayed an extended prayer for his disciples which includes this line: “I have revealed your Name to them, and I will continue to reveal it so that the love you have for me may live in them, just as I may live in them” (John 17:25-26). Whatever phenomenon might explain the disciples’ perceived experience of “seeing” Jesus after his death, I am convinced it helped them experience the Spirit of Jesus living on in them and their community and then living on in the next generation of followers, who were inspired by Jesus’ first disciples. And Jesus lives on in us, too – we who continue to be inspired by the stories about Jesus’ life and teachings that have been handed down to us – we who experience his ongoing presence in our community.

Just when Mary Magdalene and the rest of Jesus’ disciples felt like they had come to the end of the road, like their path was blocked by a solid stone wall, God offered them a way out of no way. God lured them to an understanding that somehow Jesus lived on, even though he was no longer with them physically. Their belief in Jesus’ continuing presence among them gave them the confidence and courage to keep building the movement Jesus had started with them.

There are times – I am sure we have all experienced them – there are times, in what feel like very challenging or even hopeless moments of our lives, when we are surprised by an event, an insight, or an encounter that shifts our perception and our emotions from fear and despair to unexpected feelings of hope and potentiality. Such dramatic shifts can happen suddenly. More often, they occur over time or at least the groundwork is laid over time in ways we don’t recognize until later.

I can think of many examples from my own life. But let me offer just one still very fresh and ongoing experience of being surprised and changed by hope and possibility. 

For many years, I had been concerned and angry and frustrated and really sad about the increasing environmental degradation we have witnessed for decades, while big fossil fuel corporations lied about it and raked in obscene profits. Like you, I recycled, repaired, and re-used. I sent money and signed petitions. But mainly I felt helpless in the face of it. Then, sometime in early 2021, I came across a concept new to me called, “ecological civilization.” I didn’t really know, at the time, what that meant, but it intrigued me. So, on April 3 of that year, I ordered a Kindle book titled, What Is Ecological Civilization?: Crisis, Hope, and the Future of the Planet, written by Philip Clayton and Andrew Schwartz. I want you to make a mental note of that second author’s name. The very next day, April 4, 2021, was Easter Sunday and I preached a sermon titled, “Engaging Life Anew,” in which I mentioned the vision of ecological civilization publicly for the first time. 

I kept studying it and, in August and September of that year, we engaged in an eight week worship series on process theology, in which there was also significant reference to the vision of ecological civilization. In fact, I preached a sermon titled, “Can a New Civilization Emerge?” I remember suggesting that we invite John Cobb to preach in this series and Jorge countered with, “Let’s ask him to preach three Sundays in a row.” Honestly, I thought John would turn us down, but he said “yes,” and in his final sermon, he declared that, as followers of Jesus, we are called to practice “salvation,” in the way of Jesus, by addressing the ecological crisis. That led me to call up John and ask if I could visit him in California to talk with and learn from him. Again, I doubted he would agree, but he did. Ultimately, that led to me help found and lead the Living Earth Movement and then, when that group shifted its priority away from promoting ecological civilization, I connected with another founding member, David Korten and we came up with the idea of drawing together a group of thought leaders and activists from around the world working already doing that work. Who did we call first? Andrew Schwartz. And the three of us became the organizing core for the newly-founded Alliance for Ecological Civilization. 

Of course, it was not just me introducing these ideas to the Church of the Village. Pastor Alexis and Jorge and Katie Reimer were already familiar with process-relational theology and all became enamored of the concept of ecological civilization. So, over time, it has influenced what we preach about, what we pray for in worship, the music we choose or compose, and more. In this evolving process, I have gained an increased sense of hope and possibility. I sense that together, as a community, we have done that too.

There are no guarantees in life and God does not have the ability to intervene to fix the ills of the world. God does not compel us to choose the best among the possibilities before us or compel us to do good. Yet, God’s love and persuasion are very powerful. God’s lure is very strong, especially when we intentionally make ourselves open to it. So, my responses to the ideas I encountered and the relationships I formed were neither coerced nor accidental. They were made in relationship between God and me and our community and the process theology and eco-civ movement, and the world we all encounter. We are all connected.

No amount of hope can alter the reality of the difficulties, challenges, pain, and suffering in our lives. Yet, we know that God desires the collective and inclusive well-being of the whole of creation. And, in every moment of every day, God continuously offers us new possibilities arising out of what has already occurred. Hope is the precondition for our being open to those possibilities God sets before us. Without hope, creativity and innovation could not flourish. Without hope, purposeful, fulfilling life would be impossible. Without hope, faith, love, and justice would wither.

God’s divine love and lure offered Mary and the rest of Jesus’ disciples the possibility of a reborn hope and a better future. In the midst of chaos, crises, and personal challenges in a very dangerous and complicated world, God continues to offer such possibilities to us every day. I think we can say that what was resurrected on that first Easter morning was Jesus’ Spirit of Love, which lived on in the disciples and continues to live in us, a spirit of hope and possibility, against all odds.

Copyright (c) 2023 - Rev. Jeff Wells
All rights reserved.