Easter Reimagined

      How could they believe it?  How could they cling tightly enough to the idea that Jesus rose from death that they were willing to go to their own deaths rather than deny the resurrection? Sure, every culture in human memory, every culture around the world, sensed the existence of other worldly, divine beings that interacted with human beings. The world’s history is full of how various people and cultures translated the revelations that I believe came from one God. The diversity lies in the translations, not the message.

Look with me for a moment at the religious world Jesus entered at birth. Most Greek and Roman households had shrines to various deities. The landscape was dotted with temples. The Greeks had twelve gods and must have thought the Jews strange to stick to one and claim that Yahweh was the only, true God.

 Each of the various pagan gods had different powers, responsibilities, and personalities. They could be bribed, appeased and worshipped in rather transactional understandings of divine blessings. I give you a couple of nice doves, you give me a couple of nice days.  Even with transactional sacrifices, the gods were understood to be temperamental and unpredictable. They were powers to be feared. They were notorious  for seducing humans, throwing lightning bolts and tempests at sea. Zeus was thought to have at least thirty ‘mistresses’ and all sorts of semi-divine children.

In short, the world Jesus entered was saturated with belief, transactional relationships and fear of divine powers. “My God is better than your god” is a frequent theme in the Old Testament about encounters with non-Jews in the ancient world. Centuries of cultural mythology and practice couldn’t help but shape the religious imagination of everyone in the ancient world. In other words, it wasn’t difficult for the followers of Jesus to believe that he was the son of their God, made the ultimate blood sacrifice to appease an angry god and expect holy, eternal benefits for doing so. Worshippers around the world often believed in some form of life after death. In short, parts of the Christian story are not necessarily unique.

Are you squirming a bit yet?   My faith journey includes stop- overs in various denominations and various parts of the country.  I grew up being shouted at for my sins, brought to tears by the atrocity of crucifixion, and whipped into gratitude for Jesus stepping in as a go-between so that God wouldn’t whip me in justifiable anger for my shortcomings in life and love. I found grace in the Lutheran church, but that was also built on an understanding of an angry god who might be inclined to withhold mercy if I wasn’t guilty enough to make weekly confession. The more we have clung to this traditional understanding of atonement, the more smart moderns have left church, shaking their heads.

Until we can give up a Zeus like God (complete with a white beard and a ready lightning bolt), we are trying to resurrect the gods of Mount Olympus rather than Jesus of Nazareth.  If we still imagine ourselves to be “sinners in the hands of an angry god”, like the colonial preacher Jonathan Edwards put it, we will be looking over our shoulders waiting for the divine clap whenever we feel guilty. Full stop.

There are other ways to understand God and the importance of Easter, the crucifixion, and resurrection.   Might we consider an alternative image of our Creator, revealed in nature as well as in Jesus? Life and death are not controlled by God but are a natural part of the created order. God wills abundant life, but life includes storms, tragedies, limits and blessings that fall on both saints and sinners. Jesus wept with those who wept and celebrated with the joyful. Yet He always resisted the notion that God caused those circumstances. God can’t have all the power if evil has some power, and humans have choice.  The gods of Olympus were thought to play with humans like pawns, but that’s not what we see in Christ.

Perhaps the most famous voice describing a non-Zeus like God was Saint Francis of Assisi in the twelve hundreds. Francis brought God down from Mount Olympus in our thinking and celebrated the sacred all around us. His teaching was perhaps the ultimate voicing of incarnational Christian theology. Even religious art created after Francis contained a dramatic shift. Father Richard Rohr, a contemporary Franciscan mystic, said that no one painted monks looking at birds until St. Francis. Until St. Francis, people thought God was above, beyond, probably much like Zeus with his lightning bolts on Mt. Olympus. Many people still do. Francis saw earth and all its creatures infused with traces of the sacred.

Consider phrases from his hymn “Canticle of the Sun”.  God is praised through Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Sister Water, Brother Fire (who is beautiful and playful, robust and strong.) As a Native American man said to my husband recently “You consider earth a resource, we consider her our relative.” So did Francis.

Here our understanding of the birth, life and death of Christ departs from the mythology of his time. Jesus is one more sacred act of creativity for the benefit of God’s creatures and creation. Jesus was a necessary correction to ideas that would lead to extinction if left unchecked. He challenged the power of military might, human ego, empire, and greed. Jesus said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Put away your sword, Peter. Whatever you do for the least of these you have done for me. Consider the birds of the air and the lilies of the field.  We can damage our relative the earth just as we killed Jesus. The earth groans and Jesus wept.

But--

Jesus walked from the tomb. God raised him.  The power of the Roman empire and its colluders to torture, silence, and kill did not have the last word. And it still does not.  The genocides, extinctions, power grabs, and over consumption caused by our species, may never be overcome in this world. But the good news is that this isn’t all there is. In this life and the next we can turn our focus to God and the sacredness of life,  giving rather than grabbing. Resurrection tells us that the good cannot be permanently stopped, even by death.  The green blade rises, the memories inspire, the presence continues, new seeds are planted, new communities are created.

Jesus walked from the tomb. No matter how much we suffer, suffering is not the end of the story. God restores life, creates life, fights the forces of death, and creates hope and vision for new futures.  God will offer forgiveness for the repentant and the prodigals who want to journey back toward home. God will bring forth life from death. The crucified Jesus walked from the tomb, unwrapped from the grave clothes that bound him in death. Our regrets, failures, and death dealing attitudes can be left in the tomb when we let go of our pride and follow Christ in the way of the cross.  When you expect a whipping and receive a warm embrace it changes you. Some call it “new” life, being born again. Most of the world’s religions, past and present, believed and believe the divine whispers that there is life after death. Jesus gave us the map and opened the door, both to life after death, and the way, the truth, and continuous resurrection. Thanks be to God. Hallelujah, He is risen. He is here with us. Now. Always.

Amen

*Excerpts from the Canticle of the Sun, St. Francis 1225

    Praise be you, my Lord, with all your creatures;

especially Brother Sun, who is the day, and through whom You give us light.

And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor.

And bears a likeness to You, Most High One.

     Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars;

In heaven You formed them clear and precious and beautiful.

      Praised be You, my lord, through Sister Water,

Which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.

   Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire,

Through whom You light the night;

And he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.

Rev. Carolyn Mowchan 2026

Hymn Suggestions:   There are too many to list! But I would avoid any mention of atonement and military might! 

 Choose instead: (from ELW)  367 Now All the Vault

383: Christ is Resen! Shout Hosanna   634 All Hail the Power of Jesus Name

394  Hail Thee Festival Day   556 Morning Has Broken

377 Alleluia! Jesus is Risen,  376 Thine is the Glory

396 Spirit of Gentleness  397 Loving Spirit  634 All Hail the Power of Jesus Name,

636 How Small Our Span of Life   449 We know that Christ is Raised

For the Peace:  646 The Peace of the Lord     721 Goodness is Stronger than Evil