St. Andrews Episcopal Church

RECENT SERMONS

Earthquakes 30 AD, 1906, 2006

EASTER SERMON PREACHED ON APRIL 16, 2006
[Mark 16:1-8]

At 12 minutes past 5:00 in the morning 100 years ago Tuesday the San Andreas Fault erupted, its epicenter off the coast of San Francisco. Violent shocks were felt from Oregon to Los Angeles and central Nevada, extreme damage experienced in San Jose all the way to Santa Cruz, registering a magnitude 7.9 on today’s Richter Scale. Headlines read “San Francisco is Gone,” and “Garden City of San Jose in Ruins.” Easter was more like that then the attempt to tame it with Easter bunnies, chocolate eggs, or this morning’s Easter Bunny Brunch at the Fairmont. Earthquakes make you think!

Along with wind and fire, earthquakes were used in Hebrew scripture to symbolize the awesome presence of God. Elijah and Isaiah, Amos and Zechariah expressed that out-of- control feeling of the unsettling force of earthquakes in their divine encounters. Earthquakes erupt again, in Matthew’s resurrection story, symbolizing God’s presence both at the moment of Jesus’ death and at his resurrection, causing the stone to roll away from the entrance to the tomb.

We know now about tectonic plates, and - as part of the “ring of fire” surrounding the Pacific Ocean - we know that these plates right beneath us here are continuously grinding at infinitesimal rates until pressure builds up, releases, and shakes up everything and everybody, religion carrying no guarantee of safety. When Jill and I were out here interviewing for the position, Jill asks one of our “shepherds:” “Where exactly is the San Andreas Fault?” To which our friend replied, “You’re sittin’ on it, honey!” In the same league as hurricanes and tsunamis, these destructive moments of nature are not sent from God to teach us anything - simply the way our planet works at the place we live. We do have a lot to learn from earthquakes, because all of us are like tectonic plates moving past each other, and though our daily lives seem smooth on the surface, there’s always a bit of friction underneath – especially affecting those closest to us.

One dimension of life is really shaking people up, reflected now-a-days in the tug-of-war between creationism and science. Deep down inside each of us religion and reality – two world views – are like giant tectonic plates grinding slowly against each other. Sometimes we are stretched to the limit trying to hold them in creative tension without letting either erupt against the other. The problem is: what we believe in our hearts and what we see with our eyes are sometimes on a collision course. For too many people in our modern day religion has become a tomb keeping people locked inside, afraid to encounter the power of reality. But reality is where we meet GOD! More than ever I see people desperately holding onto the stones at the entrance to their religious tombs, expending enormous energy to stabilize the stone in place, their hearts and minds disconnected and turned off because they can’t believe what they think they’re supposed to, as reality rubs their religious assumptions raw. I hear young people say they hunger for spirituality but reject religion – and from what they think Christianity is from what they’ve heard, I can understand why! I once responded to an e-mail from a talk-show host who I admired for his perspectives on the Middle East and other hot topics. I asked, “What religion do you belong to?” He replied, “I don’t belong to any organized religion, I’m an Episcopalian.”

A spiritual earthquake happens when religion and reality collide. Something has to give – like the earthquake we call Easter! In that moment a new religion and a new reality was born, integrated by the spirit of Jesus. Like the first one, Easter is guaranteed to shake you off your religious foundations! The person stumbling out of that tomb when the stone is shaken away is not the same person, I guarantee! You see life in a new and liberating way that shakes up all your old assumptions, old attitudes, your old religion, your old reality. Easter proclaims that there can be reality in your religion and religion in your reality. They can be one. That discovery let me become a Christian, finally allowed me to be a priest. As Matthew portrayed in his resurrection narrative, Jesus’ death was the first earthquake that shook up the disciples - shook them to the core. The second earthquake shoved the stone away from the entrance to the tomb, removed all blockage from their limited imaginations, and let in the light of meaning. Death didn’t have the final word. The Romans could kill Jesus’ body, but could not kill what the disciples and Jesus had experienced – the same moment we celebrate in the Breaking of the Bread.

When your religion and reality join forces and burst out of the tomb, you see life in a new way, see your spouse and children – even your parents and your self - in a new light. You see meaning in all these relationships that was invisible before. Because of Jesus’ vision a warning label should be attached to this day: “The bright light of Easter can cause your eyes to become sensitive to the needs of others.” Easter brings a radical vulnerability, and once you’ve experienced it, you cannot remain detached, because you see people in their God-given humanity, not limited to their race or class, nationality or sexuality. You see the hurt, and your sensitized heart cries out for you to respond - won’t let you off the hook until you do! Joyfully it expands your conscience as it reduces your guilt! Even religion is seen in a new way: not as an occasional visit to church on high holy days, but as a reality that integrates and celebrates your life – gratitude replacing obligation, forgiveness replacing fault. There is joy! You can even examine your beliefs without fear and build your faith on a sure foundation based on the bedrock of reality, not settle for a shaky unexamined faith built on sand. Religion becomes a channel to reality, not a way to avoid it; forms a community of caring people who you enjoy being with, a community of people who stand together against injustice in any form, because – in Easter’s focused light - everyone is seen a child of God. We stop diverting our attention, and do what we can to help.

The Episcopal Church has taken a stand as an inclusive community of faith open to all people, regardless of anything, where - as Martin Luther King, Jr., said – people are judged by the content of their character. Period. Not by anything else. This is where God has called us in the Episcopal Church. We are a Church attempting to leave past prejudices behind, even the errors and prejudices found in the cultures imbedded in ancient scripture – and there are some! They need not haunt or judge us anymore! I believe that is the path of the risen Christ leading us into a new future built on the Anglican concept of tradition, scripture, and reason. In 1976 our General Convention shook up the Christian world, including our own denomination and the Anglican Communion, as it voted – the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops concurring - to have a new prayer book and to allow women to be priests, then bishops, and finally in 2003 an openly gay bishop. Those were sacred Easter moments, a witness to the future of the Church, and I think that inclusive vision needs to be proclaimed at the entrance to the tomb on Easter Day without apology or fear. Our Church has even called us to respect other faiths, seeing God at work in Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and all the other “isms,” affirming the risen Christ in all caring people, affirming God’s love for them and in them without regard to labels. Even these words may be earthquakes to some, but that’s the kind of earth-shaking event that first Easter was. It changed the landscape forever.

Luke’s resurrection story recalls that Easter Day when Jesus’ disciples on the way to Emmaus experienced the risen Christ in the Breaking of the Bread. Without fear they returned to Jerusalem in the dark through seven miles riddled with danger. Easter faith does that! It’s time to quit being afraid, it’s time to live the breaking-barriers kind of life that Jesus lived and died for. It is time to be generous in support of this kind of emancipation proclamation that can liberate and connect mind and spirit, religion and science, relationship and culture, an Easter community that works for justice and stands against injustice in our nation and in our world. It is time! Time to be shaken out of business-as-usual and become part of the Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed. With hope and joy and the love of the risen Christ I welcome you into that Easter Community here.

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