WOMEN, who believe and who witness the Resurrection: A Holy Saturday sermon
ALLELULIA!
CHRIST HAS RISEN!
Indeed, what wondrous love
God has shown
All of us
Only as the Creator,
As Comforter
As Holy Parent
Could
Giving us,
Reuniting us
Once more
With
Jesus,
Risen
Conquering
Death!
(pause)
And who witnesses this?
Who runs and tells about
The Good News?
WOMEN!
And in thinking about,
The diminished
Invisible
Role of Women in the wider Church
That our prophetic voices are ignored,
Even as
She,
The Holy Spirit
Empowers
Women
To Speak LIFE,
In thinking about,
Who is our neighbor,
And the asset that they bring
Of their physical selves
Of their spiritual selves
In the midst of a time,
Refashioning what this,
These three days meant,
To a budding Womanist theologian
I’d written some free verse
Expressing perhaps
The exasperation
As Women profess,
What this season means
As perhaps,
echoing
What the Women must have felt
Irked with the disbelief of the men,
As they proclaimed
Jesus is Lord
(pause)
What does Easter mean to you?
Does it mean that we can finally rest from our labors?
That we celebrate the rising of the Son-
And Monday morning we return doing the same…
Wallowing in..
Dressing the same
Talking the same…
Because we think we saved?
Just because Jesus died,
Don’t mean we can act a fool
Or does this Easter Journey
Find our souls crying out for JOY
Find us caught up in the SPIRIT at the empty tomb
Shouting to the darkness
That its defeated
That there is HOPE
And Jesus ain’t left us
Forgotten us
Forsaken us
But what remains with us
Is HIS Commandment
To LOVE one another
Even when we can’t stand each other
Even when we have to get in one another’s faces
Calling one another out on the injustice
The noise
The racism
The violence
The evil
That we do
Cause we aint perfect
But that’s what the horizon where the veil remains
Beyond that-there is PEACE
Right now,
We got GRACE
Here
Tell the devil to walk on
Into the abyss
Because the CROSS casts a Resurrection Shadow
Basking in the LIGHT
The Blinding LIGHT
OF the
I AM
(pause)
Defiant words,
That could be echoed from any Woman
Who unashamedly basks,
In the love that has been shown
Time and again,
In the lifting up of Women,
Who in turn,
Lift up everyone else
Time and again
This confirmation that God indeed,
Is with us
Time and again
That Jesus is risen
That nothing can keep us,
Not Satan’s manipulation
Not humanity’s oppression
Nothing,
Keeps us
From
The Light
(pause)
These women
Some named,
Mary
And some forever unnamed,
Witnessed
a soul shattering moment
The heartbeat of the cosmos stopping
The Creator Grieving,
As any of us would,
Having to let go
Of one so beloved,
Especially when their lives are cut off,
Especially when those,
Who are not about following the One,
Who calls us into relationship
And connectedness
And forgiveness,
Thinks that they are the beginning
And the ending.
That they have a say over our lives,
That they think we have no role
In the wider expansion of the world
That they,
Want to make an example
Want to shut liberation down,
Want us
To die.
(pause)
God’s Son gave of Himself
For all of Creation
And suddenly the hierarchical, oppressive order in this world
Which ruled, and trapped, and chained people,
People who searched and followed and called out for liberation-
This world collapsed
The ideas and lies
That this life is all there would ever be,
That there was no hope,
That God in Godself didn’t care about US
Was destroyed
(pause)
Reality shifted,
The realization of who Jesus Christ is, was
And remains to be
Became the new norm
Anything and everything that attempted and blocked us
From being with the presence of the Creator God,
Was demolished.
Mass confusion,
Because what God had been proclaiming forever,
Through prophets
Through dreams
Through Jesus
Has come true,
God created a new covenant,
Through Jesus Christ
(pause)
At the end of Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ
Satan is seen screaming,
Because he’s been denied
Jesus, as his prisoner
The place of Sheol,
Hell,
Was suddenly invaded,
Pried open
And Jesus Christ walked through those gates
The risen Christ was lifted up out of a place of abandonment
An abyss,
Informing that darkness where light never penetrates
Where evil festers
An existence of torture
That death was not the end,
For God’s Creation
For US beloved
We come from the Creator
Born in sacredness
Gifted with God’s breath of life
Emerging in this world through waters
Therefore we
BELONG
TO
GOD
Therefore we,
WILL RETURN TO GOD
And the Cross,
TRANSFORMED
It is a symbol of paradox
From death,
To LIFE
From condemnation
To Restoration!
(pause)
Hearing this Good News of Jesus Christ year after year
We should shout with joy because we know,
Even in our weeping,
Our lamenting
Our vigil at the foot of the Cross,
We know the morning comes
We know Transformation comes
And it brings with it
The Resurrection
Turning our lives upside down
Because Creator comes and disrupts our lives
With unending LOVE
MERCY
And GRACE
(pause)
Or do we just go through the motions,
Because this is what we are supposed to do,
We struggle with the reality of Resurrection power
With so many lives,
Lost.
For many of us,
Persecuted
Because of our bodies,
Our identities
It seems as if we cannot escape these
Good Friday moments,
Nothing good about it.
(pause)
So, we grapple with the reality of Resurrection power
Amid calamities
We hear the Gospel proclaimed
Jesus is raised,
But where is He now
Amid tragedies?
Newness of life is impossible
Peace in this life is momentary
In this sacred space perhaps,
we experience the Resurrection
But outside those doors,
The world seems dead!
Dead, unmoving, lifeless, listless
It’s difficult,
Sharing the Good News!
Out of fear, we refuse even to leave those tombs of heartache,
Of worries,
Of fears
Of doubts
The world refuses to leave its tomb,
Because the Resurrection turns its reality upside down,
They are stunned,
Flabbergasted,
Frightened.
(pause)
But then,
The Sun Shines,
And we hear clearly hear God calling US
Out of the TOMB
Each moment then,
when we RISE
we have the responsibility,
to Advocate
to flip tables
to actively live out
What the Creator created us for
And because of Jesus Christ-
We know death is not the end
We know that the kingdom of God is here,
Right here
Even through the muck, and the garbage and the unbelief
And the sarcastic and scornful reaction
When Women are celebrating,
Proclaiming
Speaking prophetically,
Of what they have seen.
Not only do these women run and tell that,
We too,
Especially Women today
My Sistas
We dance in the streets,
Just as those Women,
WOMEN
In Haiti 2 days after the earthquake
On Sunday morning,
SANG IN THE STREETS
Amid the destruction,
Singing praises to Creator.
Especially when we march in the streets,
Against those who would try to drag us into the darkness
Of that Friday
Women,
Leading the charge,
Leading the crowds
Professing
To those who do not want to believe
To those who slowly realize,
In their hatred
What they have done,
To one so loved.
I imagine those Women
Who were running
Exclaiming
That Jesus Christ was raised,
Were saying,
You do realize that the Creator LOVES US, right?
You do realize that Creator STANDS with us,
against your hatred
your violence
your abuse
your falsehoods
your viciousness
your lies
But, keep playing with us
Sunday is coming
You cannot stop our Transformation
Restoration
Liberation.
You could not stop,
Jesus
RISEN
INDEED!!
Thanks Be to God!
