For those of us who have taken pride across the decades at the human rights ideals of our country, the United States of America, this has been the darkest Lent of our lives. The present government’s interest in creating an American gulag in El Salvador is just the cherry on the cake.
But it is Easter. And so I look for hope.
I see hopeful signs that America will eventually reject this chapter of its history as a tragedy to be resolved, rather than a precedent for becoming a dictatorship. But folks, the jury is still out on this.
And so, as it was for those first (many) Easters in the Roman Empire, it is for us: Holy Week and Easter is God’s political statement of defiance against unjust regimes. In the end, every knee will bow, not to any tinpot dictator, but to the Lord Jesus, and to the values he represents. It isn’t just that Easter is coming - for indeed it is here and we are Easter people. But Judgment is coming. And the current darkness will be extinguished.
In the Civil War, they sang, “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord…”
All about us we can see signs of that glory.
* The growing resistance of ordinary people to the excesses of the current government.
* The rising up of ordinary people to create new ministry in Jesus’ name, within the church and also far beyond its bounds. This is true discipleship.
* The unending experience of life renewal, and transformation- person by person, and collectively - the Holy Spirit is busier than ever!
It's funny. A few years back, I saw my denomination, The United Methodist Church, locked into a death spiral. As discouraging as this was, I saw hope in the maturing of the American project, as civil rights were increasingly recognized for all God’s children.
A few years later, Methodism has survived a civil war and is entering a new season. But the nation is in disarray. Honestly, the pain of the national disarray is worse for me than anything I have ever felt about church dysfunction.
But God is with us. Christ is risen. And we are invited to look with eyes of faith beyond the dark headlines to see glory of the coming of the Lord. It is Easter, friends. And we know how this story shall end.
Be of good courage!
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