By Rev. Darren Kennemer
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”…
John 20:18a
Nothing defines the life of the church more than Easter. It is a time when we celebrate new beginnings…new life. This, someone might say, begs a question. What is new? Are we even open to the "new"? Or do we feel threatened by anything out of the ordinary?
Sometimes things that are not particularly helpful get passed down to us. It happens in every facet of our lives. Our faith is no exception. Once something has been taught and repeated apart from its context, it becomes rote—even sacrosanct. This is the way things are done because this is the way things are done…don’t ask questions.
Such thinking was particularly fostered by the Church in the Middle Ages. It was believed that those who held positions of power had been chosen for such by God...especially Church authorities. Therefore, one was never to question…only obey.
With the advent of the protestant reformation (with all due respect to the invention of the printing press), this was no longer the case. It was now completely acceptable (at least among the reformers) to question human authority—even the pope. That has remained the case throughout the modern era. However, it is equally true that we have replaced the unquestionable authority of Church officials with the unquestionable authority of "us", our opinions, our traditions, and our biases.
Now, tradition is important so long as it is understood in the proper context. And our opinions can lead us into meaningful dialogue that enriches not only the church, but us as individuals as well. But too often our traditions are divorced from their context and become burdensome. If this goes unchecked it can inhibit our ability to adapt to our world, and worst of all, our opinions and biases cause us to distance ourselves from those who are "wrong", or perhaps just different enough to threaten us.
This is not a new problem. Jesus encountered this same dynamic during his ministry. The crux of his ongoing conflict with the religious establishment of his day sprang from his willingness to challenge traditions, opinions, and biases that were counter-productive and exclusive.
In this year's Gospel reading for Easter Sunday, John tells us that Mary thought Jesus was the gardener. She, and the other disciples, were convinced that Jesus' body had been stolen. So, when he approached her, she—operating out of the commonly accepted logic—didn't recognize him. When she did recognize him, she only wanted things to be the way they had been. But, that wasn’t to be. An encounter with the resurrected Jesus doesn’t simply re-set things. Rather, it completely rearranges who we are. Mary was never the same after that encounter. No one who has encountered the risen Christ is able to continue as if nothing ever happened.
Everyone has heard the fears expressed…the church is on the way out; people are losing their faith. Well, perhaps the truth is that people are losing their faith in the Church. Is it perhaps because the most vocal voices of Christianity are busy trying to protect the status quo? Are the Pharisees of our day those voices on the evening news preaching fear and division…warning us that so called “Christian values” (meaning their opinions and traditions) are under attack? Will the Church of the future be relevant or a relic? These questions yearn for our answers.
What does it mean to follow Christ in the postmodern era? It means the same thing that it always has…abandoning our defenses and prejudices and fears of change and boldly seeking out those whom our society throws away. It means giving all that we have and all that we are to the cause of justice and mercy…speaking up for those who have lost their voice.
May we never be so wrapped up in doing church that we forget how to be the church…the body of Christ in and for the world.
The Reverend Darren Kennemer is a Staff Chaplain at the VA Medical Center in Birmingham, AL, and Associate Pastor of First Presbyterian Chruch (Cumberland) of Alabaster, AL. He, his wife Julie and their two children live in Pelham, AL.
