For Nana

Today my grandmother called me and shared terrific news. She has been given the honor and privilege of sharing the message Easter Sunday at her Unitarian Church in Arkansas. She called because she had a very unique question to ask me, a question that captured my thoughts for the rest of the day and left me tossed in endless directions. Her question was: If Jesus had been here in the 20th Century, how would he have interacted with American Society? How would he react to things like the Vietnam war, or to communism, or to the plight of the urban sprawl? Imagine that Jesus had been there, what would that be like?

When I got home I made myself a cup of tea and sat in my recliner in the living room. Sunlight slipped through blinds, rays visible from the glass of the window all the way to the curled up kitty cats on the floor. I leaned back in my chair and listened to some music playing on my stereo, I tried to imagine Jesus in the 20th Century.

My first thought was John Lennon sitting behind a white piano, a well lit room and Yoko Ono sitting at his side. John was singing his song "Imagine", and I couldn't help but wonder if Jesus wouldn't have held a lighter in the air at a Lennon concert. "Imagine there is no country" says the former Beatle, "and no religion too" I drifted in the waves of thought, the image of Jesus with a fire in his palm, swaying back and forth to the music.

The 20th century was characterized by war, by oppression, and by evil. In the 20th century we saw two world wars, and countless smaller ones. We saw the rise of super-powers, and the first abuses of the popular media. We saw the creation of the ultimate death machines, and the radiation poisoned, half melted faces of their victims. In the 20th century we saw the results of colonialism, the prestige and power of sovereign nations dominating the weaker, the exploitation of everybody from the factory worker, to the dark skinned farmer suffering under Jim Crow. Yes, the 20th century saw the evil in Hitler's eyes, the massacre of 10 million people, the haphazard destruction of the environment, and the disaster of saber rattling hawks with power. For those that lived through the last century, one would think they would recall a literal hell on Earth. However most will tell you that days were not always so dark, that even in the thick of despair, somehow hoped shined through, and things got better. When I consider that I think I realize why that is, and also the answer to the question my Nana asked me; Jesus was there.

Jesus was there with the Jews starving in a prison camp, giving them strength to last until rescuers arrived. Jesus was there when the American economy collapsed, and honest men and women found themselves penny-less and without a bed to sleep in, but somehow managed to forge the bread line in to a better future. Jesus was there when dust bowls ate the crops and lungs of weary eyed farmers, who summoned the courage to leave behind their history and their lives in the name of survival. Jesus was there when a burst of light flashed over Hiroshima, Jesus wept over Nagasaki. Jesus was there with Neil Armstrong as he stepped toward the bleach white surface of the moon, floating in the infinite darkness of space. Jesus was there when a young black preacher rallied millions of men and women of color to demand equal rights, when those people chose non-violence over riots and terrorism.

When Titanic was found, when King Tut's Tomb was found, Jesus was there. When soldiers from Vietnam were buried in Arlington Cemetery, Jesus was there. And during 14 Presidential funerals, Jesus was there. The reason I know that, the reason I know that Jesus was there during the good times and the bad, the reason I know he is that flicker of hope that inspired the greatest among us to rise up and illuminate the darkness is because Jesus' grave, unlike the rest I have mentioned....is empty.

The vacancy is notorious, outrageous, and the source of the greatest debate in human history. This conspicuous absence is also the reason we celebrate Easter, it is the day we reflect on Jesus' rising from the dead, and consider whether his presence has been observable since.

When my Nana asked me if I could imagine a 20th Century with Jesus in it, my first thoughts were a Jesus who protests wars, and marches in the streets with John Lennon. But soon I realized that despite the brokenness, conflict, and savagery that colored the last 100 years, there was an ever present light that guided humanity to a new dawn. A star that lead us over the turbulent seas of misfortune and agony, into the terra nova of God's Kingdom. While humanity continues to grapple with its iniquity, I still am compelled to notice that star shining above us, that great light by which all things are seen, hovering steadily, loyally, by our side helping us to see. Though this light may set, it rises again and brings with it a new day, a new age, and the bright hope of a future. Christ, is this light for me. He has set and yet risen again. When we see our world in horror, when we sense the vacancy again of the Son of God, when hopelessness is its most potent, this is when our Sun rises again, giving us new hope and new life. This is the essence of resurrection.

I see Jesus in our common history, I see our need for him in terrible times, I see our inspiration through him in times of human victory. I believe that it is by seeing his presence in so many stories, that I can embrace the romance of this thing called resurrection, that I can celebrate a day like Easter. On Easter we remember the King who came back for us, who still comes back for us, who's love will not cease, until it is on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Resurrection is the promise of hope, and the reality of Jesus. Seeing his fingerprints in our time, helps me to remember that he does indeed live on, that the grave could not hold him, that victory will yet be his, and that because he has risen to new life, I also may find new life through him. For that is the promise of the light rising in the east, with each new day we hear it say to us, "Fear not" and then with hope and light, “Because I live, you also live” (John 14:19) .