Over twenty years ago, I wrote a reflection on Easter from a Quaker perspective and posted it on my blog. It is not a systematic theology so much as an invitation to take a very special journey, to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and early Friends. I hope this brief reflection encourages you on your spiritual quest for Truth.
Perhaps
more than any other Biblical narrative, the story Christ's death and
resurrection arouses profound uneasiness as well as hopes. Some may feel qualms
about a holiday that has been associated with Christianity's most virulent
anti-Semitic outbursts. Others may be turned off by the idea that a man
"just like us" supposedly rose from the dead. Still others may be
disturbed by the Easter story's unflattering picture of the human condition. It
is no wonder that people try to trivialize this event by turning it into a
matter of bunnies and eggs! Although it could be worse: this spring I saw a
card with a group of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, their weapons blazing,
urging us to "have a blast" on Easter.
No matter how uncomfortable the
Easter story may make us, and no matter how hard we try to avoid its message,
it cannot be denied that the death and resurrection of Christ is crucial to an
understanding of Christianity and also to the way of early Friends. Sooner or
later we have to confront the meaning of the Crucifixion the way we must
confront the question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?"
Like a Zen koan, the Easter story
challenges us to reflect on questions beyond the reach of conventional
thinking. Why did a man who called himself the Prince of Peace go into
Jerusalem and deliberately provoke the authorities? If there is "that of
God" in every one, why did religious leaders and their followers want
Jesus to be crucified? Finally, what do we make of the fact that Jesus'
followers not only believed that Christ rose from the dead, but were willing to
stake their lives on this conviction?
These tough questions deserve
serious reflection because they challenge our customary beliefs and practices.
Do we have the courage to face our inner demons, as Jesus did? Are we willing
to take on those whom psychologist Scott Peck calls "people of the
lie"? How do we respond to the reality of torture, genocide, and other
unspeakable evils that plague our world? And what meaning do the death and
resurrection of Christ have for our lives today?
Over the past couple of years, I
have made it a practice to reflect on these questions during the forty days
preceding Easter. I should point out that, like most Quakers, I am not an
orthodox Christian (though I happen to have been baptized once). I draw
insights from Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and Native people.
For me, true religion is not about dogma; it's a way of life and an inner
awareness that is available to people of all faiths.
The Way is beyond words and names.
Any attempt to define or to chart it is bound to be inadequate. But if we keep
in mind Hiyakawa's observation that "the map is not the territory,"
we can learn from observing those who have walked the path before us
We can view the Easter story not only as an historical event, but also as a kind of spiritual map with signposts pointing us in the direction of Truth. Sometimes called the Way of the Cross, this journey can be broken down into four distinct stages:
1. The temptation in the desert.
Confronting one's inner
demons.
The Lenten experience.
2. Entering Jerusalem. Professing one's
inner truth, no
matter
what the price. "Speaking truth to power.”
3. The
crucifixion. Dying to self-will.
4. The
resurrection. Experiencing the new creation and the
new life of the Spirit.
Temptation in the desert: confronting one’s inner demons. The Lenten experience.
Lent is associated with the fourth-century
Christians who followed Jesus' example and went into the desert for a period of
prayer and fasting as a way of getting into closer touch with God. The desert
is a place where we encounter the Truth and the Truth encounters us. Desert
spirituality means much more than getting out of the noise of the city into the
silence of the wilderness. In the desert, life is reduced to the utter
simplicity of "What Is." On the desert, there is no name for God
other than "I exist." There is no place for diversions, distractions,
luxuries or trivia. When Friends speak of "simplicity," they are
recalling this desert experience.
Like the Hebrews who were called out of Egypt
into the desert to wait for Moses at the foot of Mt. Sinai, we are called to
the utter simplicity of desert living, so that nothing might stand between us and
the living God. The desert experience begins with the deliberate decision to
deny one's physical pleasure to receive a greater spiritual treasure.
But Lent is more than just self-denial, it is
also a time self-examination. Jesus went to the desert to confront the forces
of darkness within himself. This is a journey that each of us must take if we
want to know ourselves, and to know God. Self-examination does not mean a
morbid fixation on our shortcomings; it means trying to be realistic--
acknowledging the failings that are really ours and then resolving to set
things right.
For several years, I used to go out to the
Nevada nuclear test site with a group of Friends for what was called "the
Lenten Desert Witness." In early spring, as the wildflowers begin to
bloom, the desert was surprisingly beautiful. Looking out over the blue
mountains in the distance, it was hard to believe that just over the ridge a
village of scientists and workers was busily planning the most efficient means
to create weapons of mass destruction. Most of these people had no qualms
whatever about what they were doing; many were no doubt church-goers.
Witnessing in the desert with like-minded
Friends was a powerful spiritual experience. We ate, slept and prayed together.
Many of us were arrested, manacled, and kept in holding pens by the state
troopers. Sharing our feelings and our stories while hand-cuffed, we felt
deeply connected to each other and to the source of Life.
We worshipped together under the open sky,
acutely conscious that we were standing on holy ground, and that this ground
belonged not to us, but to the Native People and to the Great Spirit. (Before
beginning our vigil, we were given "passports" by local indigenous
people, who were trying to reclaim their land.) During a time of worship, a
woman confessed how deeply sorry she felt for the way that white people had
desecrated this beautiful and sacred land. Her voice choked with emotion and
her pangs of conscience flowed through the entire group. Finally, after a long and
painful silence, a Native American woman spoke: "Our elders have heard
your words, and so has the Great Spirit. And they forgive you." It was as
if the Earth herself were speaking. No moment of worship has ever been more
precious.
You don't have to go to the desert to confess
your shortcomings and experience healing. One of the most important spiritual
experiences of my life was attending the "Surrender Group" at
Princeton Meeting. This group was started by Herrymon Maurer, a Friend whose translation
of the Tao Teh Ching draws fascinating connections between Taoism, John
Woolman, and Jewish mysticism. Each week we met to reflect upon "Ten
Queries" that were based upon the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.
One of the queries that I remember best is, "Are you willing to take a
fearless moral inventory of your life?"
There is a real power in conducting this kind
of inventory, whether you do it alone or in a group. When we examine ourselves
alone, however, we are apt either to wallow in vague, unspecified guilt
("I'm a terrible person! Poor me!") or to deny our guilt entirely
("I'm okay, the world's okay"). In a group, or with a friend, it is
sometimes easier to be more specific and honest. Such honest acknowledgment of
our shortcomings can profoundly change our behavior.
In the course of a vigorous self-examination, one discovers that just as there is "that of God" in each of us, there is also "that of the devil." During the time of Fox, the devil was often seen as something purely external. Fox resisted the temptation to see evil as something "out there," apart from oneself, that had to be combated, often by force of arms. Fox realized that by far the most dangerous demons are those we carry within us:
Yet I was under great temptation sometimes, and my inwards sufferings were heavy; but I could find none to open my condition to but the Lord alone, unto whom I cried night and day. And I went into Nottinghamshire, and there the Lord shewed me that the natures of those things which were hurtful without were within, in the hearts and minds of wicked men. The nature of dogs, swine, vipers, of Sodom and Egypt, Pharaoh, Cain, Ishmael, Esau, etc. The nature of these I saw within, though people had been looking without.
Horrified by this glimpse of human evil that each of us carries inside, Fox asks:
'Why should I be thus, seeing I was never addicted to commit those evils?' And the Lord answered that it was needful I should have a sense of all conditions, how else could I speak to all conditions; and in this I saw the infinite love of God. I saw also that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness. And in that also I saw the infinite love of God (Journal 19).
This experience corresponds to what Carl Jung
called "facing one's shadow." Long before Jung, Fox recognized that
we must confront the dark side of ourselves before we can be of psychological
or spiritual assistance to others.
Friends prefer talking about the
"darkness" rather than about "sin," perhaps because this
latter concept has been used to manipulative ways. The Catholic theologian
Matthew Fox (no relation to George) once pointed out that the church invented
sin so that priests could administer sacraments and thereby control people. It
is for this reason that Fox (George, not Mathew) infuriated the 16th-century
religious establishment by insisting that those who have given up self-will and
are living in the Light are no longer sinners; they live in the state that Adam
was before the fall.
The Puritanical sometimes use the concept of
sin as a peculiar form of self-advertisement. John Bunyan, for example, wrote a
popular book confessing (or was he boasting?) that he was "the chief of
sinners." Nowadays, people go on television parading their sins in a
parody of penitence. Such self-advertising guilt is not new, nor is it
spiritually helpful. Some of Jesus' contemporaries "repented" with
such ostentatious fervor that Jesus finally said, "Enough of this!"
He instructed to keep their penitence and fasting as a private encounter with
God, rather than trying to show the public how sinful (and therefore how holy)
they were. As those in AA learn, we are wise not to make a big deal out of our
misdeeds and our repentance.
As we mature in our spiritual life, we come to
see our shortcomings in a larger social context and as part of a larger divine
order. When mistakes are made, they are to be acknowledged and learned from.
Just as we cannot achieve spiritual health alone, we do not become not
spiritually sick alone. Each of us is interrelated. We each carry the seeds of
war and social dis-ease inside ourselves. As Woolman notes in an often quoted
passage,
"O that we declare against wars, and acknowledge our trust to be in God only, may walk in the Light, and therein examine our foundations and motives in holding great estates...."
Once we have acknowledged our complicity with the society that fosters injustice, war, and numerous forms of neuroses, we can begin the process of healing not only ourselves, but also our community.
Entering Jerusalem: Professing one’s inner truth
In this reflection on Quakers and Easter, I
consider how we sometimes need to risk being rejected in order to be faithful
to Spirit's prophetic leadings. Several years ago, I had an
experience that gave me a sense of what it means to be a prophet. The war
in Iraq had broken out, and there were mixed feelings in my Meeting about
how to respond, and so we had done nothing. After attending an event commemorating
the assassination of Martin Luther King, I told Friends that I had gone
to this demonstration with the intention to get arrested, but decided not
to do so because I had an appointment with my tax accountant. I later felt
guilty. I was not living in the spirit of Martin Luther King, but rather
playing it safe like a middle class. I told the Meeting that over $500 of
my tax dollars was going to pay for the war in Iraq and that was about the same
amount that Friends give to support our Meeting. "If we don't do something
to oppose war," I said, "What kind of Friends are we?"
After I gave this message, which was really a
confession about my own feelings of inadequacy and guilt, an attender of our
Meeting stormed out of the meetinghouse angrily. Another member sent me an
email saying I was a "knee jerk liberal." It was not a pretty scene,
but it could have been much worse.
I later realized that those who give prophetic
ministry should not expect to be appreciated in their own Meeting. Certainly
Jesus was not appreciated when he went to Jerusalem to share his radical gospel
of Love.
This entry is about "speaking Truth to
power in love" and was written fifteen years ago when I first became
acquainted with a remarkable peace activist named Sis Levin, who at that time
was working for the American Friends Service Committee. It begins by recalling
the radical faithfulness and courage of early Friends:
In that year [1654] a large company of Quaker
evangelists, not quite seventy in number, spread out through the kingdom in
pairs like the seventy sent forth in Luke 10. Known as the 'Valiant Sixty' by
modern Friends they began to take their message into all parts of the country.
In the few years that followed many became leaders of the Society, and some
were to die in prison....For some reason the first Quaker preachers at both
Oxford and Cambridge seem to have been women. Each group was roughly handled.
The seats of learning dealt out beatings for those who dared disturb their
fragile tranquillity...(63-64)
At Brigflatts Meeting Anne Wilson stared
accusingly at Sam Bownas and said, 'A traditional Quaker; thou comest to
meeting as thou went from it, and goes from it as thou came to it, but art no
better for thy coming; what wilt thou do at the end?' (135- 36)---John
Punshon, Portrait in Grey
"George Fox is alive and well and living in Pasadena."
This thought crossed my mind as I watched a film about Sis
Levin, a woman who for a while was director of the AFSC's Middle East program
here in Southern California. When Sis's husband Jerry, a CNN Bureau Chief, was
kidnapped and held hostage in Lebanon in 1983, neither the Reagan
Administration nor CNN did anything to help; in fact, they tried to silence the
families of those who came to known as the "forgotten hostages."
After a long, agonizing period of waiting and praying, Sis finally found the
courage to "speak truth to power." She didn't just write polite,
carefully worded letters. Aided by Friends such as Landrum Bolling (former
president of Earlham college), she took her case to the media, and to her own
faith community. In the movie, she is shown squirming in her pew as Episcopal
clergymen conduct a "peace and justice" service. Unable to stand it
any longer, she rises and exclaims,
How can we talk about peace in Central America and other parts of the world and ignore what is happening in the Middle East, in the Holy Land, the source of our faith?
As she passionately explains her concern, some
shout, "Shut up and sit down," while others insist, "Let her
speak." Leaving the church in an uproar, Levin rushed out. Neither she nor
her church would ever be the same.
This kind of impassioned behavior was typical of
George Fox and early Friends. By entering the public arena and speaking out from
the depths of his heart, Fox felt that he was following in the footsteps of
Jesus, who confronted the religious leaders of his time on their home turf, the
Temple of Jerusalem. Nowadays few of us have the courage to take such risks. We
prefer to withdraw into our cozy meetinghouses and meditate. We are reluctant
to confront one another or the powers that be. "Comfortable" has
become our favorite watchword. As a result, most of us are what Anne Wilson
called "traditional Quakers."
Courage was the distinguishing characteristic of
Quaker life in its spiritually vital early days. In the first decades of the
Quaker movement, over 15,000 Friends were arrested and confined to horrible
dungeons where many died. Others lost all their property and legal rights. Those
who traveled around England spreading the good news of the Peaceable Kingdom
came to be called "the Valiant Sixty, " and for good reason: most
suffered persecutions comparable to those endured by Soviet dissidents. When
Russian historian Tatiana Pavlova first read about early Quakers, what
impressed her most was their willingness to run risks and make enormous
personal sacrifices. As a Russian familiar with totalitarian repression, she
found it incredible that a hundred and sixty-four Quakers signed a petition
asking to take the place of those who had been imprisoned for their religious
views.
When I encounter stories of such courage and
faith, I wonder, "How does one get that kind of courage?"
I suspect that for most of us, it starts with
small actions. It might be something as minor as refusing to sign a draft card
or to take an oath.
There are basically two forms of courage: the
first arising from a natural, and the second from a spiritual base. Both
involve discipline. Natural courage is associated with the warrior; spiritual
courage with the peacemaker and healer. Warriors live by a code that emphasizes
courage, loyalty and duty. These virtues are essentially externally motivated,
and so are their rewards: medals, public recognition, and "glory." A
soldier's courage is not to be taken lightly, however. Gandhi used to say that
one could not be a true peacemaker if one did not have at least as much courage
as a warrior.
The courage of the healer and peacemaker springs
from a deeper source, the power of love. As the Gospels put, "perfect love
casts out all fear." Those who are motivated by love are willing to take
risks that go far beyond the call of duty. They are sometimes willing to
"lay down their lives for their Friends" even when their only reward
is resistance, rejection, or even disgrace.
Evidence of this self-sacrificing love can be
found in all spiritually centered activists. Woolman affirmed that he was
"moved by a motion of love" when he worked tirelessly on behalf of
the oppressed and met with frequent rebuffs from Friends. Sis Levin became a
peacemaker first out of love for her husband, but finally out of a love of
truth and justice. Working with Muslims who were victims of war, she learned to
appreciate them as much as she appreciated Christians and Jews.
Not all acts of courage and love are as
conspicuous and newsworthy. Many equally significant acts of faith go unsung
and unnoticed, except by the Spirit that knows and sees all. It takes courage
to face divorce or rejection and not become bitter. It takes courage to face a
long-standing, festering conflict and continue to hope and work for
reconciliation. It takes courage to face illness or the loss of a loved one and
not lose faith in God's love. It takes courage to affirm the gospel of love and
forgiveness in a world seething with violence, self-righteousness, and
grievance-collecting. Perhaps the greatest act of courage is to face up to
deep-seated problems in oneself and in one's faith community, and do all one
can to bring about change.
The spiritual life of an authentic faith community is sustained not by rules and procedures, nor by traditions and customs, but by acts of courage and commitment that spring from love. If Jesus had waited till all his disciples "felt comfortable" with his decision to risk death in Jerusalem, if George Fox had waited until a committee gave its approval for him to launch his equally dangerous ministry, it is doubtful that these men would have been allowed to proceed. Every meaningful action entails facing up to the possibility of rejection and death.
The Cross
In reflecting on early Friends' attitude towards the Cross, I am reminded of what James Baldwin once said about the African-American experience of Christianity: "White Americans learned about the Cross from a book, but black Americans learned about the book from the Cross." The same may be said about Fox and early Friends: they did not learn the Cross from the Bible, but rather they learned about the Bible through the Cross. In the 17th century, thousands of Friends were arrested, tortured, and jailed for their beliefs. Despite incredible persecution, they did not lose faith in the power of love. Perhaps the most remarkable document of this period, or of any period, is a petition signed by 164 Friends and sent to Parliament in 1659:
We, in love to our brethren that lie in prisons and houses of correction and dungeons, and many in fetters and irons, and have been cruelly beat by the cruel gaolers, and many have been persecuted to death, and have died in prison, and many lie sick and weak in prison and so straw, so we, in love to our brethren, do offer up our bodies and selves to you, for to put us as lambs into the same dungeons and houses of correction....For we are willing to lay down our lives for our brethren, and to take their sufferings upon us.
Given the dangerous conditions of British jails at this time, it is hard to
imagine a more striking application of Jesus' definition of love: "No
greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his friends" (John
15:13). Clearly, the experience of the Cross was a life-transforming one for
early Friends, giving them the strength to do things that we can scarce imagine
doing ourselves today.
What, then, did the Cross mean to Fox and early
Friends?
Like most people of his era, Fox took for granted the literal truth of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. He seems never to have doubted that Jesus Christ was the son of God, was nailed to a cross, and rose from the dead. What was highly unusual, however, is that Fox referred to the literal death and resurrection of Christ as an historical precedent for validating equality between men and women:
So when Christ was risen.... the women went first to declare the Resurrection out of death, out of the grave. Now, they said, 'certain of our company came and told us he was risen' (Luke 24:22). Certain women they were, disciples, learners and followers of Christ. This seemed as idle tales, but when they came into the belief of it, male and female believed: so both are one in Christ Jesus, and all praise God together.
According to Fox, the testimony of women regarding the Resurrection seemed like a mere fantasy to Christ's male (chauvinist) disciples. But because women were the first to experience and witness to the Resurrection, they became equally entitled to be ministers of the Gospel. This was a radical view at the time, but one that Fox believed was rooted in historical fact. As I will show later, Fox's open-minded approach to the Resurrection is at the heart of authentic Quaker understanding of the Christian story. ( Elizabeth Watson's attempts to re-tell the Gospel from the viewpoint of its women is in keeping with Fox's revolutionary approach to reading Scripture.)
Resurrection
Alana Parkes, a Quaker singer and musician, gave the following
testimony about Easter in her album entitled "Grace in Your Face":
"A couple of years ago, I went on a Quaker retreat for Easter
weekend. The purpose of this retreat was to consider Jesus' death and
resurrection, to figure out what that meant to us, and to our spiritual
lives...On the evening of holy Saturday, we gathered in the dark and prayed
together, and tried to imagine ourselves as if we were Jesus' friends waiting
in the darkness after his death and wondering what would become of us. As I sat
there, I was overtaken by a powerful spirit. I felt as if I were one of his friends,
as if I were one the the women who had been his disciples. And I felt this
powerful sense that my friend had been taken from me and I cried and cried that
night. As I sat with my friends and prayed, we turned towards the morning and
considered Jesus' resurrection. In that moment my sorrow was transformed and I
felt this incredible joy because I learned something new about death: when
Jesus said I will not leave you, I will leave my Spirit and my Comforter will
always be with you, I knew that was true, and that was true for me. And over
the years I was able to cry not only for the death of Jesus, but of my friend
Hunter, who died of AIDS when he was only 23 years old....I learned that Hunter
hadn't left me, his spirit was with me. And that knowledge has carried me as
two of my other friends were infected with this terrible disease. I know that
when they pass on, God will take them in His arms and hold them...."
Alana helped to form a Quaker gospel choir whose lead musician, Frederick Evans, died of AIDS in 1994. Never have I heard an album so full of love and life and joy-- yet the specter of death was never far from the minds of its singers.
"AIDS is not only all around us, it's in
the middle of us," Alana avows. "As scary as this is, we try not to
hide from it....What happens if you stop hiding? When we sing, we lift each
other up, and are lifted. We love each other very much and love is the tide
that carries us. We are so scared, we are so blessed. Find some friends. Look
at what is in the middle of your life and sing it..."
When I heard these words, and the music
accompanying them, my heart opened up, and I wept tears of joy. I had just come
back from taking a group of Quaker teens to an AIDS hospice center in L.A. The
teens had served food and sung Christmas carols to the residents, and it was a
very moving experience. During that time of sharing our feelings about AIDS and
dying, we came closer together than we ever had before. It was a moment that
none of us will ever forget.
Death, and the hope of resurrection, are things
that we cannot hide from. How we respond to this mystery says a great deal
about who we are, and how we live our lives. There are basically four ways that
people respond to the mystery of resurrection: 1) They deny it completely (the
skeptical approach) 2) They accept it as an article of faith (the dogmatic
approach) 3) They regard it as a symbol (the Jungian approach) 4) They keep an
open mind and an open heart (the experiential/existential approach). I would
suggest that the fourth approach helps us to get in touch with the heart of our
Quaker faith.
To deny the Resurrection entirely is to presume
that one has certain knowledge and understanding of the universe and its laws.
Such an attitude may seem "scientific" and rational, but it really
isn't. A real scientist keeps a mind open to all possibilities, even the
miraculous.
On the other hand, to accept the Resurrection as
an article of faith means that one is relying on secondary sources--written
words rather than a direct experience. The believer runs the risk of placing a
distance between himself and what the Resurrection is all about. Such a
blind-faith approach may also lead to authoritarianism.
The Jungian perspective appeals to the
intellectually minded because it assumes that the Resurrection was a
psychological rather than physical reality. The problem with this approach is
that we usually do not stake our lives on mere symbols. If the Resurrection is
simply an archetype, like that of the mythological Osiris, we can contemplate
its meaning with calm detachment. There is no rolling away of the stone, no
frantic women running from an open grave in amazement and terror, and no smell
of fish when Christ communes with His disciples.
For those who staked their life on the Cross,
the death of Jesus was not a mere symbol. A real man suffered and died on a
real cross, just a real men and women have suffered and died for the Truth
throughout history. What, then, can we know for certain about the resurrection?
The most honest, the most scientific, and
perhaps the most Quakerly, answer is: we don't know. And we never will know for
certain. Even if tape recorders and video had existed in the time of Jesus,
there would still be an element of doubt. There is a limit to scientific and human
knowledge.
What we do know is that there was something
about Jesus that keeps pushing away the stone from his tomb. Generation after
generation, lives are changed, incredible risks are taken, and painful
sacrifices are made, because people know in their hearts that Christ lives and
is dwelling within and among us.
This, to me, is the real miracle of the
Resurrection.
Many leaders have used personal charisma to
persuade their immediate followers to "martyr themselves." But Jesus
was somehow able to influence people who never knew him to make the ultimate
sacrifice. Paul knew Jesus only from a vision, yet this hard-headed, pious Jew
was willing to gamble everything, even his life, on the Resurrection. Why?
Because he knew in his heart, from deeply felt personal experience, that Christ
cannot die, that Truth cannot be destroyed, and that each of us can, through
our faith, can become embodiments of the Truth.
Thousands of Quakers and millions of Christians
have followed Christ's example and willingly, even cheerfully faced persecution
and death.
I don't know if I have that kind of faith.
Reflecting on this question, a very honest Quaker woman once said to me,
"I haven't been tested yet."
Although I haven't had to face the ultimate
test, I have, like most of us, been "quizzed" on my faith by daily
challenges. Hardly a day goes by that I don't have to choose between trust and
cynicism, between taking risks and playing it safe, between holding grudges and
forgiving those who have hurt me. Each day I must choose between affirming and
denying Life. Sometimes I make the wrong choices, and live to regret it But
when I choose Life, when I choose to love instead of hate, to forgive instead
of judge, to give of myself instead of hold back, I feel a joy and power that
is impossible to put into words.
Meister Eckard once said, "The important question is not whether Jesus was born in Jerusalem two thousand years ago, but whether Jesus is born in my heart today." That is also the most important question about Easter. What does it matter if Jesus was resurrected two thousand years ago if I am not resurrected today?
Perhaps that is why the Quaker song puts the Christ story in the
first person. In singing Sydney Carter's "The Lord of the Dance," we
are obliged to identify with Christ:
The whipped me and stripped me and they hung me on high,
And they left me there on a cross to die.
They buried my body and they thought I'd gone,
But I am the dance and I still go on.
They cut me down and I leapt up high,
I am the life that'll never, never die.
I'll live in you if you'll in me.
'I am the Lord of the Dance,' said he.
As I reflect on the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection, I feel immense gratitude that a man named Jesus was willing to gamble his life on the divine potential of us flawed human beings. When a disciple said, "Show me the father," Jesus responded, "If you have seen me, you have seen the father." This statement has often been interpreted to mean that Jesus uniquely embodies the image of God. Such a view is in a way very comforting. It says, "I don't have to do any redemptive work. Jesus will do it all for me." But Jesus did not let his disciples off the hook that easily. What he made clear is that no savior, and no priest, and no paid minister can "do" religion for us. We must work out our salvation for ourselves, in fear and trembling, in love and hope, because just as God can become like us, we can become like God. Jesus says in a seldom quoted passage (it's far too revolutionary!): "To tell you the truth, anyone who trusts in me will not only do what I have been doing, he will do even greater things..." (John 14:12). What a staggering thought! If we trust in the divine potential within us, we will not only equal, but surpass what Jesus did.
This is too radical an idea for conventional
minds, but it has been the revolutionary faith of Friends since the time of
Fox, and it has inspired incredible acts of faith, courage, and love. The
redemptive power of God--the eternal Christ---lives in each one of us. And if
we are willing to speak our truth, risk rejection and remain faithful to the
Light, we will come to know what James and William Penn meant when they spoke
of the "crown of life":
Blessed are those who persevere under trial,
because when they have stood the test, they will receive the crown of life that
God has promised to those who love God--- James 1:12
As regional director, Sonia manages AFSC’s programming in the western third of the U.S. The West region advocates and organizes to end militarism, achieve lasting and just immigration reform, and end mass incarceration, among many social justice issues.