Get Up On Your Feet!

Home again.  I was down in Nashville for a full week this time.  My second week on the job.  The problem is there is a huge youth conference taking place out in Kansas City right now, and a large portion of the office was out there,  Then, of course, it being summer, there were also many out for vacation.  So, the office was like a ghost town for part of the week.  Some came drifting back, but still it was plenty lonely at times.  Plus, our big planning retreat is still a week away, so I’m not always sure what I’m supposed to be doing.  

No big deal, I could spend the time unpacking and arranging my books and assorted office stuff around.  Except, uh oh, too many books to fit on the shelves I was given.  While I was puzzling over this, and thanking God that I got rid of as many as I did, or I’d really be in trouble, I got an email from one of the administrative folk telling me how to put in a work order for things in the office.  Perfect!  So, I put in the order – “Can I please have another set of book shelves, please.”  Yeah, two pleases, I was trying to suck up.  Anyway, a couple of days later one of the maintenance guys showed up and says, we’ve got some, but they’re no good.  But there are some in the other building.  If you can wait a bit, I’ll see if we can get you one from over there.”  Sure, ok, no problem.  I like the cardboard vibe I’ve got going on here (and at home, come to think of it).  So, I’m waiting for more shelves.  Meanwhile, my office looks like a kid home from college who doesn’t quite know how to put things away in his room.  

The other good thing about having some time on my hands this week is that I got to concentrate on my presentation at Mission u.  What’s that?  You don’t know what Mission u is?  Well, let me tell you.  The United Methodist Women sponsor summer experiences of learning about social and missional issues so that you can go back to your local church and stir up trouble.  I mean, so you can go back and get folks motivated with hands on experiences and plenty of data and background information.  It is a four day immersion into issues and solutions in local and global missions.  In other words, it’s something you ought to be doing!

There are three studies during Mission u (BTW - it used to be called School of Christian Mission, but someone decided “school” in the summer sounded like a non-starter, so they changed it).  One is the Spiritual Growth study.  I have been privileged to lead the Spiritual Growth Study many times for Mission u and it’s previous incarnation.  I always have a good time, teaching and learning with these women and a few brave men who come with questions and answers and most of all the motivation to make a change in their lives, in their churches, in their communities and in the world.  If there is one group in our whole denomination who takes that mission statement seriously - to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world - it is the United Methodist Women.  Especially the last part of the statement, the transformation of the world.  The United Methodist Women aren’t satisfied with making themselves disciples, or even their families or churches disciples with all the benefits of belonging.  No, they want the world to know that they are also a part of the kingdom of God.

Or “Kin-dom of God.”  That’s how the author of the book I am privileged to teach this coming week at Mission u has renamed “kingdom.”  Rev. Janet Wolf, is the author, and frankly it is one of my favorite books ever for the Spiritual Growth Study.  Wolf tackles her subject so well, it is compelling and inspiring. And her subject? The Gospel of Mark.  The title is Practicing Resurrection: The Gospel of Mark and Radical Discipleship.  I love that title, “practicing resurrection.”  The implication is that resurrection is not something that happened only to Him, but something that becomes a part of us.  Or we become a part of it.  Or something.  

And the whole idea of the kin-dom of God is that we are being made into a family.  All of us. Or, as I used to say regularly, all y’all, We are connected by the resurrection, we are made alive and whole and a community that is bigger than just us.  And here’s the thing, this family that is so inclusive, so all encompassing, has room for folks who don’t even know about it yet.  Who haven’t heard.  And who may have felt turned away or left out by the church and the people who claim to be followers of the resurrected one.  Which is why we need to practice resurrection.  Because the resurrected life isn’t one of sitting still, but moving forward.  Moving outward.

Mark 16:1-8 When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 They had been saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?" 4 When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. 6 But he said to them, "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you." 8 So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Rev. Wolf uses a number of stories to help us get the feel of what Jesus was about.  Stories about radical change in individual lives and in social customs and structures.  It is clear, Wolf tells us, that Jesus didn’t come simply to give people a warm feeling in their hearts.  Warm feelings are great!  We find, however, that the experience of faith comes more often when we practice it.  More often then, when we practice it, than when we just think about it, or learn about it, or even pray about it.  Too often we use our “thoughts and prayers” as a means to avoid living our faith, practicing our resurrection.  It is in the practice that we discover the kind of life that Jesus wants so much for us to know and to live.

And by practice we don’t mean rehearse, or try until we get it right.  It doesn’t mean we are rookies or somehow inept in living the life of resurrection - though we might be!  No, practice as in what doctors do, or what lawyers do - they practice medicine and they practice law.  It doesn’t mean they aren’t professional, though all of us have made that joke.  No, it means they are doing it.  And yes, the more we do it the better we are at living that life.

In the story from Mark, the women decide not to practice this new life, this new understanding.  They run in fear – terror and amazement, Mark says.  They were too overwhelmed by the implications of Jesus resurrection that they couldn’t imagine it having anything to do with them.  Even though the invitation was issued.  “Go,” says the young man in white, “and tell His disciples, including Peter who did all he could do to exclude himself from the team, who acted as though he wasn’t a part of them, but resurrection includes all, even those who act like they aren’t included.  Go and tell them that Jesus is already moving.  Already on the way.  Going to where they live, going to their home town, their neighborhoods.  Go and tell them that if they want to see Him, they’d better get up on their feet and move!”

That’s what practicing resurrection is about.  Getting up on our feet and moving.  Moving out to the edges where things are risky, but folks are hurting.  Moving out to stand in solidarity with those society says aren’t worth our time or our effort or our energy.  And moving out to advocate for change that makes sure that everyone gets a fair chance to live, to make a living, to participate in a society based on more than supporting the people at the top.  To help build something more like a “kin-dom” where we all belong to one another in mutual love and support.

Is this going to be easy?  Is resurrection easy?  I don’t know, I haven’t tried it.  But I want to.  I want that life.  That resurrection life.  That living in the kin-dom life.  How about you?  

If you do, get up on your feet! 

Shalom,

Derek