EASTER SUNDAY
Lutherans around the world are in the middle of
marking the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. This is a three year celebration, with Synods
and congregations focusing on the theme: Liberated by God’s grace. The theme is
divided into three specific convictions: Salvation is not for sale! Human
beings are not for sale! Creation is not for sale!
Each sermon over the Three Days reflects on the not
for sale theme, weaves in a trilogy of novels by Greg Iles, and binds the ideas
together through the branches and roots of a tree.
Its that day!
The day a miracle springs forth and accosts the senses: the fragrance of lemon citronella wafts on the
sunshine filled - springtime air, as pure waxy white petals appear, atop the
ever green dark glossy leathery leaves of trees rising a hundred feet to reach
the sun in the sky. In the deep south on
that spring day resurrection is for sure; the magnolias burst open in all the
glory God could wrap into one blossom (twelve petals) intricately replicated a
thousand times over on each tree. Blossoms, the size of a human hand, are in
abundance. Creation dances --- life!
Following the
novels, Natchez Burning and The Bone Tree, comes Unwritten Laws, the final novel of Greg
Iles trilogy. It is not to be released until next year – all that has been said
is that the characters have many prominent questions to resolve. The characters
have been left in a mess: relationships
are broken, institutions and those who have promised to be protectors (like the
police) are no protection, race wars and conspiracies of 40 years past, have
opened old wounds – deep wounds that have been seeping poison for decades. In a lost part of a Mississippi swamp, the
Bone Tree continues to cough up the sins, the darkness, shameful actions, hate,
even a crucifixion; leaving the participants to wallow in death, to count and
bury the dead, and to grieve; really grieve all that has been lost.
The final
question is: can the characters save the town of Natchez, neighbouring
communities, and family relationships? Is
there a way out of grief this profound? Will
life -resurrection -spring from death?
Unwritten
Laws -over
night the rules changed. That’s what happened.
When the women went to the tomb and found it empty they were in an
unmapped forest. They were in an
unwritten place: where was Jesus? The
fragrant spices were ready for anointing the body, the women were prepared to
begin their process through grief, and now it is impossible. Where is Jesus and
what is this babbled explanation from the men in white?
Why do you
look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember
how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man
must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise
again.
Unwritten
Laws, what
an appropriate title for Iles’ next novel.
I imagine there will be time spent determining
how to prosecute crimes committed recently and over 40 years– the KKK against black
individuals and communities, those responsible for the death of JFK, the mafia’s
part in all sorts of side gigs; and the culpability of individuals, as they did
what they felt they had to do, to protect those whom they loved; and of course
the outcome of the potential doctor-assisted-death charge that started the
trilogy in the first place. There are no
laws in place to adequately face the magnitude and web of failures of people
and systems as woven through the novels.
Magnolia trees are
magnificent. On a trip to Atlanta,
Georgia, there were many on the walks I would take from the hotel. I was so taken by their majesty - and how the trees didn’t fit into my
compendium and understanding of trees – so much so that on more than one
occasion, I went up to a magnolia to touch it, smell it, feel it– to get a
closer look; I was so in awe. The thick glossy smooth leaves reflected sunlight
and they held a wonderful surprise, the underside was golden with copper
coloured hair. The last few flowers of
the season were still pristine and solid with a hint of lemon. The fruit pods
were like nothing I had ever experienced- the size of a mango; soft to the
touch; with seeds like the innards of a pomegranate.
Still fascinated, I read
that magnolias were created before bees! The tree’s flowers evolved to attract
beetles as pollinators instead. Magnolias are elders within the tree world,
hosting wisdom of the Word from the very beginning, “let there be and there was.”.
This morning at the tomb
the Creator ventures into the unwritten ---
outside of the laws of nature and science as we’ve come to know them, or
expect them to be – the Creator ventures beyond even God’s comprehension into a
space of possibilities: No laws? All grace? Where abundant blossoms - flexibility,
creativity- produce seeds of boundless hope, love, and joy. A blank slate, a vast canvas where the lemon
citronella fragrance expands, pushing out the Word, “In the beginning God re-created. The Word was with God and the Word was
God. And God saw that it was good.”
Overnight the world
changed, from the cross event to a miracle: liberation. This morning as we view the empty tomb, we
are smacked in the face with a new life; abundant blossoms--- one with
unwritten laws; resurrection --- and that means liberation. It means that we have awoken in a world where
Salvation is not for sale, creation is not for sale, human beings are not for
sale –
- if we choose to see this world and enter the
possibility, these convictions are truth.
Or we can fall back into what was.
Magnolias of long ago,
soaked in the sunshine of the Word and God-presence, and they flourished.
Season by season the majestic presence they experienced was spread around the
world with more than 200 species bursting God’s glory. They were not afraid to adapt and grow –
going to diverse climates and soils. The
flowers, always prized and praised, continued to tell the Creator’s story; the
story of the miracle of life, of resurrection; of liberation -- in whites and pinks, yellows and purples. Abundant blossoms followed by large velvety
rose coloured fruit – fruit bearing lots of seeds; continues generation after
generation.
The women leave the empty
tomb – liberated - they run to the
disciples; their story smelling of lemon citronella; in the telling the women
blossom abundant life with a deep conviction that salvation is not for sale-
Resurrection- the scent
carried to our time wafting on the sunshine-filled spring air…
…liberated by God’s grace;
And when this grace accosts
our very depths, we become the magnolia about to burst forth the glory of God.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment