Applied Insights from Cross-Cultural Living

This blog follows on my previous blog on Reading History. To summarise my argument from “Reading History”: Living abroad and reading about other time periods in history have the shared value that each can open us up to a broader experience of the world – if we approach such living and such reading with open eyes, open hearts, and open minds. Such openness requires “mindfulness”, an attentive and non-judgmental spirit that encounters new ways of understanding life and seeks to learn from them. 

What does such an approach look like? How can we be people convinced of truth on the one hand, but open to new values and visions on the other? Travelling and working abroad can help and reading history (one form of literature that travels intentionally through time and space) can help. But how do they help? What does that help look like?

A Personal Example

When I was about 40 years old, we lived in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, next door to the bishop of our church and his wife. I remember one morning when the bishop’s wife and I met in the driveway outside our houses and she greeted me, “Sabona, umtwanami.” Literally, “Hello (I see you), my child.” She then explained to me that as the bishop’s wife she was the mother of the church. Although we were about the same age, she was therefore my mother and I was her child. 

As I reflect on our conversation, two completely opposite worldviews were at work. I am a child of the 1960s, an American-Canadian, deeply committed to an egalitarian society in which every person is equal in value with every other person. Hierarchy is (in my worldview) the enemy of equality. She was a Zimbabwean, taking for granted that her status as the bishop’s wife placed her above me in a hierarchy that gave life meaning and purpose. 

I could easily have experienced her comment as a put-down. To be reminded that I was not as important as she goes against the grain of my egalitarian upbringing. But, from her perspective, she was doing me a favour by helping me learn how to live in the hierarchy of Zimbabwe. I could have embarrassed myself by acting out of my American cultural heritage while living and working in Zimbabwe; in spite of her help, I probably did! Her kindness helped me to avoid further mistakes as a guest in her society. 

Rather than reacting negatively to MaNkala (the bishop’s wife), then, I respond with appreciation for her lesson, helping me to know how to live in her home. To put it another way, I evaluate her action on the basis of her society (since that’s where we were living) rather than on the basis of mine. What could seem to me like an arrogant action was in fact a kindness meant for my good.

A Historical Example

The example above is relatively trivial. More serious is the case of missionaries encountering polygamy. Dwight Thomas has done significant research into the planting of the Brethren in Christ Church in Zambia. Recently, he posted a note from “the African Mission Minutes” (from the BIC Church in Zimbabwe) of 1907:

Whereas, the Matrimonial conditions of the Foreign fields are perplexing and peculiar to themselves; and 

Whereas, Only those who are in the field can be fully qualified to to give proper expression upon the real character of those cases, and 

Whereas, An inflexible rule may prove impractical, 

Resolved, therefore, That latitude be granted to the Foreign Missionary workers in Africa, with this precaution that they exercise the utmost care not to violate the spirit of the Gospel, nor surrender any of the established tenets of the Church upon the very important question of matrimony.[1]

 

The missionaries encountered a culture in which polygamy was normal. Further, the cultures of the Christian Old Testament also assumed that polygamy was normal. At the same time, centuries of Christian teaching and practice have held that monogamy is normal and that polygamy is prohibited. In the missionaries’ own culture, a bigamous marriage was held to be illegal. When people around the missions wanted to join the church, what should the missionaries say about their polygamous marriages? 

Based on my earlier blog (“Reading History”), I recommend an approach that suspends judgment about polygamy and says instead something like this: “People take polygamy for granted! That seems odd to me, but it is interesting. I wonder why they value polygamy so much?” 

Based on my own reading of missionary articles sent to the home church, the usual reason missionaries gave for polygamy was that older men wanted young wives – that is, polygamy was based on male desire for sexual activity. A more charitable exploration of the place of polygamy in African society sees it as part of a complex system that ensures care for everyone in society, including orphans and widows (often the most helpless of marginalized people). 

A mindful approach to differences in culture helps one to maintain one’s belief in the truth one knows (in this case, that biblical marriage is monogamous) while seeking to understand what is going on in another culture’s practice (which happens to parallel biblical polygamy). I commend the excerpt from the Mission’s Minutes above for the way that it suggests such a “mindful” approach.

Another Historical Example

Another example, which most will oppose more strongly, comes from India. Some traditional Hindu practice includes the use of sati (suttee) or widow-burning as part of the death ritual for Hindu men of the upper castes.[2] When the British colonised India, they outlawed sati, a practice that the church also strongly opposed. Does my suggestion of a mindful response still apply? 

I think it does. Some may think that Indians who practiced sati did so because they were uncivilized or barbaric or in some other way deficient in human feelings and values. Such judgments, however understandable, are misplaced and wrong. A family in which a widow immolated herself on her dead husband’s funeral pyre experienced loss just as a Canadian or American family would. There must have been reasons within the culture for the practice to have taken root. A mindful approach seeks to find out what those reasons were. 

Perhaps the widow desired “salvation” (the goal of Hinduism in release from the illusion of life) and sati presented her with the real possibility of such release. Perhaps she saw that her society could no longer support her, and sati offered the possibility of an honoured and honourable death rather than a shameful and painful life. Whatever the reasons, a mindful response teaches the guest what is important and valuable in this society. It also shows the broken places in society. Simple rejection closes the door to such learning.

Closing Thoughts

Why do some people favour abortion? Pro-life people (among whom I count myself) can learn from those who value the right of the woman to choose – only if we approach them with open eyes, open hearts, and open minds. Calling them murderers and seeking to criminalize them closes the door to such learning.[3] 

Why do some people value traditional families (built around two parents, one man and one woman)? Progressives can learn from such conservatives (among whom I count myself) – only if they (we) approach them with open eyes, open hearts, and open minds. Calling them homophobes and making fun of them closes the door to such learning.[4] 

Why do some people seek restrictions on gun rights? (I am one such.) Conservatives can learn from such people – only if by approaching them with open eyes, open hearts, and open minds. Declaring that they are trying to destroy our country closes the door to such learning. 

We could walk through a variety of hot topics of our society today in a similar way. On some issues, I identify with conservatives and with some I identify with progressives. In all of them, I know that there are real reasons and views worth taking seriously among people on the other side. I am convinced that the views of people I disagree with are worth taking seriously. As I learn from the truth that other people hold, I may come closer to truth as God alone knows it.

Epilogue

Jonathan Haidt (to whom I referred in the earlier blog) tells us about a recent movement in anthropology recognizing that most psychological research has been done on Western people who are WEIRD: Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic. We are different from the vast majority of people down through history at precisely these five points, and they lead to major differences in how we see precisely the hot topics that we are so divided on. 

A simple question I have is: If we are in such a minority, how can we be so sure that the rest of the world throughout space and time is simply wrong? At the same time, if we (WEIRD people) are multiplying significantly, are our views the future for everyone on planet earth? (I will let the reader look up sources on WEIRD people. Google has its uses.)

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[1] Posted on Dwight Thomas’s Facebook group, Zambian BIC History & Genealogy.

[2] In this practice, the body of the dead man is immolated on the funeral pyre and the dead man’s widow throws herself on the pyre so that her body is consumed with his. The sacrifice is said to move her closer to final liberation from karma and the cycle of reincarnation to be reunited with the Divine. Many Hindus, along with Muslims and other observers, have joined Christians in opposing this practice, which is not accepted in India today.

[3] The Supreme Court in the USA struck down Roe vs. Wade just before I finished this essay. I am not here commenting on their decision, nor am I commenting on whether abortion should be legal or illegal. I am saying two things. 1) I do not believe abortion is acceptable: I am pro-life. 2) I do not think that criminalizing abortion is a fruitful way to proceed as a society. The debate around these questions is complex, but I am advocating for a “mindful” (listening) approach in the necessary conversations.

[4] The tendency progressives show to make traditional viewpoints unacceptable parallels the pro-life tendency to criminalize pro-choice positions in the abortion conversation. I am advocating more listening “mindfully”.

Reading History

The Question

Recently in my history of missions class, one of my students said, “I hate stories.” I am not sure what fuels his dislike of stories, but I suspect that many in our society would echo, “I hate history.” That being the case, one can reasonably ask what benefit there is in reading history. Since I am presently working on a history of the missionary enterprise in my own church of origin (the Brethren in Christ), this is an existential question for me. Am I wasting my time?

The Case for Travel

Allow me to move towards a response by way of reflections on the benefits of travel. What benefits do we derive from travelling to other countries, or even better from living and working in another culture? The International Volunteer Exchange Program (IVEP) sponsored by Mennonite Central Committee believes there are real benefits. On their web page, IVEP states, “During your IVEP year, you will make new friends, gain work skills and have new experiences — you will see your own culture from a new perspective. You’ll also grow in your faith as you meet and worship with Christians from around the world and learn what it means to be a peacemaker. See how a year with IVEP will transform you. You will learn new things and grow in ways you may have never expected!” 

Similarly, the VS (Voluntary Service) program run for many years by the Brethren in Christ provided young people with two years of cross-cultural experience, broadening their horizons. The experience of living in another culture opens participants’ eyes to new ways of thinking, which in turn helps them to see their own culture and worldview more clearly. A truism states that the best way to discover what is at the heart of one’s own culture is to be transplanted into a new culture with different worldview assumptions. 

Living in another culture does not guarantee such growth. It is possible to travel through Europe and Asia and Africa and South America with one’s eyes metaphorically closed. David Livermore specializes in helping short-term workers develop the ability to learn the new cultural contexts through which they move. He seeks to help them “serve with eyes wide open.”[1] His books and web site are devoted to helping people improve their cultural intelligence by keeping their eyes and minds open to the sights and sounds and ideas around them. 

To put it another way, living in another culture can broaden our perspectives if we approach our hosts with open hearts, open minds, and open eyes. If instead we measure everything and everyone by our own cultural understanding, we demonstrate ethnocentrism and become the kind of American described in the 1958 book, The Ugly American.[2] This term “ugly American” has entered popular culture as a depiction of Americans overseas and measuring everything by their own standards. The term is not intended as a compliment. 

Jonathan Haidt has described his own experience as an academic moving to a conservative highly religious part of India to pursue his academic research. He writes about the struggle he felt as an American liberal atheist, committed to the principle of the complete equality and autonomy of the individual, but now living in the state of Orissa, India. “My first few weeks in Bhubaneswar were therefore filled with feelings of shock and dissonance. … I was immersed in a sex-segregated, hierarchically stratified, devoutly religious society, and I was committed to understanding it on its own terms, not on mine.”[3] Haidt here describes the necessary commitment that makes it possible to broaden one’s perspectives. In his own case, it led him to discover an unexpected appreciation for the worldview perspectives of his hosts. Such appreciation is basic to living well with people whose cultural perspectives differ from our own. 

To summarize: Living and working overseas can broaden one’s perspectives, making one’s life fuller and richer. This truth comes with a caveat: It requires open eyes, an open heart, and an open mind. Livermore describes this attitude as being mindful.[4] Mindfulness is being intentionally aware of what is going on around oneself in a new culture, suspending judgment on these experiences, and seeking to understand them as one’s hosts do. 

Travel in general can have a similar benefit, but it is easier to travel with one’s eyes metaphorically closed and requires more deliberate intention to learn from travel as a tourist. Similarly, short-term experiences require greater intentionality than do long-term experiences. The practice of such learning is, of course, well worth the effort it takes. We develop into fuller human beings, better able to negotiate the increasingly multi-cultural world in which we live.

What about Reading?

These thoughts bring us back to reading history. When we read historical accounts, many of us, many of us are like thoughtless tourists travelling with their inner eyes closed, or like someone who works in another country for a three-year stint but experiences nothing of that culture in the depths of his/her being. We read about the period of the Civil War in the (dis)United States and measure the choices people made as if they were our contemporaries. Similarly, we read about the events of the first generation of Americans as if our cultural standards of morality were the same as theirs. 

This attitude is a kind of chronological colonialism or imperialism similar to the attitudes of Western settlers and missionaries during the period of high imperialism in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Anthropology has taught us to evaluate varying cultures from within, rather than imposing our own categories on the host culture. For example, the first missionaries in Africa often condemned polygamy without considering its function in society. Such condemnation marginalized the additional wives, who now were cast out of the security of family provided within their own culture. Missionaries had to learn to listen to the people within society and to acknowledge their right to determine acceptable practice within their own culture.[5] 

Similarly, many people today are ready to judge attitudes towards slavery held by the first generation of people in the new United States of America. Thomas Jefferson, we are told, was clearly a racist because he owned slaves. This evaluation may in fact be correct, but it must measure Jefferson by the ethical standards of early America. We can only provide such judgment if we have learned how the first Americans thought and lived – if, in short, we have entered their culture as guests and learned from them what their thoughts and practices mean. 

This does not mean that we accept polygamy or slavery. It means only that we evaluate people’s attitudes towards these issues by the standards and practices of their own culture and time. Such evaluation is aided culturally by living and working cross-culturally and historically by a close reading that enters the story with open eyes, open hearts, and open minds.

A Closing Synthesis

How do we bring these observations together? My basic point is that reading in general and reading history in particular resembles travelling and living in another culture. Lack of reading history, then, narrows one’s view of the world, just as lack of travel narrows one’s perspectives. Reading history is a form of time travel, taking us to different places and different times where different worldviews and life perspectives await us. Entering these worlds, like entering another culture in Africa or Asia, broadens and strengthens our worldview, which in turn helps us analyse and strengthen our own life perspectives. 

The practical results of such broadening require another essay. Here I note only that most North Americans have fairly narrow and rigid worldviews. (I recognize that this is a subjective judgment and that others may disagree with me.) Conservatives and Progressives alike have clustered into tribal silos. Reading history is one way to help us begin to see what is of value in those with whom we otherwise radically disagree. Provided that we read with open eyes, open hearts, and open minds, we discover the good and worthwhile contributions made by people whose attitudes initially repel us. We can learn from them without abandoning our own fundamental convictions, but only if we enter into their lives accepting the times and worldviews within which they lived as valid for their time. To do otherwise is to practice a form of chronological imperialism, a sad failure for people whose rejection of imperialism and colonialism is fundamental to their identity.

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[1] David Livermore, Serving With Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-Term Missions With Cultural Intelligence. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2006. See also Livermore, Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your CQ to Engage Our Multicultural World. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009. Livermore has a web presence at https://davidlivermore.com/cq/

[2] The book describes a physically ugly American who was in tune with the people of the country in which he lived, in contrast with the well-dressed Americans with money and influence, who had no concern for the host people. They were truly “the ugly American” because they cared only for American interests.

[3] Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. New York: Pantheon Books, 2012, pp. 217f.

[4] Livermore uses the term “mindfulness”, which comes from Buddhist practice, where it is a necessary trait for moving beyond the illusion of reality to see what is really true. It has been appropriated by a variety of academic disciplines in Europe and North America, such as psychology and anthropology.

[5] See, for example, Eugene Nida, Customs and Cultures (Pasadena, CA: William Carey, 1954) and Charles Kraft, Anthropology for Christian Witness (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1996) and Worldview for Christian Witness (Pasadena, CA: William Carey, 2006).

What Are We Doing Here, Anyway?

Let me lay out my approach for you this morning. I have a question I want to answer – the question in the sermon title, to which I will suggest some beginning answers. Finally, we come to the texts we read and listen to them in light of this basic question. So, let’s start with the question: What are we doing here, anyway?  

 

Many years ago in India, a man named Waskom Pickett researched this question among Indian Christians. He asked them why they had become Christians and joined the church. He found that some of them became Christians for social reasons – they were looking for friends and for marriage partners, and they joined the church as part of their search. Some of them became Christians for economic reasons – they knew that the church would help them find a job and other economic help. Some of them became Christians for spiritual reasons – they were looking for the truth about God and life, and they found that truth in Christian faith and in the church. 

 

Curiously, the reason that people gave for becoming a Christian had little to do with how serious and sincere their faith was. Whatever reason they had for coming to Christian faith, those who gave themselves completely to Christ and the church grew in their faith to real maturity. 

 

Social – Economic – Spiritual 

We live in a different time than Waskom Pickett did. He was studying a surge of Indians coming to Christian faith in the 1930s. We live in a place and time when people are drifting away from church. Sociologists studying patterns of church attendance have a name for such people – they are “the dones”. A recent article in Christianity Today noted that Baby Boomers and Generation X are leaving the church faster than any other group. That means that people between ages 40 and 75 are wondering why they should keep attending church. They are just “done”. 

 

This state of affairs leads us to ask why people are leaving, the reverse of Pickett’s question (why people are coming). We have time today only to consider the question of why people come to church. The same basic answers apply today as were true in Pickett’s day. Some come for help. They are in economic or social or some other kind of trouble, and they come to the church. Some come for friends. They find a group of people who help them feel at home. Some come for spiritual reasons. They believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that worshipping God means praying in a church. 

 

We could reword these responses like this: People come to church for friendship, for help, and for worship. To put it more simply, these responses boil down to two basic responses. The first is that we need community – we need other people, and the congregation is a good place to find other people. The second is that we need God, and the church is a good place to find God. 

 

Worship and Community 

You notice of course that the church is not the only place that we find God or that we find other people. If all you need is other people, any voluntary association will do, from curling in the winter to playing chess in a chess club. I like chess, and I have found friendship in Zimbabwe, Australia, and Indiana by going to the local club to play with other people who like chess. 

 

Similarly, if all you need is God, you can worship God in many places, not just in church. This is what’s behind the feeling that some people have. They say, “I don’t need to go to church to worship God. I can worship God in my living room with an online church or spending time out in nature.” 

 

It is true that we can worship God in many different places. I remember a dark night I spent lost in the woods of Pennsylvania about 53 years ago – May 28, 1969. I remember the date well! I remember watching the light growing as dawn came. I started walking towards the light and found myself in a cathedral-like setting with the sun glowing through the leaves and branches around me, lighting up the grass and undergrowth around me. It was incredibly beautiful, and after a night of fear and darkness, I experienced God’s presence in a wonderful way. You better believe it: You can worship God in nature! 

 

So, if you can find friendship in a curling club and worship God in your living room, what do we need church for? 

 

A Worshipping Community 

Go back to the three elements I suggested we find in church: friendship, help when we’re in trouble, and a place to worship God. Church is the one place on earth where we find all three brought together. We need all three. If all we need is help when we’re in trouble, government can provide a program for that. If all we need is friendship when we’re lonely, clubs are good for finding friends. If all we need is worship, we can worship God anywhere. 

 

The truth is we need all three – friendship and help and worship. Consider worship: Solitary worship is good and necessary, but it is what it sounds like: Solitary. We need to worship with God’s people. Compare solitary worship to another shared experience in our culture: Hockey. If you’re a Jets fan, you can enjoy watching a Jets game in your own living room – at least when they win. But how much better is it to watch it in your living room with three or four good friends, especially if they’re playing the Leafs and one of your friends is a Leafs fan. How much better is it to watch the game with 10,000 other fans in the MTS Centre. The shared experience really is better than the solitary experience. 

 

Similarly, you can have a real experience of God’s presence when you are alone. I hope you do. Such experiences are really important. But how much better is it to come together with a care group and pray together over the needs and concerns of our lives. Even better is to gather together with the whole congregation. The big gatherings of such events as Mennonite World Conference are cream on the top of a wonderful dessert. 

 

To expand the food metaphor, we need the full meal of friendship and help and worship, mixed together in an ongoing buffet for our spiritual and emotional and mental nourishment. We need to worship God together, to meet God together, to be filled with God’s Holy Spirit as the community of God’s People. 

 

When I think of my own life experience, I think of all of these kinds of experiences. I enjoy going out for breakfast with good Christian brothers who support me when I am discouraged. I have benefitted by praying with my brothers and sisters in a care group. I have found help from my small group when trying to decide what the next step should be in life’s journey. I have been swept up in a throng of people praying and worshipping God together. Help, friendship, and worship go together to nourish me in my whole life. 

 

Believing and Belonging 

Another way of thinking of this subject is to consider the idea of believing and belonging in church life. Sometimes, we insist that everyone believes the whole Christian message in order to become part of the church. We think that believing the truth leads to belonging in the church, so we ask people to affirm that they believe what we believe. That’s why we have membership classes and instruct people in what they should believe. 

 

What I have been saying this morning suggests another path that many have discovered. Often, belonging leads to believing. Someone finds friendship or help in the church, and as they belong to the group, they start to believe what the church teaches. 

 

I suggest that both paths are acceptable. C.S. Lewis is an example of someone who came to the church by believing before he could belong. He was an atheist who gradually came to the realization that God exists, and then that Jesus is the Son of God. This growing belief led him to the church. But the more common path is that friendships and belonging create a space in which we can explore and adopt Christian faith as our own. That is what Waskom Pickett found in his study of Indian Christians a hundred years ago, and that is true today for most Canadians and Americans.

Excursus: We don’t have our usual growing deeper class today because of the long weekend. Here are four questions that you can use for your own process of going deeper as you reflect on the morning sermon: 

1) Why do you come to church? (Everyone’s reason is a little different) 

2) What would you miss if you didn’t have church? (Some say, “Nothing”, which leads to the next question – and which is a problem we should take seriously) 

3) What could we/should we do in church that would make our worship more meaningful? 

4) How would you invite a friend to join you in church?

 

Finally, Our Texts!  

We can think of these three elements as a set of concentric circles: Help and Friendship in the two outer circles, and Worship in the centre circle. Like a bullseye. However we come to it, worship is at the centre of our experience as God’s people. The texts we read describe that centre. 

 

Psalm 67 describes worship that is rooted in the gifts God gives us, gifts of salvation from our enemies, justice for our lives, and provision of food for daily lives. We thank God in our worship for God’s good gifts of life, food, and friends. 

 

It is a useful exercise to write down or make a list of all that God has given us. For good harvests (we pray for them this year!) to a job worth working at, for family and friends who gather round us, for life and freedom in our society, we worship and praise God. The Psalm doesn’t make this connection, but such lists lead me also to repentance. When we misuse God’s good gifts, we repent and say sorry. We repent and recognize our need to change and live the way that God wants us to live. 

 

Revelation 21 and 22 present a picture of the end of time, the goal of all our living. This goal shapes the way we live now, showing us what is really true and how we should shape our lives today. The picture is of a city, showing us that ultimate reality is social, lived with other people. The city has no church building, because the church building is meant to point to God. That’s why some churches have a spire – to point towards God. But God is there in fullness. We can see God and need no building to remind us of God. In the same way, God is the light of the city, so that other sources of light are no longer needed. 

 

To put it another way, God is the centre and source of life. All creatures, indeed, all creation praise and worship God perfectly and fully. All that makes life bitter and difficult in this life is erased. The river of life and the tree of life are there – symbols to show us that this is a place of full and perfect life and joy. 

 

Revelations uses images to paint a picture of perfection. If we try to work out exactly what we will be doing in this place of perfection, we miss the point. It is beyond our ability to understand what it looks and feels like. All we can say is that it is perfect joy and delight, and that God is at the centre. We worship God now because our lives are moving towards the perfection of God’s eternity. 

 

Conclusion 

It’s time to wrap this up. Have you ever been in a worship service that you come out saying, “A foretaste of Heaven!” That doesn’t mean that Heaven will be one long sermon or an endless choir – Heaven forbid! It does mean that at the centre of reality is a perfection of joy and goodness that we can approach best together. 

 

You never know when God will come to you most clearly. Perhaps it is in a solitary moment, as I experienced walking through the woods at dawn. Perhaps it is in a gathered moment. I remember August 1992. It was the gathering of the church in Zimbabwe for our general conference. We were moving from Zimbabwe to the USA, and I knew I would probably never live in Africa again. I was leaving my birthplace behind. In a sense, I was leaving my heart behind, and I was grieving. I found it hard to leave my home and move to North America, and I didn’t know how to process that sadness. That night the conference met for worship, and a preacher named Shadrack Maloka started preaching. I don’t remember what he said, but I do remember him suddenly starting to sing, “Mayenziwe intando yakho.” The words of Jesus as he went to the cross and also words from the Lord’s Prayer, “Your will be done.” As a thousand voices around me sang, I wept and found the strength also to say, “Your will be done.” 

 

Leaving home was hard, but it was also good. Worship and fellowship helped me to integrate my life and put things together. Why do we go to church? To put our lives together with our friends and through worship and praise of the God who is at the centre of everything. 

 

Steinbach Mennonite Church 

22 May 2022 

Scriptures 

Psalm 67

¹ May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, ² that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations. 

³ Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. ⁴ Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. ⁵ Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. 

⁶ The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us. ⁷ May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him.

 

Revelation 21:10

¹⁰ And in the spirit  he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.

Revelation 21:22-22:5

²² I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. ²³ And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. ²⁴ The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. ²⁵ Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. ²⁶ People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. ²⁷ But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. 

22 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ² through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ³ Nothing accursed will be found there anymore. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; ⁴ they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵ And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Resurrection!

The Lord is Risen! He is Risen indeed!

 

This phrase, repeated around the world in many different languages, reminds us of the defining moment on which all human history hinges. In Zimbabwe, I heard them sing, “Namhla uvukile!” In Greece, they cry, “Χριστός Ανέστη!” Some might say “Happy Easter!” Others might say nothing special, but even in our silence, this reality – that Jesus the Messiah died and rose from the dead – this reality changes everything. 

 

From the Scriptures 

Easter sermons are challenging. We have heard the story so often that the scripture passages go by us almost without our being aware. Listen to the Scriptures this morning. The passage from Isaiah (Isaiah 65: 17-25) is titled “The Glorious New Creation”. It gives us a picture of where we are going, of our final goal as God’s children. On the way, we walk in darkness and terror, but our goal is the new heavens and earth in which death and tears are destroyed forever and in which everyone is in perfect relationship with our Creator.

 

The death and resurrection of Jesus is the pivotal point in history that transforms darkness into light and terror into joy. The gospel passages tell the story of that great event.

 

We also read from John 20. The chapters leading up to John 20 tell how Jesus was arrested, tried, and killed. Chapter 20 is “the rest of the story” (John 20: 1-18). Jesus was killed the Friday before. Friday was day one, Saturday was day two. Sunday was the third day, and on the third day Jesus rose from the dead.

 

The story continues with Mary Magdalene, who had found life in the ministry of Jesus. She came to the tomb, carved into a hillside, and found the stone in front of the tomb rolled away. She called Peter and John.

 

Peter and John, who were very close to Jesus during his life, came to the tomb where they had laid his body on Friday afternoon. They found the tomb empty. Just as we opened all the boxes this morning and found nothing there, they looked inside the tomb and found nothing there – except the light of God’s presence.

 

They didn’t know what this meant and left, but Mary hung around. She couldn’t leave. And then Jesus appeared to her. After a brief conversation, she realized that this was Jesus and fell at his feet to worship him. Jesus told her not to touch him yet and sent her off to tell the disciples he was alive again. [I’m not sure why Jesus told Mary, “Don’t touch me,” and then told Thomas later, “Touch me.” I have some ideas, but it is a puzzling circumstance.]

 

We could examine the story verse by verse, but this outline is enough for now. I want to struggle a bit with the overall story and what it means for us.

[A parenthesis: The details of John’s account differ from the details in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In Matthew, Mary and Mary were there; in Mark, Mary and Mary and Salome; in Luke, “the women” – which may mean more than the three named – were there. Other details also differ. Note that they differ in just the way that we would expect of eyewitness accounts. The gospel writers did not put their heads together to clean their story up, but they repeated what the eyewitnesses said. With all the confusion we would expect.]

  

What Would You Do? 

What would you do if a close friend and mentor died, but when you looked in the casket it was empty? Especially if you knew that the body had been there the night before. The natural conclusion is that someone took the body. That’s what Mary thinks. I suspect that’s what Peter and John thought too. They went back home. For what? Perhaps to think it over. Mary stayed there, grieving. When she saw Jesus, she assumed that he might know who took the body. Well, he knew alright!

 

Sometimes people think that Christians are a bit loopy with our talk of death and resurrection. Dead people don’t rise! The disciples agreed. They knew that dead bodies stay dead, and that’s why they responded as they did – with skepticism and doubts. Jesus appeared to them many times over the next month or so. They took some convincing!

 

One of the most remarkable things about the gospel passages is that trained historians tell us that the accounts look simply factual. They are not fabricated stories, and they don’t look like mass hallucination or lies. They simply tell what happened. But if the resurrection really happened, if Jesus died and rose from the dead, then reality itself is the story of death leading to life. 

 

Competing Narratives 

Let’s think about this for a bit.

 

Many people today think that life is essentially meaningless. You do whatever feels good for the moment, because when it’s all over it’s just over. Some people with this view are quite happy. They live their lives pursuing their desires, and that’s enough. In the end, however, I think this view leads to darkness and a loss of meaning.

 

Consider world events. Russia invades Ukraine. The Russian Army targets civilians and basic infrastructure. This pattern takes place all over the world. Those who come from the Eastern Congo could tell us stories of armed men who kill ruthlessly and destroy anyone who stands in their way. Those who come from northwest China could tell us stories of how the Chinese government has tried to eradicate the Uighur people. Our own history makes clear that the lust for power leads governments to act in ways that lead to darkness.

 

It is possible, given the random nature of these acts of violence, to conclude that the essence of reality is nothing more than violence. The teachings of Jesus make little sense in this kind of world. Christians really have no place. Our talk of peace and love sounds nice, but where do we stand when the Russian Army devastates the city of Mariupol.

 

A lot of popular culture builds on this view of reality. It may be music that glorifies guns and violence, or video games that do the same; it may be movies that we say are “realistic”: They show how random and brutal life is. Many movies depict the end of our world in some apocalyptic fashion. I plugged “apocalyptic movies” into a search engine and came up with a website titled “100 Best Disaster, Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic Movies.” None of which I have seen, but they illustrate our fascination with violence and an unpleasant end.

 

Behind all of this is the idea that all of reality is no more than the natural physical material around us. Life is no more than a biological phenomenon on a planet that will eventually grow cold and circulate a dead sun forever. En joy what you can while you can, because it will all die.

 

Easter Sunday – the resurrection of Jesus – builds a competing narrative, one of possibilities and hope that lie within the violence and destruction of our world. When we examine it, we find that there is a lot of evidence to show that it fits the reality of our world. Consider some examples.

Where does a diamond come from?

How does a butterfly become a butterfly?

What is the manure that fertilizes plants?

Where does an oak tree come from?

Consider the process of human birth, coming from people who will all die.

In every case, you have something that undergoes a process of death and decay, leading to the fact of new birth and life.

 

Different religions have found different ways to express this reality. The idea of reincarnation in Hinduism is one. The stories of a dying and rising God in several ancient religions are another. We see this basic reality every spring when winter finally releases its hold and new life bursts forth. That new life is almost always something that grows out of the death of something else. Oak trees grow from acorns that fell off the parent true. Waste material is turned into fertilizer, which helps plants to grow. Butterflies leave the cocoon made by the caterpillar, something like the worm making its own coffin.

 

And then we hear the story of Jesus, a man who identified completely as God and died – and then rose from the dead. Someone has said that the resurrection of Jesus is “myth become fact”. What they mean is this: The idea of death giving birth to life is a deep and powerful idea, which helps us recognize the good that grows out of difficult experiences. And in the case of Jesus, it simply happened. It is no longer just a good idea that we can draw on in our thinking; it is in fact what happened.

 

Jesus died, and Jesus rose with new life. God joins each of us in the hardest experience of all – our own deaths, and God invites us to follow Jesus into new life that lasts forever. 

 

Our Focus Statement 

Each Sunday, we have a focus statement that guides the formation of the whole service. You see our focus statement for today: “As we seek God’s way, we move from the confidence of knowing how things are to the unsettling openness of realizing God’s ways are beyond what we can imagine.”

 

You might think that this means people are confident in their ability to explain reality in a positive way, but I think it simply means people are confident in their ability to explain reality. Their explanation may be positive or negative, but they know what’s really going on. Or they think they know.

 

We see this certainty on all sides of the issues that face our world. Progressives and conservatives share an absolute confidence that they see the world as it truly is, and nothing you can say will change their minds. But this certainty is self-defeating. Reality is more complex than our minds can grasp. That is the basic problem with the negative worldview I described earlier. We see how bad things are happening and we worry about how far the war will spread. And we project our own fears onto a screen in which the final reality is only death. 

 

Back to the Disciples, Back to Us 

That is where the disciples were. They knew that Jesus had died, and it took a lot to persuade them that he was alive again. Mary knew that Jesus had died. And then he spoke her name; he spoke into her soul.

 

This is also where we are. We hear the news of the world, and we face the problems of our lives. It seems that God is not a factor anymore. We hear someone say, “God is dead,” and we think they must be right. Then Jesus speaks into our soul and speaks our name. And someone tells us, “He is risen!” Do you realize what we are saying with that statement?

 

I think of my friend’s death. He died a few months ago. Twelve years ago, we had a falling out, and we never spoke again. I grieve his passing, and I had not chance to make things right. But the resurrection says that’s not the end of the story. I see no hope in his death, but Jesus gives hope that he and I will celebrate together in the presence of God.

 

I think of the destruction of Mariupol. What hope can there be in such terrible hate and despair? I see no way that anything good can come from that war. But the resurrection says that’s not the end of the story. Jesus gives hope that life can come back even into the destruction of Mariupol. I don’t see the way forward, but the unsettling openness of God’s future promises even the possibility of new life there.

 

I think of a celebrated pastor in my denomination of origin. After a highly successful pastoral ministry, he had to resign earlier this year because of problems with sexual harassment. Those who are sure they know what is real say, “You see! We knew you’re all fakes!” Jesus confronts their certainty that everything is rotten and opens up possibilities for repentance and healing, the real possibility of new life. 

 

Conclusion 

I don’t know how all of this works, but I have met the Risen Lord for myself. I have had my own times of darkness and my own fears that border on certainty, and Jesus dispelled them. When I say to you, “Christ is Risen!” – and when you reply – “Christ is Risen indeed!”, we are refusing to be bound by our own limited reality. We are opening ourselves to the deeper reality that lies behind the universe itself – that death is itself the path to eternal life and that we can join Christ on this path. Every one of us will die, and Jesus invites every one of us to live again with his life forever.

 

 

Steinbach Mennonite Church 

17 April 2022