Reaching for Resurrection
(Easter morning at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge)
Today, Easter Sunday, 2023, once again we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, the holiest day on the Catholic and Christian calendar, the day that life triumphed over death, the day that gives us hope for the future, joy in our faith, confidence in our ability to create a good society of peace and justice.
But today, as we raise our hands high in praise to the Lord, in a gesture of reaching for the Resurrection, we find that the reach truly exceeds our ability to grasp right now as American political and social dysfunction cast dark and ominous shadows across our hopes and dreams for the good society we seek. On Sunday we go to church to sing Hosanna! On Monday we return to the bitter divisions and angry battles of a nation founded to ensure equal justice and freedom for all, but plagued in too many places by rabid instincts to oppression. What is going on in our country right now seems like a long and tortured passion play with no end in sight, act after act enacted by truly bad actors who seem to take pernicious delight in destroying the hopes and dreams of other people.
The latest example — why is there always a “latest example” every time I write? — the latest example arises in Tennessee where two Black legislators were expelled from the Tennessee State House of Representatives for engaging in a protest in support of gun violence demonstrators. The demonstration followed the horrific fatal shooting of three children and three staff members of the Covenant School in Nashville, only the lastest in a long series of mass shootings. Tennessee Representatives Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson encouraged the protestors who were in the House gallery, including calling out to them with bullhorns. The white men who control the legislature were so enraged that they immediately started proceedings to remove Representatives Jones and Pearson, who are young Black men, and that vote succeeded. They also sought to remove Representative Johnson, who is white, but that vote did not succeed. In short, the two Black men were summarily thrown out of their elected positions while the white woman remained in hers. The racial injustice is obvious, and, sadly, predictable. The fact that the retaliation occurred in response to a protest about gun violence should not be lost in our outrage over the racism; both dimensions of the Tennessee legislature’s action are despicable.
Unfortunately, what happened in Tennessee last week was not the only recent evidence of grotesque political acts that are so unworthy of our nation. The former president, as expected, was indicted for paying “hush money” to a woman with whom he allegedly had an affair. Bad enough behavior, yes. But, worse, his expressions of egregious, vicious contempt for the judge, the prosecutor and others associated with the case demonstrate outlandish disrespect for the law and legal process, a kind of outlaw behavior that encourages others to do the same. His language after his arraignment paralleled his language after his loss in the 2020 election, echoed his speech on January 6, language and incitement that would land any other person behind bars immediately. But, no, in his case he continues to prance on the public stage, an irresistible object for the mainstream media klieg lights. No one who claims leadership in this nation should show such blatant contempt for the law and those who are responsible to steward the legal process.
We sing Alleluja! He is Risen! even as we wonder when WE will rise again. We spend even more time wondering, worrying, when the next terrible act will occur. We turn on our yellow and blue lights in solidarity with Ukraine but after a year the modest expression of care seems tired; our ability to express empathy for people living through that horror has faded as other horrors crowd the headlines. Florida. Texas. Mississippi. Each day brings another story of states overturning norms and laws and protections we thought were long settled. Academic Freedom, Freedom of Speech, Women’s Rights, the rights of persons who are part of the LGBTQ community. Each day brings new examples of the rise of authoritarianism, the exposure of white supremacy, the hatred that some people express toward others, all alive and well in the underbelly of state politics in too many places.
We need to pause on this day of Resurrection to consider what we can and should do to restore the promise of our nation to ensure freedom, equality and justice for all people. I am reading a fascinating book entitled The Lincoln Miracle that recounts how Abraham Lincoln wound up being the then-new Republican Party’s nominee for president of the United States when he entered the 1860 convention as an after-thought at best. What’s important about this tale is the way it reveals all of the dangers this nation faced in the run-up to Lincoln’s presidency — the chronic fragmentation of a nation that was founded on a bitter compromise about slavery, the refusal of the South to accept the inevitable end of that horrific institution, the racism that even Lincoln casually voiced on so many occasions. And, yet, Lincoln’s moral voice was compelling, his courage in speaking out about the moral evil of slavery let to his nomination and presidency. Lincoln is an example of how a hugely flawed person with a piercing moral view of the way this nation must come to grips with its original sin managed to get elected and lead the nation through one of the worst periods in American history, the Civil War.
The Civil War never ended entirely, and we live in the backwash of its massive ripples even 150 years later. We need leaders such as Lincoln, a plain person who could speak and act with moral clarity, personal resilience and the strength to lead in extraordinarily fractious times. We don’t need more sideshows, insurrections or expulsions; we need genuinely devoted citizen leaders, each of us willing to step up to do the hard work to make our communities, cities, states and nation better places for all. We need leaders who can proclaim the clarion call of the Resurrection to construct a society of hope, justice and peace. On this Easter Sunday, let us pray that we can find such courageous leaders in sufficient number to restore a sense of balance, perspective and the essential moral center that respects and supports the dignity of all persons.
