RESURRECTION
This post is a reflection on how the story of Jesus' resurrection illustrates a pattern for identifying the experience of resurrection in this life.
For the purpose of this post, resurrection is a new way of being or a new-found purpose or meaning to one's life brought about by a life-changing experience that causes one to let go of the controls over one's life; a free-fall experience allowing whatever is going to happen to happen as an act of faith. I can only talk about resurrection as a life experience from my own encounter with it.
To begin with, resurrection experiences are never expected. When they occur, one is not even thinking about resurrection. One enters into the experience of resurrection unknowingly. In general resurrection happens when one gets involved in what the late Representative John Lewis called into "good trouble." Good trouble is trouble nonetheless, but I believe good trouble is a factor in bringing about resurrection experiences both on a personal and communal level.
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My own experience with resurrection involved getting into good trouble, which was doing the right thing for the right reason at the state mental hospital where I worked. Without going into specific details, I found myself up against a system that relied on long-standing methods to address individuals in crisis that often demeaned them under the banner of doing so for their own good. In reality and in retrospect one could see such practices were aimed at maintaining control in a frequently chaotic environment. Over time the focus of such practices places the good of the system over the good of the individual.
Systemic injustice or systemic failure to recognize the dignity and worth of another person is difficult to detect because we live with it and are prone to both active and passive participation in it at work, in our homes, and in our communities. It is largely cloaked and embedded within laws, regulations, and practices under the broad banner of preserving the peace (aka the status quo) but fail to serve the needs of individuals deemed problematic and often results in victimizing them.
My resurrection experience resulted in unintentionally exposing systemic failure by doing something that was focused on the immediate needs of a person in my care rather than think about the systemic regulations of the institution I worked for. As I mentioned above, getting into "good trouble" will get one in trouble and I found myself in trouble to the extent that my job was on the line and not only my job but also, to my dismay, the job of two co-workers who followed my lead.
There is a relevant backstory to this event. Outside of work and prior to this event I had been in the process of seeking Holy Orders in the Episcopal Church. To that end, I finished a bachelor's degree in religious studies and philosophy at the Roman Catholic Benedictine university in my hometown as preparation for pursuing an M. Div. degree at an Episcopal seminary. The discernment process I underwent was not encouraging and plans for entering Holy Orders eventually stalled.
Ironically, my time at the university was the best educational experience I ever had. While I attended university, I was working full time on the night shift at the hospital and taking a full class load during the daytime; squeezing in both family and sleep when I could. Remarkably, I ended up with a 4.0 GPA when I graduated, something I wouldn't have thought possible given my earlier educational experiences. While I wasn't ready to further my education as planned, having a B.A. offered me a chance to obtain a better position at work as a Mental Health Technician (a higher level of aide) and daytime hours after working nights for twenty years.. Then this life-changing event happened.
When I found myself in trouble for doing something that was right, my first impulse was to fight the system which, in my opinion, was ultimately responsible for the incident that I was being blamed for causing. As I was building steam to go after the system or go down trying, a sense of calm came over me and I felt compelled to step back and let things play out to wherever this incident was leading. I thought, perhaps, that losing my job was God's means of opening a door and motivating me to further my education and enter into ordained ministry after all
As I was walking to the administration's conference room with my two co-workers, Jesus' journey to his trial came to mind. I couldn't help but think about Jesus and the two thieves who were crucified with him. I felt horrible that two of my co-workers were being treated as partners in a crime they, in particular, didn't commit and were going to be metaphorically crucified with me unjustly. I made up my mind that my immediate responsibility was to admit to violating policy with reason and make a plea that my co-workers should not be held responsible for a decision I made.
When we arrived at the Administration's conference room it was full of people. Not only was the Human Resource Officer present and my direct supervisor, but also the Administrator, the Medical Director, the Clinical Director, the Nursing Director, and all of the hospital's Program Directors. On the conference room's conference telephone was the State's Secretary for the Department overseeing the hospital and the Departments attorney. To be honest I could not recall a need to gather that many people to what I thought would be my dismissal. I had a sense of what it must have like for Jesus to face the Sanhedrin. As overwhelming all of this was, I was confident that whatever would happen was meant to happen.
After I was allowed to speak and admit that I didn't follow routine practice, my reason for doing so, and making a plea on behalf of my co-workers, the Administrator and Secretary did something I wasn't prepared for. Instead of firing me and my co-workers, I was tasked with fixing the problem. In essence they understood why I did what I had done and understood the role systemic failure played in this case. They appointed me to chair a committee to rewrite the hospital's policy.
My call to ministry took a different path. Eventually, I was given a new position within state government, as a Human Rights Specialist. I was to serve as the Department's in-house advocate for patients at the hospital where I had worked for over twenty years. I remained in that position for fourteen years when I entered into retirement.
My story may strike some as unremarkable and hardly worthy of being called a resurrection experience, but it was for me. I came to understand that I was raised up to take on what I understood was a prophetic role in the place where I worked; that is, to point out the often ignored obvious and minister to those in what one of my religious mentors identified as the Gerasene wilderness. The Medical Director affirmed this prophetic role by affectionately referring to me as the hospital's gadfly.
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GOOD TROUBLE
When it comes to experiencing resurrection in this life, I think a common denominator is finding oneself engaged in some sort of "good trouble." Getting into "good trouble" is not something one intentionally does in order to feel good about oneself or attract admirers. Good trouble occurs when one is focused on the needs and well-being of others, nothing more and nothing less. Good trouble often comes by doing the right thing at a time when others are seeing what one is doing as the wrong thing. Jesus understood "good trouble" and found himself engaged in it throughout his ministry.
John Lewis' iconic and prophetic admonition to get into "good trouble" reflects Jesus' personal admonition to Peter in the last chapter of the Gospel of John (Chapter 21). I view this particular chapter as an afterthought or second ending to this gospel, as if to underscore that the resurrection of Jesus didn't mean what Christians loudly proclaim at Easter that sin, death, and the devil have been vanquished. I believe that in the long-run within the universe of God's creation that is true and if so, it has always been true. In the world of our creating, however, sin, death, and the Devil (the evil embedded in our systems or what Paul identified as principalities and powers) are very much a factor in daily life. Resurrection is also a factor in this life as people are daily being raised to new life and finding new purposes and reasons for being in the illusory world we created in order to create pathways to new life.
In John 21 we see resurrection illustrated as the last act Jesus performed on one of his disciples. It begins with the resurrected Jesus on the shore of the Sea of Galilee cooking fish and inviting some of the disciples who were out fishing all night long to join him. In that story, Jesus pulls Peter aside and asks him if Peter loves him. He asks him this three times and I believe Jesus did this in the Gospel of John for a reason. As you recall, all the Gospels record the situation in which Peter denied Jesus three times. This is the same Peter who swore that he would die rather than see Jesus arrested. It was a selfish boast and as Jesus predicted when real trouble arose Peter would engage in protecting himself and deny he ever knew Jesus which is what Peter did.
John 21 is another resurrection story. In this case, Jesus resurrected Peter to get into good trouble. He tells Peter to feed his sheep, to take care of them, and therein resided the true challenge Peter was called to in picking up the ministry of Jesus was leaving him and to all who follow Jesus, which is to love and care for the whole creation of God present within the world of our making.
Jesus did not candy-coat what getting into good trouble would mean for Peter. He lets Peter know that getting into good trouble, caring for others, spreading the Gospel story will get him into trouble and eventually cost him his life. Peter was ready for such a challenge because he experienced the limitations of his ego and possessed the strength to set it aside and faithfully follow the way of Jesus.
Jesus' admonition Peter to feed and care for what God feeds and cares for is an admonition for all of us to get into to good trouble, to love and care for that which God loves and cares for and in doing so be raised up by raising up others in the risen and rising Christ.
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Until next time, stay faithful.
Norm
