THE EASTER SEASON

THE FOUNDING: AN ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY

     The gospel for Easter Sunday is the foundation story of how would-be disciples of Jesus came to a transformed faith and new life (Jn.20:1-9). The Christian scriptures affirm that Jesus' efforts were addressed precisely to those who had been excluded by imperial power (Rome) and the laws of righteousness and holiness (Hebrew religion). His first recorded announcement (Lk.4:18-19) anticipated a new inclusive community.

           The spirit of YHWH is on me,
           for YHWH has anointed me
           to bring the good news to the afflicted.
           YHWH has sent me to proclaim
           liberty to captives,
           sight to the blind,
           to let the oppressed go free,(18)
           to proclaim a year of favour from YHWH.(19)

     This quote from chapter 25 of Leviticus refers to the Year of Jubilee. Jesus announced that His practice rehabilitates the marginal ones who have lost their goods and their social power. Later, in chapter 7 of Luke's gospel, Jesus announced to the Baptist that His intention had been actualised:

           The blind see again, the lame walk,
           those suffering from virulent skin-diseases
           are cleansed, and the deaf hear,
           the dead are raised to life,
           the good news is proclaimed to the poor;(22)

     The process of inclusiveness is not yet complete. Old patterns of exclusion still prevail in most places. But the texts of the Easter season affirm the resilient and bold conviction that God has resolved to stay with the question of inclusiveness until old patterns are overcome and the reigning of God prevails (cf Rv.21:1-5).

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REFLECT ON "GOOD NEWS"

     Starting with Easter Sunday and developing through the following six Sundays, the Christian community begins a systematic reflection on the meaning the transformed faith and life has, for the present community of would-be disciples. Texts from Acts and from the Book of Revelation, reflect on life in the spirit/Spirit of Jesus, to which disciples are called by the foundational story.
     The alternative community of Jesus' disciples is invited, through its baptism, to be part of this story of inclusiveness, in the face of the powers of death and systems that exclude. The policies and practices of present religious systems, political orderings and economic arrangements are generating new waves of strangers every day. Increasing numbers of people are: "extra;" "redundant;" "surplus;" "dispensable." Where they are no longer needed for production or consumption, they become marginalised.
     Against such policies and practices, the Hebrew and Christian scriptures issue a protest and offer a powerful alternative. The hard work is to devise structures and systems of inclusiveness. The daily work is to make concrete gestures of inclusiveness - each of which is a critical protest against and a challenge to, the dominant system. That hard and constant work is set in the midst of God's work. Remembering the practice of Jesus (crucifixion & resurrection) and reflecting on His communal and ethical challenges, pushes us modern listeners/readers towards claiming the transformed reality for ourselves.

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THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE

     The Easter celebration begins with visits to the tomb of Jesus. The tomb is a symbol of the power of death. But in the new transformed reality, empty tombs become symbols for the power for life. In the Sundays that follow, would-be disciples of Jesus affirm their hope, as life is bodily affirmed in the face of the power of death! The season of fulfillment climaxes with Pentecost, where an infusion of the risen One's power-for-life into the community's life, underlines that life is useless, unless it includes others.
     The texts of the Easter season, witness to the central belief and identity of Christian community. It's a community authorised and energised for a new inclusive life-style in the midst of "the world," through living in Jesus' spirit/Spirit. The letter to the Colossians (read on Easter Day) addresses a crucial question about this new life - "What happens if a person is baptised into this new faith and power?"
     The text affirms that the very action is precisely an invitation to be part of this transformed community of inclusiveness, to confront alien powers and systems that both exclude and promote death. The focus of the Easter season is not about how a dead person came out of the tomb. Rather it is about how the new life - given in the founding story - is practised in the present.

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THE ROLE OF SCRIPTURE

     The readings from the Acts of the Apostles, Revelation and the gospel of John, reveal the energy which characterises such practices in the spirit/Spirit of Jesus. The texts underline what inspired the first generation of disciples to adopt Jesus' instincts and skills to perform what is required in fulfilling the living Torah. Today these same texts have the capacity to similarly inspire another generation of would-be disciples of Jesus, to read their real situation.
     To some it must seem as though economic powers are the central fact of our recent history and there is no relief in sight. Or the fundamentalist extremes of religious piety are so rigorous and firmly entrenched that for many the possibility of acceptance and therefore of wholeness, is most remote. But as Jesus insisted in His own time - neither Roman imperial power, nor the legalistic extremes of Hebrew religious piety, were a correct reading of the situation. He saw something else.
     Jesus saw the present time is the reigning of God! This means that neither economic power nor fundamentalist religion is the central fact to be faced. The real issue, whether it is for the first generation of disciples, or the present generation; is the reigning of God. People have got to decide about that!
     The "alternative community" uses the texts of the Easter season to confront "new-comers" with this transformed faith and life in Christian community. The texts play a conserving function, as far as they underline, underline the standard of holiness required of a disciple. The same texts provoke and disturb mature commitments. "Old-comers" already committed to Christian discipleship are pushed to make new discoveries about the spirit/Spirit of Jesus and His power for life. Such prophetic proddings are calculated to disrupt the community status quo. In so far as the texts provoke this response, they can be said to have an innovative function, as new prophetic experiences finally accepted by the community, become part of a new status quo.
     The Easter scriptures are constantly re-read by the Christian community, so as to evoke and confirm the prophetic experience. Jesus Himself was bent upon transforming society. As that transformation was experienced, the Christian way of life inevitably changed. Setting afoot an innovative movement, it should be no surprise that Jesus' work would be altered in the light of the very maturing of that which He Himself released. Jesus' spirit/Spirit continued to spread its life-giving to different times and cultures only by adapting its shape and definition.

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LIFE IN THE SPIRIT OF JESUS

     Jesus gave His best energies to implement the new reigning of God. He needed His circle of disciples to extend the transformative power of God's Spirit in their practice. Would-be disciples of Jesus today either find the power of God's Spirit moving within their own story and harness their own personal powers with God's, or they are stumbling blocks!
     Through a mode of apprenticing, Jesus empowered others in the skills of living in new transformative ways. There was pain and sweat and occasional failure. But this is the stuff out of which transformation takes place. This is the ground of our profoundest hopes for our world.
     The readings of the Easter Season extend that memory and encourage reflection in the light of new crucifixions and resurrections. Disciples today extend the transformation to the character and instincts of modern culture. They act in the light of Jesus' powerful practice. For disciples of Jesus today - those who have eyes to see and decide - this is the living in the spirit/Spirit of Jesus.

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