Holy Week is finished, and we’ve got a fountain full of rocks. There are a few dozen new pictures on the website, and the office computers are all buried under hymnals and prayerbooks that didn’t get back in the church. What else do we have to show for an intense week of work and worship?
Like the Beloved Disciple, I came, I saw, I believed, and then I went home. Now that I’m home, I can’t help but debrief. Who was here—who was missing? And, as always, how many?
Numbers—such an issue. In the church we count attendance, money, sometimes even Easter eggs. I noticed one church in our area advertising the biggest egg hunt in the County—50,000 eggs! (The church service is optional, but attending does get you to the front of the line–avoid the crowds; hear a sermon!) We didn’t count the eggs, but I can’t help count the worshipers.
Numbers demonstrate success because they show that you matter. You must really be something if that many people listen to you, and conversely, something is wrong if there aren’t enough. So, for the record, around 500 people were here at one point or another (not counting Palm Sunday, which is too far in the past to be remembered) for a service, thereby hearing my message. Is that enough to make it worth preaching?
Just before the 10:00 Easter service today, I was lamenting with a choir member over an unexpectedly empty church (that was 5 minutes before, it was much fuller 10 minutes later). How can people not recognize a need for God, we wondered. How is that we work so hard and yet connect with so few? But then, as I read the Gospel today, the truth of the story struck me again. This victory over death–it happened!. Without my help, without any publicity or even a single legal pad, God brings salvation. God did this. Not me—I can talk, report and remind, but I can nothing to make this message more true. So how do you substantiate the truth? What do numbers have to do with the Gospel?
What we have done, those of us active in faith, is join the Resistance. We hold out to the world another possibility of life. Resistance requires a different strategy–we’re not about invading territory and body counts; we’re about witnessing to something different and inviting people to join. We have to share the message, live it out, encourage others to live it out and all the rest, but in the midst of all that work, it’s easy to forget the real point, that it isn’t about our work. It’s worth remembering that the Kingdom came without our help. Its victory isn’t in numbers, but in the reality of God’s presence. Whether there are 500 or 50 or 5, the Kingdom is somewhere, always. This Resistance is powered not by our cleverness or success, or even preaching skills, but by the Spirit of God.
So, as I said in my sermon, we’re always looking for that Alleluia–the sign of God’s power in our world. We’re out there with this word of hope, giving it to those who do not see it; challenging those who do not think there’s a place for Alleluia in our world. In faith we set out to be different from the world and to see what so many cannot see of meaning and hope. That’s a lot more complicated in real life than in a 10 minute sermon, but that’s the general idea.
Like the Beloved Disciple, I came, I saw, I believed, I went home, and like any 21stCentury Christian, I got on Facebook—if you’re reading this, you probably did, too. I found dozens of messages of faith there—hymn quotes, services described, scripture written in Greek. But it isn’t all Christian victory on Facebook. Given my profession, you can guess that most of the people I see on Facebook were quoting hymns and writing in Greek. But even so, here and there I also found friends defiantly and even with some hostility not celebrating Easter. It was as if they wanted to start a fight–just try to make me say Alleluia!
So I wished them all a happy Easter. Because today I am not going to fight. Even if all you celebrate of Easter is the chocolate, one of God’s finest creations—rejoice! Today, I am going be at peace with all the celebrations. Today, I’m not going to count anything. Christ is risen, the victory is complete. Tomorrow or the next day I’ll lead the charge again but for today, enough, thank God.So, Alleluia, Christ is Risen! That’s enough Good News for today.