POEM
Lost Generation by Jonathan Reed
I am part of a lost generation
and I refuse to believe
I can change the world
I realize that this may be a shock but
“Happiness comes from within’
is a lie, and
“Money will make me happy”
So in 30 years I will tell my children
They are not the most important thing in my life.
My employer will know that
I have my priorities straight because
work
is more important than
family
I tell you this
Once upon a time
Families stayed together
but this will not be true in my era.
This is a quick fix society
Experts tell me
30 years from now I will be celebrating the tenth anniversary of my divorce.
I do not concede that
I will live in a country of my own making.
In the future
Environmental destruction will be the norm.
No longer can it be said that
My peers and I care about this earth.
It will be evident that
My generation is apathetic and lethargic.
It is foolish to presume that
There is hope.
All of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it.
Lectionary preachers are given their choice of Gospel lessons for Easter this year. We get to choose between the stories found in the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of John. And although all the Gospels differ in the accounts as to who went to the tomb, who first saw the risen Jesus, and what they did… they story in all the Gospels is that there was a resurrection of Jesus’ body and the reaction of his followers was one of amazement, wonder, and shock. But there are major differences between the Gospel accounts of Easter in Mark and John. Greatest of these being the response of the people. In Mark, it is Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, who go to the tomb. They find the empty tomb and are told by a heavenly messenger dressed in white that Jesus has been raised from the dead and that they are to go and tell the others….. And, well, the Mary’s are extremely frightened and they flee, saying nothing to anyone.
In John the story is a little different. As it is in most of John’s Gospel, the story is more fleshed out and the details explained a bit more. In this account Mary Magdalene, goes to the tomb early in the morning and finds it has been disturbed. She doesn’t go in and check the tomb but runs to get Simon Peter and another disciple who run to the tomb and find it empty. They see the linens that had wrapped Jesus’ body all neatly folded and placed where he had laid, and it is written that they believed. And then…. well, it is also written that they then just went home. There is not a mention of them sharing the news with anyone. However, Mary Magdalene, standing outside the tomb, has an encounter with the risen Christ, and thinking him to be the gardener, asks if he can tell her where someone has taken the body. He speaks to Mary and she recognizes him and she went and announced to the disciples that she has seen the risen Lord.
Such different responses by these individuals to the Easter event. Fear and fleeing, belief and then acceptance, grief and then joy which causes one to share the good news. Don’t you wonder what your response would have been if you had been there at the empty tomb on Easter Day? Surely I would have explained it the way Mary when she thought someone had robbed the tomb and stolen the body. It seems the most believable and plausible explanation for the tomb having been disturbed and found empty.
And then she was given this incredible experience of witnessing the risen Christ…. and she believed. And unlike the two disciples who saw and believed and then went home, or the account found in Mark, where the women fled, Mary goes and tells the disciples what she has encountered on Easter morning. Well, I am not sure what my reaction would have been… would I have fled, would I have gone back home, or would I have shared it with others. I mean, we are talking resurrection here…. Would you really jump to that as an explanation and want to share it with you friends. I might have gone and gotten a few more people to experience what I had to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating out of my intense grief.
But, I believe in resurrection. I believe in resurrection as it relates to our own death experience. I worked in a hospice and have been ordained 37 years and I know and I have witnessed that death is not the final word. I have done hundreds of memorial services and know that people do indeed live on in the hearts of others. I have seen too many people at death when their spirit leaves the shell that is their body and know that the energy that made them who they are continues. I have felt the spirit of those now saints with me, comforting and guiding me, and I have heard too many others tell me that they too have witnessed the spirit of a now deceased loved one.
I also believe that death and resurrection are a transformative part of living. When I lived up north, it was easy to talk about death, resurrection, and transformation as a natural phenomenon because we witnesses each year the cycle of dying in the fall, death in the winter, new life in the spring, and abundant life in the summer. It is a natural part of the agricultural cycle. Every child in the north knows that you plant a bulb in the fall to have it emerge as a flower in the spring. Here our planting cycle contrasts are not so stark. But you need only study the life of a butterfly from an egg, to a larva (or caterpillar), to the chrysalis, to the butterfly to know that in death is life and transformation. How can one not believe in resurrection and transformation when a dead dried up bulb put in the earth in October becomes a beautiful flower in the spring.
We see resurrection and transformation in our lives as well. I just finished reading Diana Butler Bass’ book ‘Christianity after Religion’, where she talks about an Episcopal Church she was a member of for several years. She said that it was a church community that valued questions and that one time they were arguing about the resurrection, whether or not it happened, and whether or not it could be proved. One member of the group shared a conversation she had had with a liberal bishop when she asked if he actually believed in the resurrection. “Believe it?”, He answered incredulously. “I’ve seen it too many times not to!”
And we do. We know that death is not just death of the physical body, but that throughout our lives, we hit low points and some of us hit rock bottom. And when those times in life occur, we must let go of how we thought life should be and surrender to a Larger Power. Life is change and we must be willing and able to change if we are to live the full lives that we are intended to have. We have, throughout our lives, small changes or small deaths in what was our old selves and these are opportunities to choose transformation, to make change and choose growth and new life. Resurrection is not a once in the world experience. It is every time someone has a transformed heart or takes an ethical action.
As mystic and scholar Father Richard Rohr describes it, “If we are to speak of miracles, the most miraculous thing of all is that God uses the very thing that would normally destroy you – the tragic, sorrowful, painful, or unjust – to transform and enlighten you. Now you are indestructible; there are no dead ends. This is what we mean when we say we are “saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus.” This is not a one-time cosmic transaction, but a constant pattern of all growth and change. Jesus is indeed saving the world by guiding us in his ethic through all would-be-deaths to a life that is always bigger than death.”
A week ago Saturday, a message twas heard loud and clear from the young people in our country. It was born out of the death of 17 young teens at Marjorie Stoneham Douglas High School. Our world is a mess. Children are not secure in their schools and transformation must occur. And that is not our only emergency. Global warming is going to change our planet and our home here in south Florida. Another unarmed Black man was shot in his own backyard prompting the Black Lives Movement to stir in anger. People who consider themselves Americans and are a part of our productive society are deported for not having the right documentation. LGBTQ rights seem to be eaten away each day as just this week trans-military people learned they might not be accepted in our armed forces. Things sure seem to be a mess. But if you feel hopeless, you did not get the Easter message of the marches last week. Those marches were a change of a tide. You see, there is transformation. There is a way out of the pain we are now in. Resurrection is actually occurring right now. Right this moment! Easter was not a once in the history of the world event but is with us now.
The poem that Tracey read earlier painted a grim picture of our world and our future. It is a picture of a world without resurrection, without hope, and without transformation. But that is not the Easter message. You see, we are a people of resurrection. We are a people of the empty cross. We are the people who shout out Christ has risen today, knowing that resurrection and hope are ours. However, the poem Tracey read could be reality unless, as it is written in its last line, ‘We choose to reverse it.’ Now hear the message of hope as Tracey reads it again….. Reversed….. Transformed. It is a message of resurrection and hope……
There is hope.
It is foolish to presume that
My generation is apathetic and lethargic.
It will be evident that
My peers and I care about this earth.
No longer can it be said that
Environmental destruction will be the norm.
In the future
I will live in a country of my own making.
I do not concede that
30 years from now I will be celebrating the tenth anniversary of my divorce.
Experts tell me
This is a quick fix society
but this will not be true in my era.
Families stayed together
Once upon a time
I tell you this
family
is more important than
work
I have my priorities straight because
My employer will know that
They are not the most important thing in my life.
So in 30 years I will tell my children
“Money will make me happy”
is a lie, and
“Happiness comes from within’
I realize that this may be a shock but
I can change the world
and I refuse to believe
I am part of a lost generation