Jonathan Sprang - November 16, 2014
The Good Muslim
There are times when our beliefs don’t actually inform our behavior. While we may say and even think a certain “belief,” our behavior doesn’t always line up. But it works the other way flawlessly. Our behaviors give us a 100% accurate view of what we really believe. Jesus has a conversation with a teacher of the Law where he comes to the conclusion that the way you receive eternal life is through “loving God” and “loving your neighbor as yourself.” But that begs the question, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus responds with a story that we refer to as The Good Samaritan. The crazy thing about this story is that the one who is neighborly to the beaten man is the one who doesn’t have the right beliefs, a person Jesus’ listeners would’ve considered an enemy. Our enemies are surprising allies that give us a unique opportunity to put what we say we believe into practice.
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I grew up in Kansas City, and our family had an interesting Easter tradition: we would wake up really early – like 5 am. I still remember my parents scooping us out of bed in our PJs, packing us into the car and driving to a cemetery somewhere in KC. A church there – not ours, but some other church – held a sunrise reenactment of the resurrection, complete with costumes and everything.
I always remember it being packed, and us not really being able to see anything and it was all happening in a cemetery, and we drove at least 30 minutes each way to get there, plus parking and walking forever to get to the spot, and all for maybe a 10 minute service.
Then the long walk back, navigating the traffic, the long drive home, only to be rushed into baths and exchange our pjs for our brand new Easter clothes and off to our church for the Easter worship.
Strange, I know, but there’s something about Easter that compels us outside.
It’s a day that, yes, invites us to dress up, but it’s also one that calls us from our beds in the predawn light, insisting we come out, come out to witness something new, something impossible. Something beautiful and somehow more true than we could have imagined.
Let’s talk about the geography of the resurrection. Because it matters that Jesus wasn’t raised to life in the Temple or at a Palace. The where and the when and the who of Easter tells us a great deal about who we are as a people gathered to celebrate today.
