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Last Word or First…?

Choose your poison…
or not!

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Way to Light...?

Time To Say Yes

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and Meaning

The Cypress in the Garden:
A Koan Revisited…

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Last Word or First…?

By Whitney Wherrett Roberson

Each of the great spiritual traditions of the world has wisdom for humanity: great truths embodied in its rituals, articulated in its doctrines, sought through its spiritual disciplines. Christianity is no exception, of course, and as I've moved with my own faith community moved through Holy Week into Easter, I've found myself reflecting on the contribution we make to treasury of the world's spiritual wisdom. What do the events that Christians remember and celebrate this time of year say to all of us, regardless of our own spirituality? What wisdom is there in this story for the living of our very daily lives at work and at home?

Holy Week traces the journey of Jesus of Nazareth from his triumphal entry into Jerusalem (commemorated on Palm Sunday) through the events that led to his execution by political and religious authorities (on Good Friday.) It's a journey that begins with what looks for all the world like the success for which Jesus' closest followers have been looking. Hailed by the crowds, Jesus enters the Jerusalem. He spends the week teaching, bearing witness to the truth that is in him, but this testimony unnerves those in authority. It does not support the status quo of those in power - it must be stopped. Jesus is not a fool; he knows full well what the consequences of his words and actions are likely to be. But there comes a time when a person must take a stand, remaining faithful to the work that is his or hers to do, to the truth that is in him or her. Whatever else Good Friday is about, it's about integrity, about remaining faithful to one's life purpose, to one's deeper calling despite very attractive - even life-saving -- incentives to abandon it.

The Christian story invites all of us to reflect on our own life purpose: to seek that deeper calling of which we sometimes catch a glimpse when we're deep into something we love or when we find ourselves unexpected moved by a news story we're watching or a book we're reading or a job we're doing. Some of us have a very real sense of what our life purpose is and others of us may only discover it when we are confronted with an invitation to compromise or violate it. My guess is, though, that sooner or later, we'll have the same choice Jesus had: to stand to the truth that is in us or to ignore that truth, turning away from the opportunity to do that very thing for which we were made.

Christians affirm something else about Good Friday, though, because from the very first, they experienced this man Jesus as someone who embodied the divine Presence. Jesus was the Son of God, they said of him; or more, Jesus was God Incarnate, that is, God-with-us. Now, how is it possible to speak of Jesus as God-with-us on the one hand and to observe his death on the other? Surely, the death of Jesus negates the claim he was God-With Us, for how could God die?. But Christianity sees in the paradox of the cross, in this seeming contradiction, a deeper truth, which is for all people everywhere. It is simply this: there is no place we can go where divine Mystery has not already been; there is no betrayal, grief, fear, anger, physical or mental anguish that divine Love does not know. That Love meets us not only in moments of joy and thanksgiving but in every sort of human darkness and weakness we experience, because in Jesus, Christians affirm, God has experienced them all. God can lead us from death to life because God knows the way.

So Jesus dies and his disciples flee, filled with grief and terror. How could the Messiah die? And yet Jesus has; surely this must be the end. But what's to become of these disciples? This unlikely community gathered around Jesus -- women as well as men, poor and wealthy, sick and the well - broke all the rules of social propriety with its radical inclusivity; will they be next? The outcast came to believe they, too, were beloved of God. And now…? Is it all finished? Is this the last word?

No, it is not finished. In fact, it is just beginning. What Holy Week and Easter celebrate is the incredible news that our darkness, in whatever forms it takes, is not last word. The last word is not death but life. The last word is not fear, but love, a life and a love so strong that even death cannot defeat them. Scholars, apologists, skeptics, theologians still debate what really happened on that first Easter, but whatever happened transformed a handful of frightened peasants into a dynamic community that proclaimed and manifested this fearless life and inclusive love, a community that, in time, fundamentally changed the values of its culture.

What does it take to become agents of transformation, for who among us would not wish to change what in our own culture is life-draining, exclusionary, oppressive - whether at work, at home or in the wider civic community? Clearly, what the first followers of Jesus experienced was a profound inner experience: their fear was replaced with a joyful boldness and self-confidence that moved them to life-giving action. It was more than a change of mind or even of heart; it was a complete remake of their lived experience and worldview. Yes, Jesus was resurrected but so were his disciples, for the "new life," as they came to call it, was total.

And the incredible thing is that they insisted this new life was available to all, that each of us is intended to become an agent of transformation in our own life contexts. I wonder what it would mean to be an agent of transformation in your work place? Such a question begs another: where would the energy, courage, insight - power - come from? How do we, in our own time, tap into divine Mystery? I'm not sure I know.

But I wonder whether we're not framing the question incorrectly. Perhaps, we're approaching it from the wrong way 'round. We tend, in our own day, to make plans, set goals and work toward them action item by action item. But maybe the question isn't so much "how do we tap into the Divine so as to accomplish our goals of cultural transformation;" but rather: "how do we open ourselves to the Divine so as to step into a whole new Reality, a reality which then transforms us, our understanding, and, yes, even our goals? Into a Reality that not only gives us the insight but also holy Energy to effect the changes we seek?"

Again, I'm not sure I really know. These questions are what those of us at Spirituality at Work try to explore week by week as we meet together for reflection and conversation. One thing I can say with some certainty, the exploration of this question -- this opening to divine Mystery, this transformation -- begins with a choice, a decision. It takes an act of will to say: "Yes, this exploration is what I want. I will begin." Where will the exploration take you? Well, it's the nature of exploration, isn't it, not really to know as you begin! The great spiritual truth of Easter suggests that the last word - the final destination -- of this journey will be Life! But then is this the last word… or the first?