“Liberation is costly.” Desmund Tutu “Practice resurrection” Wendell Berry
Friends,
This year, the Jewish festival of Passover and the Christian observance of Holy Week coincide. Both are rooted in sacred stories of resistance to empire. Jews celebrate Passover as a remembrance of the escape by the Israelites from the tyranny of the Pharaoh. During Holy Week, Christians recount the ethical call of Jesus, the call to radical love and solidarity with the marginalized, a call that brought about his death by crucifixion.
Retelling these two ancient stories is an annual rite. The Passover story reminds us that liberation is not won once and for all but must be worked for continuously. The late South African Bishop Desmund Tutu put it well when he said: “liberation is costly.” The cost of liberation is a stubborn, persistent courage that refuses to give up. The cost of liberation is a willingness to act on behalf of others knowing that no one of us is free until all of us are free.
The story of Holy Week is a story of resistance and is ultimately a story of resurrection on Easter. That we tell the story every year is a reminder that resurrection is not a one time event. The poet Wendell Berry, in his poem titled Mad Farmer Liberation Front, instructs us to “practice resurrection.” We practice resurrection each time we resist oppressive forces that prevent the fully flourishing of life. We practice resurrection each time we awaken to the divine reality of abundant love available to all.
In this time of global turmoil, we are being called to courage, to resistance, and to the practice of radical love. The ancient stories of sacrifice and struggle are also stories of hope and triumph. There is hope in the tenacity of the human yearning for liberation; triumph in the human spirit – rising again and again so that life itself will continue.
Yours in shared ministry,
Rev. Diane
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