From Death Comes Life: Fighting the idols of our day on Easter.
Here in California, we’re very familiar with the wildfires that rage every year. Did you know that fires are necessary for the health of the forest? In fact, without fires, many species of trees and shrubs would not exist, because it takes the heat of the fire to unlock new life. The lodgepole pine, for example, has what are called serotinous cones, full of mature seeds but locked up with resin. They can remain in this state for years until a fire rages through, melts the resin, freeing the seeds to fall to the ground and be born into new life. The tree may likely die, but from that death comes new life.
As we transition from Good Friday into Easter Celebrations today, Christians throughout the world who have been practicing dying to ourselves through fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, are experiencing this death to life phenomenon. In the combination of these three traditional Lenten practices, we are dying to live anew. There’s the obvious death to comfort through fasting, and there’s a death to control through prayer and almsgiving. These are formative practices. We are putting to death our self interest for the sake of others.
Fasting is a practice in dying to ourselves, spiritually and physically, to be born anew. From the death of our comfort and the death of our old cells comes new life. And prayer during Lent is marked by listening in the space created through fasting. In prayer, we enter into space with Christ who is in and through all things, listening for how we might die to ourselves so Christ might live more fully through us. Finally, in almsgiving, we practice an other-oriented us of money, or as Jesus calls it, Mammon, our most powerful rival god. We release control by giving money to the poor, the widow, and the immigrant among us.
And all these set us up to recognize the unfathomable sacrifice of Christ’s death on the cross. But we also recognize that death is not the end. From death comes life. Easter is coming.
In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul addresses this truth reflecting on Jesus’ resurrection:
15:35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed.
And this is what we celebrate on Easter--that from death comes new life. In fact, we celebrate the death of death itself in order or humanity to be born anew. We celebrate a perfect fully human fully God Jesus who took death upon himself to the cross and passed through the other side to be resurrected into new life. This is why we can celebrate the words of the prophet Hosea, where he says:
13:14 “I will deliver this people from the power of the grave;
I will redeem them from death.
Where, O death, are your plagues?
Where, O grave, is your destruction?
But I think in the Easter story, where we focus on Good Friday and Easter morning, we can sometimes focus on the transaction of the cross at the expense of the fullness of the new life Jesus called his disciples to and by extension, what he calls us to. And so my question for us today, Hildegardians is this:
What is Jesus calling us to die to?
We’ve seen our fair share of deaths in the last two years. Deaths of our loved ones. Deaths of organizations and businesses. Deaths of our way of life. Deaths of our comfort and control. The good news is there are three cultural idols that are weakening during this time as well. I believe we need to put them to death- individualism, industrialism, and consumerism. We’ve revered them to the point where they’ve become what I call the three headed monster of the American Church, and it’s time for new life to be born from their ashes.
Individualism- Until the 16th century, the world lived in collectivist cultures, but the invention of the printing press and the subsequent individual access to the Bible and other literature gave birth to the Great Reformation and the Enlightenment. While individual access was incredible, the pendulum swing into individualism carried our understanding of the Bible out of the context it was written in, which was a household, tribal, clan way of being family, and it introduced the concept of Sola Scriptura, or only the Bible. This resulted in a new trinity of God, Jesus, and Holy Bible as a replacement of God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. It also led to a focus on transacting people into heaven instead of making disciples in our communities.
Industrialism- Following individualism, industrialism was birthed in the 18th century and further pushed people out of deep relationships in small communities and into factories where they could be a cog in an assembly line, rarely in relationship or conversation with others throughout their days, and isolated more and more from their full humanity and deep relationships. Our schools then adapted to train for industrialism. Sit in rows. Be quiet. Listen. Comply. Regurgitate. And while many workplaces have successfully rejected industrialized structure, our education culture and system is lagging far behind.
Consumerism- And then in the 1900s, the invention of radio and television gave birth to mass market advertising and a “keeping up with the Joneses” mentality, which has been exponentially increased through the internet and social media. This consumption culture has made its way into churches through entertainment oriented, seeker sensitive services and celebrity pastors. It’s made its way increasingly into college campuses as well through a prioritization of career preparation, students loans as fuel, and an elevation of athletic teams and safe, leisurely student experiences over deep and challenging learning marked by action for the good of the world.
These are macro shifts, and I think we can all also relate to our own self interest, our own disconnection from making and creating with others as a way of life, and our own addiction to purchasing new things to fill a hole in our lives. This three headed monster is killing us, individually and collectively.
As a pastor, coach, and business owner, I’m hearing this from my communities as well. Multitudes are deconstructing the container of their faith while remaining centered on Jesus and his kingdom in spite of a Christianity that’s been co-opted by individual consumerism. And as our founding Hildegard team has listened to those voices, we’ve identified three responses that we believe are embedded in Jesus teaching throughout the New Testament.
First, we need to replace individualism with collaboration with our family. And we’re not talking about the nuclear family born out of individualism and consumerism. We’re talking about spiritual family. The dominant Scriptural metaphor of Church is family. We're not communities filled with families. We are a family--brothers and sisters who have the spiritual blood of Jesus Christ flowing through our veins.
Second, we need to replace industrialism with the ongoing creation of our lives through spiritual formation. We don’t need a more efficient, transactional process for getting people baptized. We need a deeper “as you go about caring for everyone in your communities” approach to discipleship. The form of discipleship we need is actually spiritual formation, where we are formed by Jesus together as a family as we spend time in his presence and practice doing what he did on earth.
Finally, we need to replace consumerism with care for our communities. We need to replace self-interest with the interests of the people with whom we interact in the places God calls us to.
In summary, Hildegardians, as you go to care for everyone in your communities, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized, intentionally form deep relationships with people to baptize them into and walk with them into this new way of life.
We invite you to join the fight against individualism by committing to a church community, which is the primary way we experience family.
In our fight against industrialism, we invite you to continue your journey by practicing your spiritual formation in community. Consider using The Formation Method, which is an integrative learning pedagogy and community discipleship structure used throughout the Hildegard learning experience.
And the best way to combat consumerism is through generosity. Please tithe to your local church. Then prayerfully consider how you might care for the poor, the widow, and the stranger among you. Finally, consider supporting organizations dedicated to creating redemptive communities.
Lastly, let’s celebrate together the new life we have in Christ Jesus. From death comes life.
Happy Easter!
