If you haven't heard about it, there's recently been a blog battle waged between two of the big, popular Christian thinkers of the day. The first shot was fired - apparently without any attempt to offend - by author and Theologian-in-Residence at
Solomon's Porch,
Tony Jones. On his
blog, responding to the question of a reader,
Jones casually characterized the view of Christ's resurrection held by
Marcus Borg as
a feeling that "only happens in the believer's heart," rather than an event that occurred in objective reality.
Borg - the well-known historical Jesus scholar and Canon Theologian at
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral - countered by
claiming that Jones has misrepresented his take on the Resurrection of Jesus. Jones
allowed that perhaps his original characterization was off the mark, but that Borg's perspective, even with all the nuance it demands, amounts to a denial of the resurrection as a real event. Finally, Borg followed up with a
post in which he further explained his perspective and reiterated the question at the end of his previous post: "does [this] disagreement matter?"
Not a few bloggers have weighed in on this whole debate. And I certainly have my own thoughts on that matter (
some of which can be read in this Easter sermon about zombies and vampires). But I'd rather talk about another reflection on the resurrection I've heard recently.
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| Photo by Ben Thomas |
The other day, our merry missioner,
Bob and I were riding back from a meeting that included some of our fellow clergy in the area. During our conversation on the drive, it became clear that the negativity of a few of the clergy about their ministries had diminished Bob's usual joviality. Later in the day, Bob was back in high spirits. So, I asked him what could have lifted the cloud of gloominess that followed us from the meeting.
He answered, "The Holy Spirit, man."
Bob explained that he had been driving back after presiding at the Eucharist at a nearby church for a rector who was away. As he was returning to the Southside, the Spirit filled him with her
sighs too deep for words. He saw that old chicken factory that employs so many in and around the Southside. He saw that motel that doubles as the most affordable housing for those folks and families who otherwise wouldn't have a home - the same motel where
Southside Abbey put up a bouncy-castle, some tables-and-chairs, and a grill a few weeks ago, throwing a party to celebrate one year of striving to be the
beloved community in this neighborhood. He saw this neighborhood we call home, for which
Southside Abbey has declared a
Jubilee Year and begun collecting the funds to make it so. He saw that the tomb was indeed empty, and - between laughing and crying - he said out loud: "The Resurrection is real! There's resurrection all around us!"
In their blog debate, neither Jones nor Borg have addressed why some saw the risen Christ while others did not, and why some at first only saw a gardener or stranger but later recognized him as their resurrected Lord. But an Anglican priest and theologian,
Sarah Coakley has explored those very questions. Coakley has looked to the teachings of the early Church fathers and mothers on the development of the
spiritual senses for recognizing the resurrected Christ and the new creation begun in him. In the word proclaimed, we learn to hear and receive the voice of the risen one. Through the liturgy - our common prayer - our deepest desire is reoriented to its true object, the risen Christ, and we come to recognize him in the Eucharistic meal that we share. But Coakley points out that the development of these
spiritual senses brings with it an awareness of
real absence, of the cross, of the empty
tomb.
This is no less true when we develop our spiritual senses morally, to see the resurrection in the world around us. "
By the same token," Coakley writes, "in my moral life, in my intended acts of mercy, though it is Jesus I seek to obey and emulate, it is always in the erasure of expectation that Jesus truly presents himself to me - in the entirely unromantic other, in the exhausting and defeating poverty of my neighbor . . . ." And it's this
real absence, this erasure of expectation, this recognition of the empty tomb as an empty tomb that empties us, dispossesses us, opens us to the Holy Spirit. For, finally, the development of our
spiritual senses only creates the possibility for recognizing the risen Jesus. To truly see him - in the Eucharist and in the face of those we serve - is to have received him as a gift given "
in the incarnational physicality of" the meal we share and the neighbors we serve, through the Holy Spirit.
"The Resurrection is real! There's resurrection all around us!"
