Christ has risen from the dead
By death he trampled death
and to those in the tombs he bestoweth life
(from the Easter Troparion of the Byzantine Rite Divine Liturgy)
As I write this, today is Good Friday, the day we as Christians commemorate the ultimate sacrifice God gave us - his own life to save us. It is an important memorial for us, and as we observe it today it also concludes Holy Week - we fast and abstain today as a sign of mourning but also as a promise of hope, the hope of our salvation. For every Good Friday an Easter Sunday will follow, and that is the promise ultimately of our eternal salvation, but it also reflects life in general to a degree.
We have all faced those "Good Friday" seasons, and you know what I am talking about. You feel like you cannot go on much longer because so much is overwhelming you. But, as often happens, just as it seems like there is no hope left, the "Easter Sunday" comes. Often that is unannounced, but it is a glorious moment for us. Before I get into this though, let me clarify some things.
First, I know that a similar message like this is preached by positive-affirmation and New Thought cults out there - it is indeed a popular and attractive message. In principle, it is not necessarily wrong, but it becomes idolatrous as it takes a sacred event and tries to turn it into a self-help seminar. The last time I heard something like that was from a popular Unity "minister" in Florida by the name of Leddy Hammack. This woman is a piece of work for one thing - I recall several years back we attended a wedding of one of Barbara's friends who was part of the "church" she pastored, and oh my goodness, was that an experience. This Leddy woman, who claims to be a minister, looked like a hippie flower child and had about the same mannerisms of one, and I remember actually sitting in that wedding ceremony biting the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing at this woman. Out of respect, I refrained from any visible sources of amusement, but my goodness, was it hard! Later, a "sermon" of hers appeared on YouTube about the Easter season, and it was an exercise in denial and faulty interpretation. Instead of focusing on what the season really meant, she turned it into some stupid self-help motivational speech about how "we all have personal resurrections" and what not, and totally missed the historic Church understanding of what Easter meant. However, for a cultist like her, it is to be expected because any talk of sin, judgment, heaven, hell, and any related topic is not part of New Thought vocabulary - their version of the cardinal sin is making a negative affirmation (you see this in some "Christian" televangelists too, such as the late Robert Schuller and Joel Osteen). I wanted to preface my discussion today in order to totally disavow that approach, as it detracts from the true meaning of what we are commemorating these next few days. However, I also do want to tie it into personal life somewhat, because it does apply to us as well on a personal level.
Adversity is a part of life, and often the way we grow is by dying to self in many cases - a seed, for instance, has to decompose in order for new growth to sprout from it, and out of the stinky muck of adversity and tragedy can grow something beautiful and better. Like the story of our salvation, Jesus conquered death by his death, and it bestowed life to those in the tombs, as the Easter Troparion quoted above proclaims. Likewise, we conquer our adversity at times by letting things that burden us die, and from the death and decay of the old, a stronger new can sprout. It is, in a real sense, death conquering death to bestow life. In that regard, it is a personal application and dimension of the Easter message, but with a difference from what the New Thought esoterist teaches - unlike New Thought BS, this view acknowledges adversity exists, and also sees it as an opportunity for growth rather than the result of a "negative confession." Natural law also affirms this, as due to the fallen state of humanity Genesis 3 documents, sin and death are realities we face, but they can also be used to bear good fruit. You are probably scratching your head now and saying "what on earth is he talking about? Sin bad, death bad, but life and perfection good," am I right? Let us dive into that shall we?
Sin is bad, and its consequences are not pretty - we all can attest to that. However, remember Romans and what it says - all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose." This means that a bad situation is like fertilizer - it stinks, is rotten, and in its raw state it can kill someone. However, when a seed is planted in it, this becomes nourishment for growth, and indeed a seasoned horticulturalist will tell you that the more nasty and rotten a fertilizing agent is, the more effective it is to produce abundant growth. This is why in the past many farmers used the "byproducts" of their livestock as fertilizer on their fields - they understood the value of it. I recall as a teenager when I was doing some minor gardening at the farm I lived on. I picked a very sunny spot over a small smokehouse spring on a ledge above the house, and I took my tools and dug up a perfect 9' by 4' plot. I cleaned out all the rocks, roots, and other stuff that was up there, and then I placed a small bailer-twine fence around it to keep our dog out of it. The next step in this process was to go over to the barn area in the pasture just outside the house, and with a wheelbarrow and shovel I collected as many cowpies (round deposits of cow manure) as well as a few "meadow muffins" (horse turds), and I brought them back to my small plot I prepped. I shoveled that crap onto the freshly prepared soil, and then with a hoe I worked it into the dirt with precision until the whole patch of ground was incorporated with the smelly stuff. Using some industrial gloves, I then planted two rows of tiny onion bulbs and some old wrinkled sprouting potatoes, and then I watered them. It took about two or three weeks, during which time I was in Georgia visiting my dad for the summer, and when I returned I had a small but nice crop of onions and potatoes. It was a productive project, and a part of me misses that although recently I did get a bit of memory boost when I had to volunteer at the Little Portion Farm, a vegetable farm operated by the local Franciscans, for a school day of service. I was digging up a lot of carrots there with two of my fellow teachers, and that too reminded me of a verse in Scripture - that one about 30, 60, and hundred-fold. Let me explain that.
About 40 years ago on religious television, networks like TBN used to have these quarterly telethons to raise money, and they did so with the old Word of Faith garbage they were noted for. At the time, one of the most notorious spokesman of that garbage was a con-man in a collar named John Avanzini. I am not sure if this guy is even still alive or not, but he had all the polish of a used-car salesman but cloaked his spiel in religious jargon. He devised a scheme called "The Hundred-Fold Prophecy" in which he said that if someone "sowed a seed" of a thousand bucks into whatever religious network he was pitching for, they would miraculously receive $100,000. Surprisingly, many people fell for that crap and Avanzini ended up being a wealthy man from it although his donors were definitely a lot poorer. Besides grossly taking this passage of Scripture out of context, it also was a scam perpetuated by a man who was out to enrich himself rather than being a blessing for others. While I am sure that this scheme did not originate with John Avanzini (some said Oral Roberts may have pioneered it decades earlier), he became a master manipulator using it. The discussion I am about to have about this Scripture passage has nothing to do with the get-rich-quick scams of televangelists, but is rather a lot more practical. Let me get into that now.
When Jesus told this parable, he was framing it in an agricultural context of the time in order to convey a spiritual truth - the actual truth he was communicating is that when people receive the Gospel, they grow. Some grow more than others, but if the nourishment of the seed of evangelization is just right, growth happens. It has nothing to do with growing wealth (although in all fairness the principle does work if applied correctly and not as a "seed faith" scam), but rather with growing one's soul in supernatural grace. However, the principle is based on natural law, and that day digging those carrots at the farm illustrated that.
The carrots that day we harvested came in all shapes and sizes - some were tiny, others were massive, but all were a potential nutritious ingredient that would later be processed into a meal for someone that needed it. The soil did its job, in other words, and the carrots developed - some were very tiny indeed, while others were so large it took two hands to get them out of the soil. But, all were edible and they all represented successful agricultural practice. The Church is like that too, and speaking of true believers, they come in all forms. Some are rough around the edges yet, but they are open to growth - they are like the tiny carrots we found. Others, though, are very grounded in their faith and have wisdom we can use ourselves - those were the giant two-handed harvests. All are still true believers, they all received grounded teaching, and all have their own struggles that shaped their faith. Some are still growing, while others exude a spiritual maturity that makes them an inspiration to us all. Many of us (myself included) are in the middle - we have come a long way, but our journey is not over yet. If anything, the middle-ground produce is what would be 60-fold. Not better than anyone else (a carrot is still a carrot, regardless of size), but at a good place in their own growth process. That is the true message of the parable. All seed is productive if it is sowed correctly, but its growth rate is individually determined - some will grow more, some take a while, but the growth is still there. So, what causes the growth? Something has to nourish these seeds after all, and it's the nourishment that fuels growth. Therefore, what is the nourishment.
You will remember some time back when I told you the story a "life coach" teacher shared with us some years ago at a corporation I worked at. He gave the image of a rose garden growing over a sewer. As I mentioned, this has two lessons in it. The first - the lesson the life coach was trying to communicate - is that appearances can be deceiving. What looks good on the surface may stink underneath. This is true. But, I got another message that is related but similar - the roses grew beautiful because of the sewer giving rich fertilization to the roots. Adversity is like that - it stinks, and in its raw state it can be toxic, but in the right conditions it can also nourish growth. Therefore, in that scenario, the beauty everyone admires comes at the huge price of a lot of adversity which nourished the grow. And, the two individuals are different in that regard - the one putting on appearances to deceive others is shallow, and at some point that sewer is going to smell through. However, the one who grew as a result of the sewer will be strong, and will bear amazing fruit that will be nourishing to others. Hundred-fold growth is often fertilized by personal adversity, but the growth symbolizes an overcoming. Now, back to the Easter message.
Christ died so that humanity - spiritually dead and decaying in sin - could be given new life. The old seed-husks of sin and corruption are eaten away, and the fresh sprout then breeches the ground so that it can become a fruitful and beautiful plant. Jesus too died - from that death he arose, and by conquering his death he also gave us the gift of life. As the oft-quoted verse of John 3:16 says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten son (in essence, himself, since Jesus IS God) that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life - by his death, he conquered our death, in other words. That is the core truth of the whole Gospel story - God's love being that he gave himself to save us. And, it is why we as Christians treat Easter and the days preceding it as the holiest season of the Church year - it is commemorating the reason for our own existence. That being said, the Easter Troparion is in essence John 3:16. The only thing we have to do now is accept the gift.
If you are reading this today, understand something. As a human being, you have value. You were created in God's image, and he loves you with a love none of us can reciprocate. That love ultimately meant he sacrificed himself for us that we can have life with him. And, that means you - will you accept it today? If so, reflect on this discussion, and then talk to your pastor or priest about how to experience and know Christ - they will take it from there and will guide you to a new life in Christ. The choice is yours, and personal choice is the key - God gave us that free will to choose, but also gives us warning that our choices have consequences. As I have said before and will say here, God doesn't "send" people to hell - we do that ourselves. But, he can save us from that if we so choose and desire that salvation. You may think you are the ugliest, most evil human being on the planet, but by crying out to God, the fertilizer of adversity has done its work and your seed is sprouting - let it grow now, and let Christ help you pierce the surface of that soil and grow into the beautiful creation he made you to be. And, there is no better season to do that than now - resurrection with Christ on Easter Sunday as a new creation. Thank you for allowing me to share, and will talk next time.
