I Dream A World
John 20: 1 – 18
An Easter Sunrise Meditation by
The Reverend Andrea Davidson
 

May the word of our mouths & the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our strength & our redeemer. Amen.
 
I dream a world where man
No other man will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn
I dream a world where all
Will know sweet freedom's way,
Where greed no longer saps the soul
Nor avarice blights our day.
 
These are the words of Langston Hughes, an early twentieth century Harlem Renaissance poet.  Langston Hughes is what many call a “Dream Keeper.”  His poetry gave voice to the struggles of his community, and challenged the notion that their oppression was inevitable.  His words are a refusal to look allow the scorn, the greed, the violence, and oppression of his time to have the final word.  He dared to dream of a different kind of world.
 
A world I dream where black or white,
Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth
And every man is free,
Where wretchedness will hang its head
And joy, like a pearl,
Attends the needs of all mankind-
Of such I dream, my world!
 
His words echo the sentiments of the prophets who dared to “dreamed of a world of distributive justice” where everyone has enough and “systems are fair." (The Last Week, Borg & Crosson)
 
As we hear the Easter story year after year, I often wonder we have domesticated its powerful message for our world today… If we’ve domesticated the radical message of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection and missed its edge, its relevance for our communities, neutralizing it, just as we have done with other leaders.  Today, April 4th marks the 42nd anniversary of the assassination of MLK.  He is celebrated as a great visionary and leader today.  But in his last days, he was scorned.  A recent documentary on King for PBS reveals the extent to which King was reviled by the media and even those within his community in his last days. After his speech on Vietnam and advocating for a poor people’s movement, which was to be his last speech, 168 newspapers had editorials denouncing him, he was disinvited to the White House, and many black leaders turn against him.  These were lonely days.  But we’ve forgotten how much he was reviled, how much America wanted his calls for peace and justice silenced.
 
Easter signifies the kin-dom of God coming.  The Easter story reminds us that God is breaking through, healing, recreating...  It announces a new world order… As an answer to a world where the violence of the cross said “no,” the resurrection says “yes.”  Today, Easter is an invitation to hear this “yes” anew. And to resist accepting “no” as inevitable.  
 
There’s an interesting new drama on television, called Flash Forward.  The storyline goes something like this.  One-day whole world loses consciousness for about two minutes and while their asleep, they have visions of what their lives will be 6 months into the future.  The show is about how people live their lives having seen a vision of the future.   The show wrestles with questions of fate and self-determination.  Can we affect or change our destinies?  Or are we on a long march towards inevitability?
 
Well, I don’t think that anyone here has had a flash forward, but most of us have experienced the disappointment, pain, and fear that we see in Mary Magdalene at the tomb.  Like Mary, we too bring to the tombs of our lives the questions, tears, and hopes denied. Clinging to our expectations that things would work out just so… longing to return to the way things used to be.  Without having flash forwards we too wonder what the future holds for us.  For our communities.  For our world.  In the face of the cross, can the hope of God’s kin-dom coming prevail?  Does the dream die?
 
In Mary’s wondering, in her waiting, in her questions and seeking, she encounters new life.  She sees the resurrected Christ.  It’s in her persistence that he shows up.  But not in the way she expected.  It’s Jesus, but she sees a gardener. Its Jesus, but she sees someone who has take away her Lord.  Even when its right before our eyes, we don’t recognize God’s breaking through.  Perhaps because we’re so certain about how things should be.  The empty tomb is an invitation to see with new eyes.  To be open.  To dream a little.
 
One of the joys of watching my sons Wesley & Myles grow, is that they are open to life.  Have you ever tried to take a walk with a small child.  They see everything with new eyes.  Grass, flowers, a fence, a pebble. The smallest thing offers such excitement and an opportunity for exploration.  Things you never noticed before walking on same path, come alive and are new.  This is what one might call Living the Resurrection.
 
Two weeks before Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador was assassinated, he spoke, “I have often been threatened with death. If they kill me, I shall arise in the Salvadoran people. If the threats come to be fulfilled, from this moment I offer my blood to God for the redemption and resurrection of El Salvador. Let my blood be a seed of freedom and the sign that hope will soon be reality.”
 
The resurrection of El Salvadar.  This was Oscar Romero’s dream.  What’s yours?  The empty tomb reminds us us that walls are coming down, inevitability is no longer certain, the impossible is now possible.  What do you dream for our world, this Easter morning?
 
As the sun rises before us, may our hearts be filled with hopes and dreams renewed.  And may you Live the Resurrection.  For Christ Is Risen!  
 
Alleluia!