Is Easter true?

One of the things I love about MCC is the diversity we have. People come from all walks of life and from many different denominations, church experiences and spiritual paths. We are a community church built on the premises of what our founder, Troy Perry called the three-prong gospel: Christian salvation, Christian community and Christian social action. All are welcome here.

Our approach to faith and Christianity is one of openness, inclusiveness and even exploration. In striving to embrace and celebrate diversity, we don’t say what or how a person has to believe in order to find full fellowship in this community of faith. Everyone is encouraged to bring their own personal perspectives, questions and doubts. Some would call this progressive Christianity – open to considering new ideas and understandings. God is not neatly tucked into a box.

Rev. Fred Plumer told of how he was asked the question, “Do you think the Easter Story is true?” He answered as fast as he was asked the question, “It must be true. I don’t think the church would have survived for 2,000 years if it wasn’t.”

And here we are – in 2012 – telling the story of Jesus and what is true are those timeless lessons that Jesus left his followers and ultimately us. What is true is that anyone can experience the “kingdom” or the Realm of God. What is true is that if we ever experience that Realm, we wouldn’t want to live any other way. And then Jesus told his followers how to do it.

He told us that he could not do it for us. It’s up to us to choose to walk the path. It’s up to us to develop the eyes to see and the ears to hear that the world around us, and all we come in contact with, are part of God’s creation.

What is true is that when we learn to take responsibility for our actions, make amends for those whom we have harmed and change what we have to change, so that it will not happen again, then our lives will be different. We will begin to experience a true freedom.

What is true is that if we begin to trust that God ultimately has our best interest at heart, we might discover that everything that we do, every action we take, every mistake that we make becomes a new lesson and an opportunity – a lesson we needed to learn. And if we learn from those lessons and put them in perspective we’ll begin to live a full and spiritually fulfilling life.

What is true is that learning to forgive others and ourselves is the first step to true freedom. If we want to move forward with our lives, if we want to lift the burdens from our back and remove the stones from our hearts, we must learn to forgive those who we believe have harmed us. Carrying the weight of anger, or judgment, or hurt around, because we can’t let it go, is harmful.

What is true is that we need to learn to love the way God loves us, the way a mother loves her unborn child. When we learn to love our neighbor, even our enemies, as we love ourselves, all of the false barriers, prejudice, racism, classism, ageism and so many other “isms” begin to fall away. When we reach out in compassion to one who needs us, or can learn from us, or can be healed by us, then we discover God’s light in them and it helps our light burn brighter. Then we discover we are all connected – we are not alone.

If the Easter Story is true, (and I believe it is), it means we have to rethink our values, our priorities, our lives. It means we have to learn to trust God, to give up some of the control we hold on to. It means we have to let go of the attachments that we believe define us. It means we have to stop trying to be number one or feeling badly because we are not number one and learn how to live as one within God’s great creation, by how we love.

Jesus shared the truth that the Realm of God, that ultimate relationship with God and with one another was available to anyone. That is the good news that we celebrate on Easter Sunday; that is the good news that we should celebrate every day.

Rev. Dan Koeshall is the Senior Pastor at The Metropolitan Community Church (The Met) in San Diego, California, themetchurch.org.