Around the Diocese
Posted Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Eastertide 2008
The Wounded but Risen Body of Christ
The disciples had seen Jesus put to a painful death and buried. So when their astonished eyes beheld him before them, they were ecstatic with joy. But Thomas was missing, and when they told him, he couldn’t believe it. He wanted to see the mark of the nails in his hands and the wound of the spear in his side.
Tradition has called him “Doubting Thomas”, but he had a point. The risen body of Christ still bears the marks of the wounds. The signs of the suffering are still there. The pain, suffering, and death have been incorporated into the victory, the new life.
It is the season of Easter, and we are celebrating the Resurrection with glorious music and beautiful flowers. We sniff the hints of spring and long-delayed warmth.
At the same time, our spirits here are troubled. It is not just Iraq and the political campaigns and the economic slowdown. As Episcopalians in Pennsylvania we find ourselves facing unusual and difficult matters. There are rumblings from distant places as the Anglican Communion tries to sort out how it feels about the Episcopal Church, which has said it intends to be a very inclusive Church.
Our concerns here, however, go deeper and are closer to home. We can scarcely talk about it, but we are conflicted about our relationship with our Bishop. We have had positive experiences and negative experiences. Beyond that, he has been charged by a national Church body with serious offenses in California some years ago. The national Episcopal Church is carrying forward the trial (at its expense) in Philadelphia, beginning June 9. We have to admit that this is going to be distracting and embarrassing and painful for everyone. We will all be wounded in some way.
But the wounded Body of Christ, the Church, is risen with its risen Lord. Like the risen Jesus, the Church always has marks of suffering and pain. Yes, some of them are self-inflicted, but we want to try to keep those to a minimum. Admitting the reality of our concern, our pain, we will want to try to keep from making the trial the focus of our attention. Resist the temptation to obsess over this, or be drawn into arguments, statements for the press, or words you might later regret. Give the trial respect, but not your life. What we will pray for is a fair trial, a just outcome, and then the grace to move forward in unity together.
The resurrected Jesus brought with him all that Good Friday represents—hostility, misunderstanding, the failure of religious authority, denial, betrayal—and the wounds showed. Christ takes into himself our wounds—the wounds we have received and the wounds we have inflicted—and Christ is risen. We are now called to live as the wounded but risen Body of Christ, bearers of forgiveness, hope, and joy.
Allen L. Bartlett, Jr.
Eastertide, 2008