A Restorative Theology of Easter    [4-7-07]

The Rev. Peter Sawtell, Executive Director of Eco-Justice Ministries, first posted this essay in his Eco-Justice Notes in 2002, and has re-posted it just before Easter.

He contrasts the views of justice at work in our traditional system of "punitive justice" with those affirmed in the growing movement for "restorative justice."

He outlines this briefly:

Restorative justice is an idea that is beginning to catch on in communities across the US. Restorative justice takes a very different approach than the punitive justice system that is common throughout western civilization. (While this is a new concept in some parts of the world, in many cultures these principles are ancient wisdom.)

Punitive justice sees a problem with the criminal, the "offender". The solution to crime is to punish the person who broke the laws. There may be an attempt at rehabilitation, but punishment is the guiding principle.

Restorative justice recognizes that the criminal has caused a problem, and that something must be done. But it does not believe that the problem can be solved through punishment alone. Because the offender has not just broken a law. He or she has caused hurt to victims, and has injured the entire community. The goal of restorative justice is to bring healing to all involved -- the victim, the offender, and the community.

He then considers the different ways we understand Easter, and the life and resurrection of Christ: either a sacrifice to pay a penalty, or a movement of restoration and healing, both for offenders and for victims, both for the whole human community and for our relationships with the whole natural world.

If you’re struggling with what to say to your congregation as we all confront the mystery and majesty of these days, you might find some help in these readings. If you have other good sources to suggest (for Easter, too!), please let us hear from you.   Just send a note.

For Palm Sunday / Passion Sunday

Daniel B. Clendenin looks at Palm Sunday through Luke’s Gospel, seeing the political dimensions of Jesus’ actions and his arrest as a subversive.

He concludes:

On Palm Sunday Jesus invites us to join his subversive counter-procession into all the world. But he calls us not to just any subversion, subversion for its own sake, or to some new and improved political agenda. Rather, Christian subversion takes as its model Jesus himself, "who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross." Dying to self and the many demons of egoism, and living to serve others, will prove itself as sufficiently and radically subversive. And so Paul instructs us in his epistle for this week: "have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus."

The full essay >>

For Good Friday: "The Ones at the Foot of the Cross"

Preaching on Good Friday in 2003, the Rev. Dr. I. Carter Heyward focused on Jesus words of forgiveness from the cross. Among many good things she says is this:

Forgiveness is a psycho-spiritual, social, and political leap out of the past -- its wrongs and wounds -- into the shaping of the present and future. It is a refusal to get stuck in resentment over what has been done in order to generate creative energies for living today and tomorrow. Forgiveness usually has at least as much to do with the desire and capacity of those who've been wounded to move forward as with the desire or need of those who have inflicted the injury.

Heyward’s sermon >>

Almost Easter

Green wheat in the fields
growing quickly in the warm air and rain
waiting for more nourishment to come to harvest

Time passing
laughter and tears
all around the people we love

Easter coming
over the green fields
bringing the promise of life all a- new

First through the 'valley' we will walk together
Knowing that sunrise is just over there

Easter is coming
nothing to stop it
nothing can stop God's love on this earth
perhaps we can welcome
the new green of Easter
Peace to the green fields
and all over the world.

Bobbie G. McGarey
Southwest Oklahoma Parish
[3-21-07]

From the Rev. Bill LeMosy, an interim ministry specialist living in Pleasant Hill, Iowa
[2-28-05]

Hearts of Joy in Spite of It All

A Passover Prayer for a free Jerusalem

As Christians celebrate Easter, we also remember that Jesus was celebrating Passover with his disciples in the Last Supper.  You may want to look at a passionate Passover prayer written by a Jewish woman, which we posted two years ago.

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