The Long Friday

Wow, it’s Holy Week again.

And just like last year I’m sitting here writing about death and resurrection from the perspective of a few women that I know.

But it’s hard to say the same thing over and over again, hoping that something changes, and knowing that change seems to come slowly and, in this case, change is just making things harder for the people that we serve here in Calais.

Our friends are facing a walking death in one sense. Their lives are of almost no importance to those in power. What’s the life of one migrant here and there, if we can stop the boats? After all, they’re poor and come from war-torn countries. They’re not like us.

Or so the rhetoric goes.

And I’m so tired of hearing Christians talking about illegal immigration and following laws, while at the same time ignoring the law-breaking of the politicians that we like.

And only the people at the bottom get hurt.

Someone pointed out to me recently that when Christians are talking about politics they almost always quote the Old Testament or some of Paul’s writings.

The one person they never seem to quote much is Jesus.

If we really read the words of Jesus we see a radical welcome, a radical hospitality that calls all people beloved. Jesus ate with prostitutes and sinners. And you’d better believe that he would have eaten with migrants too.

And the kicker is that Jesus called out the religious leaders for their hypocrisy and their ignoring of things like justice and mercy. And you know what happened to him?

He was executed.

The message of Jesus always infuriates those in power because it turns the world on its head. Jesus told us that in God’s Kingdom, “Everyone who is now last will be first, and everyone who is first will be last” and in contrast to the great ones of his day, “But don't act like them. If you want to be great, you must be the servant of all the others.”

So the key to greatness is not power.

It’s service.

The rulers were so incensed with his subverting message that they hung him on a cross, the cruelest punishment of their day.

But there’s something else to take away from this story.

Even though it seems that the enemy wins. Even though it seems that darkness might rule for a little while, “The light keeps shining in the dark, and darkness has never put it out.”

And we know that,

“Christ died for our sins,

    as the Scriptures say.

   He was buried,

    and three days later

he was raised to life,

    as the Scriptures say.”

So have hope, my friends. Even though it seems now that the darkness is winning, that the forces of evil cannot be overcome that we are asking ourselves, “Didn't your Lord promise to come back? Yet the first leaders have already died, and the world hasn't changed a bit,” we do not walk hopelessly.

So we keep walking. We keep working. We keep living out the Kingdom.

The Friday seems so long it might never end. But Sunday will be here soon.

You belong here. Our friends belong here. God’s Kingdom is big enough for all people.