Disciple: The Resurrection and the Jesus Movement

By the Rt. Rev. Sam Rodman

Easter is, in a profound way, the beginning of the Jesus Movement. The dimensions of Jesus’ life — his teachings, his proclamation of the good news, the dramatic healing stories, the parables, his call to the disciples — all predate his death on the cross and his resurrection.

And yet, the story of Jesus’ life and teachings would be fundamentally different without the witness and testimony of those who encountered the Risen Christ and the way these encounters transformed their lives as disciples and apostles. The powerful promise of life over death is at the heart of the gospel and at the center of what we believe about Jesus. Without this event, his teachings, as valid, wise and innovative as they were, would be missing a vital and essential element.

The Jesus Movement is a resurrection movement. And Easter is a season to share our resurrection stories. Some of those stories may be about people we lost, whose presence has been made known to us in some powerful way. Other stories of resurrection speak more to the power of God overcoming or overturning some seemingly impossible barrier or challenge. But all are rooted in the same power: God’s power of life over death.

When my daughter, Kate, was in the eighth grade, one of her teachers gave the class an assignment to memorize and present a poem of their choice. Kate chose “And Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou.

I had never heard the poem before Kate picked it, but in hearing it over and over again as she worked on it, it made an indelible impression on me. I was struck by the power of Angelou’s words to convey what I experience as a dynamic central to the Christian faith and an essential dynamic in the journey of discipleship: that the power of resurrection, of hope over despair, of liberation over oppression, of life over death has been unleashed in the world. Though we can’t reproduce it in its entirety here, even a sampling of Angelou’s verse illustrates the power of the poem.

You may write me down in history,
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt,
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells,
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

I think again about this poem as we engage more deeply in the work of Becoming Beloved Community. To me, this work is resurrection work. This is living into the power of the gospel promise of freedom from bondage, of liberation over oppression, of truth telling over
systemic evil. This is the movement of life over death. This is the work we are called to do, and it begins here and now.

At the 202^nd Annual Convention last November, we shared five priorities set to serve as a road map for our early journey: engaging in deeper dialogue and multi-layered conversations around the dynamics of difference with particular attention to race, political tensions between left and right, and the economic divide; support for vulnerable congregations; missional collaboratives that will be regionally cultivated; lifelong formation; and reconnecting to the land.

After convention, our Diocesan Council began to look more intentionally at the first priority and bring to it some specificity and action. They agreed to do more work, both individually and collectively, to explore what Becoming Beloved Community around this priority would look like. This involved additional commitment of time and energy to engage in training
and conversation. It also included looking at our own history, in this diocese, and asking ourselves the hard questions about our own journey and the impact of systemic racism on our churches.

We are asking that each of our congregations enter into this same kind of intentional, focused engagement around this and every priority. Diocesan resources abound for every one of them to help inspire and support you in your work, and there are more in development.

The beauty of a movement is there are many ways to engage in this work. There may be other ways, in your prayer and through your own discernment, that the Holy Spirit is prompting you to explore the call of Becoming Beloved Community. What shape will this take for you and for your congregation? What will the next step on your journey of discipleship look like?

Let us know! Share your story. There are many different ways to be part of this movement. Just as there were many different experiences of the Risen Christ. The stories we share with each other help the movement to grow and spread, just as the stories of peoples’ encounters with the resurrected Jesus helped the expansion of the early church.

The gift in all of this is the gospel promise of life over death. It is an invitation to experience the new life that comes in doing this work. It is God’s promise of transformation.

Shakespeare famously wrote “a coward dies 1,000 times before death, the valiant taste of death but once.” But when it comes to the resurrection, just the reverse is true. The new life of the resurrection is something we are actually called to experience many times over before the full and final resurrection that is promised us at the end of our days.

The season of Easter is a season to celebrate all the incredible, unexpected, miraculous and life-changing expressions of the resurrection, to tell those stories and to celebrate the promise of God’s victory of life over death. The invitation to become beloved community is at the heart of this celebration. It is a powerful embodiment of the Jesus resurrection movement. Happy Easter!

The Rt. Rev. Sam Rodman is the XII Bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina.