Arms-Open Flying

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas
March 23, 2008; Easter Sunday, Year A
Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary
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The late spiritual writer Henri Nouwen liked to tell how enthralled he was the first time he saw the trapeze artists The Flying Rodleighs. After watching their elegant performance, he returned to their circus the following day to see them again, hoping to meet them and tell them what a fan he was. He was able to meet them, and they responded generously, inviting Henri to watch their practice sessions, giving him free tickets, inviting him to dinner, and later, suggesting that Henri travel with them for a week sometime in the near future. Henri took them up on their offers, and they all became good friends.

One day while he was sitting with Rodleigh, the leader of the troupe, Henri fell into a discussion with him about flying. The acrobat told Henri this: "As a flyer, I must have complete trust in my catcher. The public might think that I am the great star of the trapeze, but the real star is Joe, my catcher. He has to be there for me with split-second precision and grab me out of the air as I come to him in the long jump."

Henri asked him to explain how it works. "The secret," Rodleigh said, "is that the flyer does nothing and the catcher does everything. When I fly to Joe, I have simply to stretch out my arms and hands and wait for him to catch me and pull me safely over the apron behind the catchbar."

"You do nothing!" Henri said, surprised. "Nothing," Rodleigh repeated. "The worst thing the flyer can do it to try to catch the catcher. I am not supposed to catch Joe. It's Joe's task to catch me. If I grabbed Joe's wrists, I might break them, or he might break mine, and that would be the end for both of us. A flyer must fly, and a catcher must catch, and the flyer must trust, with outstretched arms, that his catcher will be there for him." (Writings Selected, p. 55; originally from Our Greatest Gift, p. 66)

When Jesus faced his death on the cross, he did nothing. Nothing other than continue to be who he was. He refused to fight or to run away, he didn't curse or threaten his attackers. He did nothing but hang there, trusting God, stretching his arms and hands out on the bars of the cross, waiting for God to catch him. Today we celebrate his death-defying leap.

On the cross, Jesus taught us how to die. When our time comes, we know that we can jump toward God and trust with outstretched arms that the catcher will be there for us too.

This arms-out-flying is a lot more than a way to die, it is the way that Jesus lived his life as well. Flying-with-your-arms-out is the way Jesus invites us to live our lives also.

At the beginning of his ministry, when his hometown synagogue gave him a chance to speak, Jesus leaped to his work, proclaiming the "year of the Lord's favor" -- when the poor get good news, the captives are released, the blind see and the oppressed go free. Then, he lived his whole life in that Spirit.

When a boy came with five loaves and two fish, Jesus launched them to God and there was abundance for the multitudes. When infected lepers came to him, he did not shun them, but reached to them with a courageous compassion that heals. When a Roman collaborator, defrauding and extorting money as a tax-collector, climbed up a tree to see Jesus swinging by, Jesus tossed himself an invitation to lunch at the man's home and made a new friend. When an outsider, a Canaanite sinner-dog spoke to him with unexpected words of loving trust, Jesus let go of the narrow bars of his cultural conditioning and threw himself into a world-embracing arc of compassion toward all people. That's how he lived his life -- with a responsive, open-armed freedom that reached out in loving, defenseless compassion.

He faced his troubles in the same way. When his family thought he had lost his mind and tried to get him to return home and leave this crazy work, he dived deeper into his mission and found a new and wider family. When the religious authorities accused him of blasphemy, he defied them and soared toward a God whose forgiveness was unbounded, who healed even on the sabbath and who would not be contained behind the Temple wall and its religious monopolies. When the political empire demanded his allegiance, he maintained his royal identity and threw in his lot with the Kingdom of God. When everything was falling in around his ears, he swung himself down into the role of a slave, washing his disciple's feet, and then feeding them with bread and wine, telling them that from now on, this would become his body and blood.

Jesus lived his life with utter freedom and abandon, with outstretched arms that trusted always that the Catcher would be there to catch him. He knew the difference between trusting the Catcher and trying to grab things with your own strength. When he was tempted in the wilderness to turn stones into bread for himself, to grab for his own security on his own terms, he said no, and lived on the bread that comes from God. When he was tempted to gain fame and acclaim with a stunning act of aerobatics, to launch himself off the pinnacle of the Temple, allegedly trusting God to save him, he knew the difference, and refused to tempt God. When he could trade his integrity for unimaginable power, he declined. He would not grasp for security, esteem or power. Instead he flew through life with arms outstretched, trusting in the grasp of God to give him whatever security, esteem or power he needed.

The result is a fearless life. A stunning freedom. An openness that allowed him to be God's instrument of healing, love, and compassion. He launched himself like a trapeze artist flying through life with his arms wide open, leaping into death with abandoned trust. His resurrection is God's great "Yes!"

This is the way we are invited to live as well. We can live with the same freedom and fearlessness as Jesus. We don't have to hold on to anything. We can let go of our anxious self-protecting grasp, and fly with the Spirit. We don't have to do anything but trust, throwing ourselves into life each day with outstretched, relaxed and expectant arms, waiting wide-eyed for God to catch us.

Can you taste the freedom of that kind of life? It is a freedom that is "sensitive to the interconnectedness of all things, compassionate in its empathy for all living beings, and centered in the very mystery of God." (Jay McDaniel, Roots and Wings) Living in the life of the resurrected Christ is like feeling the wind against your face, or tasting the breath that exhilarates, or being one with the sky. There is nothing that we have to do but trust. We don't need to try to catch the catcher. We are already God's beloved. There's nothing to grasp. We can let go of all of our anxieties and worries. Just hold out your arms and God will catch you. That's the secret. The secret of life. God loves you, therefore you are perfectly safe. Nothing can threaten you, not really. God loves you, there's nothing you have to do. So let go, soar, fly. Put your arms out and embrace the day, embrace the world, and wait for the thrilling moments when God will snatch you out of the air and pull you to the safety of God's embrace. Over and over; day by day. Utterly free to be the thrilling acrobat that God has created you to be.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

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The Easter Gospel:
(John 20:1-18) -- Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, `I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
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