To Sing a Defiant Song

A sermon on Acts 5: 27-32

This sermon was originally given on Sunday, April 27 at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Trenton, NJ

The Sunday after easter is a strange one. At least it feels that way me.

We have experienced the emotional roller that is Holy Week, and we have witnessed the risen Lord. We are a changed people!  

This Sunday, the second Sunday of easter, begs the question, “What now?” What do we do now as these Easter people?

As those who bore witness to senseless state violence against Love enfleshed

As those who wept in the lonely, inky darkness of Good Friday

And as those who have had their tears wiped away by the Risen lord himself

Where do we go from here? What do we do now?

The Book of Acts shows us that the apostles wrestled with this same question. As witnesses to Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, they asked themselves, “what do we do now.” “Where do we go from here” Their response? As all changed people do, they wanted to tell about.

At this point in the book of Acts, the apostles have been sharing the good news all over Jerusalem. 

There isn’t a square foot in that town that hasn’t heard what the apostles have said. In fact, they’ve told this story so much that the religious authorities barred them from preaching and thrown them jail. But the apostles kept preaching anyway. Having defied their censorship ban, they are summoned back before the council. And their only defense is this:  “We must obey God rather than human authority.” They say, “The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. And we are witnesses to these things.”

As New Testament professor Dr. Mitzi J. Smith explains, “The apostles refused to stop talking about how God resurrected the lynched body of Jesus.”

Friends, what Acts shows us is that Easter is not just a day of lilies and daffodils. Of beautiful pastels and delicious ham dinners. The book of Acts shows us that Easter is a call to action.  

As the apostles show, to be these changed easter people is to be a witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Love enfleshed. And It means we recount the story.

To name it. To Remember it . And to tell it again and again and again.

Sharing this  witness, telling God’s story, has real power to it. By telling it, not only does it become more ingrained—more internalized—in ourselves. But telling it also helps us to shape the world around us.      

In meditating on our subversive calling, I began thinking about the mothers of May Plaza or Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo. During the dictatorship in Argentina of the 70’s & 80’s, the military junta would kidnap, imprison, and often kill anyone they thought might be a threat to them:

Students.    

Labor union members.     

Artists.    

Journalists.

Anyone with even a whiff of suspicion around them was taken and never seen again.                                           

Eventually the mothers and grandmothers of these disappeared individuals found each other and began to organize themselves. In 1977, in defiance of the dictatorship’s restrictions on gathering in public places, the mothers demonstrated in front of the presidential palace. They held signs and pictures of their disappeared children, and they wore white head scarves with their children’s names beautifully embroidered on to them. At least once a week these women demonstrated in front of the presidential palace shouting the names of their children and demanding justice even at the risk of their own safety.

They recounted the names.

They remembered those lost.

And to told the story again and again and again.

Still to this day, the mothers and grandmothers of may plaza continue to meet every Thursday to march. To witness to the past and present atrocities. To speak the names aloud. And to insist upon justice NOW—not only for themselves. But for all people.

Like the apostles, the mothers and grandmothers of may plaza sang their radical song in opposition to the empire. This too is our calling.

 When law & order seeks to execute life itself.

When empire tries to terrorize love into oblivion.

Our gospel witness rejects narratives that say “this is the only way.” 

Christ’s life, death and resurrection are proof that another way is possible. That nother world is possible.  

Speaking and living our gospel witness is a form of resistance.

It is a danger to the status quo.

To business as usual.

Our witness is a defiant counter melody to the solemn drone of the Empire’s dirge.  

Singing our defiant counter melody, sharing our witness, doesn’t mean you have to recount all of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John verbatim and in order to everyone you meet.  Singing our gospel song will mainly look like small, daily acts of love, joy, and resistance

Our Easter witness is not just telling the story of Christ’s life death and resurrection, but it is our orientation to life—our way of being in the world. As saint Francis said, “Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary, use words”

This is our sacred calling: to show how the world could be--in spite of the way that it is.

When mass incarceration tells us that some folks are disposable, we can testify to God’s grace and proclaim that we are all more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.

 When capitalist logic tells us that the poor are deserving of their plight, we can exclaim "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God" as we fight for fair wages and affordable housing

 Or when caustic rhetoric is hurled at our queer and trans siblings, we can shelter them in love and celebrate the diversity of God’s creation as we remember that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither Male nor Female. 

In all these things, we share our Easter witness We share the story that we know to be true. Not the false narrative the empire feeds to us as truth.

Friends, this is what we do now. This is our sacred charge: to sing a defiant song against despair, against death, against scarcity. But more importantly, we sing a defiant song for joy, for life, for abundance.

Just like the apostles and the mothers of may plaza we bear witness to God’s love, God’s grace, and God’s peace in the world.

Friends, we are an easter people and this is are calling. May we go forth in courage knowing that we are upheld by the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sustainer. 

May it be so. Amen.