John 20:11-18
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 touch 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.
One of my questions going into this fellowship was how the Good News of Jesus Christ meets people in very particular places of suffering, such as homelessness or incarceration. I have my own theology that (1) leads me to minister to these communities and (2) compels me to share it because I know it’s powerful enough to meet people in their pain. However, I was seeking a more personal understanding of how these communities understand God’s promises in their day to day lives.
Street pastors intimately know the particular circumstances their communities face. They know the judgment and trauma their communities have experienced in religious settings. They know they will offer Eucharist to people who won’t receive it because they’ve been told they’re not worthy. They know the systemic problems keeping people on the streets or in their cars or hopping from one shelter to another. They know that no amount of preaching can get someone housing faster or overcome the immense barriers to getting sober.
You don’t have to look far on the streets to see the brokenness, the frailty, the cross.
So what’s the Gospel in these spaces? Where is the resurrection amid all the death? What is the Good News amongst all the addiction and trauma and impossible situations?
“What is the Good News of Jesus Christ for your community?”
These were some of the street pastors’ answers:
God loves you just as you are. Not when you figure it out, not when you clean up your life, whatever it is.1
God’s got you.2
God loves us so much that he became incarnate and came to us, that we are so loved and beloved that that happened.3
Jesus suffered and knows suffering and can meet us in our suffering. Jesus was rejected. Jesus was humiliated. Jesus is there in that suffering. Jesus is with them.4
God is here, in a place where most people think there’s only the devil and drugs. But in fact, God is there. And the love of God is extraordinarily present in that space.5
They are loved. They were created for a purpose. They have a contribution to make in this world. And God is constantly trying to reach out to them and give them a new beginning.6
This is the Good News that is proclaimed over and over during worship and sermons and prayers. It’s emphasized when a pastor is talking one on one with someone, or when they run into someone in the park. It’s not weighed down in theological jargon, nor does it require a lot of background knowledge. It’s a simple, to the point, down to earth message about how God enters into our lives.
This Gospel is a beautiful counter message to much of the judgment and unworthiness the unhoused community receives in the world. Worship and church and their Christian community are the spaces that offer Good News when they are surrounded by so much bad news.
When I asked the pastors this question, some of them answered right away with the thing they say all the time. Others paused and I imagined them thinking through specific people in their community. Some got really emotional.
However they answered, I got the sense that this Good News was not just for their communities, but also for them. This Gospel message is what guides the pastors in all that they do. It’s the Good News that gets them out of bed in the morning. It’s the resurrection promise that propels them forward on hard days. It’s the hope they cling to when they face the realities of the cross in the lives of their community.
This is what the Easter promise today is, too.
A guiding light and hope that will lead us forward when we see no clear path. A truth that we proclaim even when it doesn’t look true from where we’re sitting. A resurrection story that cuts into the sting of death and proclaims that it’s not the end of the story.
Today, we hear Good News that simply doesn’t make sense, but it’s a message our world is desperate to hear.
Our siblings on the streets
and living paycheck to paycheck
and hiding without documentation
and living behind barbed wire fences
and waiting out their days on death row
and fighting depression and anxiety
and who are lonelier than ever
and even you, sitting there reading this right now -
we’re all desperate for this Good News. It’s what unites us together.
So wherever you find yourself today on the spectrum of despair and joy, on whatever cross you might be facing, may you know that this Good News is for you. This Easter promise that God redeems that which is dead and broken and hopeless, it’s for you.
And even if you don’t feel or believe it today, it doesn’t make it any less true:
God is constantly trying to reach out to you and give you a new beginning.
Allelujah! Allelujah!
🌅
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Happy Easter, friends.
These reflections, experiences, and dedicated time for writing is thanks to the generosity of The Reverend Janet Karvonen-Montgomery Preaching Fellowship from Luther Seminary. You can learn more about Rev Janet and the Fellowship here.
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Pastor Stephanie Smith at Cathedral in the Night.
Pastor Chris Matson at Church on the Street.
Lisa Levy at Chapel on the Green.
Rev Kim Jackson at Church of the Common Ground.
Pastor Linda Forsberg at Church Beyond the Walls.