two for easter two

Yesterday was "Easter Two", according to the Revised Common Lectionary. I know this refers to the number of Sundays in the season, but I prefer to think of it as a kind of sequel, as in "Easter II: The Legend Continues", or "Easter II: Electric Bugaloo."

Anyway, here are the promised two:

a poem about me and jesus

some days we box
some days we dance
some days we just cry together.

And:

As many of you know, I carried around a sledgehammer all through Lent. It was to remind me about all the things that needed to be smashed, and to give me a chance to reflect on power and violence. It did all those things, and a few more. I even got to use it to pound a stake into the ground, one time. On Easter, I put it down.

A couple days later, I was reading the daily lectionary reading, and realized this: sledgehammers are good for breaking down walls. Really good. That might even be what they're designed for. However. The Risen Christ: walks through walls.

Shazam.

Lenten Discipline

As many of you know, Lent started on Wednesday. On Monday, I went to the hardware store and bought a sledgehammer. I've been thinking a lot lately about all the forces of colonialism, racism, sexism, etc, that seem to rule our world. It seems to me that most of them are due for a smashing. I'm not sure whether this smashing is best done with poetry or ideology, with sermons or with direct action- but clearly smashing is what's called for. I bought a hammer small enough to put in my backpack, so that I wouldn't scare folks on the bus. But it's also heavy enough to make me remember it's there, and to remember just why I'm going to seminary.

It feels like it's a naive kind of thing to do; carrying around a sledgehammer in the hopes that this will help me remember to smash systems of oppression. It's also a more violent metaphor than I've been using lately. But I've been reading folks like Albert Memmi and Frantz Fanon, who argue somewhat convincingly for the use of revolutionary violence. So, as I think about that, it's good to have something heavy to carry around.

Come Easter, we'll see.


ps- In Chapel on Wednesday, I set fire to NAFTA for ashes to smear on our foreheads. It's important to remember how I carry my privilege.