An Earth Sunday Message: Our Planet, God's Power

Author's Note: I gave the sermon on April 27 (Earth Sunday) at Good Shepherd UMC.  The following is the manuscript of my remarks.  I enjoyed doing it, and figured I would share the manuscript on the blog in case others would like to see it  You view the service at the link provided; my message starts at ~47:30.

 

Earthrise: December 24, 1968

We’ve heard it said that an image is worth 1000 words.  This was certainly true for Earth Day.  The image shown is the now-iconic Earthrise image captured on Christmas Eve 1968 by Astronaut Bill Anders as the Apollo 8 mission orbited the Moon.  This was the first color photograph of Earth taken from space.  To this day, the image remains one of the most iconic environmental images ever taken.  Earthrise is credited with inspiring the modern environmental movement – and the first Earth Day in 1970.  While there were several other events that transpired around the same time that provided impetus for action, there was something about seeing an image our home planet from space, a fragile blue marble floating in the vast darkness of space, that captured the public’s imagination and got them thinking about we might need to take better care of our world. 

 

Images have power to change things.

 

Here’s another image of Earth; this time looking down at the “bottom” of our world.  It shows the Antarctic Ozone Hole in 2024.  This hole forms every fall.  There’s a story behind this image too.  It’s a success story for the environment – although it didn’t start out that way.  

 

2024 Ozone Hole 

Back in the early 1970s, some scientists started to realize that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were having a harmful impact on the layer of ozone that exists about 6 miles (~10 km) above us in the stratosphere.  The ozone layer protects Earth from much of the harmful impacts of ultraviolet radiation.  Developed in the 1930s, CFCs are stable long-lasting compounds – which made them useful for all kinds of practical industrial applications.  We used them as refrigerants and in aerosol cans.  They provided the puff in Styrofoam^TMcontainers and insulation.  They were also used in fire suppression systems.

How CFCs destroy ozone.

But while the stability of CFCs was good for our economy it wasn’t good for our environment.  They linger a long time in the atmosphere before dissipating –  long enough to get lofted into the stratosphere, where they come into the presence of ultraviolet radiation, which initiates a series of reactions that breaks down the stable CFC into component chemicals, which includes chlorine ions.  Chlorine then reacts with ozone, breaking the stable ozone molecule into an oxygen molecule and free oxygen.  The free oxygen reacts with chlorine to form chlorine monoxide, which in turn frees another chlorine ion, starting the process again, and continuing the destruction of ozone.   It turns out that the presence of clouds high in the stratosphere make the ozone destruction process even more efficient.   So, once chlorine (or bromine) is introduced, the stable, extremely cold conditions in the Antarctic spring are the perfect setup to promote the continued destruction of ozone. 

 

Well, if a picture is worth 1000 words, how much more powerful is a series of images  to motivate action?  

 

While scientists were alarmed by the prospect that CFCs could eat away at atmospheric ozone as early as the 1970s, the public didn’t pay too much attention at first. The words and chemical formulas were all there from the beginning – but most people don’t understand a bunch of chemical formulas strung together  – much less respond to them.

  

 

However, much like the Earthrise image motivated Earth consciousness, what really catalyzed the world to take action on reducing CFCs was seeing satellite images that showed just how dramatic the reduction in ozone over the Antarctic was.  The first of these images came out in 1979 – and NASA and its international partners have been tracking them ever since.  

 

By the mid-1980s, the destruction was becoming hard to ignore.  CFCs had depleted ozone levels  so much that a broad swath of the Antarctic stratosphere was essentially devoid of ozone by early September.  The public response led to government action.   The result was the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement signed in 1987 to phase out CFC-based products and processes. Countries worldwide agreed to replace the chemicals with more environmentally friendly alternatives by 2010. While the release of CFC compounds has dramatically decreased following the Montreal Protocol, CFCs already present will take many decades to break down. As existing CFC levels reduce, ozone in the upper atmosphere has begun to rebound globally, and although ozone hole size varies from one year to the next due to specific meteorological conditions, the overall trend is toward getting smaller.  The 2024 hole ranked the seventh smallest since the expected recovery began in 1992.  Current estimates are that the ozone hole will be fully healed by 2066. 

 

These two examples show that images are an impetus for action.   It’s one thing to read words, but when we see an image, it tells a story that transcend words – and invites us to participate in the story.

 

Let’ stay with that thought as we switch now from scenes of Earth to scenes of Resurrection.  

 

It is Eastertide and on this Earth Sunday Christ is still risen. 

 

Scripture gives us basis for many images from the life of Jesus.  We recognize them quickly when we see them.  The birth… the transfiguration… the arrest and trial… the crucifixion… and the ascension.  But there’s one noteworthy exception.  What did the resurrection look like?  

Now, I’m not talking about events that happened immediately after the resurrection.  On that, all four Gospel writers bear witness – and we have plenty of images based on those stories.  

The Empty Tomb

 

What images do we associate with the Risen Lord?

In a sense, our whole faith rests on the fact that there wasn’t much to photograph that first Easter morning. Christ was risen – but no one really knows exactly how it was accomplished.  Maybe how doesn’t even matter? The testimony of Mary Magdalene (and other women who may have accompanied her) that when she (they) went to the tomb that Sunday morning after the Crucifixion, expecting to find a body, it wasn’t there.  The tomb was empty – and on that basis everything would soon change.

 

 Of course, we do have artwork of the resurrection  Where words were silent, clearly Christian imagination took over to produce countless graphical representations of the moment of Christ’s resurrection.  Take for example the image shown here of the dome of the Chapel of the Spaniards in Florence, Italy.  I chose it because it includes a nice summary of the indirect witness of Christ’s resurrection.  From the left three women approach the tomb (Mark 16:1 and in the other Synoptics) where they meet the angels (bottom center) who tell them Christ is risen, and then on the right, we see Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene in the garden (John 20:17), which comes from our Gospel reading last week on Easter. 

Composite of Resurrection imagery that is part of a larger series of frescoes  crafted by Andrea di Bonnaiuto da Firenze.  The artwork is located in the Chapel of the Spaniards at the 
Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy.

 

In the center of the image, we have the guarded tomb tradition that we get only from Matthew’s account of the resurrection (weaved throughout Matthew 27–28).  Look closely and you’ll see five of the six guards shown in the image have their eyes closed, oblivious to what is happening above them, but one has eyes wide open and is thus an eyewitness to the moment of resurrection.  Most every western depiction of Christ’s resurrection includes the tomb guards – sleeping and/or awake. 

 

But this image includes something else.  Looking up from the guards and angels, we see something Scripture never describes – a direct representation of the risen Lord hovering above his tomb.  (In fact, this image of Christ “rising up” may remind you more of the Ascension, when Jesus is taken back into Heaven than the Resurrection.)  This example is just one of many images found in various Christian churches across Europe – and even here in America.

 

Even in the absence of words that describe it, images of Christ’s resurrection proliferated and have power to inspire us still today.  If the grave cannot hold Jesus, and if, as Paul says, Christ lives in each of us, then there is nothing in this life we cannot overcome. Even death, we believe, will not have the final say.

 

As we bring this conversation back down to Earth, I’d like us to consider one more Resurrection image.  This one is from the Chora Church in Istanbul, Turkey.  In the center stands Jesus, with a mandorla (the almond-shaped halo) around him signifying his Divine power.  If you look closely, you’ll notice he stands atop the broken gates of Hades trampling down the door.  On the left side of the image, Adam reaches out from his tomb to grab Jesus’ hand, on the right Eve does the same. A cast of others follows behind both Adam and Eve.  Jesus faces the viewer and seems to be leading the whole host out of their tombs.

 

I’ll wager that this is a less familiar image to most of us; it certainly was to me.  In western iconography, if we know it all, we call it “The Descent into Hell” and it is often envisioned as happening on Holy Saturday– i.e., while Jesus’s physical body is lies still in his earthly tomb.  In fact, it can be called whatever we wish, so long as we don’t call it resurrection – that’s a different image for us.

Image of the Anastasis located in an apse of a funerary chapel in Chora Church in Istanbul, Turkey.

 

However,  if you worshipped in an Orthodox church, you’d likely recognize this image readily.  An icon similar to it would probably be located somewhere around you wherever you worshipped.   This is an image of the Anastasis—which is the Greek word for resurrection, which literally means “raising up” or “sitting up.”  In this view of the resurrection, 

 

According to the Anastasis, Jesus doesn’t rise alone.  No, he brings all humanity – and all Creation – along.  

 

Whereas the last image was a powerful rendering of the individual resurrection of Jesus and all its related stories, I would argue this of rendering universal resurrection, where all are called to rise with Jesus, offers Christ followers even more power and ultimately offers more hope for our planet.  

 

I believe this is the image of resurrection “Paul” had in mind when he composed his letter to the Colossians.  In today’s Scripture, he speaks of Jesus as the “image of the invisible God.” He tells his readers, in essence, if you want to know what God looks like, you should look to the example and teachings of Jesus.  

 

Paul refers to Jesus as both the “the firstborn of all creation” and “the firstborn from the dead.”  He argues that this gives Jesus authority over all things, whether in heaven or on Earth, and that through the blood Jesus shed on the cross, all creation can now be reconciled to its Creator.  He later goes on to say that in some mysterious way, the same Gospel that we believe as followers of Jesus “has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven,” and that this is the same Gospel to which he has become a servant. 

 

Having the individual image and especially the universal image of resurrection adds power to these words that Paul speaks.  We understand why Paul emphasizes Jesus as Lord over all things and why he is intentional to say that all Creation has heard the gospel – because when he spoke of resurrection, he had all this in mind.  

 

Jesus doesn’t rise up by himself just so we can escape to be with him in Heaven when we die.  No, he raises us up with him now so we can be part of restoring the world to that which God envisioned it could be when God created it.   

 

This is what motivates Paul to, as it says in another letter likely written by a follower of Paul, pour himself out like a drink offering, for the people God has called him to serve.  I suspect those who pastor churches can relate to his strong feelings here.  He strives not only on behalf of the people under his care, but on behalf of all Creation – which pins its hopes for renewal on the actions of human, created in the image the Creator.

 

It is hard work, but Paul says he is sustained by “all the energy that Christ powerfully inspires within me.” He wants the Colossian (and later readers like you and me) to know that the same “renewable energy source” is available to them (to us)… … …

 

The theme for Earth Day 2025 was “Our Power, Our Planet.” The focus was on the pursuit of renewable energy sources that can reduce our society’s addiction to using fossil fuels to fuel its progress.  They have a goal of seeing renewable energy sources tripled by 2030.  As the Earth Day website says, “Grassroots peoplepower has always been at the heart of Earth Day. It is the catalyst for paradigm-shifting change because when individuals unite with a common purpose, they can overcome even the most entrenched systems and industries.”

 

I have a feeling what’s true for the Earth Day move might be true for Christ followers too.  In fact, when it comes to a complex problem like the renewal of our Earth, I think the secular and sacred might need to realize they are two sides of the same coin.  We need to learn that the best way to “resist evil, oppression, and injustice in whatever forms they present themselves,” is to do it together.  There’s power released when we come together to face challenges.  There is synergy; we are greater than the sum of our individual parts. I think that’s the essence of the message conveyed by the universal resurrection images we looked at.

 

Empowered by Christ, we toocan participate in resurrection and renewal in our world.  We can each find our place to fulfill our Genesis 2 calling to “till and keep” God’s good Earth.  

 

Our theme today was “Our Planet, God’s Power.”  Paul was convinced there was a power sustaining him – and providing him a limitless “renewable energy source” to allow him to do his ministry.  

 

But what is that power source?

 

May Day parade in Red Square in Moscow, Russia.
Green circle on the far right wall shows the location
of the Resurrection Gate.

Our world presents two options for power sources.  You can see both options in this Reuters image of a May Day parade taking place in Red Square in Moscow, Russia.  Option 1 is clearly visible on the day captured – it is the World’s Way of violent domination.  The May Day parade held each year is a chance to showcase the perfect precision – and dominance – of Mother Russia’s military.  The tanks moving in formation are the perfect image for Option 1.  This tends to be the standard way in our world and even sometimes in our churches.  We assume that the one in power is the one who has vanquished and subjugated all competitors. 

 

I said this image shows two options for power sources – but you probably wouldn’t notice Option 2 unless you’re really searching for it.  Do you see the green circle in the right corner?  Of all things that area is called the Resurrection Gate?  Why would anything in Red Square be associated with religion – much less with the resurrection?

Image found on the Resurrection Gate
in Red Square – in the green circled
area on previous image.

Remember that this area wasn’t always just for military staging.  There was a time when it was a town square.  And in that town, there were Orthodox churches.  And where there is an Orthodox church, there’s bound to be an Anastasis.  This close-up image of that area circled in green on the previous picture shows Option 2  on covert display in Red Square.  It shows the Jesus Way of self-emptying love.  

 As theologian N.T. Wright states it: The whole point of the kingdom of God is Jesus has come to bear witness to the true truth – which is nonviolent. When God wants to take charge of the world, he doesn't send in the tanks. He sends in the poor and the meek. —N.T. Wright

 

In the concluding verse his famous Ode to Love (1 Corinthians 13:13), Paul reminds his readers (and us) that at the end of all thing, three things will endure: faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. 

As we’ve seen illustrated in the Anastasis images, it is God’s Love that has the power to “trample down” all barriers that keep us in our tombs and to “raise up” all creation to the fullness of what God intended it to be.  We are raised up to take part in the renewal of this world.  That is the universal calling of Earth Day.  This perspective makes the lyrics from the chorus of  Matt Maher’s “Christ is Risen” pulse with power:

 

Christ is risen from the dead.

Trampling over death by death.

Come awake, come awake, come and rise up from the grave!

Weeping for Love

 On this Wednesday of Holy Week, I took a jog in my neighborhood.   The last time I had taken a run outside was a few weeks ago, and many of the trees were blossoming.  Now, I trample over those blossoms as I run along the path. There work done for yet another season, they give way to budding leaves a d scatter almost wastefully on the ground.  Allergy sufferers loathe this time of year, but I love the palette of spring.   The colors are much more varied than the darker green that tends to dominate in late spring and summer . Spring colors cover nearly the full spectrum, ranging from white, to pink, to red, and even some purples, oranges and yellows.  As the blossoms start to wane, pale green leaves begin to emerge in their place and the landscape becomes more verdant with each passing day.

When the wind blows, the ubiquitous Bradford pear trees in our neighborhood produce a veritable blossom blizzard as they cast off their fine white blooms with delicate red and green blossoms in the middle.  The blossoms fall over my head in windswept squalls as I run.  They coat the ground and anything or anyone else who happens to pass by during the height of the tempest. 

Bradford Pear blossoms pile up like snow.

Red and white magnolia blossoms fall like tears, often gathering around the base of the tree as if they encircle the tree in a protective layer of love before they are inevitably scattered to the four winds, ending up in nearby drainage ditches, ponds, and ground into my shoes as I run along the blossom-coated path.   Dogwoods add their distinctive pink blossoms, while oaks, maples, and other trees each add their unique hues to the spring biomass bonanza.    

Dogwood

I trample over some of this discarded beauty as I run.  And as I do  I think of a song lyric about another discarded beauty….

Like a rose trampled on the ground, you took the fall and thought of me above all.

This lyric is from the chorus of the praise song “Above All,” which we often sing during Holy Week as we reflect upon Jesus’s crucifixion and burial.  Although can I be honest? While this line makes for great poetry, I don’t think it’s the best theology.  Jesus wasn’t just thinking of me or just thinking of you; he wasn’t even thinking of just human beings.  No, when Jesus “took the fall” and allowed himself to be trampled upon like tender rose petals under a Roman soldier’s boot,  I believe he had all creation in mind.   That’s why when I sing this I will often say:

Like a rose trampled on the ground, you took the fall and thought of love above all.

It’s a subtle shift, but an important one.  It takes the focus off me and puts it on all Creation—which still includes you and  me, by the way, but now God is the focus, not us.  Also, I think changing this single word acknowledges that the true source of Jesus’s power was God’s overwhelming love for that which God created.  Indeed, it is true that God so loved the world that he sent Jesus (God in human flesh) to live among us and die as one of us.  Through that one act, God saved Creation in every way it needed to be saved.  Somehow in this ultimate act of self-giving love, by emptying himself completely (which theologians call kenosis), God’s love triumphs over every other power in the universe.  Even death itself will ultimately be defeated—but that is getting ahead of ourselves.

Magnolia

For now, return with me to the magnolia, dropping her blossoms like tears.  Think of the weeping willows with their leaves emerging now in Maryland.  Think of soaking rain, like that which has replenished the water level in the ponds in my neighborhood recently after a prolonged drought. Think of how our human eyes function. Again and again, nature shows us the necessity of tears.  

The path to rejoicing in the morning must pass through the weeping in the night. 

In Gethsemane, Jesus weeps.  In his passion narrative, Luke goes so far as to imagine that so great was the stress Jesus felt in that moment, that tears of blood fell from his cheeks—Luke 22:44.  Jesus doesn’t just weep for what will happen to him, though;  I think he weeps for all Creation, and how it has fallen short of what God intended it to be: Our violence.  Our exploitation the Other, both human and nonhuman. Our struggle to follow Jesus’s example of foot-washing and self-giving love for all of humanity—John 13:1–20.  The shedding of Jesus’ tears, which will soon give way to the violent shedding of his blood, are somehow required to bring about the redemption of Creation that God desires.  

Weeping Willow

All this makes me think of another song I like called “After the Last Tear Falls.”  I like it because it’s so brutally honest about how life is here on this Third Rock from the Sun.  The verses frankly acknowledge that there are many things in this life that give us cause to lament, to cry out to God, to shed honest tears over situations we wish were different.  But at the end of each verse, the songwriter loops back an even deeper reality of life: that even after all this world does its worse and despite all that’s clearly wrong in this world, God’s love is still here—and in the end that’s what will help us prevail against all odds against “evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.”  Liten to the promise offered in the song’s bridge:

And in the end, the end is oceans and oceans of love and love again
We'll see how the tears that have fallen
Were caught in the palms of the Giver of love and the Lover of all
And we'll look back on these tears as old tales

'Cause after the last tear falls there is love

But again, that’s a privileged view from the perspective of Sunday morning.  First, we must sit with the bitter tears of Wednesday through Friday.  We must endure the betrayal by Judas, the arrest by the Romans, the mockery of a trial before the Sanhedrin, the humiliation before the local figureheads of the dominant power (Pilate and Herod), the denial and bitter weeping of Peter,  the abandonment by all the male disciples that followed him to the garden and the High Priest’s home, the crucifixion at Golgotha for treason against Rome, the grieving tears of Mary his mother and the other women disciples as they watch him die powerless to stop it and then lay him to rest in a borrowed tomb.  

Like those first followers of Jesus, we too must weep before we can rejoice.  We dare not rush to “the end” of the story lest we miss the chapters in the middle and thus lose the power of the whole tale.  That is our challenge for this Holy Week, to see the story through all its chapters to (what appears to be) the bitter end… 

Give God Your "Unruly Heart" for Lent

We saw the play, “The Prom,” recently at the College of Southern Maryland (CSM).  My son Brady was in the ensemble. He’s always loved to sing and act.  He hadn’t been in a play since seventh grade (2019).  He had the lead role in the eighth-grade play, “Annie,” but COVID cancelled it.  I always thought that loss was hard on him.  He turned his attention to baseball, playing for North Point (his high school) and for another travel team.  He even dabbled with playing baseball in college, but it never quite worked out.  That was a disappointment at the time.  But, in hindsight, I’m not sure it was supposed to. I think God may have something else in store for Brady…

My email address is al_can_dance.  I chose it years ago when I was first learning ballroom dancing during graduate school. I took dance classes during graduate school and for quite a few years afterward. I danced in some showcases; we even did a choreographed dance routine at our wedding.  I have fallen out of practice with dancing in recent years, nevertheless my email identity endures.  

 

Honestly, I never thought I was that great at ballroom dancing, but I liked the structure of ballroom dancing as opposed to freestyle where it seemed you made it up as you go.  My body didn’t seem to want to do that – ever.  Given I now know I am autistic, I guess there was a physiological reason why it was always so hard to just “get up and dance.”  The fact that I don’t consume alcohol excessively at parties might also play into the equation.  

 

But now there’s now a worthy heir to the can_dance mantra in the Ward family: Brady can dance!  

My son Brady  in the CSM production of "The Prom"

I knew that my son had been working hard the past few months to prepare for the play.  He had commented not long after rehearsals started in January that he had to learn to dance.  He seemed to have a bit of trepidation at first, but he spent lots of hours practicing in our family room.  He’d get a little conscientious when people paid attention to him for too long.  I came down the stairs once while he was practicing in the family room.  He looked up and said, “Hi dad,” then went back to what he was doing.  I kept walking and let him do his thing.  

 

Let’s just say I became quite familiar with many of the songs in the play long before we saw it.  (I had also seen a movie version of “The Prom” before.). Brady would rehearse the moves over and over again. He would play the soundtrack on his phone incessantly wherever he went.  He would watch YouTube videos of other productions of “The Prom.” But I have to say, all that hard work paid off!  He looked genuinely happy be on the stage again after a long hiatus.

 

Last fall was challenging for Brady.  In his first semester of college, he started out taking Engineering classes.  It was arough first semester.  Engineering just doesn’t fit who Brady truly is,   He tried baseball.  While he loves the game and comes alive on the field, I think even his passion for baseball pales to what I saw on stage the other night. Singing and dancing clearly brings Brady alive.    

After the show.

 I think Brady might be finding his way to following the sage advice of Howard Thurman, who said: 

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

 

 ******************

It seems somehow fitting that Brady, who as a young adult is discovering more about who he is, was in a play that focuses so much on “coming out” before the world.  [CAUTION: Plot spoilers ahead…] 

The story focuses a lesbian high school student named Emma Nolan, who is coming to terms with her genuine self in the conservative state of Indiana.  Her partner, Alyssa Greene, is the daughter of the school’s PTA leader, who clearly has traditional views on homosexuality.  Mrs. Greene works to keep Emma from attending prom, and when that fails, manages to get the whole event cancelled.   Later, when her efforts are thwarted through legal action and the prom is reinstated, Mrs. Greene organizes an effort to move the event to a new venue and make sure everyone knows – everyone, that is, except Emma.  She ends up humiliated when she shows up in her prom dress to an empty gym.  Not even Alyssa is there.  In the end, even Emma’s partner went along with the switch. 

 

In “The Prom” we see the furor that’s caused in a small town in the Midwest when one LGBTQ person simply wants to attend prom with the person she loves and with her fellow students.  So much so that the story goes national, attracting the attention of some actors in New York.  They at first see this cause as something they can get behind to help rebuild their reputations and help their struggling careers.  However, by the end of the play, they come to see beyond themselves and their own self-interests and help Emma have the Prom she deserves. 

 

There comes a point in the second act where Emma can’t hide who she is any longer.  The actors want her to go on TV to tell her story.  But Emma can’t do that.  She will tell her story to the world – but she will do it her way.  She does so by singing a beautiful song called “Unruly Heart.”

 

Some hearts can conform

Fitting the norm

Flaunting their love for all to see

I tried to change

Thinking how easy life could be

I just kept on failing

I guess that was a sign

That there wasn’t much hope 

For this unruly heart of mine

Then you came along

And right or wrong

Feelings began to overflow

We had to hide

Thinking no one else could know

And not having you near me

Was where I drew the line

So, I had to conceal

This poor unruly heart of mine

And though I don’t know how or when

But somehow, I learned to see

No matter what the world might say

This heart is the best part of me! So

So, fears, all in the past

Fading so fast

I won’t stay hidden anymore

I’m who I am 

And I think that’s worth fighting for

And nobody out there ever gets to define

That life I’m meant to lead

With this unruly heart of mine. 

 

Like Emma, I think Brady is discovering who he genuinely is.  I think maybe Engineering was something of a False Self (discussed below) for him.  I get the sense he was doing what he felt like others (his parents) wanted him to do or what some of his friends from high school were doing.  But those topics just don’t fit my son.  

What any parent wants most want for their child is for them to be and become the person God made them to be.  

Brady is clearly good at acting—and dancing.  He comes alive when he does it.  It’s wonderful to witness.  I was so proud of my boy when I saw him doing something that brings a smile to his face.   

 

******************

Of course, Brady isn’t the only one who’s been coming to terms with who he is.  I think we all find ourselves wearing masks in our lives that we need to take off.  My last blog post was about how I have been hiding from the world who I truly am and have begun unmasking.   

Unmasking

When I heard “Unruly Heart” the song lyrics spoke to me.  I felt like it was no coincidence that I was sitting in that auditorium at CSM.  I feel like God used the plot of “The Prom” to speak to me.  (I don’t recall the movie version impacting me the same way.) When I heard “Unruly Heart” I thought of my own journey of unmasking, of perhaps for the first time, being truly honest (genuine) about who God has made me to be, which I shared about in my last article.

 

I’m convinced that, risky and vulnerable as it can feel  to reveal it, we conceal our “unruly hearts” from each other at our own peril.  The world tells us there’s a certain orthodox way of being and we feel pressure to conform to it.  We experience shame – feeling that we ourselves are defective or unworthy or wrong – when we perceive we’re different from “normal.”  We learn to mask our differences  – to do what we think others want us to do to be socially accepted. We even try to conceal who we are from God – as if that’s possible. 

 

I think the plot of “The Prom” is a great Lenten metaphor.  Emma gradually unmasks who she truly is to the world.  For Christ-followers, the Lenten season is all about bringing who we truly are before God – without apology.  It’s a liturgical season that leads up to Easter where God beckons us to intentionally focus on confronting and ruthlessly eliminating those people and things from our lives that make us want to cover up our true identity – as a uniquely created beloved child of God.   

 

“The Prom” makes it clear that Emma’s choice to unmask wasn’t easy – and neither is it an easy choice for Christians to make during Lent, or any other season.  It’s easier to stay hidden – or to unmask only in controlled or “safe” contexts.  Our culture encourages us to hide behind all sorts of masks.  Everyone is doing it, so why shouldn't we be just like everyone else?  "Conceal... don't feel," right?

In "The Prom," Emma’s girlfriend Alyssa wanted to go that route.  She wanted to keep their relationship masked  – you know, "just between them." She didn’t trust what would happen if “the world” found out about them.  She tries to make Emma understand why she's doing this when she sings about what it’s like to be “Alyssa Greene.” 

While Emma understands Alyssa's concerns as well as anyone, she's also hurt when her partner makes this choice.  She decides to break up with Alyssa .  In one of the song lyrics at the end of the first act, Emma laments that – at the end of the day – “the night belonged to them.”  

But as the second act unfolds,  Emma reaches a point where she realizes she can no longer hide her identify with integrity.  She decides to tell the whole world (or at least the millions who view her song on the Internet) who she is.  Her choice to share her truth impacts others for the good.  They begin to share with her their own similar stories to the song lyrics of “Unruly Heart.”

 

I hope the same might be true for Christ followers during Lent that was true for Emma in “The Prom” – that as we share our truths, it would make others feel safe to share theirs.

 

Not long before he died, Howard Thurman gave the commencement address at Spelman College. During that address he speaks of the Sound of the Genuine.  In that speech, Thurman said:

 

“Now if I hear the Sound of the Genuine in Me, and if you hear the Sound of the Genuine in You, it is possible for me to go down in me and come up in you. So that when I look at myself through your eyes having made that pilgrimage, I see in me what you see in me and the wall that separates and divides will disappear and we will become one because the sound of the genuine makes the same music.”

 

I interpret this to mean that when the Genuine in Me meets the Genuine in You (or, we could say, the Genuine in the Other) is when Genuine Encounter between souls becomes possible – and when we can experience our deepest connection (or union) with God.

 

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Another term theologians and therapists use for masking is the False Self.  There are messages we tell ourselves about who we are – or that others have told us – that wound us at the core of our being.  They become imprinted on our soul.   Over the years, we internalize them, to the point where we believe they define who we are.  So, we create a False Self to avoid the pain of these core wounds.

 

We might create this False Self when we are young to protect us and help us survive toxic family situations, or for a host of other reasons. So,  the False Self isn’t necessarily a Bad Self; it serves a purpose in our development.  However, there comes a point where, if we are to thrive as God intended (John 10:10), the False Self must give way to the Genuine Self.  We tend to cling to the False Self long after it has served its purpose because we fear what will happen when the truth is revealed: What will others think??  Will they be able to handle the Genuine Me?

 

Letting go of the False Self parallels walking the Threefold Way – discussed in my previous article.  Stripping away the False Self (purgation) before God and one another is not easy – but it must be done to allow God’s light to shine upon places that have long been shrouded in darkness (illumination).  In the Light of Christ, we begin to see ourselves differently.  The False Self slowly loses its grip on us, our connection to God deepens (union) and the Genuine Self begins to emerge.

 

Like Emma in “The Prom,” we have to reach a point where the fear of what will happen to us if we stay hidden surpasses our fear of revealing our Genuine Selves to the world.  

 

As Howard Thurman reminds us, what the worlds needs most is the “fully alive” versions of ourselves – i.e., the Genuine in You and the Genuine in Me having Genuine Encounters with each other and with God. And friends, as Emma Noland realized, that’s something worth fighting for.  

 

During the season of Lent, God invites all of us who follow Jesus to come out – to name and claim who we are and whose we are.  With that said, You – and only You – can decide when and to whom you reveal your Genuine Self.  Nobody out there can force you.  In the end, it’s up to you.

 

You get to decide the life you’re meant to lead with that unruly – God-given – heart of yours.