{"id":684,"date":"2018-03-27T16:33:54","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T16:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/messenger\/?p=684"},"modified":"2023-06-27T19:06:12","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T19:06:12","slug":"trust-betrayal-and-the-promise-of-easter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/potluck\/trust-betrayal-and-the-promise-of-easter\/","title":{"rendered":"Trust, betrayal, and the promise of Easter"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a cold January evening, my pastor held a brainstorming session<\/strong> with people from several ministry groups in our congregation. We were to help pull together creative ideas for worship during Lent. She started off with a theme appropriate to the season that prepares us for Easter: growth into new life\u2014the way a plant survives underground as a seed through the dark winter, and emerges and grows in the light of spring.<\/p>\n

But the conversation turned a corner. Suddenly we found ourselves talking about trust, and betrayals of trust. The person who shifted the topic said he was struck by great examples of trust during the last days of Jesus\u2019 earthly ministry: people trusted in the promise of a Messiah, the disciples followed Jesus into Jerusalem at a time of dangerous politics, the owner of that Palm Sunday colt loaned out a valuable animal on trust. Others responded with examples of betrayal: the disciples fell asleep in the garden, they ran and hid after Jesus\u2019 arrest, Peter denied him, the crowd chose Barabbas.<\/p>\n

We wondered whether anyone in those stories escaped the guilt of betrayal. The women at the foot of the cross were held up as an example until we remembered the unresolved ending of the Gospel of Mark: Those same women fled from the empty tomb without sharing the news of resurrection.<\/p>\n

What about Jesus? Were his words on the cross, \u201cRemove this cup from me,\u201d and \u201cMy God, why have you forsaken me?\u201d some kind of betrayal? Or were they agonized pleas from someone facing a gruesome death, who still wanted to live?<\/p>\n

Betrayals of trust are in the news every day. #MeToo has brought such betrayals to the fore and demands that we pay attention. Some who say #MeToo were betrayed by friends or family, some by people in positions of power and authority, some by bosses, some by strangers. All have been betrayed by a society that looked the other way, hasn\u2019t insisted on basic standards of human decency, hasn\u2019t wanted to bring to light what\u2019s been going on in the dark.<\/p>\n

For me, the abuse of girls on the USA Gymnastics team by Larry Nassar is most heart wrenching. The opportunity to tell their stories and finally be believed, in a court of law, seems to have helped many of them\u2014now young women\u2014 begin the process of healing. \u201cLittle girls don\u2019t stay little forever. They grow into strong women that return to destroy your world,\u201d survivor Kyle Stephens said to Nassar at his trial, quoted by Julie DiCaro in the Washington Post.<\/em><\/p>\n

But now their parents are having to face their own guilt, publicly. They are both betrayed and betrayers. DiCaro writes, \u201cFor years, young women reported Nassar\u2019s abuse to parents, police, and school staff members, only to have their reports ignored.\u201d There was a \u201cseemingly endless litany of missed opportunities to stop Nassar and prevent other children from abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

An unrelenting light is being focused on betrayals of trust. Its chief targets may be the Nassars and Weinsteins of the world, who thrive by building structures that take advantage of trust, but in this new reality is anyone truly free of the guilt of betrayal? We may be tempted to take refuge in cynicism. We wonder if #MeToo will fade, or go too far, and nothing will change.<\/p>\n

Easter, however, invites us to allow our stories of trust betrayed, experiences of abuse and violence and pain, our guilt, emerge from darkness and heal in the light. Easter invites us into God\u2019s unrelenting love.<\/p>\n

When we give praise simply for victory over death, perhaps we put Easter in too small a box. Dare we reimagine our Easter alleluias?<\/p>\n

Christ is risen!<\/em><\/p>\n

He was betrayed, abused, tortured.<\/em><\/p>\n