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1
 Proclamation
June 7 (Acts 2)I can recall clearly a few of the subtleties of game-playing on the school playground. Say that on a given recess time the game of choice of was jungle-gym tag.Someone would yell,
 Last one up is ‘it’ 
, and so we would all scurry up whether it wasgoing the wrong way up a slide, scaling a rope ladder or clamoring for the steps. Thenone of us would begin in pursuit of the rest. Then as it seemed to often happen someonewould call out some random rule change like,
anyone who touches the grass is ‘it 
’, and soanyone touching grass would quickly hop onto some patch of gravel or climb up on some piece of equipment and the dynamics of the game would shift. It would be as though wewould suddenly break into a game of tag here in the sanctuary (hmmmm) and after wehad been running around for awhile someone would call out,
anyone who touches carpet is ‘it’ 
. There were certain kids who had the influence to change the rules of the game.When Chantal and I were still dating we were visiting my family one night and began a game of Monopoly. As I suspect many of you can also attest to the fact thatMonopoly can become pretty heated at times. I think I still have a slight scar on myinside lip from having dice hurled at me as a kid. So as we began to play I noticed thatChantal did not quite fit into our way of playing. Where many of us would relish andtake great pleasure in making someone pay for landing on our property Chantal insteadwould be sympathetic telling someone that they could pay later or even just
not to worryabout it 
. Well, this changed everything. How could this game work if people did notstrictly enforce the basic premise of the game which is to form a monopoly of wealth?There are some of us who can change the rules of the game and there are others whochange the game by how they play.In Flannery O’Connor’s short story
 A Good Man is Hard to Find 
we encounter atypically self-involved family traveling by car for a vacation. Early in the story there isforeshadowing of an escaped convict who may be passing through in the same vicinity astheir own travels. At one point we find out that the grandmother had snuck a cat along inthe car and when it is literally out-of-the-bad it creates confusion and the car veers off theroad throwing some its passengers out the door. As the family began to regroup a black car pulled up and three men with guns stepped out. Two of the men took the father andson into a near-by wood where after a time shots could be heard. The remaining familymembers a grandmother, mother and daughter remained with the escaped convict whowas called The Misfit. They began to talk and the grandmother tried in her own way toconvince The Misfit that he was not a bad man and that he would not shoot a lady. After awhile the other two came out and took the mother and daughter into the woods whereagain in time shots could be heard. The Misfit and grandmother continued talking.In time the grandmother simply pleaded with The Misfit that he should pray. Itwas never too late to start praying. She began loosing her voice and simply startedrepeating the name Jesus over and over again. Finally the Misfit responded, “Yes’mJesus thrown everything off balance. . . . Jesus was the only One that ever raised the deadand he shouldn’t have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If He did what Hesaid, then it’s nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow Him, and if hedidn’t then its nothing for you to do but enjoy a few minutes you got left the best way
 
2you can – by killing somebody or burning down his house or some other meanness tohim. No pleasure but meanness. . . . I wisht I had of been there.It ain’t right I wasn’t there because if I had been there I would have known. . . . If I had been there I would have known and I wouldn’t be like I am right now.”The Misfit, who chose his name because he could never fully fit what he had donewrong with the punishment he received, understood perfectly well that with Jesus andwith the resurrection of the dead the game had been fundamentally changed. Perhaps wecould even say that a new game had begun. That Jesus was raised from the dead hungover his head as fundamental cross-road in how life was to be lived. If he couldsomehow know that it was true then all that was left would be to drop everything andfollow him. But if it was not true then life consists in burning down the house of your neighbour because all returns to dust anyway and that is the end of things. And isn’t thatwhat is fundamental to the rules of most of our games today? This was true already onthe playground where I was as a child.An audible change in the rules was often done by someone popular enough thatthe other kids would listen obediently. And conveniently this tended to happen just intime to get themselves out of trouble. And so just when they were about to be caughtthey suddenly changed the rules and some other poor soul would be ‘it.’ This is the basic premise for every reality show on TV. The entire game is structured around having onlyone house left standing while the others were burned down. We are learning more andmore that our model and practice of consumerism in the West is often the cause of figurative or even literal burning of resources for others around the world. And we knowin our own hearts how easy it is for us to begin thinking of how our neighbours housecould burn instead of how it could be built.The Misfit saw that in Jesus the game was fundamentally changed and this changewas a matter of life and death. The early Church also recognized this change and theresurrection became a centerpiece in its proclamation. For us the resurrection takes itsmeaning in a highly figurative manner. One’s life can said to be resurrected if they come back from something like a devastating addiction or illness. The scandal of this term for the early church was not in its figurative use. It was also not entirely scandalous as aconcept though many Jews and Greeks denied a physical resurrection. There werealready many Jewish groups that developed the belief that God would physically restorethe Jewish people at the time that God would also restore the created order. This wasindeed unnerving for those in power such as the priestly ruling class and the Romans. A physical resurrection meant that those currently in power could never fully control therules of the game. These powers could never fully control the minds and bodies of the people they governed. Jesus seems allude to this when he said, “Friends do not be afraidof those who kill the body and after that can do no more.” The death of your earthly body is not the end. A deep an abiding scandal in the church’s proclamation, a scandalwhose edge is just as sharp today if we are able to encounter it, is that the resurrection has begun. The resurrection, the physical, spiritual and final triumph over the powers of theworld and of death, has begun in the person of Jesus. The restoration of the world is inthe motion. News of the resurrection spreads and the early witnesses and believers gather. OnPentecost that was marked on the liturgical calendar last week the Holy Spirit was pouredout so that this message of the resurrected one would be made known. And what is the
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