Easter: a reality distortion field

Matthew 28: 1-10
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
April 16, 2017 

 

Henry Ossawa Tanner: The Three Marys (1910)

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            Steve Jobs was the grand master of the reality distortion field. It’s a large part of what made Apple the most successful computer company on the planet. It’s what helped propel what began in a garage in 1976 into a worldwide brand worth about $154 billion dollars. It ensured that wildly creative ideas became as yet unimagined products with impossible deadlines. It’s what created millions of people to hunger and thirst for what was going to come next.

            The term “reality distortion field” comes from the original Star Trek universe.  (Yes, Star Trek finally made its way into an Easter sermon.)  In a two-part episode entitled “The Menagerie”, telepathic beings were able to create convincing, alternate realities within the minds of other species.  This distorted reality could be pleasurable or painful, fantastical or torture, whatever these beings wanted it to be.

            Steve Jobs was able to do this not with telepathy but by sheer force of will, along with a charismatic personality, an inspirational style, and an unshakable belief in himself and his methods.  Reality was soft and supple clay ready to be shaped however he wished.  He could reframe a situation or problem, bring everyone to the table, and have them reach the same conclusion—his.  

As with most creative companies, Jobs encouraged and solicited ideas from staff and employees, and it was in this context that he manipulated reality with a flagrant disregard for those same people.  If Jobs heard an idea that he liked, he would immediately discourage it, refusing to acknowledge that it could be possible.  At the next meeting, he would then present the very same idea as his own, thus ensuring that it would indeed become realized.  The impossible would become possible, but only if he took ownership of it.

Since Steve Jobs left Apple and since his passing, the reality distortion field dissolved with him and also it seems Apple’s ability to come up with the next innovative technology, the one more thing, the must have.  Last spring Steve Wozniak said that Apple was no longer the company it was originally or even the one that really changed the world.  That’s the power of a reality distortion field—it can change the world.

Of course, we all operate within a reality distortion field, and it is unique to each of us.  What we perceive as reality can become our actual reality, what self-help gurus call a self-fulfilling prophecy.  We all have our biases, assumptions, opinions, underlying commitments, life experiences, and self-reinforcing beliefs that comprise our worldview.  And we think we’re right.  Maybe we’re not manipulating other people or stealing their ideas, but most of the time we’re wed to what we think, see, feel, and know.

And yet Easter is one of those days when we’re asked to put all that aside and use our imaginations—to distort reality in a way that doesn’t serve just ourselves but the whole of creation.  Some people call this reality distortion thing a ‘mind hack’—a way of reprogramming the mind.  What Jesus was after was more of a heart hack—a convincing alternate reality in which there is abundance rather than scarcity; forgiveness instead of vengeance or resentment; justice instead of punishment; compassion instead of selfishness; generosity instead of competition; love instead of fear; life worth living instead of mindlessness; the Beloved Community instead of empire, and an end to violence.

            This heart hack was so anxiety-producing and conflict-creating for some that the state decided the only way to distort this Jesus-reality was to put him to death.  Death is the ultimate reality distortion field, the final solution, the harshest punishment, the end of the argument, the one thing we haven’t figured out how to manipulate.

            Even so, two thousand years later we still proclaim “Jesus lives!”  Jesus’ reality distortion field is still here.  Despite his death, we experience him as living still.  Even though he no longer walks among us, we know Jesus in one another and in our life together.  When we serve meals at Hope Dining Room or volunteer at the Empowerment Center or Friendship House, Jesus lives.  When we love someone, forgive someone who does not deserve it, who has not earned it, Jesus lives.  When someone loves us, forgives us, and we certainly have not earned it or deserved it, Jesus lives.  When we work for justice on behalf of the incarcerated, the marginalized, the underpaid, the undocumented; when we raise our voices for any who are excluded from the rights and privileges we enjoy simply because they are different, Jesus lives.  When we know the right thing to do, what is kind and compassionate, when we’re not sure if we should or if we can, but we do it anyway, Jesus lives.

            It was not Jesus’ death, Jesus’ crucifixion that altered the reality of the disciples and the world around them that we are then here today.  People died, people were put to death every day.  It was Jesus’ resurrection that propelled a motley band of followers into a movement that changed the world.  Because Jesus lives, the disciples were prepared to live out that heart hack of his even to the point of their own death.  Because Jesus lives…Jesus is Lord, which means the powers of this world are not.  Death, destruction, violence, greed, domination do not have the last word, only the second to last word. 

Just as we professed in the call to worship, it won’t happen without us.  We have to be willing to submit our distortion field to the one Jesus would have us not only live in but establish for others.  We have to be willing to subvert the dominating distortion field that says there is not enough, that death is a deterrent to crime, that those addicted to drugs should be treated like criminals, that we should be afraid of those who are different from us, and that controlling others through violence is the only way to manage our fear.

            In truth the ultimate reality distortion field is not death or resurrection or even love but hope.  It was hope that brought the women to the tomb that morning as much as it was grief.  It was hope that empowered a scattered people to become the body of Christ.  It’s hope that has the power to lift us from despair.  It’s hope that keeps us loving, even when it seems like love has ended.  It’s hope that can lead us to defiant, rebellious joy.  Words like “we can’t”, “it’s not possible”, “it won’t work” do not have the last word in a hopeful reality distortion field.  It’s hope that can transform our fears into action, our prayers into deeds, our anxiety about change into a hunger and thirst for what’s possible, even what may seem impossible. 

Resurrection Panel of the Isenheim Altarpiece, Matthias Grunewald, 1515.

            Every morning is Easter morning.  Every day is resurrection day.  What are we willing to imagine for this church, for our lives, for our world?  How far are we willing to go?  Does Jesus really live?  Is Jesus really Lord?  It doesn’t happen without us.   

            Amen.

We Call Ourselves to Worship

Easter is the day the revolution began.

Jesus lives!

But it will not happen without us.

Jesus is Lord.

Easter is a shockwave, 

creating unimagined possibilities.

Jesus lives!

But it will not happen without us.

Jesus is Lord.

Easter means the liberation of women, 

the vulnerable, the marginalized, the oppressed, 

is the liberation of us all.

Jesus lives!

But it will not happen without us.

Jesus is Lord.

Easter is the day our old life dies 

and our new life begins.

Jesus lives!

But it will not happen without us.

Jesus is Lord.

Thanks be to God!