How often have we heard that Christians are called to be “Easter people?” At David’s Place, our space for prayer and fellowship for marginalised people and their friends, we have truly learnt what this means.
For being an “Easter person” means dying, as Jesus did, as well as rising afterwards. In what ways might we die while we are still alive? Rejection, vulnerability, pain and the loneliness of not fitting in are what usually make a person “marginal.” These things can come with being mentally ill, having a history of substance abuse, continuing physical illnesses, or being disabled in some way.
It also involves rising to new life. Some people at David’s Place acknowledge their pain and come because they wish to rise but cannot find the key to doing so, yet they continue to believe that somehow they will be able to – like the man who suffered a terribly abusive childhood and disability, yet wakes each day glad to be still be alive, and feels there is something about being at David’s Place which can bring him peace and joy.
Others have “been found” by risen life, and while still bearing their wounds, as Jesus did following his resurrection, are sources and joy and liveliness for those around them. Like the man who suffered a life-changing injury in an accident as a child, but now brings friendship and hospitality to others still struggling towards “the light.”
Recently, a member of our community died quite suddenly. Being on the autism spectrum, his early adulthood was filled with misunderstanding of the efforts to help him, and he was in turn misunderstood by the helpers. This caused him great anguish.
After he came to David’s Place and then joined other community groups, he became a warm, welcoming and loved friend of many. He accepted himself as he was, and let new hope and life blossom in himself and out to others.
After he died we had no doubt that having shared Jesus’ cross and risen to new life, that he was in paradise, as Jesus promised the “good thief” he would be.
These are just a few examples of how our marginalised friends have shown Jesus to us in his death and resurrection. They challenge us to see that maybe if we are unable to experience “resurrection joy” it is because we are afraid or reluctant to acknowledge our brokenness and pain.
Maybe, caught in an inward-looking absorption with our pain, we fail to see the Father’s hand outstretched to us in our prayer, and/or the love of those around us trying to raise us up.
At David’s Place it is so often those on the margins who let us be true to how broken we really are, and who raise us up to joy and new life. This is what we celebrate each Holy Saturday with our Easter liturgy and try to live throughout the year.
Sue Buckingham is the founder of David’s Place, a spiritual home for the marginalised and their friends based at St Canice’s Parish in inner Sydney.