Daybreak Miraculously Clear | April 20, 2025 | Rev. Dr. Kathryn Benton

Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?

Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?

Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?

Were you there when the sun refused to shine?

Were you there when the sun refused to shine?

Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Were you there when the sun refused to shine?

The opening music, an African American Spiritual, was not to be found in the hymnal that we use here at Fellowship Church. There is a shying away from the negative aspects of the Easter story. We want to rush to the resurrection part of the story. Yet, I think it is this question…Were You There? that is most pertinent to our time in history, both in terms of the national and world rise in dictatorship and an apparent wasting away of love and compassion for each other, for other species and for the Earth herself.

Some of those in our current government and in fundamentalist Christian circles have stated that the problem with our system is one of ‘toxic empathy’. Some argue that this is why women shouldn’t be in leadership positions…their ‘feelings’ cloud their judgement, making them less effective. Wow! And if it was only a few lone voices talking about this, I wouldn’t be concerned. But this represents the whole agenda of this administration’s goals. And, as we know, it is happening at a break-neck speed. Thus, my insistence on focusing on the opening song…the question of Were You There? Were you there when the formerly enslaved individuals were hung from trees themselves…were you there when those bombs landed on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki…were you there in Gaza when bombs were annihilating the entire country…were you there when bombs flew overhead and blew up families and friends in so many places throughout history…were you there when the Third Reich directed the killing of all those they disagreed with and who were not worthy of living…were you there when countless political, social and environmental situations have caused suffering throughout our small blue-green planet…suffering of the human, the more-than human, the earth herself? If you were there, did you tremble…did you cry…did you empathize?

It is interesting that Howard Thurman relates in his book, Deep River and the Negro Speaks of Life and Death, that Mohandas Gandhi requested that a group of African Americans visiting him sing this hymn. Thurman sees Jesus on the cross…being crucified and suffering…as a universal symbol, accessed by people of all religions, classes, races and languages. He says that the mystery of the cross is found deep within the heart of the experience itself…the inference being that the singer was there:

I know what he went through

because I have met him in the high places of pain,

 and I claim him as my brother.

We have indeed met him in the high places of pain and claimed him as our brother. This is empathy, but more than empathy…this is compassion…a deep identification with the nailing of one to a tree…an injustice…but more than an injustice…a terror…a horror…that makes one tremble and cry. It is not the glorification of this suffering but the sharing of it that this points to. It is our ability to ‘feel with’ Jesus, and all who suffer, including ourselves.

My teacher, Dr. Gabor Maté speaks of compassion this way…he says there are 5 levels of compassion. The first one is the usual compassion that all mammals feel for each other…feeling bad that someone else is suffering. The second level is what he calls the compassion of understanding. By this he means that we actually understand the circumstances under which a person suffers…we know the specifics and we understand it. The third level he identifies is the compassion of recognition. This is when we see ourselves in the moment of suffering…it is something that is familiar to us and we realize that although the circumstances of the suffering is different, we are in fact not different…this level gets rid of judgement and power differential. The fourth level he identifies is the compassion of possibility. This is something that exists in the present moment. This is in contrast to hope, which he sees as something in the future. This may be what draws us in to the Easter moment…the promise…the possibility of life’s triumph even over death. But Maté identifies one more level…the compassion of truth. This seems to bring together all the other levels in a profound look at the reality of the situation…not glorifying it…not sanitizing it, but seeing it for what it truly is…pain and suffering, injustice, but also possibility…the possibility of new life

And, of course, the suffering…the crucifixion is not the end of the story, is it? The death of Jesus is followed, in the Gospel accounts, by a period of confusion…of uncertainty. The world reportedly went dark and it trembled. That may be where we are right now…witnessing the agony and not yet experiencing the rebirth. Sufi mystic, Hafiz speaks of this moment…this awareness of the terror and suffering but not yet being able to respond. He asks, is your caravan lost?

I cannot sit still with my countrymen in chains.

I cannot act mute

Hearing the world's loneliness

Crying near the Beloved's heart.

My love for God is such

That I could dance with Him tonight without you,

But I would rather have you there.

Is your caravan lost?

I think it is clear that the caravan of our government and other governments is lost. We hear the world’s loneliness and pain crying near the Beloved’s heart…near our own hearts. And we want to join together…to dance together. Hafiz explains why the caravan may be lost:

It is,

If you no longer weep from gratitude or happiness,

Or weep

From being cut deep with the awareness

Of the extraordinary beauty

That emanates from the most simple act

And common object.

My dear, is your caravan lost?

It is if you can no longer be kind to yourself

And loving to those who must live

With the sometimes difficult task of loving you.

At least come to know

That someone untied your camel last night

For I hear its gentle voice

Calling for God in the desert.

No longer weeping…no longer caring…both for the suffering or the beauty, for both are in need of attention. Hafiz says someone untied your camel…the camel is a powerful symbol in Islam. It is said by the master, Trust in Allah but tether your camel first – because Allah has no other hands than yours. We are Allah’s hands. We must care for the camel…the catalyst for movement…for change and the camel is calling for Allah and calling for our participation as co-creators, as well. We are being called to attend to the possibility of the Easter moment today and in the days ahead.

We must, in the words of Maya Angelou Rise…no matter what we experience…

Yes, we must rise like the lilies in the field…like the grass in the meadow, like the tree in the forest…like daybreak, miraculously clear…like the crucified Jesus rose…and may the spirit of the all-pervading presence…the risen Divine One, bear our spirits home!