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238 ˜ A Work of Hospitality, 1982–2002
nicipal market on Butler Street. Multicolored helium balloons and bright flowers
covered the fences and walls, and music filled the air. We gathered to sing,
dance, preach, pray, and shout with 350 of our homeless sisters and brothers:
“Jesus Christ is risen from the grave. He ain’t dead! Freedom is real! Oppression
will be overcome! Love is stronger than death! All of the doors are gonna swing
wide and the children of the earth are gonna come inside and feast together.”
And feast together we did! Three hundred fifty of us shared a huge breakfast,
there in that grimy parking lot that had become beautiful: we shared steak
and eggs, grits and coffee and buns, and it was glorious! Lord! How this city
needs Easter! Lord! How the human race needs Easter!
And Easter comes! Again and again. Even when we’re shut outside in the
storm: Easter comes! Even when we wander the streets, lost and alone: Easter
comes! Even when we get lost in our resentment and bitterness: Easter comes!
Jesus Christ wouldn’t stay in the grave. Easter has come. Hallelujah!
Easter Foolishness, by Elizabeth Dede
A p r i l 1 9 8 7
The message about Christ’s death on the cross is nonsense to those becoming
lost; but for us being saved it is God’s power. The scripture says, “I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and set aside the understanding of the scholars.”
So then, where does that leave the wise Or the scholars Or the skillful debaters
of this world God has shown that this world’s wisdom is foolishness!
God in her wisdom made it impossible for people to know her by their own
wisdom. Instead, by means of the so-called foolish message we preach, God decided
to save those who believe. We proclaim the crucified Christ, who is the
power of God and the wisdom of God. What seems to be God’s foolishness is
wiser than human wisdom, and what seems to be God’s weakness is stronger
than human strength.
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A sense of the ridiculous, of the absurd, is a healthy thing, and necessary, as
we have come to know. Therefore, between the seasons of Epiphany and Lent,
here at the Open Door, we observe the holiday called Mardi Gras on the Tuesday
before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras is a day when we behave foolishly and
celebrate. This year clowns came to entertain us; we ate turkey gumbo; every-