Did you hear about the rose that grew
From a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature’s laws wrong it learned to walk without having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams,
It learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
When no one else ever cared.
-Tupac Shakur
You know what … it happened.
The sun came up this morning … and Easter happened.
The women went to the tomb this morning … and Easter happened.
We logged onto our computers and dialed in on our phones this morning … and Easter happened.
I know it’s the wrong holiday, but it is just like the Grinch that stole Christmas … only that damn virus is the Grinch and Christmas is Easter.
That virus can keep us apart from each other.
It can keep us from our church buildings and from our hugs and even from sitting by each other in a hospital bed … but it cannot stop Easter.
Do you know why?
Because the power of life will not be denied.
the power of God will not be denied.
the power of love will not be denied.
Love is relentless.
Love is resilient.
The world threatens love, and love says “bring it on!
“You do not know who you are up against.”
Love is relentless.
Love is resilient.
Everything else dies … and love still survives.
A moment ago, Brinell Anderson shared a powerful poem by Tupac Shakur.
It was called “The Rose that Grew from Concrete”
Did you hear about the rose that grew
From a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature’s laws wrong it learned to walk without having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams,
It learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
When no one else ever cared.
That is Gospel truth.
That is some Easter Gospel truth.
This morning, the women come to the tomb expecting to see it sealed by a stone and instead they find an angel.
They come expecting to see death and instead they find life.
They come expecting to grieve and instead they rejoice.
Because what they find this morning is a rose growing from a crack in the concrete.
The one who had been despised and discarded
The one who had been told you better run, you’d better hide
You better stop loving those people we don’t want you to love or we’re gonna get you.
The one who had been lynched and left for dead, layered over with stone
Well, he just sprouted up again.
Jesus is the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete.
Jesus is the love that looked death in the face and said “bring it on.”
I think when the women met Jesus that morning after he said, “Do not be afraid; go and tell the disciples to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” The women said, “Well, why are we supposed to tell them to go to Galilee?” And then Jesus said, “Tell them you saw a rose that grew from a crack in the concrete!”
In Islam, the rose is the flower of heaven.
The rose signifies the human spirit.
In Christianity, a red rose and a white rose side by side symbolize Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.
Put them together and you get the rose Tupac was writing about.
Jesus is the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete.
And so are we.
Love is relentless.
Love is resilient.
Everything else dies … and love still survives.
Love is why the rose grows from concrete.
Jesus is the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete.
And so are we.
One of my favorite stories that Becca Stevens tells is of Dorris. Like the other women of Thistle Farms, Dorris had, as Becca puts it, experienced the underside of bridges, the short side of justice, the back side of anger and the inside of prison walls.
And so early one morning, when Becca and Dorris found themselves on the Florida coast, it was the first time Dorris had ever seen the ocean. And as the sun peaked over the distant horizon and she dipped her foot in the waves and for the first time ever felt the pull of the tide, she threw up her arms and shouted in joyful amazement:
“Has this been doing this my whole life?”
Man, I love that story.
I love that story because I want to be like Dorris in so many ways.
I love that story because Dorris is my spiritual guide.
Yes, this has been happening your whole life.
Yes, this has been happening my whole life … and so much longer.
And yes, would that we all remembered how amazing … and beautiful it is.
And it is always happening.
Nothing can stop the tide.
As Becca writes: “For as long as the moon was tossed into the atmosphere of our planet, concentric tidal circles have come in waves. The power of the circle and the healing of love are the oldest and most powerful stories of humanity. But we need each other to get down to the shores to feel its pull and to remember that the circle of love can ripple across the whole globe.”
Did you hear about the rose that grew
From a crack in the concrete?
It didn’t do it by itself.
Jesus rose from the dead.
He didn’t do it by himself.
2Pac gave the gift of poetry and song to the world.
He didn’t do it by himself.
Love is what did it.
And love never stands alone.
Love never works alone.
Love never leaves us alone.
We need each other to get down to that shore
To remind us of our dreams
To learn to breathe fresh air
To remind us to be amazed at the tide.
Did you hear about the rose that grew
From a crack in the concrete?
When a virus spread across the globe and the people responded in love?
When people were sent to their homes and musicians and artists came together and created beauty so that our spirits would not wither and die? I mean, have you heard our choir soloists? Have you heard our Trouveres? Have you heard Dan Cole and his ensemble?
Do you not just weep every time they play/
That’s not just because the music is beautiful but because there is a fierce defiance to the power of music in the midst of a pandemic.
Split us up, will you? Fine. But we will still sing together with the most beautiful harmony you have ever heard.
Tell us to be afraid, will you?
We will stay apart from each other because that’s what love looks like right now,
but we will sing even louder “bring it on!”
Send us back into homes and shelters of concrete?
We will be that rose that grew from a crack in the concrete.
How? Because there is no Good Friday that Easter will not follow.
Because Easter is not a happy ending, but a glorious new beginning.
Not a period, but a comma.
Jesus is that rose.
We are that rose that grows from a crack in the concrete.
Because the power of life will not be denied.
the power of God will not be denied.
the power of love will not be denied.
Love is relentless.
Love is resilient.
Everything else dies … and love still survives.
The great circle of love is rippling around the whole globe.
And when years from now, our children and our grandchildren will ask us about this Easter we will tell them the story.
Did you hear about the rose that grew
From a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature’s laws wrong it learned to walk without having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams,
It learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
When no one else ever cared.
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Sermon preached by Mike Kinman, Easter Day 2020 at All Saints Church, Pasadena
