Evidence

"Each time we love again after having our love rejected, we share in the power of the resurrection. Each time we hope again after having our hope smashed to pieces, we share in the power of the resurrection. Each time we pick up the pieces, wipe our tears, face the sun and start again, we share in the power of the resurrection." East Indian Jesuit Pratap Naik

In the meantime, we do not know what it'll mean, we just have evidence that it is so. And this evidence inspires us to respond to the breath of God on our dry, dead bones. Reviving us after tragic loss. Renewing our hope. Giving us a vision for how to carry on after destruction and death and ruin. On May 2nd our community will begin opening up again after over a year of pandemic zooming. We have no idea what it will look like, all the different feelings that this change will bring up for each of us. There will be all sorts of different reactions. But what we must do, we who want to be faithful, is learn to trust God's resurrection strength. In any form it arises.

"Let us rise up and build"

Nehemiah 2:18.

Resurrection is Out-of-the-Box Believing

None of us are familiar with resurrection, are we? Dead people do not come back to life except in horror movies. This is entirely unnatural. But as unnatural as it is, every time I return to this story I find new things to confound and inspire me. In a sermon preached by Barbara Brown Taylor, she says this, "A resurrection is a miracle of another order. There is no continuity with life as we know it. The spark is utterly extinguished. The heart stops...Death occurs, beyond a shadow of a doubt. The living withdraw to get on with their lives and the silence is complete. Then, when everything is over, something entirely new begins. What was cold becomes warm again, and what lay still sits up. Creation occurs all over again - not a spark rescued from the ashes but a whole new fire kindled out of nothing - the gracious act of the only one who can make life out of dust, not just once upon a time, or even at the end of time, but over and over again."

And here is the point that I want to emphasize in the midst of this Easter season. Life is more than what we can experience. Jesus did not die to rescue us from God, Jesus died the way he did so that we would understand that the God we worship knows what suffering and death is like and we are never alone. Jesus rose again, so we know that death is not a final ending, but a new beginning. Now, there's a lot we do not know. God keeps things invisible - like the resurrection - and these invisible truths are more important than anything we can fact check. Paul says in Corinthians that if we do not believe the resurrection "our preaching is useless and so is our faith." (1 Corinthians 15:14). He's a good one to speak on the subject since he witnessed first hand God's mighty power on the road to Damascus. Because here is the thing...

We no longer have to believe that it is up to us keep things alive. Not our children, not our parents, not our spouses or even ourselves. Because we know this - "God has never forgotten how to breathe life into piles of dust."

BTB

In my life, I confess that I have felt a strong pressure to keep struggling or dead or dying things alive. No more. This is God's work. But it is encouraging to know that He works in this way. What have you spent too much time and energy trying to "keep going"? What pressures have you put on yourself that you need to release?

A Re-Cap of Pre-Easter Events…

On Palm Sunday, the week before Easter, Jesus enters Jerusalem to shouting and praise. "This is Jesus, the Prophet from Nazareth in Galilee." (Matthew 21:11) But the party did not last long, soon the religious leaders were questioning his authority - not because they doubted he was God's son but because in fact THEY KNEW he was who he claimed to be. Jesus was on his game - teaching and answering questions, confounding and comforting the listeners. When he was finished, two days before Passover, he predicted his crucifixion - and Judas agrees to betray Jesus. Some people say it was for money - 30 pieces of silver. Others speculate that Judas was pushing Jesus to reveal himself, believing that Jesus would ultimately rise victorious. But it did not go as the pundits predicted and Judas died by suicide having returned the 30 pieces of silver to those who bribed him for information about Jesus' whereabouts. Now - we know that Jesus does rise again, but first, there was this:

Jesus was arrested, charged, abandoned by religious leaders, followers, political leaders and the common man. To be fair, Pilate did not want to crucify him. His wife sent him a note and told him in no uncertain terms to NOT let this happen. He tried to wriggle out of it, but the crowd was charged up and they cried for his crucifixion. This year, when I reread this story, I read it with more fear. That must have been truly terrifying for everyone. A whipped up crowd with bad intel and a political leader trying to maintain control of this city under Roman domination. Pilate had Jesus flogged and then absented himself from the crowd - washing his hands of the deed. Then the crucifixion. Insults hurled. Mocked and ridiculed.

And then, after hours of his torture, he cries out, "It is finished." Man, it was scary, the temple curtain tore from the top down, an earthquake shook rattled and rolled the land. The land went dark. He was laid in a tomb. But it wasn't enough for the authorities, who knew the scriptures. They remembered that Jesus had said, "After three days I will rise again." You see, Jesus did not get crucified because authority figures believed he was lying about who he was - they had him crucified because they believed. They believed that he was the Son of God. So they ordered for the tomb to be made secure so that his body would not be stolen.

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary show up at the tomb in total grief. They cannot find the body to anoint. An angel, doing what angels do, told the two Mary's to not be afraid; Jesus has risen. Go tell the disciples. Along the way, Jesus appears. In the gospel of John, a grieving Mary hears her name called as Jesus says, "Mary." And at that moment, she knows. She recognizes him. She goes to tell the disciples and they don't believe her. (Luke 24)

And so it goes. This group of Jesus followers just cannot figure out what is going on! And yet...God finds a way to work with them. They are, according to Jesus in the gospel of Luke, "dull minded". And so are we. We miss seeing Jesus, and we miss seeing ourselves as God sees us too. If we were to accept that God works with whatever we give him and in the end, God's plan will be fulfilled, then what would you do differently with your day? What would that belief change in you?

Creating Sanctuary in Your Everyday Life

“Sanctuary is finding a place to regain our bearings, reclaim our soul, heal our wounds and return to the world as a wounded healer. It’s not merely about finding shelter from the story - it’s about spiritual survival and the capacity to carry on.”

Parker Palmer

When Pete and I head to the lake at summer’s end for a break in our action-packed life, we are seeking shelter. We shelter from our routine and our tendency to work more than we play. I start thinking about returning to our shelter as we pack up to leave the lake. After loading the kayaks and floats, the workout equipment and leftover food, we back the car out of the garage and begin the steep climb up the driveway towards home. I do not look back. I look ahead. I think about the next time we will return to this wonderful place of leisure, quiet, wildlife, a comfortable dock to perch on and launch ourselves into the glassy lake.

This is not a sanctuary - it’s shelter.

If I waited until I was on our lake vacation to experience sanctuary, I would be in big trouble mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Sanctuary is finding a place moment-by-moment, hour-by-hour, day-by-day...on and on marching across the timeline of our lives.

This is new information for me. I consider our vacations the ideal time to experience sanctuary, and it is true enough that we do find that during those weeks of solitude, stillness and silence. But we bring it with us. It isn’t the environment, it is the essence of our lives that allow or resist finding sanctuary.

One way I find sanctuary is using the practice of The Welcoming Prayer. I go slow with it. I talk back to it. There are more formal, codified ways to practice the welcoming prayer and if you want more details contact me and I will send you some lovely details about such things. But this is how I personally find myself using it.

When I pray The Welcoming Prayer, I am practicing faith even when filled with doubt, courage even when overcome with fear. I dare to pray this prayer as a way of intending to believe that God is for me, not against me; that his hand is upon me as support and encouragement, not as punishment or manipulation. It is a short but specific way I admit to God and myself that my assessment may feel certain in the moment but have often proven unreliable. I commit my intention to let go of those false strategies that honestly, never worked that great anyway. I let go of my desire to control ife, rather than surrender to God’s presence in my life.

It begins like this: Welcome, welcome, welcome.

Today, I invite you to sit quietly and welcome God into your sanctuary. Invite yourself to participate in God’s work - equipping you for spiritual survival and giving you the capacity to carry on.

Let’s pray...The Welcoming Prayer by Mary Mrozowski

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

Spiritual sanctuary is not about retreats and the perfect candle. Although, both are lovely. But if we only think about sanctuary and our idealized view of its necessary accoutrements, we are missing out. To welcome God into our life requires that we acknowledge that what God does once he gets there is really none of our business.

I welcome everything that comes to me in this moment because I know it is for my healing.

In the welcoming prayer, we are - welcoming. We trust that the world is a healing place, a place of hope, a creation of God intended to bless us and others. Sometimes this is an act of fierce will, often it feels like crazy talk to believe this about our germy world. But this is the work of faith.

I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations and conditions.

We trust ourselves. We trust that we can handle all that is real and true about ourselves. We get curious and stop all the self-judgment and self-doubt.

I let go of my desire for security, approval and control.

Some days my desires are so long I have to take a break for lunch before I complete the list of things I am holding onto for security, the people I am looking to for approval and ALL the ways I am trying to exert control. It is what it is.

I let go of my desire to change any situation, condition, person or myself.

We let go of the desire, and then ask God to show us how to apply it to our daily decisions. This prayer is a commitment!

I open to the love and presence of God and the healing action and grace within.

Oh blessed relief. And, dare I say it? Perhaps the toughest part of this prayer. To trust God. To admit that his work in me is none of my business. I open up, and after that - it’s up to God to decide what happens next. Or doesn’t feel like it is happening at all. We open. We rise and take on the day.

Amen

Day 14: The Story of Joseph

The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t know that.) Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced.

While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God’s angel spoke in the dream: “Joseph, son of David, don’t hesitate to get married. Mary’s pregnancy is Spirit-conceived. God’s Holy Spirit has made her pregnant. She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus – ‘God saves’ – because he will save his people from their sins.” This would bring the prophet’s embryonic sermon to full term: Watch for this – a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son.

They will name him Immanuel (Hebrew for ‘God is with us’).

Isaiah 7

Then Joseph woke up. He did exactly what God’s angel commanded in the dream: He married Mary. But he did not consummate the marriage until she had the baby. He named the baby Jesus.

Matthew 1:18-25, The Message

What did it take for Joseph to do EXACTLY what God’s angel commanded? It’s a fantastic story, so long as it keeps its distance from us! But God refuses to keep his distance. He moves in on us - gently, lovingly, graciously and mercifully. But he moves in nonetheless.

He gives and he asks. His giving is not dependent upon us answering all his questions, “YES!” because he gives out of a wellspring of lovingkindness. I find this incentivizing in a world that often feels like love is conditional.

Joseph was an ordinary guy asked to do an extraordinary thing. Most of us will never be asked to do something so extraordinary. So with the pressure off - what would you be willing to do as an expression of loving (attitude) kindness (action)?