"When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot, thou hast caused me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul."
The hymn quoted above was written by Horatio G. Spafford, a Chicago Presbyterian layperson. He was a lawyer and had much financial success. He was a deeply spiritual man and a devoted student of the scripture. In the months before the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, he had invested heavily in real estate and his holdings were wiped out by the disaster. His son had died just previous to the fire. He planned a trip to Europe so he and his family could have some rest and sent his wife and four daughters ahead while he took care of some unexpected business that had arisen. On November 22, 1871 the S.S. Ville du Havre on which they were passengers was struck by another ship and it sunk quickly. The survivors were taken to Cardiff, Wales from where his wife cabled Spafford, "Saved alone." He left to make the journey to join his bereaved wife and it is thought that on the ship as he crossed the ocean, he wrote the words describing his own personal grief--"When sorrows like sea billows roll..." He had experienced sorrow which few others could relate to but he had come through it because of his faith in God.
This hymn is greatly loved by many people and it has been sung at numerous funerals for which I have officiated. It does not end with sorrow but has a theme of hope that runs through it for over and over it echoes the phrase..."it is well with my soul." How can a couple lose a son to death and then in a short time period lose four daughters to death? How do they survive the loss of all their children and continue to have the desire to live? I think it has to do with where they find their emotional and spiritual strength and in what or whom they place their hope as the source of that strength.
I often read from Romans 8 when I am concluding a funeral service at the cemetery. As we stand by the graveside, and offer the loved one back to God, I read those words that are so familiar to many. "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life....nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:39) St. Paul lists a large list of things that cannot separate us from God and they include powers of earth and heaven (as believed in his day) and concluded that none of them could cause us not to be kept in God's care and love throughout our lives. So, Paul would say, whatever happens in life, God is present and God cares and loves through it all.
God does not cause grief and God cannot prevent grief. God gave humans free will and cannot step in to prevent humans from making errors in judgment or from taking risks that could prove to be fatal (such as riding on a ship across the ocean that could sink, as Mr. Spafford's family did). God cannot interfere in the choices we make but God can love and care for us during and through the most difficult times of our lives. Some things are of our own making and some happen to us simply because we are humans living on this planet. Natural disasters, disease, weather related tragedies....all happen to humans because they inhabit this planet. Some modern maladies may be caused by our lifestyles or by the effect humans are having on our planet but regardless of why they may happen, God as our source of our strength never fails to be present.
"Whatever my lot, thou has taught me to say, it is well with my soul..." Perhaps that is the greatest lesson we can learn from life's trials. It is well....it is well....because God is and will always be.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
How Do You Know Who You Are?
Many people have spent most of their lives trying to discover who they are. Some have gone through extensive counseling or therapy to search out what makes them tick and how to deal with the less positive components of their natural being. None of us are perfect, after all, and some of us have big quirks that we have to overcome or for which we have to compensate. How do you discover who you are, down deep, when you get below the surface level? How do you get the courage to be real or authentic and allow others to really know the person you really are?
Life begins to present us with identification tags the moment we are born. First, we are someone's child and we are a boy or a girl. Those are two labels each of us wear when we arrive on the planet. Dad and Mom bring us home from the hospital and we are known from that moment forward as the child of our parents. We are also known as either a son or daughter of those people. We wear those nametags for a few years until we begin our public education and then we gain another nametag or two--student, learner, class clown, lazy, smart--names given to us by the people with whom we interact in school. We begin to believe we are the people others say we are because of their importance or influence in our lives. The tags change as we go through the years of schooling depending on what happens in our lives, both good and bad.
Sometimes life's circumstances make us question who are are because we cannot be who or what others think we should be. We may have struggles with the school material we are expected to learn or with our home where we live. We begin to question our own value in comparison to what we think we cannot do or learn as directed by others who are important to our lives. Our inability to do math or to play sports may cause us to doubt our value as human beings. When we discover areas of life at which we can succeed, then suddenly we begin to wear nametags that we never thought we would wear. Who we thought we were changes in light of our new discoveries about ourselves.
This Sunday we are going to confirm four young people during our church service. They have been studying about the Christian faith and about our denomination and local church during the past year. They will be asked to respond to the same questions asked of their parents when they were baptized as infants 12-13 years ago. The questions are not hard ones but they are questions that demand that we reflect upon them to be sure we agree to try to abide by them. The questions ask them to put aside evil and try to follow faithfully in the path that Jesus walked. They are asked to promise to be faithful to our local church and support its ministries. The questions demand thought as to what they may mean to their lives for the future.
In our church and faith tradition, we believe that when a person is baptized, at any age, that person has a new name added to their own name, the name of "Christian" so that there is always another name that follows their own surname, even if the name is not spoken aloud. Baptism marks a person for life with the sign of the cross and designates that one as a follower of Jesus Christ. Baptism is where the Christian journey begins and it does not end until one reaches the grave. So, in addition to these young people being named son, daughter, student, athlete, musician, and various other labels they wear, they are also named Christian. Confirmation is the coming out party announcing to the world that they wear that name and promise to be true to what it means to be a Christian.
It is the responsibility of all of the rest of us who have already made our confessions of faith and have been wearing the nametag marked "Christians" for many years to welcome these new ones into the fold and to let them know that we are here to urge them on and lift them up as they live and grow through the years to come. As was popular to say a few years ago, "It takes a village to raise a child." In the Christian family, it also takes a village, a community, a loving family of faith to surround each new one and guide them in the way that will lead them to what God has prepared for them for their future. That is how we continue to tell them again and again who they are---they are Christians, on the journey of life with others who are part of their family and who bear the same name.
Life begins to present us with identification tags the moment we are born. First, we are someone's child and we are a boy or a girl. Those are two labels each of us wear when we arrive on the planet. Dad and Mom bring us home from the hospital and we are known from that moment forward as the child of our parents. We are also known as either a son or daughter of those people. We wear those nametags for a few years until we begin our public education and then we gain another nametag or two--student, learner, class clown, lazy, smart--names given to us by the people with whom we interact in school. We begin to believe we are the people others say we are because of their importance or influence in our lives. The tags change as we go through the years of schooling depending on what happens in our lives, both good and bad.
Sometimes life's circumstances make us question who are are because we cannot be who or what others think we should be. We may have struggles with the school material we are expected to learn or with our home where we live. We begin to question our own value in comparison to what we think we cannot do or learn as directed by others who are important to our lives. Our inability to do math or to play sports may cause us to doubt our value as human beings. When we discover areas of life at which we can succeed, then suddenly we begin to wear nametags that we never thought we would wear. Who we thought we were changes in light of our new discoveries about ourselves.
This Sunday we are going to confirm four young people during our church service. They have been studying about the Christian faith and about our denomination and local church during the past year. They will be asked to respond to the same questions asked of their parents when they were baptized as infants 12-13 years ago. The questions are not hard ones but they are questions that demand that we reflect upon them to be sure we agree to try to abide by them. The questions ask them to put aside evil and try to follow faithfully in the path that Jesus walked. They are asked to promise to be faithful to our local church and support its ministries. The questions demand thought as to what they may mean to their lives for the future.
In our church and faith tradition, we believe that when a person is baptized, at any age, that person has a new name added to their own name, the name of "Christian" so that there is always another name that follows their own surname, even if the name is not spoken aloud. Baptism marks a person for life with the sign of the cross and designates that one as a follower of Jesus Christ. Baptism is where the Christian journey begins and it does not end until one reaches the grave. So, in addition to these young people being named son, daughter, student, athlete, musician, and various other labels they wear, they are also named Christian. Confirmation is the coming out party announcing to the world that they wear that name and promise to be true to what it means to be a Christian.
It is the responsibility of all of the rest of us who have already made our confessions of faith and have been wearing the nametag marked "Christians" for many years to welcome these new ones into the fold and to let them know that we are here to urge them on and lift them up as they live and grow through the years to come. As was popular to say a few years ago, "It takes a village to raise a child." In the Christian family, it also takes a village, a community, a loving family of faith to surround each new one and guide them in the way that will lead them to what God has prepared for them for their future. That is how we continue to tell them again and again who they are---they are Christians, on the journey of life with others who are part of their family and who bear the same name.
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
And the Sheep says, "Baaaaaa!"
When our children was small, we bought them a toy that looked like a barn. It had a pull string that would make an arrow in the middle of it spin and a voice would magically say the name of a farm animal and the sound that animal makes. "The cow says moooo" it would say. "The pig says oink." "The sheep says baa." There were many animals on it and each had a unique sound it made. The kids enjoyed pulling the string and making the animals talk as they tried to imitate each sound. As they grew older, the toy was left in the toy box and, believe it or not, we still own that toy and it still works.
I like to think about sheep saying "Baaaaaa!", not just "Baa." Now, you may be wondering what is the difference between "Baaaaa!" and just plain old "Baa." I have not been around sheep very much, hardly at all to be honest, but the few times I have been around them I have noticed that sheep who are in need do not just say a normal, monotone "Baa" but they really shout it out, a long, low or high pitched noise to really get your attention. It is more like "Baaaaa!" with that exclamation point emphasizing the need they have that must be met.
My wife and I spent a week in Wales back in 2001 when I had a sabbatical in the United Kingdom for a month. We tacked on two weeks of vacation to the month of sabbatical and were gone for six weeks. We had a marvelous time, choosing Coventry as home base from which to explore the rest of England and Wales. We were there when the terrible "hoof and mouth disease" had spread throughout the land and massive amounts of cattle and sheep were being slaughtered to prevent the spread of disease. Everywhere we went that was agricultural in nature provided mats that contained disinfectant that one had to walk over in order to keep the spread of the disease down. Even when we returned to the States, we had to take one final walk across a Lysol mat before we could go home.
One week we were there we spent in a cottage in Wales. It was part of a timeshare organization to which we belonged. The cottage was down a narrow country road and adjacent to a field in which a herd of sheep resided. Sheep would often block the way down the road so that you had to stop your car and allow the sheep to pass before you could proceed. The sheep were of many kinds--some fat, some skinny, some little, some big, some younger and some older. We would drink our coffee each morning and look out onto the meadow beside our cottage and it truly was one of the most pastoral scenes we had ever encountered.
There was one particular sheep in the pasture that we became fascinated with. We called him "Fluffy". Fluffy seemed very lively and occasionally kicked up his heels. I figured he was the life of the barnyard and made all the others enjoy their day simply by his presence. One day a terrible lightning storm came up. Rain came down in a deluge. Lightning and thunder happened again and again. We watched out the window at the herd of sheep and learned that the sheep would simply stand still like statues when the bad weather was coming down on them. They never moved as long as the lightning was flashing and the thunder was roaring. The rain pelted their fur and they just took it. Even Fluffy just stood there withstanding all the blows that nature could pass out. Finally, the storm passed by and the sheep went back to grazing and milling about. The worst was over and they could resume life as normal.
Sheep are a lot smarter than most people give them credit for being. They have been tested and compared to other animals that we assume are smart (such as chimpanzees) and proved to be just about as smart as the average chimp. They can recognize their names after hearing it a lot. They can roll over when they need to cross a cattle guard to get to a more lush meadow if that is in the way. They can recognize people they know and follow them around, much like a dog does. The old story about them being so dumb they would follow the leader over a cliff has little to do with intelligence but much to do with being part of a community. They need to be part of a group and actually get very anxious when separated from their group. They need the security that being part of the group provides.
This week's Gospel lesson from John 10 has Jesus teaching people about sheep. He tells them that he is the good shepherd and cares about the sheep. He also says that he comes to give them "abundant life" not just ordinary life. Abundant life is fulfilling, meaningful life. It is life that expands and excites and goes beyond the ordinary into the unexpected. The Good Shepherd leads the sheep where they should go and calls them by name. He knows each one by name and they follow him wherever he goes because he knows them. They respond to his call because they know he truly cares for them.
Abundant life is life worth living. It is life that does not settle for just anything but looks for the unique and wonderful in daily live. It is not content with just existing but wants more out of life than many people want. Maybe that is why sheep are not content to stay in one pasture but want to explore and look for the greener grass even if it means crossing a chasm or a river. The green grass may be worth the effort and risk but one will never know unless one goes in search of what may be the best grass one has ever enjoyed.
"For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls." (I Peter 2:25)
I like to think about sheep saying "Baaaaaa!", not just "Baa." Now, you may be wondering what is the difference between "Baaaaa!" and just plain old "Baa." I have not been around sheep very much, hardly at all to be honest, but the few times I have been around them I have noticed that sheep who are in need do not just say a normal, monotone "Baa" but they really shout it out, a long, low or high pitched noise to really get your attention. It is more like "Baaaaa!" with that exclamation point emphasizing the need they have that must be met.
My wife and I spent a week in Wales back in 2001 when I had a sabbatical in the United Kingdom for a month. We tacked on two weeks of vacation to the month of sabbatical and were gone for six weeks. We had a marvelous time, choosing Coventry as home base from which to explore the rest of England and Wales. We were there when the terrible "hoof and mouth disease" had spread throughout the land and massive amounts of cattle and sheep were being slaughtered to prevent the spread of disease. Everywhere we went that was agricultural in nature provided mats that contained disinfectant that one had to walk over in order to keep the spread of the disease down. Even when we returned to the States, we had to take one final walk across a Lysol mat before we could go home.
One week we were there we spent in a cottage in Wales. It was part of a timeshare organization to which we belonged. The cottage was down a narrow country road and adjacent to a field in which a herd of sheep resided. Sheep would often block the way down the road so that you had to stop your car and allow the sheep to pass before you could proceed. The sheep were of many kinds--some fat, some skinny, some little, some big, some younger and some older. We would drink our coffee each morning and look out onto the meadow beside our cottage and it truly was one of the most pastoral scenes we had ever encountered.
There was one particular sheep in the pasture that we became fascinated with. We called him "Fluffy". Fluffy seemed very lively and occasionally kicked up his heels. I figured he was the life of the barnyard and made all the others enjoy their day simply by his presence. One day a terrible lightning storm came up. Rain came down in a deluge. Lightning and thunder happened again and again. We watched out the window at the herd of sheep and learned that the sheep would simply stand still like statues when the bad weather was coming down on them. They never moved as long as the lightning was flashing and the thunder was roaring. The rain pelted their fur and they just took it. Even Fluffy just stood there withstanding all the blows that nature could pass out. Finally, the storm passed by and the sheep went back to grazing and milling about. The worst was over and they could resume life as normal.
Sheep are a lot smarter than most people give them credit for being. They have been tested and compared to other animals that we assume are smart (such as chimpanzees) and proved to be just about as smart as the average chimp. They can recognize their names after hearing it a lot. They can roll over when they need to cross a cattle guard to get to a more lush meadow if that is in the way. They can recognize people they know and follow them around, much like a dog does. The old story about them being so dumb they would follow the leader over a cliff has little to do with intelligence but much to do with being part of a community. They need to be part of a group and actually get very anxious when separated from their group. They need the security that being part of the group provides.
This week's Gospel lesson from John 10 has Jesus teaching people about sheep. He tells them that he is the good shepherd and cares about the sheep. He also says that he comes to give them "abundant life" not just ordinary life. Abundant life is fulfilling, meaningful life. It is life that expands and excites and goes beyond the ordinary into the unexpected. The Good Shepherd leads the sheep where they should go and calls them by name. He knows each one by name and they follow him wherever he goes because he knows them. They respond to his call because they know he truly cares for them.
Abundant life is life worth living. It is life that does not settle for just anything but looks for the unique and wonderful in daily live. It is not content with just existing but wants more out of life than many people want. Maybe that is why sheep are not content to stay in one pasture but want to explore and look for the greener grass even if it means crossing a chasm or a river. The green grass may be worth the effort and risk but one will never know unless one goes in search of what may be the best grass one has ever enjoyed.
"For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls." (I Peter 2:25)
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Easter Season.....The Celebration Continues
We had a good friend whose birthday was in February. Each year she would celebrate her birthday the entire month of February, calling it "Birthday Month." I always thought that was such a great idea. Of course, she always brought a lot of fun to anything she did. She was inventive and smart and thoughtful, always remembering the birthdays of others also and bringing special little gifts that were connected to them in some way. She passed away at this time of year a few years back (actually 6-8 years but I am embarrassed to say that I cannot remember how many now--I just know that I continue to remember her life, and especially in the Easter Season, which is now.)
Easter is more than a day. It is a season. I know that many people do not observe Easter Season any more than they observe Christmas Season which begins on Christmas Day and concludes on January 6, which is called Epiphany. To those of us who work in professions where we use the Christian Calendar in addition to the regular calendar, we note the special days and we think about them in relation to our lives. Easter Day was April 20 this year and Easter Season began that day and will continue until Pentecost Day which is June 8 this year. Each Sunday in Easter Season we read and hear stories from the Bible that have something to do with one of the resurrection appearances of Jesus.
Last week we had the traditional Second Sunday of Easter text from John's Gospel where Jesus walked through a wall into a room where the disciples were hidden away in the evening of Easter Sunday. We had read the text from Matthew on Easter Sunday about Jesus appearing to the women who came to the tomb. Then, from John's perspective, we heard another part of the story, this time one about a resurrected Jesus who just popped into and out of people's lives as he would. Not even locked doors could keep him out. He would just walk through the wall and surprise folks and show his scars to them to prove it was really him. He did it for the disciples and then for Thomas (who had been gone on an errand when he came around the first time) and all believed it was Jesus himself.
So, this week, the Third Sunday of Easter, we turn to Luke's side of the story, one in which mournful disciples decided to get out of the city (Jerusalem) and take out for Emmaus. As they walked along, this stranger joined them on their walk, without them knowing it was Jesus. Somehow he remained unknown to them as they walked and talked together and they chatted freely with him about all that had happened in Jerusalem when Jesus was murdered. It was only when they invited him to have dinner with him and to stay the night (extending to him the usual Mediterranean hospitality of the era) when he was revealed to them. Suddenly, just like in John's Gospel, he was gone, disappeared from sight. They were so excited that they had met Jesus that they ran all the way back to Jerusalem, despite the late hour, to tell the others about Jesus' visit with them.
That is the Easter pattern. Each week, a new side of the story from one of the Gospels either reveals a resurrection appearance of Jesus OR tells something about Jesus that reveals who he is to Christians (such as the Good Shepherd the next Sunday after this coming one) until finally we get to Ascension Sunday and we have to wave goodbye to Jesus as he goes back to God again. Each Sunday is a teaching moment, one in which we think about why Easter is so important to us as Christians and to the Church as the institution that continues to promote Easter.
Easter was the first official celebration of the Church. It began almost immediately after the Church formed and became active in the Roman Empire. Easter Sunday became the model for each Sunday and regular Sundays were referred to as "Little Easters". Each Sunday we meet throughout the year is one to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Only those who had been baptized as Christians (and baptism only took place one time a year, on Easter Sunday) were allowed to be present for the entire worship service on a Sunday. Those who had not been baptized were dismissed from worship when it was time to offer the sacrament of Holy Communion. The non-baptized were sent away with a Holy Kiss (what we call Passing the Peace now) and they did not get to witness what happened in Holy Communion. That was reserved for fully initiated members of the Christian Community. So, anyone could visit a service of Christians but you had to take the final step of being baptized and pledge your allegiance to Christ and the Church in order to receive or even witness Holy Communion.
So, Easter was huge celebration in the Early Church and its celebration lasted throughout the year so that the Easter spirit would never be diminished. Every Sunday was a Little Easter and every day was a celebration of life as persons would rise and greet the sun and breath in the new life God gave persons in order to live another day.
Perhaps that is not a bad way of our looking at life too. When we awake from our grave of sleep and rinse the yukky feeling out of our mouths and throw water in our faces so we can see our surroundings, maybe we can think about it being a metaphor or coming back to life each day. When we awaken ourselves and see the morning sun coming up in the east, perhaps it is a sign of new life to us also. Perhaps we should follow the pattern of a good friend of mine who looks into the morning sun, brings his hands up above his head and takes in a big breath, and then lets it out to receive the breath of life once more to live that day. Easter is always with us to bring us new life and to enable us to face the challenges that each new day may bring.
Easter is more than a day. It is a season. I know that many people do not observe Easter Season any more than they observe Christmas Season which begins on Christmas Day and concludes on January 6, which is called Epiphany. To those of us who work in professions where we use the Christian Calendar in addition to the regular calendar, we note the special days and we think about them in relation to our lives. Easter Day was April 20 this year and Easter Season began that day and will continue until Pentecost Day which is June 8 this year. Each Sunday in Easter Season we read and hear stories from the Bible that have something to do with one of the resurrection appearances of Jesus.
Last week we had the traditional Second Sunday of Easter text from John's Gospel where Jesus walked through a wall into a room where the disciples were hidden away in the evening of Easter Sunday. We had read the text from Matthew on Easter Sunday about Jesus appearing to the women who came to the tomb. Then, from John's perspective, we heard another part of the story, this time one about a resurrected Jesus who just popped into and out of people's lives as he would. Not even locked doors could keep him out. He would just walk through the wall and surprise folks and show his scars to them to prove it was really him. He did it for the disciples and then for Thomas (who had been gone on an errand when he came around the first time) and all believed it was Jesus himself.
So, this week, the Third Sunday of Easter, we turn to Luke's side of the story, one in which mournful disciples decided to get out of the city (Jerusalem) and take out for Emmaus. As they walked along, this stranger joined them on their walk, without them knowing it was Jesus. Somehow he remained unknown to them as they walked and talked together and they chatted freely with him about all that had happened in Jerusalem when Jesus was murdered. It was only when they invited him to have dinner with him and to stay the night (extending to him the usual Mediterranean hospitality of the era) when he was revealed to them. Suddenly, just like in John's Gospel, he was gone, disappeared from sight. They were so excited that they had met Jesus that they ran all the way back to Jerusalem, despite the late hour, to tell the others about Jesus' visit with them.
That is the Easter pattern. Each week, a new side of the story from one of the Gospels either reveals a resurrection appearance of Jesus OR tells something about Jesus that reveals who he is to Christians (such as the Good Shepherd the next Sunday after this coming one) until finally we get to Ascension Sunday and we have to wave goodbye to Jesus as he goes back to God again. Each Sunday is a teaching moment, one in which we think about why Easter is so important to us as Christians and to the Church as the institution that continues to promote Easter.
Easter was the first official celebration of the Church. It began almost immediately after the Church formed and became active in the Roman Empire. Easter Sunday became the model for each Sunday and regular Sundays were referred to as "Little Easters". Each Sunday we meet throughout the year is one to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Only those who had been baptized as Christians (and baptism only took place one time a year, on Easter Sunday) were allowed to be present for the entire worship service on a Sunday. Those who had not been baptized were dismissed from worship when it was time to offer the sacrament of Holy Communion. The non-baptized were sent away with a Holy Kiss (what we call Passing the Peace now) and they did not get to witness what happened in Holy Communion. That was reserved for fully initiated members of the Christian Community. So, anyone could visit a service of Christians but you had to take the final step of being baptized and pledge your allegiance to Christ and the Church in order to receive or even witness Holy Communion.
So, Easter was huge celebration in the Early Church and its celebration lasted throughout the year so that the Easter spirit would never be diminished. Every Sunday was a Little Easter and every day was a celebration of life as persons would rise and greet the sun and breath in the new life God gave persons in order to live another day.
Perhaps that is not a bad way of our looking at life too. When we awake from our grave of sleep and rinse the yukky feeling out of our mouths and throw water in our faces so we can see our surroundings, maybe we can think about it being a metaphor or coming back to life each day. When we awaken ourselves and see the morning sun coming up in the east, perhaps it is a sign of new life to us also. Perhaps we should follow the pattern of a good friend of mine who looks into the morning sun, brings his hands up above his head and takes in a big breath, and then lets it out to receive the breath of life once more to live that day. Easter is always with us to bring us new life and to enable us to face the challenges that each new day may bring.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Waiting for Easter
Holy Week. Tuesday. No special name for it, just Tuesday. Later this week we have Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday (your choice....I prefer the latter but the other one works too), then Good Friday (not good for Jesus, he always dies...but good for those who need salvation), then Holy Saturday which is a day of rest and contemplation, maybe even sadness if you went to Good Friday service and heard the story of the crucifixion of Jesus read again, and then the biggest day on the Christian calendar, yes even bigger than Christmas and older than Christmas as its celebration was one of the reasons why Christians chose to worship on Sundays rather than Saturdays----EASTER!!!!
But, don't get in too big a hurry to bring out the ham and colored eggs because it is only plain, ordinary Tuesday today. Tuesday gets no recognition in Holy Week. The big three days--Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (even though Saturday is not a special one for celebration it is venerated as a day to watch and wait for the resurrection; some churches hold an Easter Vigil during the darkness of the night as they wait for the dawn's light to bring about the Easter celebration) are the main objects of Holy Week but Tuesday is just biding your time.
When I was a school teacher, the day before a holiday was one of the worst days to have to be in school. No one wanted to be there--not the students, not the teachers, not even the principal. You had to be there, though, because it was required by the state in order for the school to get credit and to receive state funding. So, teachers were notorious about having "busy work" for the students to do or to show films most of the day or to allow a lot of breaks in the day for students to have a bit of fun before they left for the holiday. I was one of those teachers who believed that you should keep the students busy or they would make you wish you had. "Busy people are happy people," I would tell them if they complained about doing work that I assigned on that day. "The other teachers aren't making us doing any work," some would chime in. "I am not the other teachers," I would say. So, they would begrudgingly work at doing what I had assigned until I finally released them into the wild to kick up their heels and frolic in holiday gladness.
That is what we want to do on Easter Day---kick up our heels and frolic! That will feel good. After our long, cold winter we want to experience the warmth of Easter Day in all its glory. It is the sign that all is right with the world once more. After the gloom and despair of the events of Holy Week in the life of Jesus, we want to feel happy and celebrate that our good friend Jesus beat out all those who put him to death. He pulled the ultimate April Food joke on death by coming back to life. So, we wear new clothes (to represent the new life that Christ gives us) and we dye eggs and buy lilies (also symbols of new life) and we prepare an Easter Feast to share with others. That makes Easter Day all the more special.
But, as I said earlier, it is not Easter Day yet....it is only Tuesday, a day to reflect, contemplate, plan, and wait. We can make the most of the time of our waiting, though. Busy people are happy people...the wise teacher said. Be busy, be happy, be about the business of spreading the news of God's grace in a world that needs to hear the good news. Resurrection is a 365 day reality, even when we are waiting for it to reappear in our hearts through the Easter message we need to hear once more.
But, don't get in too big a hurry to bring out the ham and colored eggs because it is only plain, ordinary Tuesday today. Tuesday gets no recognition in Holy Week. The big three days--Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (even though Saturday is not a special one for celebration it is venerated as a day to watch and wait for the resurrection; some churches hold an Easter Vigil during the darkness of the night as they wait for the dawn's light to bring about the Easter celebration) are the main objects of Holy Week but Tuesday is just biding your time.
When I was a school teacher, the day before a holiday was one of the worst days to have to be in school. No one wanted to be there--not the students, not the teachers, not even the principal. You had to be there, though, because it was required by the state in order for the school to get credit and to receive state funding. So, teachers were notorious about having "busy work" for the students to do or to show films most of the day or to allow a lot of breaks in the day for students to have a bit of fun before they left for the holiday. I was one of those teachers who believed that you should keep the students busy or they would make you wish you had. "Busy people are happy people," I would tell them if they complained about doing work that I assigned on that day. "The other teachers aren't making us doing any work," some would chime in. "I am not the other teachers," I would say. So, they would begrudgingly work at doing what I had assigned until I finally released them into the wild to kick up their heels and frolic in holiday gladness.
That is what we want to do on Easter Day---kick up our heels and frolic! That will feel good. After our long, cold winter we want to experience the warmth of Easter Day in all its glory. It is the sign that all is right with the world once more. After the gloom and despair of the events of Holy Week in the life of Jesus, we want to feel happy and celebrate that our good friend Jesus beat out all those who put him to death. He pulled the ultimate April Food joke on death by coming back to life. So, we wear new clothes (to represent the new life that Christ gives us) and we dye eggs and buy lilies (also symbols of new life) and we prepare an Easter Feast to share with others. That makes Easter Day all the more special.
But, as I said earlier, it is not Easter Day yet....it is only Tuesday, a day to reflect, contemplate, plan, and wait. We can make the most of the time of our waiting, though. Busy people are happy people...the wise teacher said. Be busy, be happy, be about the business of spreading the news of God's grace in a world that needs to hear the good news. Resurrection is a 365 day reality, even when we are waiting for it to reappear in our hearts through the Easter message we need to hear once more.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Remembering Special Days
When I was growing up, there were days when my mother would get very quiet and would not talk much, something that is very different than the way she usually relates to everyone. When that would happen, sometimes she would tell us that it was the date when someone important to her had died in the past. Sometimes the remembrance of those special days would bring her to tears. Other times she would just be melancholy for a while and then snap out of it. As I get older, I find myself doing the same thing--remembering a date when someone from my past died.
Today is the one year anniversary of the day when we buried my older brother. He died on April 4 and his funeral was held on April 8. My brother had a major stroke that sent him into unconsciousness on Good Friday last year and was kept alive by machines for a week until all who wanted to be there gathered in the hospital room and the machines were turned off and he died within a few short minutes. It was easy to see his spirit leaving his body, thanks to the heart monitor that stayed attached and counted down the beats until there was the well known flat line that we often see on television programs and in the movies. I left the room where the crowd continued to mourn and made my way alone from the hospital to my car and drove home alone and silently reflecting upon the life of my brother.
Today I pause to remember my brother and two uncles who also were buried on days with an 8 in them. My Uncle Shorty, who was as close to me as my parents, was buried 26 years ago today. I remember his passing because it actually hurt more than the death of my own father. Uncle Shorty was the jolly, cheerful uncle who always had something funny to share and I always felt comfortable around him. I was a pallbearer at his funeral and remember crying my way through the funeral without remembering a thing that was said or done in it. Uncle Shorty's real name was Orville so he used Shorty throughout life. He smoked cigars and gave us the boxes that his cigars came in to use for our school supplies, boxes made of real, stiff cardboard with a slight smell of tobacco still in them. Uncle Shorty was short (as the nickname implies) and fat, never able to lose weight regardless of what methods he tried. That may be part of the reason why he died younger than his other brothers, even though he was one of the younger brothers of the five.
Uncle Shorty and Uncle Charlie (who was buried just a few months ago on the 8th of a month) and my brother Danny are all still alive because I remember so much about them. The great Christian scholar Frederick Buechner once said, "When you remember me, it means that you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me. It means that after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart. For as long as you remember me, I am never entirely lost." (Listening to Your Life).
April 8 will always be a special day for me and my family because it was on this day we said our final goodbye to my older brother, Danny. The goodbyes may be over, but the hellos of remembrance will last forever, as long as we remember who he is. Danny and I were close at one time in life and that is the part of remembering him that I like to remember. Nothing else really matters because love is at the center of remembering the fondness and the connection that we once shared.
Today is the one year anniversary of the day when we buried my older brother. He died on April 4 and his funeral was held on April 8. My brother had a major stroke that sent him into unconsciousness on Good Friday last year and was kept alive by machines for a week until all who wanted to be there gathered in the hospital room and the machines were turned off and he died within a few short minutes. It was easy to see his spirit leaving his body, thanks to the heart monitor that stayed attached and counted down the beats until there was the well known flat line that we often see on television programs and in the movies. I left the room where the crowd continued to mourn and made my way alone from the hospital to my car and drove home alone and silently reflecting upon the life of my brother.
Today I pause to remember my brother and two uncles who also were buried on days with an 8 in them. My Uncle Shorty, who was as close to me as my parents, was buried 26 years ago today. I remember his passing because it actually hurt more than the death of my own father. Uncle Shorty was the jolly, cheerful uncle who always had something funny to share and I always felt comfortable around him. I was a pallbearer at his funeral and remember crying my way through the funeral without remembering a thing that was said or done in it. Uncle Shorty's real name was Orville so he used Shorty throughout life. He smoked cigars and gave us the boxes that his cigars came in to use for our school supplies, boxes made of real, stiff cardboard with a slight smell of tobacco still in them. Uncle Shorty was short (as the nickname implies) and fat, never able to lose weight regardless of what methods he tried. That may be part of the reason why he died younger than his other brothers, even though he was one of the younger brothers of the five.
Uncle Shorty and Uncle Charlie (who was buried just a few months ago on the 8th of a month) and my brother Danny are all still alive because I remember so much about them. The great Christian scholar Frederick Buechner once said, "When you remember me, it means that you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me. It means that after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart. For as long as you remember me, I am never entirely lost." (Listening to Your Life).
April 8 will always be a special day for me and my family because it was on this day we said our final goodbye to my older brother, Danny. The goodbyes may be over, but the hellos of remembrance will last forever, as long as we remember who he is. Danny and I were close at one time in life and that is the part of remembering him that I like to remember. Nothing else really matters because love is at the center of remembering the fondness and the connection that we once shared.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Bringing the Dead Back to Life
Okay, so I have been watching ABC's new program, "Resurrection" for the past four weeks of its run and so far I am hooked. The little 8 year old boy who drowned in the river has returned. The sinister Caleb whose ashes had been dumped in the river has returned. The woman who was the fiance of the preacher who ran her car into the river and drowned has returned and there were hints last week that more dead people would soon come back to Arcadia, Missouri. My only beef with the program is that there are as many minutes of commercials as there are of content leaving the viewer hung every five minutes by some new mystery but that has little to do with the program itself just the commercialization of television. So, now we are left to wonder, "Is this program turning into a zombie program OR will there be more to it, such as why this mysterious return to life of persons who fell into the river or whose ashes were scattered in it? Is there much more to the mystery or will it "jump the shark" (as they say about programs that wear out their welcome and need to disappear) and fade into oblivion?
You would think that everyone would rejoice when a dead person returns and resumes life where it left off many decades ago but there are people who distrust these recycled folk and wonder why they are back. Some do not want them around. Some shun them as they do the little boy--each time he shows up somewhere, everyone makes a mass exodus, hurting his feelings and making him feel unloved. Even his father has to wrestle with his feelings about his son who died 32 years ago and is now back still at 8 years old while the dad has aged to be in his 60s. The man dealt with his grief long ago and now has to question everything that has happened in the past and the order of the way the world should work. After all, when someone has died, shouldn't they just stay dead? Isn't that the way the world works? People live, people die....end of sentence.
Maybe that is what is in the minds of those religious folk in John 11 that we will examine this next Sunday. The well known and loved Lazarus, brother to Mary and Martha, has died and everyone from near and far has come to Bethany to mourn his passing. They are yelling and crying and falling on the ground in grief, just the way that the order of things worked in the Middle East of their day. Professional mourners have come to be sure that Lazarus has the biggest send off people of the area have ever seen. Mary and Martha are beside themselves and have sent for Jesus, their dear friend and teacher, to come to be with them to comfort them. Regardless of his busy schedule, they expected him to drop what he was doing and come to them immediately but instead he delayed, first one day and then another and then another and finally he showed up four days after Lazarus died. The scene Jesus encountered was filled with such pathos that it made me begin to cry. He felt the pain of these mourners and especially his good friends whom he loved.
All the religious people there to mourn knew the way the world worked. Lazarus lived and then he died. That was the end of the story. People die....that is the hard, cold fact of life they knew existed. Jesus, though, did not follow the rules. He had to go stir things up and turn the order of life upside down. When faced with what seemed to be the way things work, Jesus had to go about showing everyone that it was not necessarily so.
"Lazarus, come out!!!," Jesus shouted at the dead man inside the tomb, who by this time had begun to make the air smell with the stench of death that everyone could notice. Everyone gathered there must have held their breath and wondered if the teacher had not gone a bit loony as he commanded a dead man to rise but their eyes were opened in amazement when the stirring began and they had to unbind Lazarus from the bands of cloth that held him tight like a mummy. He breathed the fresh air again and came out to be reunited with his sisters, much to the joy of some and the terror of others. Some immediately believed in Jesus as the healer and resurrection of the dead but other did not like this change in the order of things. They were perfectly comfortable with the way life worked and did not want Jesus messing with things, even if it was to reunite sisters with their dead brother.
What do you do with Jesus when he interferes in the way the world works? "So from that day on they planned to put him to death." (John 11:53) Anyone who goes against the natural order of things should be silenced, killed, put out of commission so that they will not repeat their acts of treason again. "It is better to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed," spoke the high priest Caiaphas. Jesus had to die, plain and simple.
Bringing the dead back to life would seem to be something that everyone would welcome, even today, but when it goes against the natural order of things that are present in society some do not want it even if it pleases others. What other things in life today threaten some because of their very existence? What signs of new life do some want to stifle because it makes them feel so uncomfortable? How do some cope with change when they really want things to be the way they have always been?
We will examine these and other questions this Sunday during our 9:30 a.m. service. Come join us as we worship together.
You would think that everyone would rejoice when a dead person returns and resumes life where it left off many decades ago but there are people who distrust these recycled folk and wonder why they are back. Some do not want them around. Some shun them as they do the little boy--each time he shows up somewhere, everyone makes a mass exodus, hurting his feelings and making him feel unloved. Even his father has to wrestle with his feelings about his son who died 32 years ago and is now back still at 8 years old while the dad has aged to be in his 60s. The man dealt with his grief long ago and now has to question everything that has happened in the past and the order of the way the world should work. After all, when someone has died, shouldn't they just stay dead? Isn't that the way the world works? People live, people die....end of sentence.
Maybe that is what is in the minds of those religious folk in John 11 that we will examine this next Sunday. The well known and loved Lazarus, brother to Mary and Martha, has died and everyone from near and far has come to Bethany to mourn his passing. They are yelling and crying and falling on the ground in grief, just the way that the order of things worked in the Middle East of their day. Professional mourners have come to be sure that Lazarus has the biggest send off people of the area have ever seen. Mary and Martha are beside themselves and have sent for Jesus, their dear friend and teacher, to come to be with them to comfort them. Regardless of his busy schedule, they expected him to drop what he was doing and come to them immediately but instead he delayed, first one day and then another and then another and finally he showed up four days after Lazarus died. The scene Jesus encountered was filled with such pathos that it made me begin to cry. He felt the pain of these mourners and especially his good friends whom he loved.
All the religious people there to mourn knew the way the world worked. Lazarus lived and then he died. That was the end of the story. People die....that is the hard, cold fact of life they knew existed. Jesus, though, did not follow the rules. He had to go stir things up and turn the order of life upside down. When faced with what seemed to be the way things work, Jesus had to go about showing everyone that it was not necessarily so.
"Lazarus, come out!!!," Jesus shouted at the dead man inside the tomb, who by this time had begun to make the air smell with the stench of death that everyone could notice. Everyone gathered there must have held their breath and wondered if the teacher had not gone a bit loony as he commanded a dead man to rise but their eyes were opened in amazement when the stirring began and they had to unbind Lazarus from the bands of cloth that held him tight like a mummy. He breathed the fresh air again and came out to be reunited with his sisters, much to the joy of some and the terror of others. Some immediately believed in Jesus as the healer and resurrection of the dead but other did not like this change in the order of things. They were perfectly comfortable with the way life worked and did not want Jesus messing with things, even if it was to reunite sisters with their dead brother.
What do you do with Jesus when he interferes in the way the world works? "So from that day on they planned to put him to death." (John 11:53) Anyone who goes against the natural order of things should be silenced, killed, put out of commission so that they will not repeat their acts of treason again. "It is better to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed," spoke the high priest Caiaphas. Jesus had to die, plain and simple.
Bringing the dead back to life would seem to be something that everyone would welcome, even today, but when it goes against the natural order of things that are present in society some do not want it even if it pleases others. What other things in life today threaten some because of their very existence? What signs of new life do some want to stifle because it makes them feel so uncomfortable? How do some cope with change when they really want things to be the way they have always been?
We will examine these and other questions this Sunday during our 9:30 a.m. service. Come join us as we worship together.
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