The Psalm for Easter in Diaspora, Sunday 12 April 2020

Psalm 130                                                                                              

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
   Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
   to the voice of my supplications!
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
   Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with you,
   so that you may be revered.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
   and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
   more than those who watch for the morning,
   more than those who watch for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the Lord!
   For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
   and with him is great power to redeem.
It is he who will redeem Israel
   from all its iniquities.

Reflection        There is something ‘not yet’ about this coming Sunday morning. Although the calendar reads “Easter Sunday,” our “Alleluias” are stuck in our throat. How can we sing Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia while we and all the peoples of the earth are under attack by hidden cells scheming to make us their slave? to kill us? How can we sing Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia when we are ordered not to touch or breath or be within six feet of one another for fear of our deadly potential? Although the calendar reads, “Easter Sunday” it seems ill timed and tasteless to celebrate Easter Sunday in the tradition with which we have been accustomed. This is the “not yet” part of Easter.

I believe if we were to celebrate this day with gleaming gold threaded vestments, the appointed readings and expected prayers we would be clinging to tradition and sentiment rather than abiding in the living, breathing Word of God. These extraordinary times invite extraordinary responses to express our selves as God’s people. This Easter calls for spaciousness within which we can wait, held in abeyance between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, which is where I believe we hover as we witness death by a virus that has enslaved our bodies much as our distorted ways of living have enslaved our culture and economy. 

What then is the good new this  Easter?  Even though we wait in the uncertain space of social distancing and quarantine that does not mean all is lost. We still have cause to celebrate because our God is faithful. On this promise we lay our lives and wait with confidence. We the people of God have known tireless times of waiting from the beginning. This is what our psalmists and prophets sing about.

“Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and God shall strengthen your heart, wait, I say, on the Lord.  Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.”  From Psalm 27.14

From Psalm 130 “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in God’s word I hope… for with God there is steadfast love.. and great power to redeem.”

The prophet Isaiah puts it this way, ”but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31 This is God’s promise to us as we wait for liberation from the constraints of Covid-19;  as we wait to be together again, to put on our gold threaded vestments, light the new fire and with our whole hearts sing, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. 

Everything is not alright this Sunday morning, in fact we have no idea how things will be forever changed.  But with God in God’s already not yet Kingdom, we wait. We wait in confidence and hope for even the ravages of Covid-19 will be redeemed. So, rejoice! God is with us now and always. 

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Hebrew and Gospel Texts for the Great Vigil Saturday 20 April 2019

 Ezekiel 36:24-28         Say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 

Luke 24:1-12        On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

Reflection        In his book “Befriending Our Desires,” the Jesuit priest Philip Sheldrake, S.J. writes, “Ecstasy is a moment in which some otherwise distant reality is glimpsed as here and now and at one with oneself.” (p 85) Standing at Jesus’ tomb Mary Magdalen, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women experience an ecstatic moment. They are at one with Divine Presence and have a glimpse of the distant reality -  right here and right now. Today we stand in Jesus’ empty tomb with the faithful women and experience a glimpse of the distant reality -  right here and right now, we are at One with the Divine.

I have never seen an angel nor have I heard a booming voice from heaven. But once in my prayers I had an experience of Jesus that was more real than anything I have ever seen with my eyes or touched with my hands. In my heart of hearts I heard Jesus say, “Follow me.” And I stepped behind him. He said, “Come closer.” And I did. And he said, “Closer.” And I answered, “If I come any closer I will step on your heels.” And he said “Closer.” And I stepped into Him and vanished, except I wasn’t gone. What was gone was my sense of separation. I couldn’t see him anymore. I couldn’t sense where I ended and He began. I just knew that He was closer to me than my own breath and that I was so close to Him that there was nothing between us.

I tell you this story because many of you also have stories - stories of how you have been touched by God - and unless we tell our stories we are not living out our lives as the apostles sent to share the Good News.  You see like Mary Magdalene and the other women our stories are meant to be told and retold as reminders that God is not dead. God is alive and with us  - risen right now in our hearts of flesh. 

This is resurrection; our current and ongoing awakening into new and transformed life. You see Jesus did not come to bulldoze the Roman Empire and bury the religious officials in order to rescue regular folks like us into some future utopia. Jesus came as a common man whose on the ground ministry to the sick and rejected gathered a movement of ordinary folks, people whose hearts were broken open and whose spirits were renewed by Jesus’ message of dignity and hope for all people. But the political and religious operatives of his day were threatened by Jesus’ revolutionary message and the crowds he was gathering because it challenged the status quo (read - the officials positions of power and privilege).  So, the authorities counted Jesus a criminal and crucified him between two other criminals. 

Jesus does not protest. He allies himself with the least, the last and the lonely, the broken, the betrayed and the alien, all those ordinary people like me and you whose vision of dignity and hope for all people pose a threat to the status quo. Even though Jesus’ revolutionary vision leads to his brutal execution, his Spirit cannot be extinguished because it rises again and again and again in the fleshy hearts of humankind.  

On Easter we join Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women pondering Ezekiel’s words in the caverns of our hearts, “… A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh…” This is resurrection life. It is not put off for some distant time. Resurrection is now. We are the people of God because the Spirit and fleshy heart of Jesus is resurrected within us again, and again and again, always,  and right now.        

                Alleluia Christ is risen…. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!  

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Gospel text for the Great Vigil of Easter 31 March 2018

 Mark 16.1-8        When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Jesus. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?" When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you." So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Reflection     The stone protecting the entrance to Jesus’ tomb is rolled back. Instead of finding Jesus’ body inside the tomb there is a young man dressed in white, sitting there and saying strange things. “Do not be alarmed, you are for looking Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. He has been raised.”  And along with Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother of James and Salome we ask, “Now what are we supposed to do?”   

Here the original gospel according to Mark ends; it ends as abruptly as it begins. Remember how is begins? This is the beginning of the good news of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God.” These few words tell us, this is a story of good news.  From the very beginning we know Jesus’ true identity, the Son of God. Nevertheless, all the way through the story, along with the disciples, we forget,  we forget the good news, we forget who Jesus is, and then we remember and begin the story again. We forget, then remember and begin the story again. 

That is the way it is (the way we are), right down to the wire. We remember who Jesus is at our Thursday evening Passover Supper and then when things get chaotic on Friday we fear for our lives, forget, run away and hide or stand at a distance watching Jesus take his last breath. Is it not ironic? The person who in the end “remembers” and announces who Jesus is, is a stranger, a Roman soldier, one of those who pounded nails through Jesus’ flesh on the cross. We hear that soldier boldly proclaim, “Truly this man was God’s Son.” And there we are, beginning again, the beginning of the good news of Jesus the Son of God, who dies on a cross. 

It is in this very moment that we discover the answer to the question, the question that mystified us and the Mary’s just moments ago at Jesus’ vacated tomb, “Now what are we supposed to do?” The answer is this, when the Sabbath (the time of waiting) is over and  “the sun has risen on the first day of the week,” it is time to begin again, to see the new light that has pierced the darkness. It is time for us to go and tell the good news of Jesus the Son of God, the message that has reverberated throughout Mark’s gospel because always, always, always, no matter how dark the darkness, always we begin again.

This is the good news of Easter…. ALWAYS we begin again. Alleluia! Alleluia!

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Gospel Text for the Great Vigil of Easter 15 April 2017

Matthew 28:1-10        After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.' This is my message for you." So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Reflection       Sometimes things do not turn out the way we imagine. Early in the morning as the first day of the week was dawning, the two Marys go to the tomb.  But nothing is as they imagined. Instead of it being a still, dark, quiet morning there is a “great earthquake and an angel of the Lord appears like lightening with clothing white as snow.”

Instead of finding Jesus’ tomb sealed and guarded by Roman soldiers, they find the stone rolled back from the tomb and the Guards struck dumb. Instead of finding Jesus’ decaying body they find an angel who speaks  to them. Where there had been nothing but loss, betrayal, decay and grief, now there is something, a message.

The angel of the Lord says “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified”.  Then the angel directs the women to look into empty space, see the place where he was laid, “he is not here….” In the very experience of God’s absence there is a message of hope, “he is risen…he is not here.”

Hope, the gift of Easter, is found in absence. Hope is in the mystery. Hope is the surprising light found in the midst of darkness. The other day I was talking with a seventy six year old woman who was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when she was eighteen years old. Her hands and feet, shoulders and knees were torturously disfigured, which only made what she said to me even more astonishing. “It turns out I am grateful for my rheumatoid arthritis ( a terribly painful and debilitating disease). Without it I probably would never have left my dysfunctional family of origin in their tiny impoverished midwest town, met so many fabulous doctors and healers, and learned how to pray and put my faith in God rather than my body and choose to live my life to the fullest.” Tears took the place of the words I could not get out. Tears of awe and gladness exchanged places with tears of of sorrow. Sometimes things do not turn out the way we imagine, and so we proclaim, “Alleluia, Christ is risen!”

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Gospel text for the Feast of Mary Magdalene observed 19 July 2015

John 20:11-18       Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, `I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Reflection    Instead of running away from the the horrors of the tomb as did the other eleven apostles, instead of burying her head in the sand and denying her love and her excruciating loss, instead of getting busy, going fishing and getting over her post traumatic stress, Mary Magdalene remained at the tomb, she consented to the present moment and allowed herself to experience the depths of her desire and the fullness of her grief.  And in so doing in some mysterious way that our human mentality cannot begin to comprehend, the eyes of Mary’s heart we broken open to see beyond the shadow of death and to experience the ineffable teacher she already had, within. 

When we allow ourselves to truly feel the height and width and depth of our experience, no matter what it is, we are nailed to the present moment and that is precisely where we encounter kindness, beauty and truth, the teacher within, our divine true nature.  We are not separate from God. We are not other than God. Although we are not God, we are not not God either.

When we, like Mary Magdalene, consent to the present moment and allow ourselves to stay at the tomb and experience the fullness of our feelings, regardless of what they are, there is every chance we too will be broken open, turn around, encounter the teacher within, and return to our divine true nature. During the early stages of our spiritual journeys we look for the teacher, we look for God, up there or out there as something or someone to master with our minds and grasp with our senses. This is as it should be until, we, like Mary Magdalene, we allow our hearts to be broken open, until we turn around and realize “What we are seeking we already have.” (Thich Nhat Hanh, The Art of Power )

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Gospel text for Sunday, 27 April 2014

John 20:19-31        When it was evening on the day of Resurrection, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Reflection       Don't you want to ‘see’ Jesus as did Mary Magdalene in the garden? Don’t you want Jesus to find you when you are locked into your own fear (as were the disciples in the upper room)? Don’t you want to feel Jesus breathe on you and receive his peace? Don’t you want to have your own experience of the risen Christ? Like Peter, don’t you want to put your fingers in Jesus’ wounds but wonder if perhaps you have shown up too late? 

For most of us, seeing is believing. So the question is, what are we looking for? If we insist on ‘seeing’ the physical body of Jesus and demand to put our fingers into his bloody wounds there is every chance we will be disappointed. But if we open the eyes of our hearts to see beyond the veil of flesh we will confess resurrection life abounds around us. 

You see, Easter services are not mere memorials of a singular resurrection event that happened two thousand years ago. Easter celebrates our whole new reality; we are Easter people. We live resurrection life now.   What does it mean to live out of this new reality? I believe Thomas puts his finger on it when he responds to the risen Jesus saying, “My Lord and my God!” The pivotal word  in that sentence is “my.”  Thomas is claiming his relationship, his very personal relationship with the risen Jesus. He takes possession of Jesus. Jesus is his Lord, his God. It is all about relationship and relationship is here and now, embodied in the life of people who claim God as their own. 

Every time we experience healing or forgiveness, peace in the midst of fear or uncertainty, hope in the face of grave news, restored relationships, revived churches, a glimmer of light in the midst of a dark, dark night, we experience resurrection life. Resurrection life is now. Every time we reach out and put our fingers into our own wounds, our loved ones wounds, the wounds of our communities and our world and offer peace, comfort or hope we are embodying resurrection life. Alleluia, Christ is risen, in every generation. Resurrection life is eternally now.

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Hebrew Testament reading for Sunday 9 March 2014

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7        The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die."

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, `You shall not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, `You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

Reflection        Here is the biggest, boldest, most outrageous lie ever told to humanity. “You will not die…” That’s what the serpent said to the woman in the garden when tempting her to eat the forbidden fruit. It is a lie that set humanity on the course of denying, resisting and refusing death. It has not served us well.

Slightly more than half of Medicare dollars are spent on patients who die within two months. 22 million ‘hits’ came up in 35 seconds when I typed anti-aging into my computer’s browser. At the bottom of the recession in 2009, Americans spent $10 billion on cosmetic procedures.  Models’ careers end at “28 if they are lucky, 21 if they don’t age well.”  Every form of media markets youth, vitality, agility and would have us deny the inevitable degeneration of our bodies and our minds. Culture would have us buy the serpent’s lie… “You will not die if you buy my stuff.”

But, for at least one day each year we Christians refuse to be bamboozled. Across the globe on Ash Wednesday priests dip their thumbs in ashes, smear crosses on our foreheads while saying, “Remember you are dust and to dust you will return.” In other words, you are going to die. It doesn’t matter what fruit you juice, what supplements you take, what extreme medical procedures you undergo, you are going to die.

Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent, a time for calling our the serpent and admitting the lies we tell ourselves. “I cannot help if when I lose my temper, when I judge and speak ill of others, when I take the extra drink, eat when I am not hungry or shop compulsively. I am not good enough to deserve your love, to deserve God’s love. I don’t need help. I can handle this myself. I am not going to change. I am not going to allow things to change around me. I am in control.” These are lies that we tell ourselves. Lies that we tell ourselves to boost our sense of safety and security, to enhance our self image and self esteem, to amplify our feelings of power and control. 

But instead of saving our lives, the lies cause us to fall out of relationship with God, but only until we expose the serpent and purge our lies. This is the hard work of Lent; admitting the lies we tell ourselves and dying a thousand humiliations as we walk through Lent in the hope of the resurrection life of Easter. 

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Luke 24:1-12 Reflection on Easter Sunday text

Alleluia Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia! Throughout the world this day people have sung and said these words. And I wonder – is this what was on the lips and in the hearts of Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women when “they did not find the body” of their beloved Jesus lying on the limestone shelf in the cool dark cave early that first Easter morning? Things certainly were not as they expected.

When things don’t turn out the way we expect, when we look into the darkness of an uncertain future, when emptiness and confusion fill us – how do we respond? I don’t know about you, but when things don’t work out in accord with the picture in my mind I don’t shout alleluia! When I am perplexed, disappointed, distressed or afraid it is hard for me to see any light never mind shout for joy.

So how is it the women who went to Jesus’ cave prepared to anoint his body with spices were able to find light in the darkness of his empty tomb? The two men (angels) in “dazzling clothes reminded the women that their friend Jesus did not expect his life to be a bed of roses. Jesus expected to be “handed over to sinners and be crucified,” to suffer and die, “and on the third day rise again” in new life. And the women remembered what Jesus had told them.

What if we shared Jesus’ expectation? What if instead of imagining that life is meant to be a steady state of ease and comfort we expected life to be an ceaselessly changing journey of possibilities and surprises? What if instead of imagining that difficulty, disease and suffering where signs of God’s absence we embraced our afflictions as occasions for relying on God’s grace? What if we allowed ourselves to relax into the experience of our lives – just the way they are? What if in the darkest moments – looking into the empty tomb – we remembered that life is endlessly emerging and that the spark of light arises from the heart of darkness? What if we walked The Way of Jesus, consenting to our lives as given and being raised into new life?

Neither consolation nor desolation is constant. Life is not a steady state. Day resolves into night; night is the dawning of day. It is the light found in the remembering of what is not present that is the light of hope. It is this light the women realized in the empty tomb.

Alleluia Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Please engage the "Weekly Bible Reading" for next Sunday and post your reflections.

We look forward to hearing from you. Debra