Part 3: The Valley of Tears --- Easter Sunday

(basin of tears becomes baptism font bowl, light floating candle)

This morning as the sun came up, one noticed that the ground was damp; the tears of Friday have soaked in. Rising through God’s tears of love we find ourselves by a warm pool of tears.

As a tear, I am drawn to this place, the glow of my sisters and brothers, as they sparkle God’s love. These tears are those from Thursday and Friday, they were part of the flood that drown the world; washing it, you, in tears of love.

You know those times in life when tears stream down your face and you have no control over them?  Tears that just flow in awe of a sunrise; or the rapture of the heart at the hearing of a hymn or song; at the birth of a child; the graduation of your kids; or looking into someone’s eyes long enough to really see a person’s depth. And beyond that there are those tears that just happen --- unexplainable, unintentional, no rhyme or reason ---

That’s the kind of tear I am this morning.  That’s the kind of tear that rolled down the faces of the women when they were frightened, amazed, and perplexed at the empty tomb.

Today I am drawn to the sparkle of God’s love shining in my sisters and brothers. 

God’s spirit is moving over the waters-- in the water.  Here there is abundant life.

And that is why you might find yourself with misty eyes, tears slipping down your cheeks, because we tears, want to reflect God’s abundant love and life.

I am positive that you have noticed a face made radiant with moist tears, glistening tears as on one of those mornings when dew glistens on spider webs. Or a tear wet face that shimmers like an opal or the inside of a shell.

These tears ----the ones that sparkle and seep into the skin --- they are warm; filled with awe, hope, light, resurrection.

A warm tear attains its warmth through an acceptance of love greater than itself. It is a tear that has drown, been washed, and is resurrected.  New and whole, the tear has a desire, a compulsion, to resurrect that same love within a person; hoping beyond hope that the person on whose cheeks they silently shimmer feels the warmth; is washed by the warmth and feels the abundant life offered through God’s tears of love.

How many times have I run down people’s faces, shimmered with all my might, tried to bring warmth to the person’s face, and failed?  How many times have I tried to let people know the warmth of God’s tears of love?

How many times have I been cried, and wasted; most of me running off and not being allowed to sink in? Tears of love that get filled with human fear, unbelief, and darkness.

That’s why I am drawn here to the valley of tears… this valley of God tears is ready for baptism. Babies, and ---adults, everyone---is welcome to be washed in God’s tears of love.  I like baby baptisms because sometimes the parents and God-parents cry, it’s as if they finally get this gift of God’s unconditional love.  Somewhere along the way it seems adults forget, or through feelings of unworthiness, get stuck and fail to believe, ---see, feel, or accept--- that they are loved just as they are. You are loved, just as you are.

(silence)

It was quiet in the early hours of the morning when the women walked through the Kidron Valley to the tomb. Yes, there were tears on their cheeks.  As the sun began to creep above the Mount of Olives, it reflected – it glistened; off their tears.  They were being prepared for the full blast of what this resurrection day was going to be about.

My journal records a poem by Lord Byron that begins, “When we two parted, in silence and tears….”  That was the situation on Friday; the women looking at Jesus dying on the cross and Jesus at the women --- in silence and tears. Lord Byron’s poem ends: “If I should meet thee/after long years/ How shall I greet thee?---                   /with silence and tears.” And that is what happened, although it was after a long three days (not years), that the women and Jesus meet.  The women are silent, and they take hold of his feet.  How intimate.  Do you remember the woman who washed Jesus’s feet, with her tears and dried them with her hair?  Those are washed tears, resurrection tears, tears of life, tears of love. And the women in this intimate moment with a risen Christ, having died with him through their anguish and tears of the past few days, drown in sorrow, are risen in love made new as they weep on Jesus’s feet--- weeping a love that washes away death and breathes life.

Jesus sends them to tell the disciples, “I will meet them in Galilee,” that is, in their homes, in the midst of their every day lives – bringing love and tears to the most intimate places.  The women have no words. No words are needed, as tears sparkle down their faces; Tears of warmth. Tears of recognition.  Tears of rejoicing. Tears of relationship. Tears of love. Tears of life.

It is Paschal year 2017, resurrection time starts this morning --- for 365 days. Over these days may you be found to have moments of weeping, may tears stream down your face for no apparent reason, may you see tears shimmering on the cheeks of others, may you not hold tears back. In each tear, be drown and resurrected; feel warmth, glimpse hope, experience God’s love – God’s tears for you.   In silence and through tears, boldly proclaim the intimacy of God’s love which has the power to resurrect death to abundant life.