Easter 4: Are We Living Death or Living Life?

 

Traditionally the Fourth Sunday of Easter is known as Good Shepherd Sunday. Reflecting on the image of the Good Shepherd and the sheepfold we are to consider Easter resurrection by taking a serious look at how we choose to live as individuals and as community: Are we living death or living life?

In the Kid’s Corner, I mentioned the gems that I have found between the pages of books, particularly old books; bookmarks, notes, prayer cards, newspaper clippings. Amongst some old books of my dads I found a little booklet published a 120 years ago, called: ‘The Song of the Syrian Guest.’

The author, William Allen Knight, tells a story of his family in America, receiving a Syrian guest into their home for dinner and conversation. The guest told many stories from Syria including the words of a favourite song – which we know as Psalm 23- along with an explanation of each line from the heart of a Syrian shepherd.  

Two sections particularly spoke to me as Good News, as words of resurrection, amidst new restrictions and growing cases of COVID.  I invite you to pull up a chair and listen to two phrases from Psalm 23 as told by a Syrian guest.

 

-for thou art with me –

“To show how much the presence of the shepherd counts for the welfare of the sheep I can think of nothing better than the strange thing I now tell you.  It is quite beyond the usual, daily care on which the flock depends so fondly. But I have seen it more than once.

Sometimes, in spite of all the care of the shepherd and his dogs, a wolf will get into the very midst of the flock. The sheep are wild with fright.  They run and leap and make it impossible to get at the foe in their midst, who at that very moment may be fastening his fangs in the throat of a helpless member of the flock.  But the shepherd is with them.  He knows what to do even at such a time.  He leaps to a rock or hillock that he may be seen and heard.  Then lifts his voice in a long call, something like a wolf’s cry: ‘Ooh! Ooh!’

On hearing this the sheep remember the shepherd; they heed his voice; and, strange to tell, the poor, timid creatures, which were helpless with terror before, instantly rush with all their strength into a solid mass.  The pressure is irresistible; the wolf is overcome, frequently he is crushed to death, while the shepherd stands there on a rock crying, ‘Ooh! Ooh!”

-I will fear no evil for thou art with me.

 

You anoint me with oil –

“Oh, there begins the beautiful pictures at the end of the day.  The psalm has sung of the whole round of the day’s wandering all the needs of the sheep, all the care of the shepherd. Now it closes with the last scene of the day.  At the door of the sheepfold the shepherd stands and ‘the rodding of the sheep’ takes place.  The shepherd turns his body to let the sheep pass; he is the door, as Christ said of himself. With his rod he holds back the sheep while he looks them over one by one as they go into the fold. He has the horn filled with olive-oil and he has cedar-tar, and he anoints a knee bruised on the rocks or a side scratched by thorns. And here comes one that is not bruised but is simply worn and exhausted; he bathes its face and head with the refreshing olive-oil and he takes the large two-handled cup and dips it brimming full from the water he has brought for that purpose, and lets the weary sheep drink.

There is nothing finer in the psalm than this. God’s care is not for the wounded only it is for those who are just worn and weary.

-thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

 

Are we living death or living life?

What I hear in the stories told by the Syrian guest, is that the heart of shepherding and being a sheepfold is relationship. Thou are with me, you anoint my head with oil – both are relational. When reminded by the shepherd to not be afraid, the sheep work together – collectively pushing in on each other to form a tight community, and face/address/tackle whatever ‘wolf’ is in their midst.

There are instances where collectively we hear God’s call and do push in on each other to form a tightly knit community that addresses social ills and evil in our midst. But there are other examples where we are scattered and not a sheepfold at all. When it comes to the stewardship of creation, reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, addressing Systemic racism, we are not in the sheepfold, we are not even in the same field.

There are other areas also where perhaps we are living dead, rather than living life.

Areas where we are not living as a sheepfold, meaning relationships are all screwed up. Consider how the norm is no longer tight knit neighbourhoods or extended family living.

We have hired-hands and out-sourced our relationships: consider that much of our caring capacity has been given to ‘experts’ – professionals, service providers, organizations, government- particularly in relationship with seniors and long-term care, childcare, health care,  education, food production, manufacturing the things we use. On so many levels - We are disconnected. We are outsourcing relationship.

Are we living death or living life?

 

The Syrian guest’s reflection on Psalm 23 is the shepherd standing on rock or hillock and crying, ‘ooh! Ooh!  This is a call to resurrection, a call to not be afraid, a call to remind us to work together to stamp out evil in our midst; to push in on each other and form a tight community and address the things that draw us away from relationship with shepherd and sheep and creation.

 

Living death – is living that does not have us living into our capacity to care; it is living devoid of relationship, or only living into some relationships. It is outsourcing and hiring others to do the difficult work of walking with others, suffering with others, taking care of others. It is being too busy to care or too wrapped up in your own stuff to warrant getting involved.

 

Living life – is living that is resurrection. Life that brings joy because all your relationships – those with God, people, creation, objects; centre on care and growing and or reflecting on the relationship.  Living life is taking to heart the care of the Shepherd and applying the word’s thou art with me and you anoint my head with oil, and then sharing this resurrection  in and through our relationships.

 

As a gathered community - Anointed with oil and cup over-flowing- be released from fear and refreshed from weariness; that you may live life. Amen.

 

Easter 3: How Have Ministries Been Enhanced

 

 

Through this season of Easter we are reflecting and applying the Easter story to resurrection springing up from the Lent of pandemic.

The first Sunday of Easter we reflected on the question: what is God calling us to do?

The second Sunday of Easter we reflected on spring cleaning – and were introduced to a journaling pamphlet, “Moving With the Risen Christ.” And you were/are invited to take time through this season to fill it out and return it to the church.

On this third Sunday of Easter we reflect on the question: how have ministries been enhanced over this pandemic time?

 

Enhanced. This is a resurrection kind of word.

Heightened, increased, intensified, appreciated, built up, deepen, boosted, bolstered, strengthened, enlarged, augmented, raised, enlivened... yes, a resurrection word! Alleluia!

 

This past week I read, ‘The Council of Pecans’ – a chapter in the book,  ‘Braiding Sweetgrass,’ by Robin Kimmerer. I learned something extraordinary!

There is a curious thing about pecan trees; from year to year one can not determine how many pecans trees will produce; there is not a pattern to the thin years or bumper crops. The trees have a mind of their own... kind of. Perhaps not unexpected is that all the pecan trees in one area produce the same amount as the other trees in a given year – chalk that up to similar environmental conditions – water, sun, temperature, soil.  What is curious is that pecan trees across the country -so in vastly different environmental conditions- all produce the same amount of fruit in a given year. In low years, everyone has less pecans and struggle together to find adequate food for the winter.  In years of abundance, there is an abundance for everyone and every creature. The chapter is called, the council of pecans, because some how to achieve this the trees must communicate with each other, deciding how much they will produce. Especially in years of mass fruiting, there is evidence that the trees share carbohydrates with each other via incredible fungal networks that redistribute the wealth – one tree to the next.  The council of pecans has a beautiful message, if we listen  -- there is no discrimination; when there is a scarce harvest this scarcity it shared, when there is a feast it is a feast for all- producers and creatures everywhere!

 

How has ministry been enhanced? This question is asking us to open our eyes to the resurrection story being experienced in our midst. It is the same as Jesus’ question from the text, “Have you anything to eat?”  Jesus’ question doesn’t say, ‘give me something to eat’ or what it is that he wants to eat;’ rather it is simply, ‘have you anything to eat?’

 

Jesus’ followers were in a lull, a time of grief and confusion. A time of fear and insecurity when they were not sure whom they could trust and what might happen to those found out to be connected to Jesus.  In the fog of confusion and cloud of unknowning a pair of followers are on the road walking to Emmaus, when a stranger appears on the road and enters their conversation. With hesitation the couple shares with the stranger the strange events of the past few days – talking about death and the recent stories of seeing the dead -Jesus- to be alive. The stranger shares with the couple his understanding of scripture and the hearts of the couple are warmed. They have been given something to eat – spiritual food.

On arriving at their home the couple invite and welcome the stranger into their home, despite any fear or hesitation they may have. The stranger asks the open-ended question, “have you anything to eat?” ... and in sharing fish, bread – physical food – they recognize that Jesus, in flesh and bone, is in their midst and with wounded hands Jesus blesses them.

 

This resurrection story is full of abundance! It enhances our understanding of what resurrection is all about and hopefully expands our experiences of resurrection as we take it to heart.

It is in the willingness to welcome a stranger and to share ‘anything to eat’ – whether conversation, scripture, a journey, shelter, food, table – that the couple, the disciples, recognize Christ in their midst. And Christ is incarnate, flesh and blood, where the divine is seen in human flesh.  Resurrection is a tangible God showing up in person ... in person, bearing the marks of death, the wounds of suffering. 

We live in a time of foolish and senseless deaths: black lives, murdered and missing indigenous  lives, COVID death, domestic violence, mass shootings ---- we can’t turn away from death.  It is ever-present. We live in a fog of confusion and a cloud of unknowning.

 

And into this Jesus asks, ‘have you anything to eat?’

How have ministries been enhanced over the pandemic?

Ministry has been enhanced in the moments when, with wounded hands, we have welcomed the stranger and shared what we have. Facing death, in the time of death, this morning – right now – we experience resurrection as we gather together to hear the word of God and feed the soul; when we don’t turn from foolish death but work to change the statistics; when we as a community invite expressions of grief and lament; when we open a space -in a mult-media plethora of options- to welcome and feed the stranger. Ministry is enhanced when we feast on gratitude and prayer for others; when we take the time to pass out bread whether in the form of physical bread, or heart bread by telling someone else about God’s grace and forgiveness. Ministry is enhanced when repentance and forgiveness are proclaimed.

 

The most eye opening idea for me this week was the putting together of thoughts:

 that ministry is enhanced when we work together like the council of pecans.

Communicating with each other where no one is left out and all are connected; indiscriminately suffering with each other, enjoying abundance together; being fed by each other so that others will be fed; dying with each other, rising together; praying for all; proclaiming repentance and forgiveness widely without reserve; and remembering that some years there will be a scarcity of fruit – so to survive creatures will need to rely on each other- and other years there will be an over-abundance of fruit, a time to celebrate, to live resurrection in its fullness; a year when death will be overshadowed with life!

Until then, proclaim repentance and forgiveness in word and action, welcome strangers, share what you have (conversation, scripture, journey, shelter, food, table), and in so doing may we all experience the risen incarnate Christ in our midst.

 

 

 

 

Spring Cleaning

 

Have nothing in your house you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. ---William Morris

And from geniusquotes.org:

Spring cleaning isn’t about sorting through things and getting rid of clutter. It’s about taking stock of who you are and how others see you.  Its a chance to redefine yourself, to change expectations and to remember that it’s never too late to recapture who you were, or to aim for who you want to be.

 

Today’s scriptures (and the beautiful weather of the past week) have had me thinking about spring cleaning:

 In the early church community we hear of a community of people who are sharing what they have with each other.  The community uses their possessions for the good of all: I sense that nothing is wasted; items are used, reused, and passed along; if food or necessities are required possessions without immediate purpose are sold or traded for what is essential.  The focus of the community is love and compassion for each other.

The disciples’ story gives us a glimpse into a different kind of spring cleaning, one that focuses on the items in our brains and hearts. The text speaks about degrees of belief. The disciples have just experienced the death of their teacher and have had to work at making sense of what they belief; integrating new thoughts into a life-long faith system, accepting a changing relationship with how they understand scripture and the idea of Messiah, and how this applies to actions and life moving forward. And then Jesus appears in their midst! Spring cleaning continues – beliefs, ideas, emotions, actions – some things get pushed out and others resurrected into something new.  

 

In the early years of the church, the community gathered together to care for each other and to tell the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The community also went out to care for others and to proclaim the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection to those who had not yet heard.  There was nothing in the house church that one did not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.  The community took stock of who they were and how others saw them. This early period was a chance to redefine themselves, to change expectations and to remember that it’s never too late to recapture who you were, or to aim for who you want to be. And so it was for the first 200 years or so.

 

After 300 CE,  there was a change of focus within some church communities from spreading and telling the story of Jesus to collecting and preserving sights and artifacts belonging to Jesus and the disciples. Historian Eusibeus records that the Emperor (that is of Rome) has a desire to recover sights like the Upper Room, Jesus’ tomb; artifacts like the cross. Shrines were built to mark the sights, pilgrims began to visit sights to see and take a piece home with them – whether a rock or a piece of tile, a chunk of pottery. Sights began to accumulate things: artifacts to attract pilgrims, candles, sculpture, decorative pieces, tombs, benches; ways of doing things, prayers to be said, fees to pay, what to believe, how to act. The proverbial closet became full of stuff.

 

Over the years there were times of ‘spring cleaning,’ particularly of hearts and brains; buildings remained, as did the stuff in them.  One example of a ‘spring cleaning’ was the Reformation – where focus shifted through a renewed reading of scripture – hearts and minds were changed through wrestling with and understanding that God was not about judgement, but rather, grace. ‘Spring cleaning’ -getting rid of that which was not useful or beautiful – helped the springing up of creative music, art, preaching, conversation, study – resurrection of faith through once again focusing on telling and sharing the story of Jesus.’

 

The current situation of the church is one of spring cleaning.  Over pandemic items have been set aside, some completely tossed out, and new ways of telling and sharing the story of Jesus’ have grown. We are in a position where we are slowly returning to the closet – the building- where our relationship to the material things around us will have changed; some items will have lost their use and no longer be beautiful.

This is our chance to spring clean – to spring clean material things, to spring clean matters of the heart, to spring clean our intellects, to spring clean so that our focus as individuals and a community of believers is resurrected to be of use and beauty to the world.

 

To help in this endeavor a reflection pamphlet has been created to assist us in figuring out our focus – and the nitty-gritty of who we are and who we want to be moving forward.  The pamphlet will be available for pick up, it will be mailed out to some, and photos of it shared. Please take the time to participate and reflect --- to do some spring cleaning of yourself and the church--- And if the pamphlet is not your style, feel free to send your reflections to the church in whatever style works for you.

 

Spring cleaning has been forced on us. Spring cleaning can continue as fuller community is resurrected coming out of pandemic.

 

Resurrection is:

.. about taking stock of who you are and how others see you.

It’s a chance to redefine yourself, to change expectations and to remember that it’s never too late to recapture who you were, or to aim for who you want to be.

 

Thanks be to God.

Easter - What Is God Calling Us to Do?

 

 

It was the best of times it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.      Charles Dickens might as well have written the opening to the “Tale of Two Cities” to describe our present time; Easter 2021.

 

Echoed in line from Dickens, is Paul’s reflection from 1 Corinthians on the foolishness of the cross; echoed is the conundrum the women find themselves in at the empty tomb; echoed is our reality of living in the tensions of belief and incredulity, hope and despair; echoed is the truth that there is nothing and everything before us – just as the Gospel of Mark ends the story where the women say nothing to anyone because they were frightened.  In the Greek text it literally reads ‘they were afraid for...”

 

The Gospel of Mark – this Easter morning story- is early.... Mark does not use theological expressions, he gives no Christological titles, doesn’t use proofs or prophecy from scripture, no descriptions of the resurrection are present, and  the description of the angel at the tomb is basic – not extrapolated.

I know there are some of you who will take your Bible and look at the ending of Mark to verify that this is indeed how the Gospel ends.  Be warned that you will find more verses after verse 8. Generally publishers will mark the verse ‘shorter ending’ and ‘longer ending.’  Both of these were added later – you can google ‘ending Gospel of Mark’ to learn more.  Two of the oldest scrolls of the Gospel, dating to 300 CE end at verse 8.

 

Throughout the seven weeks of Easter we  will hear stories of resurrection appearances from the other Gospels. As beautiful as these stories are – in the story told by Mark there is something simple and honest and oh so very real.

This is my favourite ending because I get it, I can put myself in the group of women; I get lost in conversation with them about who will roll the stone away; I feel the confusion of finding not a body, but, a young man in an empty tomb. I feel devastated that my final gift of love – to anoint the body of a friend and teacher- is not going to happen. How am I ever going to grieve this loss? And I am afraid because this is not what I was expecting, I don’t understand, and this is going to get someone or a group of someones in a lot of trouble. 

Standing at the tomb I sense something beyond understanding; there is a truth that I just can’t quite put my finger on; a change has occurred may I not be too afraid to live into it.

As an introvert I walk away, pondering, seeking options to answer the how, the why, the what now  --- what can this mean?

 

What is God calling us to do?

The women, Mary, Mary, and Salome, were asked to go and to tell the disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of them to Galilee; there they will see him. 

Peter is specifically mentioned because Peter would have been living in the guilt of denying Jesus the night before his death. A specific invitation to come, invites Peter back into the fold --- still loved, still a disciple, still a member of the community.  It also book ends the Gospel of Mark for at the beginning Jesus’ first invitation to be a disciple is given to Simon (Peter) who immediately leaves his nets to follow Jesus.  In literature of this time, to come full circle naming a specific person at the beginning and at the end – is to say that the telling of the Gospel is based on the eyewitness account of the person mentioned. Mark relates Peter’s account of Jesus. At the end, Peter would not have an account, if Mary, Mary, and Salome chose to live as if nothing was the matter, as if nothing changed; if they chose to be silent in fear, rather than grapple with the possibilities before them.

 

What is God calling us to do?

When in the Gospel of Mark I stand at the tomb, I sense something beyond understanding. I feel a change.

This resurrection account feels like our present reality – our journey through pandemic.  Things have changed and won’t ever be the same, but, looking forward we can’t see what resurrection experiences await, or what possibilities will grow.

I imagine the women - having the empty tomb experience-  work its way through their brains; their fear subsiding enough that they chose to tell the disciples and Peter what they found and heard.  Little by little as the days go on, as the group leaves Jerusalem to go back to their homes in  Galilee, more and more truth is accepted and sprouts new life. COVID won’t just one day end, rather, living in a changed world happens little by little as the days go on and then we open our eyes and hearts and we will find ourselves – the community- in a new place.

 

What is God calling us to do?

This is one of various questions that will be posed to you -to us as a community- through the Season of Easter. The question asks us to wrestle with Jesus’ resurrection, and what it is to live this resurrection through our lives today; it is a question to help us move as a community through pandemic to participate in what God is doing – what God is wanting to do- in this neighbourhood, in this world, in creation- through the community’s hands and faith and proclamation of the resurrection. Despite fear, perhaps because of fear, we are called to go and tell!

We are to consider the concrete ways we as individuals and a community can do this. This is our task:

Calm your fears enough that you can  tell someone the story of Jesus and the resurrection –

 particularly in

The best of times and in the worst of times, in the age of wisdom and foolishness, in the epoch of belief and incredulity, in the season of light and darkness, in the spring of hope and the winter of despair, when we have everything before us and when we have nothing before us, whether we are moving heavenward or the other direction...

 

Go tell others -especially those whom you know by name- that the empty tomb has brought change, a mystery not be ignored, and in emptiness offers possibilities for new life.  Jesus has gone before you and will meet you in the neighbourhood.

Thanks be to God. Amen.