A Question

The first Psalm I memorized was the 23rd Psalm.  I did so out of that black Bible with the zipper running around it.  Inside were pictures of significant Biblical moments and red print on all the words which Jesus spoke.  It is the first Bible I remember and, somehow, it has managed to travel safely with me over this sixty years.  Every time I moved, it made the journey.  The Pierce Chapel Methodist Church out in the woods near Waycross, Ga. encouraged its children to memorize scripture  by giving us a moment at the Sunday evening worship service to recite memorized verses and a gold star on the wall chart when we did. 

 

So, I have not only carried that black Bible from my childhood with me through the years, but I have also carried the 23rd Psalm along as well.  Long ago it ceased being necessary to read it from the page since it was planted in my heart.  Most likely it has been the most read and most used chapter of scripture in my life and ministry.  With such a long history with these Words, the question which came out of a recent reading was a bit surprising.  Surprising because I cannot remember ever asking it.  Perhaps, I am asking it now because there is a thick green pasture growing just across the road from the front door.  Most every day I walk in it tending not sheep, but a few cows.  What is the question?  It comes from verse 2 as it says, "He makes me lie down in green pastures."   The question is: "Why should I have to be made to lie down in green pastures?"

 

Through the 23rd Psalm the Word of God is  telling me that God can be trusted to provide what I need for my life in a lush and abundant way.  Any, why should I be made to rest and live and be nurtured on ground made fertile for the sustenance of my soul?  Around these parts someone would say that anyone with one eye and half sense would know better.  I have two eyes and good sense.  But, still, there is me.  As hungry as I know my heart to sometimes be for God, I also know how stubbornly it can seek its own way.  Thankful am I for the pressure of God's love that holds me where my needy soul can be fed.

Sounds of Easter

The morning air is full of sounds.  Maybe it is easier to hear because of the misty clouds lingering upon the heavy morning moisture on the ground.  Sounds.  Reverberating.  Echoing.  Racing along the ground and in the air to ears of those who have ears to hear.  Women sniffling through tears.  Whispered muted voices.  Feet dragging on worn dirt.  Tree branches suddenly moving over shaking earth.  Stones moving and lodging in new resting places.  Bodies collapsing, thudding hard against shaking ground.  Untended fire hissing in smoke.  Tentative birds launching the morning's first song.

 

The loud demanding voices of women.  Thumping hearts. Spice bag falling to ground.  Gentle voices of angels.  Breath being taken away in surprise.  Running feet breaking the morning stillness.  Hard tortured gasping for air.  Soft murmurs inside the tomb.  Moisture dripping.  Cold air settling.  Hard sobs of grief.  Echoes.

The voices.  The words.  Heavenly angels and resurrected Son.  'He is not here, but has risen."  "Why are you weeping?" "Do not be afraid."  "He has been raised as He said."   "You will see Him."  "Mary."   Indeed, there is much to hear.  There are sounds not yet heard, but waiting to be heard by the seeking heart.  Listen.  Hear.  From a place where only whispers are heard, there is a loud victorious Word being shouted for all the world to hear.  Jesus is risen.  As Mary heard her name on the lips of the resurrected Son, let us listen for ours.  It is a name and a Word we will surely hear if we but still our souls and listen.

Lent XXXXVI....Holy Saturday

Holy Saturday is an interesting day.  Maybe, thought provoking is a better word.  It is the day between Good Friday and Easter, the day between the cross and the empty tomb, the day between what appeared to be defeat and what can only be described as stunning victory.  Traditionally, it has been for the church a day of continued prayer.  It has been a moment of waiting as with the women who waited for Saturday to pass so that they could return to the tomb of Jesus to finish what had been started but left undone on Friday evening. 

 

It does make for a thought provoking moment of reflection.  The stone was obviously not rolled away until Sunday morning.  We do not think of Jesus being resurrected from the dead until Sunday morning, but if you are God why wait? Of course, there is the matter of scripture and the words of Jesus which spoke of being raised from the dead in the time allotted between Friday evening and Sunday morning.  Still, one cannot help but wonder.  The stone was not rolled away so that Jesus could make an early morning exit.  If being raised from the dead was not an insurmountable problem for God, surely getting Jesus out of the tomb without disturbing the landscape would have been a piece of cake. It sounds like what we have always heard is true.  The stone was not rolled back so that Jesus could enter, but so that we could enter.

 

Still, is hard not to wonder about what this death of Jesus meant.  Was the creation brought into being through divine creative breath now totally empty of His presence?  Was He no longer a part of it except as a memory of Someone who lived among us?  What was it like when eyes closed in death saw light again?  What was it like when the spirit rushed into a resurrected form to create a new life?  What will it be like for us?  Does that moment when the Spirit rushes into our mortal bodies creating something new in anyway resemble that moment when we are touched by unleashed resurrection power and given what can only be known as eternal life?  Holy Saturday.  A day for pondering.  And waiting for Easter.

Lent XXXXV...Good Friday

Good Friday has always seemed like a hard day for the church.  What makes it hard is not that the Protestant community of faith takes it so seriously, but that it often seems unsure what to do with it.  In many places Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are seen more as Roman Catholic services and are either ignored, or handled in a rather trivial manner.  I remember an ecumenical community Good Friday service offered years ago when a local pastor gets up and says, "I know it is Good Friday, the day Jesus died on the cross, but I am going to preach on resurrection."  And, off he went reading the Easter morning lesson and preaching on the empty tomb. 

 

Sometimes it seems we have an unhealthly fear of anything to do with the cross.  I say "unhealthy" because it is not spiritually healthy to ignore it.  Our secular world which knows so little of the gospel story shows up in mass on Easter Sunday for the watered down version of the message about resurrection power being unleashed in our world without even knowing about the horrible reality of Jesus dying on the cross on Friday.  How we can celebrate a death we have not contemplated is a difficult matter to comprehend.   There was nothing pretty and clean and nice about what happened to Jesus in those hours before the cross and during the hours He suffered on the cross waiting on death.  It is a picture of humanity at its worst.  It is a picture which speaks of the deep need of humanity.  And, it is a picture which reveals to us the love of God and His deep desire to bring us home to His heart.

 

Going by the cross is not an optional moment for those who would truly understand why we are gathering on Easter.  Without standing, or kneeling, before the cross, Easter Sunday is just about eggs and new clothes.  But, when we allow ourselves to be immersed in both the horror and the divine love present on Golgotha, we finally get it, and are finally ready to celebrate the greatest Word in all of history.  Christ who died on Friday has been raised from the dead and because He lives, we, too, shall live!

Lent XXXXIV.....Maundy Thursday

It was almost twenty-four years ago that I went to her church as pastor.  One of the worship experiences shared in those years was Maundy Thursday.  I was learning how to lead such a service and she and others in the congregation were sharing it for the first time.  Today as we met and talked, she immediately said that it was Maundy Thursday.  From that comment she went on to witness to the value and meaning this single service had been for her through the years of her life. 

 

It is not hard to figure.  It is a day which has a built-in worship agenda guaranteed to bless those who participate and please Jesus when we share in it.  After all, His command was to "do this in remembrance of me."  It is also a worship experience entered into with intentionality.  On Sunday morning we may show up for a variety for reasons, but those who show us for this annual Table moment do so out of intentionality.  Going to a worship moment on Thursday evening is different than going on Sunday morning.  It is a worship service driven by desire.  Those who show up come not because of habit, but because of a desire to worship on this special day of the year.  As does no other day, it brings to our consciousness what Christ has done for us as He chose to go to the cross for our sakes.  If it is possible to enter into a moment of supreme grace, surely Maundy Thursday brings us to such a place.

 

There is no week like this week.  And there are  no days like these days of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.  Those who pause at the Table and kneel at the cross are much more likely to be able to raise their hands and hearts in praise that Jesus is risen come Easter morning.  Today's moments with Jesus remind us as we go forward that what happened long ago was no sudden surprise, but a work of grace and mercy planned before the beginning of all creation.  Thanks be to God!

Lent XXXXIII

Sunday was filled with the hollering crowd.  Monday was filled with the sounds of a Temple being turned upside down.  Tuesday was filled with voices of anger.  Wednesday brought quietness into Jesus' world.  Some say He did not even go into the city on this day, but stayed away for a day of much needed solitude.  However, Luke tells us He spent each day in the Temple with the nights being passed at the Mount of Olives.  (21:37-38)   Matthew and Mark both talk of Jesus visiting with Simon the leper at Bethany on Wednesday and report He was anointed with costly oil by an unknown woman.   Jesus spoke of the anointing as His preparation for the burial which was only days away.  The Scripture does not always tell us all we would like to know and certainly this is one such instance. 

But, one thing is clear.  It was a different kind of day.  Away from the noise and clamor of all that was stirring around Him, Jesus had a day that was strangely quiet and uneventful when compared to all that had happened earlier in the week.  It is as if He intentionally drew aside so that all His inner resources would be tuned to the Father's will.  The final part of the journey awaited Him and surely this day in Bethany was a moment for final preparation.

Most of us would do other things when we face the pressures and stresses of life.  Most of us get our personal battle plan ready when we feel threatened by folks who mean to bring no good into our lives.  Instead of being able to listen to the voice of the Father, we can only hear the voices in our head helping us to determine our best option for overcoming.  What Jesus points us to is really the best option for overcoming.  What we see Him embracing as the best option was listening for the sound of the Father's voice and depending on it for direction.  We can do no better when our world seems to be coming apart at the seams and chaos clamors for control.  Listening to the Father.  Depending on the Father.  These are the kind of things which ready us for the whatevers of life.

Lent XXXXII

Tradition teaches us that Tuesday was a tough day for Jesus.  Oh, it was nothing like later days would be, but it was a tough one, nonetheless.  After Sunday's avalanche of popularity, one might have expected things to go differently, but what happened on Sunday only seemed to fuel the fear and anger of those chief priests and scribes who saw Jesus as a threat which could not be tolerated.  If we read John's gospel, we find reason to believe that the restoration of Lazarus from the dead was the final straw for these adversaries of Jesus.  When Jesus came into Jerusalem those pillars of Hebrew power had already decided something permanent had to be done with this upstart Rabbi. 

 

Tuesday is known as the day of confrontation with these powerful antagonist.  If there was any doubt that the Jesus problem had to be solved immediately, the Temple cleansing on Monday solidified it.  As far as the Hebrew leaders were concerned, His attack on the Temple was not something which could be tolerated.  Too many things thought to be nailed down tightly were coming loose.  As we read the gospels we see Jesus on Tuesday dealing with one question after another.  None really sought His thoughts.  All sought to tangle Him up in some issue which could be turned against Him.  For example, if He responded one way with the coin question, He turned the people against Him.  If He responded the other way, He turned Rome against Him.  Of course, none of the questions posed to Jesus on the day of confrontation had the desired results.  He only revealed the real motives of those who questioned Him.

 

Still, it was a tough day.  Everywhere He turned there was pressure and the faces of those who wanted to do away with Him.  However, it was not yet Friday.  It was not yet His time.  And as One who was in control, He walked away and out of the city to come another day.  He would die as they desired, but He would be in control.  What they wanted, He was willing to give.  He gave His life not for their purposes, but for the purposes of God.  There is no greater reason to live our lives than fulfilling the purposes of God.  And, to do it as He did....willingly, out of obedience to the Father.