Easter Day

 

The Bristlecone Tree (thought to be the oldest living tree).
Photographed by John Chiara for the New Yorker Magazine.

"A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act."

– Mahatma Gandh

The Good News according to John, Disciple of Jesus- Chapter Twenty

As Sunday approached, Magda left the house in search of Jesus.  

She wasn't sure what to do, but thought she would try her luck at the mortuary.

When she got there, she found the doors open, and not a soul about.

 

The smell of disinfectant and rancid fat pervaded the gloom.

At last she found the refrigerated store.

Drawers the size of bodies lined the room from floor to ceiling.

On the far side, one drawer had been left open.

It was empty.  She let out a short scream.

There was the certificate of death that had been tied to Jesus’ foot.

 

Magda fled and ran back to find her friends.

She soon bumped into Peter and John who were coming towards her.

"The body’s gone!" she blurted out, as white as a sheet.

In an instant Peter and John took off.

They sprinted past Magda towards the mortuary.

 

John got there first and crashed in through the doors.

He found the empty drawer.

Rifling through emptiness,

Only Jesus' clothing and other bits remained.

"Madga's right, the body has been taken," acknowledged Peter.

"But where?"

It hadn't clicked that Jesus had told them already what to expect.

"No point in staying here."

-------------œ

Magda was in the street crying.  She looked back into the building and saw two people seated behind the reception desk. They called out to her.

 "What's upsetting you?"

 "The body of my dearest friend, has been taken, and I don't know where."

 A man was approaching her in the street. In vain she called out to him.

 "Do you know where he has been taken?" The man stopped and held out his arms.

 "Magda."

 She looked up, her eyes rising to his.

 "Padre!" she called out. She raced towards him; the briefest contact.

 "I'm not huggable yet," he smiled. "I'm here for now, but soon I will be returning to the Creator. Go and tell all our friends that I am alive."

 Wrenching herself away, she held this duty tight.

 "I have seen our Lord. That's why there is no body. He is alive." Gasping, she explained everything that had happened.

PRAYER:  Today balance is restored in the universe.  I am able to start living again.

"Christ the Lord is risen today, sons of men and angels say. Raise your joys and triumphs high; sing, ye heavens and earth reply."

– Charles Wesley

Lent Forty "Get up and Walk"

 

First Steps by Pablo Picasso 
Yale University Art gallery

While I thought that I was learning to live, I have been learning how to die.                              

Leonardo Da Vinci, Notebooks, 1508- 1518

It can be argued that the greatest inequality in life, is the age at which we are likely to die.  People in poorer countries are less affected by pandemics, because the vulnerable have already been taken, by something else.  My early experience of being exposed to a clear threat to my life (they may be many others that I have not been so aware of) has been one of the greatest gifts I could possibly receive.  I find that I have no fear of death.  Without a fear of death, one is freed from many anxieties.  The snake without venom is much less scary that the one that can drain your life from you with one false move.  Tomorrow we celebrate the day when death lost it's sting forever.

Esther Chapter Four

As soon as Mordecai heard the decree he knew exactly what it was about.  He tore his clothes to shreds and went and sat by the city gates, inconsolable.  Queen Esther’s servants told Esther about what they had seen, and she send fresh clothes to Mordecai and instruction to find out what was distressing him.  Esther’s servant returned with a copy of Haman’s decree and explained that Mordecai knew that an innocent people were about to be exterminated.  Mordecai also asked Esther to plead for their lives before the King.  When Esther heard this, she was troubled.  She knew that even the Queen had no authority to speak to the King without a summons.  But Mordecai persisted.  “Surely if you do not say something, our people will be delivered by some other means.  You are likely to be safe in your palace, but I will not be.  Consider, perhaps you were made Queen for such a time as this?”  So Esther replied.  “Go and summons the faithful people to call on the Creator, and abstain from food.  I and my household will do the same.  Then I will see the King, and if this means death, well, so bit it.”  

PRAYER:  Courage is possible with you beside me.  I praise you for the freedom you give.

Lent Thirty Nine "Good Friday"

Final Judgement- Vank Cathedral- Isfahan

The hour that gives us life begins to take it away. 

Seneca, Hercules Furens, 1^st Century

My conundrum is that we are born in the world and discover that we are in an out of control car heading towards a brick wall.  How do you expect us to 'pull that one off'.  Impossible.  And it's agreed.  Yes, and so a way has been made to enable us to walk from death to life.

 Isaiah Chapter two and Three

As the life of the world comes to an end, people from all nations will come to their creator.

The creator will be on the highest mountain, all people will acknowledge the creator and bring perfect praise and honour.  The mountain is called Zion.

The creator will mediate between the nations and help them to settle differences. 

Peace, unknown before, will be declared. 

Weapons of destruction will be converted to useful means.

The decedents of Judah will walk in the light of their creator.

All meaningless wealth, powerful weapons, scheming alliances,

All this will be brought low - nothing will stand.

Don’t put your confidence in human power; ultimately it’s as frail as breath.

3

How the mighty will fall.

Their sophisticated society will collapse into ruins.

Young children will take power, foolishness will reign.

And the creator will step forward and demand justice.

“How dare you allow my people to have their faces ground in the mud?”

Such beautiful people, now scabbed and wretched, barely alive.

But as the outward trapping are stripped away they find they are left with nothing,

Low and degraded.

PRAYER:  I embrace the life that you give me, and the death you give me also.  

Lent Thirty Eight "Get up and Walk"

 

Itchy Gypsy by Juan Atata - Berlin 2012

Anger and jealousy can no more bear to lose sight of their objects than love.  

George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, 1860

I like this message because it describes the 'yin' and 'yang' of relationships.  Passion works in both directions.  To feel strongly is to experience life to the full, but also to be exposed to the pain associated with fear and worry.  We read of the agony of the Creator at the desperate state of the relationship between the Creator, and the created.  

Hosea Chapter 2 

“But now I bring charges against my unfaithful wife.  Tell her to wipe off her make-up, and cover up her body.  If she continues she will be left naked in the wilderness.  I will disown our children.  They are not actually mine.  She seeks the comfort of others, but they continue to turn their backs on her.  In her despair she will think of me, and whether to return.  She forgets that everything she has came first from me.   She passed it straight on to others.  So the good times are over.  Life now becomes punishing.” 

“I cannot bear this, for my love is eternal.  I have freed her in the past from captivity.  I made her equal in partnership with me.  We can wipe away the guilt of failure, the weakness of the heart.  I honour my vow to her, to protect her from harm.  My promise is for ever.  I remain faithful.”

 

“A day will come when I will plant a new community.  We will begin again.  Instead of ‘No Longer loved’, and ‘Not my people’, they will be called ‘My People again!’  They will call me ‘Wonderful Creator’.”

 

PRAYER: Our relationship is the most important part of my life.  I apologies when I make you feel concerned that I do not value it.

Lent Thirty Seven "Get up and Walk"

 

Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai, Metropolitan Museum of Art, British Museum, Art Institute Chicargo, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Art and History Museum Brussels, National Gallery of Victoria and Claude Monet's Home at Giverny, France.

Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear. 

Spinoza, Ethics, 1677

Surf where the wave is.  The greatest experiences have an edge to them. The degree of confidence exceeds the fear of failure.  I get up on the wave and the experience is amazing.  Finding the 'cutting edge' of achieving, overcoming the challenge, a risk worth taking.  This makes for an exciting life.    

Isaiah Chapter Six

It was in the year that King Uzziah died that I saw the creator,

Seated on a high throne, with billowing robes filling the chamber.

In attendance were mighty and strange figures; people with six wings.

Two wings covered their face, two their feet, and they flew with the third.

Together they sung an awesome song of praise to the creator.

“Great, Mighty, Perfect is the creator,

Every part of the earth is filled with this glory.”

As they spoke, the building shook terribly and from its foundations smoke rose up.

I cried out

“my life is over, I have seen perfection, and I am wretched and contaminated.

I am from a people who do wrong.  Surely I cannot see the creator and live?”

 

Then one of the strange beasts flew to the centre of the room to a great fire of burning coals. 

The beast took tongs and picked up a coal,

Coming over to me and gently touched the coal to my lips.

I then hear say:

“See this coal; it has touched your lips.  Now your imperfections are removed. 

You are made clean as new.”

 

The creator surveyed the whole world and asked,

“Who can I send as a messenger to these people in their need?”

 

And I stood up and said

“Here I am, Send me.”

And the creator replied,

“yes, you go, but be aware, these people will hear, but they will not understand.

They will watch, but learn nothing.

They will see with their eyes, but turn away from healing.”

Continue until all their towns are empty, their houses deserted.

The land turned to waste.

But a remnant will endure, a stump, a terebinth.

This is the hope that remains.”

PRAYER:  May I be ready to hear you and obey your call.

Lent Thirty Six "Get up and Walk"

 

The electors of Saxony by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 
Kunsthalle, Hamburg.

“A young man who wishes to remain a

 sound atheist cannot be too

 careful of his reading.”

 C.S. Lewis             

Thus speaks someone with experience.  If you want to fly, you have to release what is in your hands, and hold your arms out at your side.  Tilt your head slightly upwards, and 'lift off'.  

Ecclesiastes Chapter Twelve

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.

Honour your Creator before saying ‘it’s not as good as it used to be’

Be filled with awe as you see the wonder of the universe.

 

Be filled with worship before….

your legs -‘the guards that protect your house’  - tremble.

your shoulders - ‘your bodyguards’ - stoop.

your teeth - ‘those few remaining servants’ - stop grinding.

your eyes - ‘two windows on the world’    fog up

Honour your Creator before life’s opportunities close off.

Now the birds sound sweetly; then you will strain to hear them.

 

Remember your Creator before you…

Ø  worry about falling and fear to walk in the street,

Ø  your hair turns white like the almond blossom.

Ø  you drag yourself along like a dying grasshopper,

Ø  nothing helps arouse ardour in bed,

Ø  you approach your grave, your final resting place.

 

Remember your Creator before the silver cord is snapped, and the golden bowl is broken.

For then it will be too late.  The water jar will be smashed and the pulley on the well broken.

Dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to its Creator.

 

Conclusion

All of existence is a conundrum, it’s a paradox, says the teacher.

 

The teacher spent much time deliberating and testing what was known.

He tried to make his words fine and uplifting.

But his words were honest, like cattle prods.

 

Let me tell you my child, be careful, you can really think too much and wear yourself out.

 

Honour your Creator, do what is right, as everyone should.

All things will be judged; nothing over looked.

 PRAYER: I thank you that nothing now can separate me from your love.

 

Lent Thirty Five "Get up and Walk"

 

'Despair' by Frank Holl - Southampton Art Gallery

The most common form of despair is not being who you are.    

 Soren Kierkegaard    

People whose early experience of life is uncertain and unsafe, even when they were not old enough to comprehend this, tend to have an insecurity hanging over them; like a floating anxiety.  To have an understand of context, history and destiny is a profound thing.  We think of animals just 'existing'.  But for us human beings, perhaps understanding these basic things frees us into existence.

Hebrews Chapter Six

It is getting rather tiring having to go over the basics time and again!

It is hardest for those who ‘know the truth’, and turn their back on it,

They know what the Creator wants. 

How can they come back when they openly reject this offer?

 

The natural processes of life mean that good things will happen. 

But there are also obstacles such as ‘rocks’, or ‘thorns’ that get in the way. 

The way to deal with these is to ‘uproot’ and ‘burn’.

I don’t mean to scare you. 

The Creator knows how long you have earnestly desire to get right with him.

 

Let us keep on loving each other and that will be the sign that we are succeeding.

 

An example of hope we all know is when our forefather Abraham was told that he would be the head of a great nation, despite being very old and having no children. 

The Creator gave him a promise that was also an oath that this would happen. 

The oath was something ‘certain’ that Abraham could hold on to.

In the same way we have been promised that we are safe in the Creator’s plan for the future.

PRAYER:  Thank you for telling me who I am, and why I live.