Pass it On!

by Sharon Marr

(Based on Mark 16:1-8)

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
These words will resound and be passed on in churches all around the world this very day. Bells will ring, hymns of praise will be sung, rafters will be lifted and eggs will be shared.   There is a universal deep joy and gratefulness for the saving message of Good News for all people — that there is peace with God, through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. There is no greater story of God’s power and love.
The tomb is empty!

In this morning’s gospel reading we find the three woman disciples wending their way to the tomb carrying the burial spices.  They want to anoint their beloved Christ’s dead body. It will be their last act of love toward the one who showed them such love. But how? As they headed to the tomb that morning, that was foremost on their minds.  They kept asking each other: “Who will roll away the stone for us?” For it was a very large stone.

Apparently, which surprises me because I think they were very practical women, they weren’t thinking about whether the guards would let them approach the tomb. They weren’t worried about being arrested, as followers of Jesus. They weren’t concerned with how they would react to seeing Jesus’s dead body, their Christ, crucified and laying dead in a tomb. No. All they were really thinking about was, who would roll away the stone for them?  And as it turns out what they saw as the big problem was not a problem at all!  When they arrived the stone had already been rolled aside!
I can imagine them approaching the tomb very cautiously once they saw that, and when they saw the young man in a white robe sitting there they would have stopped in their tracks.  “Shocked” the narrative says, but I think that would be an understatement; indeed, the angel hastens on to say, “Don’t be alarmed, you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Look, this is where they laid his body.”
At this stage I’m sure they were all looking at the empty tomb, dumbstruck.  There it was – an empty tomb!  And, the angel continues, “Go and tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee.  You will see him there, just as he told you before he died.”

And the Gospel of Mark abruptly finishes with the women fleeing from the tomb, trembling and bewildered, and, it says, they said nothing to anyone because they were too frightened!  And if that were so, it could have been the end of the story.  But, praise God, it isn’t.  We know from the other Gospels that the frightened silence of the women on that Easter morning eventually gave way to proclamation and passed on words from the angel.  Their fear from the empty tomb did not hold them.  Their alarm subsided, their courage deepened, their trauma healed, and their amazement grew.  They learned how to choose hope.  They learned how to tell the story, to pass it on, and as they did, the story blossomed and grew. Joy came.  Faith came.  Peace came.  Love came.  And slowly the glorious truth of a conquered grave and a risen Messiah made its way from their emboldened faithful witness lips to every corner of the world.  The story didn’t depend on them.  But it changed them, and as they changed, the world around them changed too. 

Easter was my mother’s most favourite time of the year. It was the culmination of all she believed and, as a family, because of her, it has become ours. She was our first witness. It was from her lips the Easter story was passed on to us.
Can you remember who first passed on the Good News to you?

The Good News needs to be ’embodied’ to pass it on.   As Rowan Williams (recent Archbishop of Canterbury) explains: “The believer’s life is a testimony to the risen-ness of Jesus: he or she shows that Jesus is not dead by living a life in which Jesus is the never-failing source of affirmation, challenge, enrichment and growth.”

God loved us so much he sent his Son that we might have life and live it abundantly. (John 10:10)  We are anchored in that love; changed by that love. It does not protect us from harm, illness, or from hard decisions, or from emotional ups and downs, or anger at the pain of the world. It simply assures us that there is, ultimately, no contest between God’s love and the forces that bring turmoil and loss of unity in the world, and in the human spirit.

That is the Good News for today: Easter, God’s great love story … it doesn’t end in defeat, sorrow or loss; or an empty tomb. It is full of hope, love and joy!  The grave is empty, love is eternal and death’s defeat is sure. Christ is risen.  Alleluia!

Live it …

… and pass it on.

A Lenten Reflection

by Megan Means

(Based on Ps 51:1-12)

Psalm 51 was written after King David’s transgressions in the taking of Bathsheba and sending her husband and his soldiers to die in frontline of the battle.
So, how many notable mistakes might we have made this week and even this morning?! Anyone make a really big mistake and want to confess?
We are in the best place to do this.

I had a gut wrenching incident at the beginning of Lent. It took me low and I had to work through it. It happened on a Thursday, so I had to carry it until Monday! My principle was ok, in my opinion, but not so much the opportunity I took to deliver it. I took my time with careful consideration about why I was attempting to do this, as it was an opportunity to be heard and it was for the persons concerned to understand that things are not the way they talk about them. Also I was really aware of who I was doing this for, which was not myself.
I felt as if I was a plant that had been cut down.
My apologies followed and it all worked out, with some slight improvements. However I gave myself quite a reflective jolt that I had not anticipated; but that can happen in the life of emails!

I guess I was spitting out to myself “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me”, just like David. Psalm 51 is an individual lament in which there is a single psalmist voice speaking about a man who is crying out to God for deliverance from what he felt was a life-threatening situation.
The Psalmist records David’s confession of his sin and his pleas to God to have mercy, to ‘blot me out, to wash and cleanse me’ from “my transgressions”, “iniquity”, and “sin”. David had made a big mistake against God and against humanity. Against his family, friends, staff, and community.

The root meaning of transgression is ‘to go against, to rebel’, iniquity means ‘to bend, to twist’, and sin means ‘to miss a mark’. They are all words that really acknowledge the gravity of a situation and are well suited for us all to contemplate in this Lenten season.

And while we are on mistakes, there’s a big theological misinterpretation in this psalm. This is one of the most misinterpreted verses in the Old Testament, in my and many scholars’ opinion. David is in the depths of remorse, absolutely gutted, and he is personally declaring that his ‘missing the mark’ feels as though it is all part and parcel of his conception and birth, since he did something so wrong!
Many interpreters have understood and used these words to reflect the concept of ‘original sin’, a depraved nature that is intrinsic to every human being, which was passed down to us by the first human pair. Of course, you will have your own theological understanding and may very well hold to the ‘original sin’ doctrine (formed by Augustine of Hippo in the third century). However, a more plausible interpretation, is that within the psalm it is expressing with these words the all-encompassing quality and quantity of the guilt that accompanied David’s sense of wrongdoing.

Yet the psalm, rather than dwelling on transgression, guilt and wrongdoings, turns its focus towards a God who delights in truth, who bestows wisdom and seeks the creation of a clean heart, with a right spirit placed within. Out of the depths of total remorse, David longs to be forgiven in some way and to hear joy and gladness and be able to rejoice and be renewed.



Consequently he requests a few things of God to assist in his renewal:

David longs for inward purity with a clean heart, with pure thoughts, pure emotions, and pure motives. He wants to gain a deeper strength of character. David has felt some of his weaknesses and vulnerability and wants to be strengthened so that he might be established in the ways of righteousness. He desires to be blessed and he knows that this type joy and happiness can only be experienced from being in fellowship with God. He wants to be restored knowing the joy of God’s salvation and he finally desires to be sustained in his walk with God, with a strong desire to do things the right way.

With these requests, then, he commits himself to a life of service and, eventually, he gains an interest in the people around him. David becomes willing to move beyond his own problems towards thinking of others. Sometimes our wrongs paralyse and consume us. We don’t want to think of others, we just want to lick our own wounds and sink into ‘woe is me’. I know in my experience that it really took an effort to concentrate on the meetings with others, before Monday finally arrived.

David experienced that with forgiveness there was a restoration to usefulness again. David believed God and accepted that he was forgiven, and could then turn his mind to others’ needs.

Likewise, the season of Lent is about attending to what needs to be done and reflecting on past experiences. Some mistakes may have been committed against God, against humanity, against our family, friends and community. Lent is a time to be honest with ourselves, access what changes need to happen in our own lives, try to make our world a better place and to stretch and grow spiritually. Lent is meant to be a time out of time; a piece of life dedicated to rethinking. It’s time to ask where we were last year at this time and where we are now. Or, most of all, where we want to be? And what do we need to do to get there? Lent calls us to take the space and time we need to make the changes in life that we need. It’s about plotting our own renewal into a more placid, a more regular, a less hectic self. It’s about sinking into the kind of personal reflection that brings us to confront the self for which we seek. Lent is not a spiritual competition, a kind of ‘no pain, no gain’ exercise of the soul. Lent is the time to renew the best in us. It is a summons to live anew and be refreshed.

The process that David followed in Ps 51 aligns well with a Lenten season and it is also the liturgical process we follow every communion service. David sinned big, repented big, and the Bible remembers him (in 1 Samuel 13 and Acts 13) as “a man after God’s own heart”.
Our mistakes may not be as public as David’s, but we all fall short of living well, in the steadfast love and mercy of God.

David of ancient Israel petitioned for the creation of a pure heart, and the renewal of a right spirit within himself. If these words were fitting for him then, then they are just as fitting for us in this twenty-first century.

[Editor: Megan has asked that the intercessory prayer from the Lenten service at which she delivered this reflection accompany this post. The script of that prayer follows …]

Jesus Evicts ‘Business-as-usual’

by Pat Lee

(Based on John 2:13-22; 1Corinthians1:18-25)

John, in this Gospel, records the event we’ve just heard after the wedding at Cana, where Jesus turned the water into wine, and just before Passover. But Matthew, Mark and Luke record the same event as happening closer to the crucifixion, apparently the final public act of Jesus in these three Gospels, and the ‘last straw’ for the authorities in making the decision to kill Jesus.
However, the final decision to kill Jesus in John’s gospel comes after the raising of Lazarus from death, so there seems to be a difference of opinion about the timing of these events. We are not told which is right … but they do confirm that the clearing of the temple happened, and when is not important in this reflection.

I make no apology for using an extract from a reflection (written by a Michael K. Marsh), because I think he sees more in this event than most of us have thought about before.

The author writes, “What do you think of the table-turning, animal-driving, whip-carrying Jesus? What do you imagine set him off that day? And what do we do with this story?
There was a time when I heard this story as being mostly about anger. Jesus got angry. I get angry. So it’s ok to get angry if you’re angry about the right thing. Maybe, but I think there is more to this story than that. I wonder if what we see Jesus doing might not be an expression of his deepest compassion for life, for the temple, for you and  for me.
There was a time when I thought Jesus was upset about the animals and the money changers being in the temple. Maybe, but again I think there is more to this story than that. I don’t think Jesus was surprised by the animals and the money changers. He grew up as a faithful Jew going to the temple. He didn’t show up this day and say, ‘Wow! There are animals and money changers in here. I didn’t know that. This is wrong.’
The animals and the money changers had always been there. ‘Business as usual’ meant changing Roman coins to temple coins, purchasing an animal, and offering a sacrifice. I think the ‘business as usual’ is the issue. The animals and the money changers are not the problem. They are the symptom that something else is going on.

“I think that Jesus went to the temple that day for one purpose and one intention: to throw out and overturn business-as-usual.
There are times when we need the tables of our lives overturned and the animals thrown out. It’s just so easy to fall into the trap of business as usual.

“Haven’t there been times in your life that business as usual was leaving you spiritually bankrupt, or you were just keeping on keeping on but nothing was changing? Business as usual can happen in friendships, marriages, parenting, work, or church.
There are many reasons and ways in which we fall into business as usual. There’s one thing, however, that I keep coming back to. Forgetfulness. Business as usual is born of forgetfulness.
It happens every time we forget the original beauty of creation, when we forget the God-given dignity of humanity, ours and others, when we forget that we have been created in the image and likeness of God, when we forget that after creation ‘God saw everything that he had made was very good,’ when we forget the grace and possibilities bestowed upon us at our baptisms, when we forget that ‘the Word became flesh and lived among us’, and when we forget that we have all received grace upon grace.

“When we forget that we are the temple of God, the very residence of God, life can easily become a series of transactions. Relationships and intimacy are lost. Priorities get rearranged. Making a living replaces living a life, and the life we have becomes a marketplace rather than a place for meeting the holy in ourselves and one another.

“That’s what Jesus is overturning and driving out of the temple. Here’s why I say that. When the authorities ask for a sign from Jesus for what he is doing he says, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’” [End of Marsh’s excerpt.]

The authorities don’t understand. They are thinking of a stone and mortar temple, but Jesus is talking about a flesh and blood temple, the temple of human life, his life. ‘In three days’ makes us think of what happened ‘on the third day’, the resurrection, a new life, a new beginning, a rebirth.
We have the benefit of knowing from God’s word that this story is prophetic, and came true, but the disciples didn’t know that at the time this event was happening.

The authorities, who were considered to be the wise ones of the time, were confused by Jesus’s words. The reading in 1 Cor 1:18 says, “For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” And that is exactly what Jesus did when the authorities asked him for a sign.
The disciples didn’t understand either, at first. It wasn’t until after the resurrection that they remembered what he had told them would happen, when he had said the words, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Then they believed the Scripture, and the words that Jesus had spoken.

Do you believe the words that Jesus spoke?

 Last week we looked at the story of the transfiguration. God spoke from the cloud saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.”
We need to believe the Scriptures ourselves, and listen to what Jesus is saying to us.

He Came Down

by Joan Fanshawe

(Based on Mark 9:2-9; Gen 17:1-7, 15-16)

In the 21st Century, when we like to think there’s a scientific explanation for everything, it’s hard to even imagine the fantastical experience recounted in today’s Gospel reading, let alone incorporate it into our faith experience. For the followers of Jesus, familiar as they would have been with their Jewish history, this also was not at all a commonplace experience, but extremely significant, relating to mountain top experiences recorded in their Scriptures about both Elijah and Moses.
Like Peter, I would have been terrified and wouldn’t have known what to say. In his amazement at the scene before him Peter babbles about building a shelter for each one. Most commentators come down hard on that, which seems a bit harsh, but in Mark’s gospel there are several instances where the disciples are mentioned as ‘not getting it’. Rather like us too, and we have the benefit of hindsight.   For myself, 2000 years later, I hardly know what to say now about this extraordinary mountain top scenario, where in the midst of a swirling cloud the words ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’ are spoken. The same words heard at the time Jesus was baptised by John are heard again.

When we met for our Lent reflection last Wednesday, we read this Gospel passage, sat with it, heard it again, then, using a process called Lectio Divina ….. each one of us in turn spoke a word or a phrase that had stood out for us in the reading.
The words that came up included “He did not know what to say”, “This is my son, the Beloved”, “only Jesus”, “up a high mountain”, and “listen to him”. After we had heard the verses read again, we gave thanks for God’s presence with us made known through Jesus who ‘came back down’.

This story, like so many stories in the gospels, is easier to describe than to explain and I’m not going to analyse it – but after reading several commentaries I’m happy to share these thoughts which are prompted by the final verse:
“As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.”

I found David Lose, a senior Lutheran pastor in America, was also wrestling with this Transfiguration passage along with how to explain the Creed to his young confirmation class. What David thinks is so significant about this little verse, and so easy to overlook, is simply that it reports that after all of what occurred on the mountaintop … Jesus came back down. Down to where the rest of the disciples are, down to where we are, down to the challenges of life ‘here below’, down to the problems and discomforts and discouragements that are part and parcel of our life in this world.

Down … to his crucifixion.

Jesus orders them not to tell anyone “until after the Son of Man has risen from the dead”. Resurrection, of course, is a hopeful note. However, it does not just imply, but pretty much necessitates, death!

Jesus came down. Only Jesus. The beloved son – listen to him.

David Lose continues: “This is also the heart of the Christian faith. God in Christ came down to be with us and for us, to take on our human life, that we might not simply exist, but flourish, not simply have life, but have it abundantly.
“That we might understand that the God who created and still sustains the vast cosmos, not only knows that we exist, but cares. Cares about our ups and downs, cares about our hopes and disappointments, cares about our dreams and despair, cares about all the things we care about, promising to be with us, to walk alongside us, to never, ever let us go, and in time to redeem us and bring us into the company of saints.”

“This is my Son the Beloved – listen to him” – this message is for us today as well.

Jesus came back down that mountain to continue telling and demonstrating his message of God’s care for all people, and like Abraham, another extraordinary story … we can have faith that even in the long view, in all the ups and downs of life, God is with us.

Let us pray:
Jesus said, ‘You ought always to pray and not to faint.’
So we do not pray for easy lives;
we pray to be stronger women and men.
And we do not pray for tasks equal to our powers,
but for power equal to our tasks.
Then, the doing of our work will be no miracle –
we will be the miracle.
Then every day, whatever that day brings,
may we wonder at ourselves, and the richness of life
which has come to us by the grace of God.

Amen.

(Prayer written by Julia Esquivel)