Month: March 2021

…but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. – Philippians 2:7

Palm Sunday. Maundy (or Holy) Thursday. Good Friday. Easter (The Resurrection of Our Lord). We renew this week our most important story. We walk the steps that Jesus walked for us. We rejoice with palm branches at the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, gather with the apostles for Passover, desert him at the cross, only looking on from a distance, and peer into the empty tomb, uncertain as to what, if anything we will find there. Holy Week is a snapshot of our life’s journey. It runs the full range of our human experiences of joy and sorrow, gain and loss, certainty and doubt.

In our lives, how many of us have not felt the freedom of being with the crowd, of belonging? We, too, might wave and shout praises. Or who has not gathered to share a seemingly, ordinary meal only to be shocked by the conversation, or even a bit uncomfortable when the discussion becomes serious? How many times in our life have we promised undivided loyalty to a friend only to abandon them when they needed us the most? Or waited…who has not waited for an answer, a response to a job interview, the call from the doctor’s office, or notice of the death of a loved one? All the time praying that God’s promises are real and that when our prayers are too deep for words, our sighs will suffice. And how often in our life have we been able to rejoice when the relationship or journey that we thought was over, finished, and dead, has been breathed new life into it by the Spirit and made alive in Christ?

This week is a story told for our sake. God became like us. Humbling himself, Jesus bore the full weight of human experience. He ate and drank with friends. He walked through a weary world and was moved to compassion for the sick and suffering. He accepted death. All for us, so that we would know the depth of God’s love for us and that in knowing, we might trust and walk in love, trusting in God’s promise, and be transformed by divine love.

Holy Week offers a bold reminder that there is no place that God has not been before us. From the highest places to the lowest of lows, God has entered into our story, has taken all of our life experiences to the cross and has returned to us the peace, love, mercy, forgiveness, hope, and new life that he promised. All of our life is wrapped up in the beautiful story of this holiest of weeks.

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. – Jeremiah 31:31

“The days are surely coming…” are words of hope and consolation. Our experience in this earthly exile weighs on our hearts and we long for the days that “thy kingdom come.”

 “The days are surely coming…,” we might say, when the pandemic will end, and life will return to “normal.” Vacations will return. Families and friends will be visited. We watch the news of vaccines and dropping rates of spread. The days are surely coming.

“The days are surely coming…,” we might say, when violence against women and children, persons of Asian and African descent, and all of God’s beloved will cease. War ends, and Christ’s peace reigns. The days are surely coming.

“The days are surely coming…,” we might say, when our LGBTQ siblings in Christ will have their love validated by the church who preaches love of neighbor and welcome the stranger but denies them Christ’s own body and blessing. The days are surely coming.

“The days are surely coming…,” we might say, when every child who wants to learn may grow up in safety and the ability to live to their full potential, and every school and teacher is fully funded, so that no one is missed. The days are surely coming.

“The days are surely coming…,” we might say, when every person who without home, or food, will be housed and fed, and each person who is unemployed or underemployed will find meaningful work, at a livable wage to support themselves and the people who depend on them. The days are surely coming.

“The days are surely coming…,” we might say, when all of God’s beloved are made whole in mind, body, and spirit, and no one feels they have to face depression, anxiety, addiction, illness, or death alone. The days are surely coming.

“The days are surely coming…”, the Lord says, “that I will be their God and they shall be my people…for they shall know me the least of them to the greatest.”
The days are surely coming.

As we wait, pray, and live for the days that are surely coming, we are called by the promise to do what we can now so the days that are surely coming don’t feel so far away. The days will come with or without us, but we pray here that the days that are surely coming may come to us.

Lord, grant me the serenity me to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen. (The Serenity Prayer)

So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it on a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live. – Numbers 21.9

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. – John 3:14-15

I finished distributing communion to the congregation and was stopped. I paused for a moment, took a deep breath, looked at the gathered congregation, singing One Bread, One Body, and felt a sadness come over me. I knew that this was going to be our last time together for a while. I had hoped that it wasn’t going to be for very long, thinking maybe we’d be back before Holy Week or Easter, only a few weeks away, but something gnawing in the back of my mind that our separation might last longer.

The following day, I drafted a letter to the congregation and guests announcing the suspension of in-person worship and gatherings in the church building writing, 

These are challenging and anxious days. The uncertainty that lies ahead challenges even those with great faith in the Lord and the Lord’s promises for the world. Yet, even in the canceling of everyday life, we recognize that Christ’s promise remains. After all, to get to the promised resurrection, Christ bore the cross for us. To drastically paraphrase Isaiah 40.8, the schools close, churches suspend worship, and the store might be out of toilet paper, but the Word of our God will stand forever.

A year later that promise remains true for us as the day God spoke it through the prophet Isaiah. Through the ups and downs, the joys and sorrows, the gains and the losses, God’s promised one, Jesus, the Christ, has remained with us and for us. There are still challenging and anxious days ahead. There is always uncertainty, even in faith, yet God’s love and promise remain. 

These days, we may be closer to the end than the beginning; each day still belongs to God, to Christ, who is the beginning and the end. Each day, the Holy Spirit, through the lifting up of God’s Word, turns us to look to the cross, and live. No matter where the Spirit leads the Body of Christ, that same Spirit will continue to raise us up to see Christ crucified in every one of God’s beloved people. And by looking towards the face of the One crucified for us, we will always be given life, mercy, and wholeness in the wilderness. 

God has had this.
God has this. 
God has you.

“For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and consecrated it.” – Exodus 20.11
 
The Israelites had arrived at God’s holy mountain. It had been three months since they fled the familiar land of Egypt and followed God’s lead into the wilderness. They had crossed the sea, cried out to God in fear that there wouldn’t be enough food or water, witnessed God provide, and arrived at Sinai. Their journey was far from over. This was a stopover on their way to the promised land. They will wander in the wilderness.

At this mountain, they are given a gift from God, ten statements, that they might desire to live as God wills. We often present this gift as a burden. Commandments, or rules, that must be followed, or else. We become caught in “thou shalt not…” and forget these words were intended to remind them and us that God is among God’s people. To these first hearers, this was freedom.

We can see our story in Exodus. As people who have been freed from sin, death, and evil by God’s abundant mercy, we find ourselves wandering in the wildernesses of life. We search for certainty in an unpredictable world. We are unsure of ourselves, we wonder where God is, and we long for the days when life was better before we left the safety of the familiar. Even if it wasn’t healthy, it was at least familiar. We are afraid, even though we have seen God act. How easy it was for the Israelites, and us, to look for and create another god when it seems like God has delayed!

The wilderness can be severe, but it is a place of transformation and growth. It is the place where we learn to rely less on ourselves and more on the Holy One who has promised to raise us up. It is the place where we learn to submit to God’s will and let go of our egos. It is the place where God speaks, and we are found ready to listen. God spoke a gift to the people who were once held in bondage, permission to rest.

This permission extends to you. You have permission to rest in the wilderness. You don’t have to figure out life today. You don’t have to solve all the world’s problems today. You don’t have to do everything perfectly today. You don’t have to “get over it” today, whatever “it” might be. You are invited to trust that God has you, that you are God’s own and loved unconditionally, and let the divine love enfold you as it does, and rest.