Driving up the coastline toward Ft. Meyers for a short ride this morning, I couldn't help but think something.
Beautiful beach front homes lined the way; tall, elegant, extremely modern, with stunning views of the gulf. I roll down the window and shamelessly point my camera at the homes of strangers. I am so curious about whoever would live in such a place. What's it like to live like that? How do these people make their living? Who loves them? And I wonder who's around to make sure they know, that no matter who they are on the social scale, God is crazy about them, and has a meaningful, difference-making life in mind for them. And I remembered visiting the Lahu village, north of Chiang Mai, and shamelessly pointing my camera at the home of a stranger. Simple, tidy, extremely ancient, with a spectacular view of the hills. I am so curious about whoever would live in such a place. What's it like to live like that? Who loves them? How do these people make their living? And I wonder who's around to make sure they know, that no matter who they are on the social scale, God is crazy about them, and has a meaningful difference-making life in mind for them.
And I'm thinking all of a sudden about all the houses going up along Ira Needles Boulevard, back home; the houses I pray for every day as I drive to the church; the ones with no particular view really. I am wondering who will live there, how will they make their living, who loves them? But I don't have to wonder who's around to make sure they know, that no matter who they are on any social scale, God is crazy about them and has a meaningful difference-making life in mind for them.
Because as far away as God sometimes takes me.....this is my own backyard.
Since it's so hard to get me to sit down, it's notable that I've been sitting for most of the afternoon. Stretched out on a lounger, screened in porch, ceiling fans on slow, a drink with ice chinking in it - that kind of sitting.
Ken and I are the grateful guests of a generous couple at Highview who have provided their Florida condo to us this week as a gift. We're looking over a few acres of wet lands, all the comforts of home (actually more :), and yet feeling more like we're away from it all, just that closer to creation, everglades style. Started the day doing laps in an amazing pool, ate too much for brunch, picked up a few groceries, napped, and came out here to the porch. And that about sums up the day.
As I breathe in the resting of it, I realize how open my soul is to the idea. Surprisingly. The beginning of May is not a normal time for me to take a break, with summer down time so close. And this year I've just been away, in March, not for a holiday, but a definite change/break from the normal demands of my life, for sure. This little holiday was not necessarily in the original plans for this season, but instead was kindly offered to me. Often I would resist, make excuses about why I just couldn't leave all my responsibilities. But I didn't. So to get here and be so ready to do this, not to be worrying about stuff at home, to just be enjoying the quiet presence of my husband, all day....it's ..... nice. A gift.
It's been my experience that when God provides these unexpected pauses, He does so for a reason. I'm paying attention.
Oh, and Ken has just brought me a cup of Skittles. Wonderful!
Tomorrow the beach. Wednesday a ball game. Who knows about the rest of the week? Doesn't really matter. I'm just....pausing.
I don’t know if it strikes you as odd or not, but this first encounter, Mary’s encounter, with the risen Jesus, as recorded by John (20:10-18), seems out of place to me.
I mean, you’d kind of think that Jesus, after everything that was done to Him just days before, would have a different agenda that morning.Like maybe marching off to the temple to confront the religious leaders or Caiaphas, the High Priest. Getting in their face and saying, “Now do you believe me?”
Or zipping off to the Praetorium to say to Pilate, “I told you so.”
You’d think maybe He might stop in on the soldiers who’d spat on him, mocked him, beat him, scourged him, and hammered nails into him, just to say, “Do you have any idea who you were dealing with?”
He didn’t go and sort of show up the center of Jerusalem to impress the crowds.
He didn’t present himself to any official body for “resurrection verification”.
All of that would have been perfectly understandable somehow, and much more likely to have been part of the story if it were being fabricated, by the way.
But this?
He goes to Mary.And he calls her by name.
Names are important.
It says in John’s gospel that she was crying.
That’s an understatement in English.In Greek, the language that the apostle John first wrote this, he uses a word that indicates loud lamentation, not quiet sniffles.This would have been loud, gut wrenching crying.The kind that makes you have the shudders, on the intake, later.
Mary was of course deeply grieving.
Mary.Mary Magdalene.The Mary who was rescued from no less than 7 demons.
And without getting into a sidetracking kind of conversation about demon possession….anyone of us who have wrestled with our own personal demons knows that the person who helps liberate you from that….they are your Saviour.
Mary adored Jesus.Her heart was consumed with gratitude for Him.She believed He could do anything, because she’d experienced His power in her own soul.
She believed He was God.Of course she did.He’d rescued her.Restored her soul.Reclaimed her life.
But now He was gone.
Have you ever missed someone who’s gone?Maybe they didn’t even die.They just moved away.Or broke up with you.
Psychologists who study grief tell us that the pain of it, is really just that horrible emptiness that’s left when the exchange of emotional energy stops.You miss the emotional energy, the psychological energy that came to you from the other person.AND you have all this emotional and psychological energy that used to go TO this person, but it’s just dumping out into this horrible, cold void.
And it’s painful.Often felt right here, in our chest.And if it’s severe enough, you can catch yourself expecting to see the person you’ve lost coming through the door.Sometimes you walk around a corner and you’re sure you can smell them.You wake up, and there it is, right there and you can’t get away from it, they’re gone, they’re gone, they’re gone!
So Mary….she’s wailing with her grief.But added to that was the absence of Jesus’ body.
See in the Jewish culture that Mary came from, the first seven days of mourning were taken really seriously.Those who were in mourning did not wash, work, have sex, or even study their Bibles.These people were serious about expressing, not repressing their grief.
And if the body was missing, and Mary was prevented from showing her final acts of love….that would have been excruciating to her, intolerably tragic.Even tomb robbers usually left the body behind.
So, yeah….Mary is crying.Wailing.Sobbing.Messy, unglamorous, raw.
She’s beside herself.I don’t think the black and white words on the page truly does justice to this scene.Not at all.
I think, when she’s replying to the angels, who are saying, Why are you crying?.... it’s got to have had just whole lot of power in it, tons of anguish.Almost screaming out the words.Why am I crying?They’ve taken my Lord away and I DON’T KNOW WHERE THEY’VE TAKEN HIM!!!!
And she just gets finished screaming at the angels and there’s another person, she thinks is the gardener, asking the same idiotic question.
Why are you crying?
I can’t help but believe that this just might have pushed her over an edge.And she might just then have looked at Jesus, not yet knowing it was Jesus, and growled at Him in a blaming, furious sort of way.If you have taken Him tell me where He is…right now…and I will go get Him!!!!!!!!
And into this chaos of pain and fury, Jesus just says one word.Her name.Mary.
Which, if you think about it, would be exactly Jesus’ agenda for that morning.
To speak her name.To touch her soul and invite her into intimacy, by speaking her name.
Yes!This would have been Jesus’ agenda.If He was indeed who He said he was, that being the same God who
Came down in the cool of the evening to walk with Adam and Eve. That’s Genesis 3:8.
The same God who wanted to rejoice over us with singing and quiet us with His love, that’s in Zephaniah 3:17
The same God who compared His love for us in terms of the intensity of the bond between a mother and a nursing baby, and said that He’d inscribed our name on His hand.That’s in Isaiah 49:14-16.
The same God who, also in Isaiah, that He calls us by name.
Fear not, I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name,
you are mine.
Isaiah 43:1
"I know you by name."
So Jesus, this same God, speaks Mary’s name.Of course He does.And that is His agenda.To invite her out of the pain and chaos, into intimacy with Him.
And the risen Jesus knows your name. And He has the same agenda. This Easter Sunday, this resurrection morning, His agenda is the same.
To speak your name.
Speak it softly into your pain.
Speak it loudly into your indifference.
Speak it lovingly into your loneliness.
Speak it strongly into your weakness.
Speak it deeply into your soul.
The risen Jesus knows your name.
And He longs with all of who He is -
Mighty God
Redeemer
Risen Saviour
Beautiful Friend -
To identify with the deepest places of you
And all that your name represents to who you are
And offer you the abundant life He so spectacularly demonstrated on Resurrection morning.
This is first and foremost on His mind this morning.To invite you out of your pain and chaos, into a relationship with Him that is intimate and dynamic and life transforming.
So if you are hearing your name spoken this morning.
The week we’re having right this minute, starting last Sunday and going right to Resurrection Morning.
It’s supposed to be a time of self denial, meditation, sombre reflections on the severity of Christ’s supreme gift, followed by the wild and grateful surprise of celebration when we get to the part where Jesus comes alive!Contemplative.Serene.Wild worship.Holy.
But I wonder how many might be having a week more like mine – too busy with unexpected additions to the already too-long list, bumping into dysfunctions – mine and others’, all making me more annoyed than grateful, more irritated than celebratory.Definitely not holy!
Or maybe it’s just me.
That’s why, when I walked into the church basement this afternoon, I realized just how badly I need Easter.
Karen Adourian and her diligent crew are worshipping their way through the set up of a stunning series of stations designed to provide an opportunity to move into the holiness of this weekend.With more space and separated quiet places than in any of our previous Holy Journey’s, the transformation of space and time is striking.And so are the understandings that come out of the observance of what this week represents.
I so badly need Easter!This week reminds me, even in the un-holiness of it – no, especially in the un-holiness of it - that I need the death of Jesus to cover the wretched debt I’d so impossibly owe otherwise.I need the resurrected life of Jesus to infuse the beyond-my-humanity, abundant life He’s promised, AND He delivered so spectacularly that first Resurrection morning.
I need Easter to be the hope for the One Day that makes every day, even crazy, un-holy days, make sense. I do truly hope you're having a fabulous Holy Week, I do. And if you are and if you're not, please don't miss out on the chance to pull it all together somewhere inside your soul. At Highview, for anyone within driving distance, you can come either Thursday or Friday for both the Holy Journeys AND In The Name of Love. And you will want to make sure to be here Sunday morning to finish the story right and celebrate or investigate, whichever describes you best. Because you and I, we badly need Easter. We do. I do. Can't wait to see what God's going to do for you this weekend.
Holy Journeys at Highview - Thursday, April 21 - 1 to 7 p.m. Friday, April 21 - 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
In the Name of Love at Highview - Thursday, April 21 - 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 22 - 7:30 p.m.
Love's Got Your Name On It - Sunday, April 24 - 10:30 a.m.
Easter Weekend Opportunities for Meditation and Celebration
Holy Journeys Stations of the Cross Personal reflection and meditation Thursday, April 21 - 1 to 7 p.m. Friday, April 22 - 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. 295 Highview Drive Kitchener, Ontario
In The Name of Love Live Concert The story of Jesus' life, death and resurrection As told through the music of U2 April 21 7:30 p.m. April 22 7:30 p.m.
Bao holds a set of ceramic salt and pepper shakers. The red one represents the red earth of Thailand. The white one represents the snow of Canada. When I'm there with our Hot Springs Family, these two figures sit together in their connected embrace. And when I leave, I take the white one home. The red one stays behind. Until the next time we're together again.
Connecting the Stories
Just making sure to connect two blogs that, together, have helped tell the stories of this last trip to Thailand. As well as this, my personal blog, there's Highview to Thailand part of the Regions Beyond initiative of Highview Community Church, where I pastor.
ll of a sudden about all the houses going up along Ira Needles Boulevard, back home; the houses I pray for every day as I drive to the church; the ones with no particular view really. I am wondering who will live there, how will they make their living, who loves them? But I don't have to wonder who's around to make sure they know, that no matter who they are on any social scale, God is crazy about them and has a meaningful difference-making life in mind for them.
