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March 23, 2008

Jesus Lives: Embrace the Promise

How did this happen? This is a question I imagine Mary asked herself as she went to the tomb that fateful day so long ago. One minute they were on a hillside in Galilee. Jesus was teaching. And the crowds were growing. She loved listening to the sound of his voice. She loved how he looked at people, as if he could see inside where they hurt and he understood. His eyes were dark brown but light played in them. And he always looked as if he knew a secret that he was bursting to share. When she thought of him, her heart swelled and her eyes filled with tears.

This was the man who had saved her from the demons who had taken over her life. This was the man who wasn’t afraid to touch her, to speak to her, to love her. Was it just a week ago that he had rode into Jerusalem on that little donkey? The crowd growing larger and louder with each step. People were smiling and everyone was full of joy and hope.

Looking back she remembers that Jesus himself was somewhat quiet and reserved, but the excitement of the people around him overshadowed his mood. It was five nights…no it seemed like five nights, it was actually three nights ago that Peter came running to Mary, breathless. They’ve taken Jesus away. The Temple guard came and got him while we were in the garden of Gethesame…

Her mind moves on to the “trial” if you can call it that. The crowd shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” And that procession. The cross he was made to carry was three times his size. He kept falling… And the worst was standing near the cross with his mother. She doesn’t allow her mind to linger there. She thinks about her task at hand…

Arriving at the tomb, things are not in order. The tomb is open, and the body is missing! More woe for this grieving servant. Mary runs to find Peter. Peter and another disciple run to the tomb, find it empty and return to their homes. But Mary has come back to the garden tomb, not knowing where else to go. And she is crying.

Crying for all the pain and suffering a loved one had to endure, crying for a way of life she knows has ended, crying for all the things that could have been. Crying because her heart cannot hold all the grief she feels inside. Here she has come to care for her beloved’s body and she finds the body is gone.

Notice that both the angels and Jesus ask Mary, “Woman, why are you crying?” Anyone who has experienced the loss of a loved one would think to themselves, “What do you think she’s crying about?” But these questions are the gospel writer’s way of leading Mary beyond her focus on the physical body of Jesus--“They have taken my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”

Who can blame Mary as she focuses’ on finding Jesus’ body? She needs something concrete to help her come to grips with the events of the past few days. Sometimes we find ourselves needing to focus on concrete items because if we look any further up the road we don’t know how we’ll get there.

We each have our concrete way of dealing with difficult times—some of us clean our house, some of us call a friend, some of us go away to be alone, some of us drink too much, or go on a spending binge.

Jesus startles Mary when he call her by name. That shakes her from her crying and she immediately grabs on to him for he says, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father.” Again the need for the physical—the tangible. Jesus sends her from the tomb garden to tell his disciples that Jesus’ promise has come to pass. He lives! Jesus is risen from the dead, as he told them he would. And shortly, he will be ascending into heaven to be with God.

Mary followed Jesus from Galilee. She had been with Jesus for a significant period of time. She sat as one of many disciples and heard Jesus’ teaching. She has a knowledge of, and a relationship with Jesus to call upon at this crucial moment. She is not simply a reporter. Mary is a qualified and reliable witness, with a source of experience to draw on for her testimony. And when Jesus calls to her, she is reminded about his many promises to never leave them and forsake them, to be with them to the end of the age.
When Mary met Jesus, she was empty. Her relationship with him set her on a new path of promise and fulfillment. Her relationship with Jesus filled her up. And while she came to the garden tomb empty, and she left the garden full of promise—God’s promise, not her own.

We all experience empty times in our lives. Who among us hasn’t woken up and looked around and asked, “How did this happen?” Or “Is this all there is?” Empty times visit us all. They come in many disquises: divorce, feeling lost and without direction, the death of a loved one, problems with a child, loss or dissatisfaction of a job, moving to a new city, depression, fear, chronic pain.

How can we deal with these empty times? We turn to God’s promises like Becky Bowman of Telford, PA. In 1979, she gave birth to her fourth child, Glen, and quickly learned from doctors the frightening news: the baby had defective kidneys. The doctors ordered the child rushed to a children’s hospital in Philadelphia, where he would receive kidney dialysis. Still hospitalized herself, Becky prayed and prayed for her son, and as she did she soon felt God’s nearness.

The words of a Scripture text began to repeat in her heart: “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God” (John 11:4). Becky wrote it down.

Later her husband called to report on the baby’s condition: “It’s too soon to tell if he’s going to make it,” he said. “He’ll going to make it,” Becky replied, and she read him the verse that God had breathed into her heart. “I believe those words,” she said. Becky husband replied, “So do I, Becky…so do I.”

After three months of dialysis, Glen kidneys, though still not operating at 100 %, began to operate on their own. Throughout his childhood Glen took medication and tired easily. During that time Becky collected in her journal other Scriptures which encouraged her faith that her son would be all right. When Glen was 13 years old, the doctors reported he would need a kidney transplant. Though unsettling at first, this news turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. Becky herself provided the kidney, and the operation was a complete success. Glen would be able to live a normal life.

Later Becky’s daughter suggested they do something special with the Scriptures that had meant so much to them during Glen’s long illness. Becky often made quilts and her daughter was skilled at cross-stitch, so they decided to make a quilt that displayed twelve of the cherished promises from the Bible. Each Scripture was stitched onto white linen and bordered in a pattern of hunter green and burgundy. Three months later the quilt was complete and hung on the wall of their guest room. When others admired the quilt, it eventually was hung in their church as well as other churches in the area.

God’s promises made a great difference for Becky Bowman and her family. When she chose to have these promises stitched onto a quilt, she made a fitting choice. As comforting as a quilt on a cold wintry night, so God’s promises ward off soul-chilling fear. They warm the soul and ease the heart.

Maybe you know where to find God’s promises in the Scriptures, maybe not. It may be a feeling you have that God wants to be a part of your life. Maybe God’s promises to you are coming in messages from friends who call to say they are thinking or praying for you.

Maybe you have recently been reminded about God’s promises because you have children and you want to pass that knowledge and faith on to them. Maybe this morning you aren’t even concerned about God’s promises, but I assure you that God’s promises are there for you just the same.

The resurrection of Jesus was a cosmic event that broke the human condition of misery and oppression. The resurrection of Jesus offers us hope and new life in the midst of our daily struggles. God’s work through Jesus was built on God’s promises to humanity. They didn’t begin for the first time that Easter morning. And they didn’t end that day either! They began long before and continue to this day. They appeared when the people of Israel left Egypt and God parted the Red Sea saving them from destruction. God’s promises were experienced by a young couple after she gave birth to a son and people from all walks of life came to see and honor him.

Prophets reminded the people long ago of God’s promises. Just as modern day prophets like Jim Wallis and Mary Lou Wallner call us to remember God’s promises for each and every person.
The promises of God are captured in our holy scriptures. And as Becky experienced and the prophet Jeremiah reminded us, “are written on our hearts.” God’s promises are universal in that they are for everyone and not just a chosen few. At the same time, God’s promises can be different for each of us. But at the core, God’s promises are that we don’t have to go it alone. And that pain and suffering are not the final word.

In a recent issue of “The Christian Century,” Rev. John Buchanan, Senior pastor at Fourth Presbyterian USA in Chicago, wrote about his good friend, Walter Bouman. Bouman was a professor of theology at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus Ohio. “Not long after he retired Walt, as he was known, was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. He continued to teach and preach. When a Columbus Dispatch reporter asked him how he remained so buoyant, he replied,

‘My greatest source of encouragement is the Christian story of God into which I was baptized in July of 1929…The Christian news is that Jesus of Nazareth has been raised from death, that death no longer has dominion over him. I have bet my living (as a professor of theology) and now I am able to bet my dying that Jesus will have the last word.” (1)

So where ever you find yourself this Easter morning, remember God’s promise. Jesus lives. And because he lives nothing can separate you from God’s love—not human injustice, not pain, not feelings of unworthiness, not pain, not time or space, not divorce, not the church, not your sin or someone else’s, not even death can separate you from God’s love. Jesus lives. Embrace the reality of resurrection in his life and the possibility of it in your own as well. He lives. Alleluia!

(1) “Lines for Easter” article by John Buchanan. The Christian Century March 25, 2008.

Posted by vickie at 10:00 AM