Day 269 Holy Saturday

The tomb was nearby; they laid Jesus there. John 20:42

Apparently today, Holy Saturday, is also called the Great Sabbath because...well, if you're dead you're totally at rest and therefore it doesn't get much more sabbath-like than that. Jesus' body was in the tomb today, dead. This is a quiet day, I think....for reflection, waiting, anticipation....A sacred pause between death and the resurrection tomorrow morning.

I really like the planted seed analogy for this day: when you plant a seed, it dies and there's not a lot going on above the ground for a while--but underneath all kinds of stuff is developing. Some of the early Christian writings say that on Holy Saturday, while he was dead to this world, Jesus "descended into hell" to liberate those who died before--to wake them from the sleep of death to rise and follow him into fullness of life.

Whether you understand that literally or figuratively, the point is that God, in the Risen Christ, longed to liberate us from our hell--our personal hell, our communal hell, our political hell. Holy Saturday proclaims to us that the life, mercy, and light of God diffuses every single dark hell we can think of or get entangled in.

The divine truth is that we were not created to be captives in hell: let that sink into your brain, your body, your very bones. Because when we begin to know this deeply, we come to know the inner liberation that leads us to speak truth in love, take risks, and  desire freedom for all who are captive.

Holy Undying One, have mercy on us.

God, I know that You did not create me to be a captive; may your liberating grace and mercy guide me to seek the freedom to love in your Name, and to stand with those who are not yet free. Amen.

Day 268 Good Friday

Day 267 What's a Maundy?

"By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:35

Today is Maundy Thursday. I always thought "maundy" was an old English form of a word for "mourning"--but it's not.

Maundy comes from the Latin word, "mandatum," which means...command or mandate. So, on Maundy Thursday, we're not gearing up for the drama of Good Friday like hired mourners, we're remembering that on this night, Jesus gave his disciples a "new command" to love one another as servants.

While we're looking back at the time that Jesus preparing for his death, Jesus was thinking ahead to the time when he would no longer be with us physically and how this raggedy, dusty group of working class guys would go on the following day. Only he knew then it was his last night here. Only he knew he would soon be arrested and killed.

The action that he put a priority on at that moment was to get up from the supper table, wrap a towel around his waist, pour water in a bowl, and wash his disciples feet....their rough heels, hammertoes, bunions, and blisters.

"Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.... A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

"By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples."

Maundy Thursday. It's not what we think.

Day 266 Children of the Resurrection

Many of the two billion people who are celebrating this Easter this week also live in constant fear for their lives, and that reality will linger long after Good Friday rememberences. As we remember Him on Easter, we must also remember them. These are the Children of the Resurrection who languish in prison, who cannot worship freely, share their faith openly, get work, or educate their children.

In these situations of real pain, poverty, and persecution meet.

Ironically, those who are persecuted and poor invariably know more of the power of the resurrection than those of us who have become immunized by our freedom of choice. They never ask for our pity but they are always eager for our prayers and support.

This Easter in our prayers and gifts, let's choose to stand with them.

Day 265 A Beautiful Violent Faith

Where you are living, it's pretty hard to avoid the grusome, grotesque, blood and guts parts of Christianity. In America, not so much--but basically, blood and guts IS part of Christianity...and Judiasm before that. In Hebrews it says that "without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness." So, circumcision and animal sacrifice, covenants of any kind, and Jesus' death on the cross...they all involve blood-letting.
This week we remember especially just what Jesus did for us, the price He paid. This is the week we revisit all He endured--the beatings, the whippings, the barbs pressed into His head. This is when we focus on the cross--on the spikes through His hands and through His twisted feet, on His chest flung forward, slowing suffocating, on the sword through His side. This is the week when we come face to face with the blood and the gore and violence of our faith. In other words: we embrace the grossness and total weirdness of what we really believe. And we talk about it with our families.
We talked about the core of the Christian faith every time we talked about the Easter story when you were growing up. When preschoolers talk about the nails being driven and the thorns being pressed, it can make adults shudder. But when we're honest about our faith, we can’t be afraid to admit that we believe some horrifying, shocking things.... We're the folks who remember what Jesus did for us by the "eating" of His broken body and "drinking" His dripping blood.
You can't blame non-Christians who see our beliefs as gross and weird.... We ought to admit the horror of our faith if we want others to see the beauty in it. Because only then can we talk about what happens when we suspend our disgust and choose to see into and then past the grotesque and horrific. If we get stalled being weirded or grossed out, we miss a lot of good stuff--like the Grace that comes only from that weird, gross, violent, horrific and amazingly beautiful story we believe.

Day 264 Presence

There they gave a dinner for him. John 12:2

Mary, Martha and Lazarus are three of Jesus' "familiars." They treat him like family. He is at home in their home. Sometimes these three people seem closer to him than the disciples, who are always busy bumping heads with one another, trying to see who is going to win “Best Disciple” of the week.

Here, the disciples are on the road with Jesus, trying to learn, missing the point half the time, not wanting to hear Jesus tell them the truth of his life. By contrast, Mary, Martha and Lazarus offer Jesus their home. In the quiet domestic space of these three siblings, perhaps Jesus could be at ease. Perhaps he could put aside the messiah-projections and savor conversation, enjoy a meal, and sleep in familiar surroundings.

According the Gospel of John, it is in this house that Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus. She dares to take the pound of costly perfume and pour it on Jesus’ feet, wiping them with her hair. She dares to say with her actions, “I know what you are facing; I know that this entry into Jerusalem will lead to your death. And I know you have to do this.”

I imagine that this  honesty-in-action would have been a great gift to Jesus. Someone, a friend, knows that darkness is up ahead, and this family of siblings is willing to receive the truth, and in so doing they give Jesus a great gift.

Each of us has times in our lives when we need a friend who will not sugar-coat the reality we have to face. Each of us has a need for a Martha or a Mary or a Lazarus—for a friend who will let us be, who will let us say, “I am scared to my bones.” Or “I am going to suffer.” Or “I am going to die.”

When we encounter  friends like that, we know something of the presence of God in our midst, God in Christ as friend who allows us to tell the truth in love, to be the truth in love, by God’s grace, for one another.

This Holy Week, O God, may I remember that Jesus calls us his friends, and may I seek to love as he loves. Amen.

Day 263 In your Easter Bonnet with all the Frills upon it...

The history of our traditions always interests me, so I wonder, what's with the tradition of dressing up for Easter? When I was a kid, Easter morning involved all five daughters walking into church with pincurls, new desses, spring coats, pastel-colored hats with plastic flowers, white anklet socks with lace, and white patent leather shoes. It really was a parade!

My first (minimally educated but common sense) guess about where our tradition comes from is...pagan rituals. Winters were long and cold in many parts of the world, and around the vernal equinox, people came out, took their first bath of the year and de-loused their clothes. Seems like while you're doing that, you should throw a party, welcome spring, say hello to your neighbors, and thank the gods you didn't freeze to death...since now you could stand to be in the same room with eachother without passing out.

Second, early Christians were still pretty Jewish and they probably celebrated the resurrection at the time of Passover, mixing together the two traditions. Passover involved remembering the exodus from Egypt, right? When the Israelites ran for their lives while God killed all of the Egyptian babies. This involved eating matzoh (crackers--because there was no time to add yeast to dough and let it rise) with your coat on, ready to walk to freedom! One of my books on these traditions says that the Israelites "got dressed in their best clothes" for this event--and it could have morphed into that over time, but likely they weren't going to leave the good stuff behind in Egypt and wear their shabby stuff on the road to their new life. (Duh.) So, the default became "wear your bank account out of here," and it moved on into the early Christian Easter observances.

Next, I figure that a whole lot of Middle Ages mess between religion, monarchy, and government got really mixed up until Martin Luther came along and tried to straighten things out. Then the Puritans got a hold of happiness and went way off in the other direction--banning everything from lace and sex to smiling....and burned people at the stake just in case they missed any unrepentant sinners.

The 1800s is when the Easter bonnet thing got started in America, involving arrangements of ribbons, flowers, and feathers. When I was a kid, "hat boxes" existed and were stilled used--to keep Grandma's best hats from getting crushed or misshapen in the closet while they were stored. The Easter parade tradition actually started with churches, who would hold competitions for the best dressed parishoners who would then walk up and down main street (or 5th Avenue if you lived in NY), simply to show off your new clothes....Ta-da, a parade!

Finally, the market economy capitalists got on the Easter bandwagon in the 1900s and started merchandizing the whole thing...clothes, candy, flowers, cards. Today in America Easter seems like a holiday more than a holy day.

In Nicaragua, you will be between the Evangelicals and the traditional Roman Catholics this "Holy Week."

What will Easter mean for you this year?