For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;  

a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 

a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 

a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

It is the time for the church, the time for believers everywhere, a time for those that claim the label of  ‘followers of Christ,’ to speak the words of Jesus.

It is our time to recognize God at work, even when that work does not match up with what we think God should do, when it is different from what those in power have told us God is doing, or what God will do.

As the time of Babylonian exile was nearing an end, as the people were on the cusp of recognizing their own failure to look to, and trust, God, time to quit listening to the false prophets and to listen to the prophets from God –  in this time, God instructed the prophet Isaiah to speak.:   

Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 43:18-19

It is the time to recognize that God is doing a new thing.

As African Americans have suffered abuse, and even death, at the hands our broken law enforcement officers, as Native Americans, once again, experience the abuse of a broken political systems as broken political leaders attempt to divide and destroy, as broken false prophets, hiding behind a false guise of evangelical leaders, abuse and misuse God, God’s truth and our faith, in order to control governmental leaders and the people sitting in the pews and on the screens, as broken believers, broken followers of Christ, have failed to seek and search for truth, as we have settled for the false lies of broken voices, it is time, time for us to see that God is, and has been, doing a new thing.

As we live, and attempt to survive, in a world where, over the past 100 days – the most vulnerable have been the most ignored and abused, it is time.

It is time for us to speak to what God is doing. 

Let’s begin with a truth:

We are all broken people in a broken world.

As the new testament church began, fresh off the excitement of the touch of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, this multi-national, multi-race, multi-cultural, multi-almost everything, group was riding high on their new enhanced understanding of God, and relationship with God, each other, the world, and even God’s creation.  The church, this collection of new believers, had been enlightened and had accepted, this realization of this new thing, they were beginning to grasp this fulfillment of the old thing.

Our Acts passage take us within months, maybe days, of that life changing moment when the Spirit had pushed the waiting disciples and apostles out of their room and into the crowded streets.  Streets crowded with those who had come to Jerusalem seeking to celebrate this day shuh·voo·owt (shavuot), a day of celebrating redemption.  They came to celebrate and experience redemption anew.  For those that sincerely were seeking that redemption, the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, the one that comes along side, met them in those streets.

This group was now tied together by God’s presence, resurrection, life, connectedness to God, unity, glory, forgiveness, justice, mercy were their unexpected bond.   A bond of broken people existing together in a broken world.

Brokenness always brings brokenness.  We know little of Ananias and Sapphire except of their brokenness.  They, for reasons unknot, had become a part of this group of followers of Jesus. Now, we can only speculate the how and why of their presence in this group, it could be that they loved the excitement of the believers but not the commitment, it could be that they were all in on the day of Pentecost but the brokenness of the world got the best of them, or, like Adam and Eve, once they had a look at what they could gain through the use of this group they were unable to look at anything else.

As the Spirit began God’s work in the church, Ananias and Sapphira could see nothing except their own personal agenda.  Even when they were given a chance to look elsewhere, an opportunity to once again see Truth, they didn’t. They were so focused that they were incapable of seeing anything else except self.  

When all you can see is your self, you are incapable of seeing your brokenness. 

Now, in our gospel passage, we return to a time before the crucifixion, a time when Jesus was invaded by a angry mob with an agenda.

‘We caught this woman in the act of adultery!’ The crowd screemed as they threw the humiliated woman at Jesus’ feet.

Jesus didn’t even need to inquire of the woman as to the validity of the accusations. Her countenance made it obvious – she was guilty.

The story, for us in this season, our season, is not about woman, it is not even about the judging and condemning crowds – this story, for us today, is about Jesus.

This was a trap set for Jesus.  A ‘fail proof’ trap, to replace their previous failed trap. Jesus would be forced to say release the woman which would be a violation of the Jewish law, or, he could say, stone her, which would be a violation of the Roman law.

The genius of the plan was the whichever side Jesus took, he was doomed.

Jewish law did say that the woman, as well as the man, caught in the act of adultery should be stoned. Roman law, however, prohibited such a response.

The woman had clearly committed adultery, the claim made by the accusers, the crowd, was they had caught her in the act.  One may ask, you may ask, ‘If the act was taking place, where is the other person?  Assuming it was a married man, was he just really fast at jumping out of a window, was a a very, very, fast runner? Maybe it had been a strategic deal made with this other guilty adulterer to absolve him of a sentence of death.

But, again, for us, the story is not about the woman, or the accusers, or the other party, or the Jewish law, or even the Roman law – this, for us today, is a story about Jesus.

This is story about responding to broken people, like us, in broken times, like our times.

Twice, as the woman and crowds awaited the response of Jesus, he knelt slow and drew something in the dirt. Preacher, scholars, and experts have long speculated what need so desperately to be written at this moment in the dirt.  

And, again, the story for us today is not about what Jesus wrote, or drew in the dirt. 

It is about Jesus.

It is, however, about the fact that Jesus knelt down twice, and as he knelt his withdrew for a moment from the crowd and from the humiliated woman. As Jesus knelt down, he took a moment to wait.  It was a moment of Wait much like when he delayed his trip to Mary and Martha following the death of their bother Lazarus, it was much like the moment that he followers waited following Jesus’ ascension, it was much like the time the disciples and the women unknowingly awaited the resurrection of Jesus.

Waiting was for everyone involved, the crowds, the woman, and even for Jesus.

This time of waiting was a moment for the crowds to be ready to see their brokenness, it was a time for the woman to see her brokenness.  

As he arose he agreed with the sentence of death by stoning, however he attached a caveat to the who would carry out such a condemnation.

“Whoever of you is without sin, whoever of you has never disobeyed and turned from God,’ will be selected to throw the first stone.

After having made the crowd wait as he knelt down the first time, this was all he said and then he knelt down again, and again he began to write in the dirt.

It might have been that the first time of knelling was a moment of realization of human brokenness, it was his time of consideration and immense sadness for a broken world.  A moment when he attempted to understand why those in the crowd were so quick to condemn in a such a violent manner.  

Maybe, they themselves had experienced an unfaithful spouse, possibly they had grown up in a broken home where they had first hand experience of the devastation of adultery, maybe they were outraged because they had remained faithful and the woman had not, or, maybe, they, themselves, were adulterers as guilty as the woman.  Maybe, just maybe, it was much deeper, possibly the long lasting impact of Abraham’s disregard of his wife, Sarah’s, dignity when he gave her away to Abimelech, twice, in an effort to secure his own safety, – or maybe it was the lingering impact of King David’s infidelity with Bathesheba centuries ago, that resulted in an attempted cover up that cursed David’s household.  Maybe it had become a part of their DNA, to judge and condemn, to repond so quickly with hatred. Maybe they all need to learn to take a wait moment, a moment of Selah, a moment to consider and understand before hateful accusations are made and unretrievable actions are taken.

Whatever the deep reason, Jesus was offering them a chance to see their own brokenness.  A chance to see they were all in need of redemption.

As Jesus stood back up the second time, only the woman remained.

‘Where are your accusers?’ He asked the woman.

This may have been her first moment to recognize that the crowd had dispersed.  It may be that her humiliation and shame had kept her from seeing those in the crowd, one by one, turn and walk away.

However, there still stood one person facing the woman.  The only person who fit the criteria to throw the first stone. 

‘I’m not throwing a stone at you,’ Jesus lovingly said to the woman. “You may go home.’

Many preachers believe that the point of this story was that Jesus followed this by saying ‘do not sin anymore.’  Many make these final words of the story as the point of the story. 

These concluding words were not the point, they were a natural, common, encouragement that Jesus would make.  They were words that would have been said to anyone in the crowd, as they were an encouragement Jesus makes to us all.  They are words of hope not judgement, they are words of life not death, they are words of joy not despair.  

To paraphrase these words, Jesus said, ‘You have experienced what it is to follow the brokenness of this world, you have experienced brokenness,’ he said, ‘Now, experience life, experience it to its fullness, live in joy.  Don’t go back to that, it is no way to live.

The point of this story was not only Jesus’ first time to kneel, the time when he waited in order to understand and empathize, it was also about what took place, there in the dirt, as Jesus knelt the second time.

Jesus knew that it was not his mission to stone the woman, nor was it his mission to lambast the crowd, it was to bring a recognition of brokenness to the crowds in order that they could see their own condition and their own need of redemption. It was to bring transformation not just to a few but to a world.

As Jesus knelt the second time, in the dirt, he possibly wrote the words ‘Mercy’ and “Justice.’  As he remembered the words of the prophet Micah who sought to remind his listeners to the way of God, and the way to be as God desire us to  be –

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? 

Micah 6:8

What words are you writing in the dirt as you face this unprecedented time in our broken world?

05.31.20

Judaism, like many other religions and faiths, uses the festivals and other times  of remembrance to teach and remind the followers of the events and moments that not only define their faith but also reveal the character and nature of God.   

One series of defining holidays is the Shalosh Regalim (Shall-lah-sh Raw-gal-eim) which involves three significant festival observances.  All three of the these, prior to the destruction of the second temple, required that Jewish believers in Judea to take a pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem.  All three have a foundational element of harvest gratitude and recognition – all three also have very significant remembrance and recognition elements from the Israelites past. All three concentrate on the start for the Isrealites, when they became a ‘promised people’ and when they officially became followers of the one true God 

Pesach (pee-sock) – Passover -is the most significant of the three holidays.  It is the observance of the release from Egyptian captivity and slavery following the sacrifice of the lamb to protect the first born males from death during the final plague.  It is a celebration of God’s deliverance from slavery, it is a recognition of the physical freedom of the Israelites.  The Israelites officially became a ‘people’ during the time of slavery so this was the first taste of freedom of this ‘people’ of Abraham and Jacob.

Shavuot (Shavoo-ot) takes fifty days after the celebration of Passover giving it the informal name of ‘Pentecost’ meaning fifty.  It is the fifty day period between the exodus from slavery of the Israelites and the day that Moses received the Torah (the Law-Books of Moses, first five) from God on Mount Sinai.  While the Passover recognizes the physical freedom granted to the Israelites, the Shavuot (Shavoo-ot) remembers the moment of Spiritual Redemption.  God gave the law, God made them His people.  

In the study of their religion, Jews commonly rely on the Midrash to understand and comprehend the Torah; the resource that we, in Christianity, have that is most similar is our commentaries that come from learned experts who study and write to enhance our understanding of the Bible.  On Midrash thread of teaching is that God actually offered the Law to all seventy nations of people that were on the earth at this time but only the Israelites accepted it.  Among the main reasons for rejecting the gift from God was that it restricted murder, adultery, and theft. 

Sukkot (sue – coat), often called the festival of the booths or tents, is a recognition of the time the Israelites lived in tents while wandering in the desert following after the giving of the law and the refusal to enter the promised land up to the moment when the second generation trusted God and entered the land. The significance of this time wandering was the time during which the Israelites learned, and decided to, depend solely on God.  Sukkot (sue-coat) is celebrated at the end of the harvest in an observance of God’s provision of the crops. 

Today, we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Shavuot (Shavoo-ot)), Pentecost, forty days after Passover, the last moments of Jesus with his followers until after the cross and resurrection, and ten days after the ascension of Jesus to return to heaven.  Since the 40 days and the 10 days add up to ten, and because the day was already called ‘Pentecost’ or ‘Fiftieth’ we simply call the day Pentecost Sunday.  It was a day when thousands of the faith of Judaism had made the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the holiday of Shavuot (Shavoo-ot)).  They were in the streets, at the temple, they were everywhere. And, ironic as it may sound, they were there to remember their redemption with God.

What a day for the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, to come.

Everyone was in the streets except the 120 followers of the crucified Jesus Christ.  These followers were hidden in a room, somewhat fearful, somewhat joyful, very cautious and hesitant, and totally unaware of what was about to happen.  They were Jesus followers who, at this very moment on this official day of Shavuot (Shavoo-ot)), were doing exactly what Jesus had told them to do prior to his ascension – he had told them to wait.

They were waiting for the promised Paraclete, the helper, the advocate, the encourager, the one that comes along side, the Holy Spirit – they didn’t have a clue how and when this was going to play out, but, since they trusted Jesus – they were waiting.  They had been waiting for days, now, as the crowds in the streets grew, as the noise of the foreigners became more and more loud, 120 now unacceptable people were on the edge of their seats, the anticipation, the excitement that was only tampered by their fear, was at a climax.

Then something began to happen in the room, suddenly the noises from outside were eclipsed by the noises entering the room.  It was as if hundreds of horses and chariots were rushing towards them, the place seem to shake and then it was as if the room could no longer hold them, they were pushed out into the crowd.

Not only were they now doing exactly what their fears told them not to do – don’t be noticed, don’t be seen. Now, they were even talking, now they were publicly sharing, they talking about Jesus, calling him the son of God, calling him God – the exact things that made you noticeable, the exact thing that could get them killed.

The was also the exact things they had learned and better understood during their forty days with Jesus following the resurrection.  The exact things their 40 day crash course with Jesus had been about – to learn and understand what Jesus had taught them through his words and actions before the crucifixion….the things they had worked to understand and the things they now knew, these were the things they were now sharing.

This was not remaining invisible and unnoticeable, it was painting a large target on their back and yelling ‘Here I am, come and get me!’  Even though they were speaking to foreigners who spoke different languages, it was still a very risky move, and even more risky.

The thing was that they couldn’t help but speak, they were speaking truth, and truth is something that is difficult not to share with others.  This was the core of their lives, they had to share because they not only had truth but they also had experienced love.  That love had taught them compassion and mercy, they cared about the unknown foreigners.  You cannot help but share love with those you love – even when it is dangerous.

It wasn’t just that they were talking, but that this truth and this love they spoke of was visible to the foreigners, not just through words but through their lives.  Love translates in all languages, even if you don’t understand the same words.

There was one more surprise, the foreigners were the first to recognize it, they could understand the 120 excited individuals.  Some in the crowd just wrote the 120 off as drunk, but thousands did understand, it was as if they were speaking this foreign language to the very foreigners that spoke that language.  It was a message that could not be dismissed, it was the truth they had been looking for.  It was the message of redemption on their holiday that observed God’s gift of redemption. 

This was the beginning of the Church.

It was the Holy Spirit who made that loud arrival, it was the Holy Spirit who enable the willing foreigners to understand this foreign language, it was the Holy Spirit that gathered a new community that day, it was the Holy Spirit that enable the truth of love, the truth of redemption, the truth of forgiveness, the truth of God to a people who had been looking and hoping for it on their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. 

As usual, there are significant words through which we can better understand this event of Pentecost, this day that enables us to grasp the truth of our redemption.

Today we have six words:

Fear and Peace

Receive and Filled

Retain and Forgive

Fear and Peace

Let’s go back to that moment in the locked room on the day of Jesus’ resurrection.  The women had not yet made it to the fearful disciples to tell that the tomb was empty and that Jesus was alive – nor had they heard that they had seen and spoke with Jesus.  All they knew was that they had deserted Jesus after he was arrested and now they were being hunted as accomplices of Jesus.  They were huddled in a room fearful for their life.

As they hid in the room, with the door locked, Jesus appeared.  Not a ghost but Jesus – he didn’t need a door.  In the middle of their fear he appeared. As his presence pierced their fears, Jesus said the word ‘Peace’.

He then showed them is wounds and permitted them to touch him to discover that he was indeed Jesus and that he was alive.  It was this moment that the disciples transitioned from being students of Jesus, students who followed him to learn, now they connected the dots….this was the son of God, God himself, their Savior, the Messiah.

This was the beginning of Christianity.

They believed, they accepted him, they embraced him, they trusted them with their life and they trusted him for life.  They still had a choice, being made in the image of God, and they now, each one, made the choice to follow and to trust.

Where as, just moments before, they could only see their fears.  The reality of their situation and circumstances had become a roadblock to see and understand what they understood from their final days with Jesus.  Roadblocks do that, they block your path, they keep you from moving forward.  All they had seen was the large sign that said ‘Road Closed – Go Back’, and now the sign was gone and they could move forward.

Jesus first word to the disciples had been ‘Peace’. The same word that Jesus spoke earlier to the women.  Jesus’ call is for us to all live in peace, regardless of our situations or circumstances.  This is an inexplicable peace that is only possible when Jesus is our focus and our core, he is our stability and balance, he is the anchor we hold to.  Peace is always the only way we can leave the fear of the hiding room and past the roadblock of fear.

Receive and Filled

As Jesus revealed himself, in the security of the locked room, to the disciples, they now believed. Their faith was now grounded on a sincere and full acceptance of Jesus as God.  As they accepted the divinity of Jesus, they also received the Holy Spirit. For the Spirit, too is God.  It was the Holy Spirit that enabled them to have the peace that would permit them to leave the room, it was that peace that, later, will enable them to wait, even as fear is outside in the streets.  In the same way we received the spirit so we, too, can leave the room of fear and move into trust, a trust that goes beyond our circumstances and situations.  It goes beyond the noise in the streets. To believe and to receive is our choice, it is an action choice, Jesus said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’

Later, almost fifty days after Jesus breathed the Spirit into the followers in that locked room, we see them once again in a room, with scary unknowns waiting outside.  Their presence in this room is not out of a fear that has them running away, instead this is a presence that is because they are running ‘to’.  This peace, that is not because of their own strength, is only because they now have the Spirit, they are now able to trust and follow Jesus’ words to ‘Return to Jerusalem and wait.’ Scary, sure, but there they are, and soon they are outside.  The Spirit not only ‘comes along side of us’ but the Spirit is also strategic.  On this day, the followers needed power, a very strategic confidence that would not only push them out in the street but permit them to do what they naturally desired to do, speak truth, speak witness, to love and care for others by showing love and compassion through their very existence.  The Spirit enabled them to be seen when their gut said to run and hide, to be invisible.  The Spirit did not, and does not, take them over, they were not now puppets, the Spirit did not take away their ability to make their own choice, even to respond in fear, but the Spirit was along side them, and, in this moment of need, the Spirit gifted them with a power to live like Jesus, to share the truth of Jesus that they had worked to know an understand, and the power to be heard and understood.

Retain and Forgive

Back in the hiding room following the resurrection after the disciples received the Holy Spirit, Jesus intentionally said two other words – ‘Forgive’ and the word ‘Retain’.  It was a word that defined the greatest roadblock, or the greatest freedom, that would exist in their future, in their ability to follow Jesus and to pursue the mission he would place in front of them.  

Jesus spoke to the hurts and pains they had endured at the hands of others, he also spoke to their own weakness and actions that caused them to want to hide and ashamedly desert Jesus. Others hated them but they hated themselves even more, they resented their own actions as much as they resented the crowds.  Jesus told them they had to let go, they had to release, their own painful actions as well as the hurts caused by others.  This was the immediate roadblock they needed to address.  Retaining their forgiveness of self and others, they were holding on those offenses. Whether it is your own offense or those of someone else – the process of retaining, of holding tight, to offenses of self and others keeps us from seeing Jesus and from seeing his peace, his hope and his love – it keeps us from following his call. Retention of forgiveness keeps us from letting the Spirit strategically fill us when we need the filling most.

The opposite of word ‘Retain’, ‘Forgive’ is the most practical of words.  As we let go of our grasp and cease holding back forgiveness, we also let ourself move forward.  As we can see beyond the roadblock of unforgiveness, of resentment and pain, of shame and regret, we can begin to see Jesus, we can live in peace.  Peace and Forgiveness, Love and Hope, are all connected, they work in tandem to permit us to move on and forward rather than to run away and hide, to be able to give and receive love, to see the peace and hope that is there regardless of our circumstances and realities. 

Forgiveness grants us freedom and a path ahead.  No longer do we have to tightly grasp and retain our forgiveness, no longer is it our focus –  as we release we are able to receive the Word that Jesus says before he says anything else – The beautiful and freeing words – PEACE and FORGIVE.

We are living in a time of Fear and Great Unknowns. We hear the problems going on outdside of our locked doors.  Disease, Unrest, Violence, Hatred, Racism, Panic, are all overwhelmingly loud and shaking the buildings where we are hiding.  God is still saying Peace, He is still the God that is Love, He still wants us to see past the roadblock of fear to see Hope, He is still with us in through the Holy Spirit who is still coming Along Side of Us.

What do you need to release?  Who do you need to forgive?  What roadblock is hiding Hope? What voice do you need to listen to?

Message – The Impact of Light 

04.12.20

Our life is filled with moments, small and huge, good and bad, moments that we often use to identify time and history, moments that changed us, our community, and our world.  US Surgeon General Jerome Adams compared our current crisis to the WWII attack on Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 attacks on New York and the United States.  Here in Oklahoma we would add the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. Moments that seem to take us into, what seemed like, an eternity of darkness.

We knew that we were coming out of these tragedies, these moments, when we began to see light, we began seeing hope, we had changed, we were forever different – we began marking time by those events.  Events that changed us individually and as citizens of this world.  

Interestingly, in the middle of one of those moments that forever change us, we, today, observe the most historic of moment of mankind, a moment that lasted for over thirty years, a moment when we knew it was ending as we saw the light piercing the darkness. 

We call it Easter, we mark it by the darkness of the cross and the light of the resurrection.  

Episcopal Scholar and Vicar, Dr. Judith Jones describes this moment this way: 

 The Gospel that began with a man [named Joseph] afraid to marry his disgraced fiancé and a fearful king [named Herod] who tries to kill potential rivals – ends with overwhelming joy. Jesus’ command to the women becomes a command to all of us: Stop being afraid! God has defeated death. Rejoice, and share the good news!

Let’s look again at the people and events of the Story of Easter, the moment that the darkness was overwhelmed by the light, the story of the resurrection, the story of the moment that forever changed the world.

Our story begins with the women on a morning when darkness was the only way to explain the atmosphere surrounding them, and the feeling about everything in life, as the women left the safety and security of their homes.  Even though the sun could be seen in the horizon ever so slightly, it still felt like it was the middle of the darkest night.  It wasn’t just at this moment that the women sensed the absence of light, the light had become increasingly absent for days.

Even before Jesus was arrested, there was a sense of it.  Darkness.  The kind of darkness that kept you from seeing anything except for the nothingness in front of you. The light just seemed to fade, the peace and joy seem to disappear, as the week had progressed.

There had even been a sense of darkness, a hopelessness, present as Jesus had entered the city.  Almost everyone was lining the path as he entered, people were throwing their cloaks and palm leaves on the ground, children were waving the leaves singing.  It was a celebration but it had this darkness.

It had already become difficult to not look for the darkness, to not focus on it entirely.  

The men that followed Jesus had made it very clear that Jesus should not go anywhere near Jerusalem.  Jesus, however, had made it even more clear that he was going to Bethany with or without them.  He was going to raise Zazarus from the dead.

‘We will die for him,’ Thomas had proclaimed as he, and the other disciples, picked up their cloaks and followed Jesus.

Then, after Bethany, Jesus turned to go to Jerusalem.  Again, the disciples were incensed, they were outraged and confused, ‘why would Jesus go to Jerusalem when it was obvious his enemies were determined to stop him and his movement.’

The women had been drawn to the teachings of Jesus probably because of the way he lived while he taught.  He respected everyone, even the women, even the samaritans, even the gentiles.  He talked about God in loving ways, not mean spirited and brutal ways.

Jesus was a breath of fresh air for the many dismissed people like the women who were heading to the tomb that dark morning. He seemed to breath life one light wherever he went. 

He didn’t hesitate to speak truth, he accepted all with love and compassion, he was a friend, he was defender, he was hope, he was the light, he was life.

Now, he was dead, they had seen him die on the cross. They had followed as one of the religious leaders took the body to his own tomb.  They stayed there as long as they were forced to return to their homes.

Sitting in the loneliness at the tomb had been when the darkness had settled in.  They had sat there in their disillusionment, their grief, their hopelessness, their confusion – they, just the women, had sat at the tomb together yet very isolated, alone, and scared.

A new reality for the women, but it is also a new reality for us in the year 2020 more than ever before, as this sense of isolation, fear, and darkness that the women experienced being much more understandable to us in our world today.

They had sat there in the darkness assuming that the world would now be dark forever.  They assumed that the light was gone for good.

So, on this dark morning they did exactly what they did when they lost a loved one – they went to the cemetery.  They went to do what you do when a body has been placed in a tomb.  They went to anoint the body just as Mary and done with her precious perfume.  Now, however, they were not anointing the body of a corpse.

They were a little surprised that the men and others were not going with them.  They were also not surprised as the men had disappeared back before Jesus had been nailed to the cross. Who could blame them though, they were the most identified followers and friends of Jesus.

It was understandable that they were absent on this dark morning, they were scared, they were surely targets of the same people that instigated the death of Jesus.  Still, this is what you do when a friend dies, you go to the grave.

The Story of that morning that followed the Sabbath day, which had followed the day that Jesus was crucified on the cross, is truly a story of darkness. It is actually a study in the response to that dark and light of those people, and groups of people, that were impacted, not just by Jesus death but also by his life.  A story that explains their actions, on that morning, through looking at the entwinement of their lives with the life of Jesus in this moment.

There were guards at the tomb.  The governmental officials had placed them there after hearing, from those who opposed Jesus, that Jesus had spoken of being resurrected from the dead.  All the leaders knew that such a feat would be inscrutable and irrefutable so they made sure such a resurrection did not happen. 

The guards were just pawns, doing what they had been told to do by powerful people who were scared.  They had, long before, chosen to only see darkness which calls for doing everything possible to keep others from seeing light.  Control is much easier if people only see, and know, what you what them to see and hold.  The guards, even with their own lives hanging by a limb, had no ability to stop the resurrection, it had already happened. Without them knowing, right before their eyes, Jesus had risen and left the tomb. When the angel rolled away the stone for the women to see, Jesus was already alive and no longer in the tomb!

It is ironic that it was a government official, a King named Herod, who had been scared, over thirty years earlier, that the baby Jesus was coming to take away his power.  Herod, at that time, had tried to stop Jesus by killing all the baby boys who could possibly be Jesus – however, by the time Herod took this action, Jesus was already gone.  Now, with the government officials, including another man named Herod, trying to keep Jesus dead by placing guards outside the tomb – once again, Jesus was already gone.

There was the story of the Jesus’ disciples.  This group had committed their lives to following Jesus for the past three years.  They banked their future, even their eternity, on him.  They followed Jesus because the believed in Jesus, they loved Jesus. The last moment they had all experienced together with Jesus was just a few days earlier when Jesus told them that, after he ‘rose’ he would go ahead of them to Galilee.

Now, in the darkness, they had forgotten about this promise, after all, they had seen him killed, as they watched the crucifixion from a distance, from hiding.  Now, they were hiding again, they were not on the way to Galilee, nor were they headed to the tomb.  They, like the women, were disillusioned, grieving, hopeless, confused, and scared.

Their fear was understandable, fear is completely expected when you can only see darkness.  Darkness is all you can find when you have forgotten the light.

And, finally, there was the story of the women.  In the greek language, when a group is defined as ‘male, it merely means that it has at least one male, however, a group of women is truly all women. This is the story of the women, the women who, on the morning following Sabbath, the first time they could go, they went to the tomb. It was the same women who had remained at the cross until the body of Jesus was taken down and moved to the tomb.  It was the women who had often provided for Jesus, listened to Jesus, learned from Jesus, and now were called by Jesus to be the first apostles.  As the angel explained to the women that Jesus had risen and left for Galilee, he also told them to go and share, then when Jesus met them on their way to tell the men, he told them to be the first witnesses to the fact that Jesus was no longer dead.

As they left the tomb, and then again as they prepared to leave Jesus, the were filled with fear and joy, filled with darkness and light.  The fear was as understandable with the women as it was with the men.  Jesus, however, told them to just go in joy, there was no need for fear.  Jesus gave them a choice, go in fear for what the darkness could do to them, go afraid for the unknown, or,  they could go in joy, looking at the light, allowing the light to overtake the darkness.  To not be afraid even though the earthly scary things were still earthly  and scary.

That is what light does, it lights up the darkness, it makes the darkness not seem so scary.   

Things to ponder from this historic moment:

• Prior to the resurrection of Jesus, prior to the arrest of Jesus, prior to the entry into Jerusalem of Jesus, prior to raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus proclaimed that he IS the resurrection.  He was not GOING TO BE, but ‘I AM’.  When the women arrived at the tomb, the angel proclaimed, ‘He is not here, He has risen!’ He IS our resurrection, He has defeated death.
• Jesus proclamation before his arrest was that he would go ahead of them to Galilee after he arose, after He rose, he said that he would go ahead of them to Galilee.
• Following the events of the cross all His followers could see was darkness, hopelessness.  They were only seeing with their eyes and not with their hearts. Each responded in their own way, many hid, others went about their life seeing to the body of loved one that had died.
• Darkness causes Fear, but in Seeing Jesus and gaining a modicum of understanding of the resurrection they began seeing the light, they began experiencing Joy.  Jesus reminded them to live in the light and to not be afraid anymore – to quit looking for darkness when the light was in front of them. It was their choice.  To let their peace and hope be found in what they now know was true rather than what the world has defined as truth. 
• Recognition of light changed their lives in that moment and forever.

How do we, then, live in the Light, how do we live in the Truth?  How do we make the choice?  The apostle Paul explained it this way: 

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Colossians 3:1-4

Light or Darkness is always a choice of our mission – our mission is to seek, to search, and to find light, to find truth.

The impact of Darkness is Fear/Confusion – a focus on Self 

But the impact of Light is Joy/Peace/Truth –  a focus on God 

Darkness or Light

What is your choice in this moment?