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Friday, April 30, 2010
The Stations of the Resurrection--Eighth Station--Jesus Strengthens the Faith of Thomas
("The Incredulity of Thomas," by Michelangelo Merisi da Carvaggio)
The Eighth Station--Jesus Strengthens the Faith of Thomas
Leader: O Risen Christ, Light of the world, we adore you;
People: You allowed Thomas to believe in the way he understood best.
Thomas had been absent from the other disciples when Jesus had breathed the Holy Spirit upon them. When they told him of their encounter with Jesus, Thomas just glared at them and did not say anything for a long time. He had no doubt his companions had experienced something--but wondered if their desire and wishes to see Jesus again had not clouded reality for them. Perhaps they had met someone who reminded them of Jesus and they wished it so. Perhaps someone had played a cruel trick on them. Perhaps they were so grief-stricken they were having delusions.
Thomas was still grieving terribly himself. He simply did not want to hurt any more than he was hurting already. He didn't want to hear these stories--it did not make his own pain any better. So finally, he growled back, "You know what? I don't want to disagree with you, but I just can't buy it, as much as I love and believe in you. I won't believe it until I see it--and I'd have to feel the nail marks and the hole in his side myself before I could even begin to believe it."
A week later, the disciples were again behind closed doors and Thomas was among them. Suddenly, Jesus was again in their midst! "Peace be with you," repeated Jesus. He looked squarely at Thomas, holding out his hands. "Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt, but believe."
The Gospel of John doesn't say whether Thomas actually did touch Jesus--that is left up to our imaginations--but whatever did happen caused Thomas to exclaim, "My Lord and my God!" What is clear, though, is that Jesus understood exactly what it took to come to Thomas on his own terms--and he was perfectly willing to do that.
Leader: Jesus came to Thomas to the way of his own understanding,
People: Just as Christ can come to us in the way of our own understanding.
Leader: Let us pray.
(a brief period of silence is observed.)
Lord God, perceiver of all things,
Sometimes it hurts too much to simply accept and believe your truth.
Sometimes when our worries and fears overtake us,
the gentle touch of your loving hand sears our flesh like acid.
It becomes easier to doubt than to believe.
Remind us in those moments
that we are loved by a Son with nail holes in his own hands
and a gash in his side, a Son who cries and bleeds,
and will not ask anything of us in our pain
but to simply touch his own wounds and feel one with them.
People: Amen.
Leader: Alleluia! Christ is risen!
People: The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
The Stations of the Resurrection--Seventh Station--Jesus Gives his Disciples his Peace and the Power to Forgive Sins
("Jesus Breathes His Spirit Upon the Disciples," by Hanna Cheriyan Varghese)
The Seventh Station--Jesus Gives his Disciples his Peace and the Power to Forgive Sins
Leader: O Risen Christ, Light of the world, we adore you;
People: You breathed your living Spirit upon those who loved you.
The disciples sat in a locked house, discussing a million things with each other, in a slightly more hopeful tone of voice, but things still felt dangerous--so they discussed the events surrounding the Resurrection in a locked house. The rest of the world still seemed pretty uncertain to them.
Suddenly, in the middle of their discussion, Jesus appeared. "Peace be with you," he told them. As he revealed his hands to pull part of his robe aside to show them his wounded side, they recognized him, and as he put his hands out to them to be welcomed they literally rushed towards him in the biggest group hug one can imagine. Even in a locked house, he had come to them. Imagine all the embracing and hair-tousling that probably ensued--and some probably simply held his hand in both of theirs, looked in his face, and cried.
Jesus very likely hung on every embrace, feeling their hearts beat within their chests, hearing them breathe, and feeling their wet tears on his own face. He probably cried a few joyful tears of his own--he SO loved this group. Suddenly, a warm gentle breeze surrounded them, and they felt the breath of the Holy Spirit in each exhale of Christ's breath. Yes, they were still in a locked house, but they began to feel less "locked up" themselves.
Leader: Each time Jesus exhaled, the Holy Spirit wafted across the room,
People: Each time the disciples inhaled, they felt the Holy Spirit within them.
Leader: Let us pray.
(a brief period of silence is observed.)
O living and breathing God,
Sometimes when we are locked within
the prison of our own fears,
we forget that all we have to do is breathe,
to discover you are with us.
We think we have to come up with elaborate ideas
to serve you and do your will,
when all we had to do
is simply inhale what is already in the room.
Remind us, dear Lord,
to simply breathe and recognize your presence in our breath.
As our breath, mixed with yours, leaves our bodies,
teach us to merely follow it where it goes,
leading us to be where we need to be,
in a life led for your Son's glory.
People: Amen.
Leader: Alleluia! Christ is risen!
People: The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
A hedge-y endeavor
Ecclesiastes 10:10:
"If the iron is blunt, and one does not whet the edge, then more strength must be exerted; but wisdom helps one to succeed."
Well, that is pretty much the sum total of what the Bible has to say about splitting logs.
In the last couple of weeks, I've had the fence builders out here, totally rebuilding my pasture fences. My long-eared equines (mostly my mule) have taken a toll on my woven wire fence. I opted for a taller fence, and seven strands of barbed wire. The other flaw in the previous fence was that the previous builder put the staples and clips on the OUTSIDE. Equines simply lean against the fence and pop the staples and the clips bend open. It doesn't take much for determined long-eared equines and their belief that the grass really IS greener on the other side of the fence, to wreck one.
One of the decisions I made was to put hedge posts in for my corner posts. Hedge is one of the densest, sturdiest, most resistant to rot and decay woods available in this part of the world. It's even better than many of the treated posts available. The sidelight has been there are little "leftovers" of the posts given to me so I can burn them in my chiminea later on. Seeing as how hedge is also one of the highest BTU delivering woods out there, this is a bonus.
There's only one problem--some of them are too big for my chiminea. I had to break out my axe, my splitting maul, and my wedge, and revisit something that used to be a real pain in my life--but this time, as a tourist, as a pastime.
Let me share a little history. I grew up with a wood stove being the major source of heat in the house where I lived the bulk of my junior high/high school years. I grew to hate the wood stove and everything associated with it. I hated being dragged along to cut and split wood. I hated stacking wood, hauling wood in the house, and lugging out the ashes. I hated how the house was cold in the early mornings, I hated how I often had to get dressed in front of the wood stove in order not to freeze, and I hated how it seemed the entire set of activities of daily living revolved around feeding and maintaining that wood stove every winter. I hated how wood heat dried my nose out, I hated how all my clothes seemed to have a smoky smell to them, and I hated how we had a propane furnace and never used it, being told we couldn't afford it.
I vowed never to have wood heat in the house, and I have kept that promise.
Yet I love sitting outside by my chiminea fire. Go figure.
Most of the wood I use in my chiminea has been cut by someone else. But I kept all my woodcutting tools because once in a while I still have to deal with an oversized log.
As I looked at the little pile of hedge logs that was growing by my driveway, I made a radical decision--I would use splitting them as a form of meditation. I would simply split them and see what popped in my head as a result.
I pondered the first log. Suddenly it dawned on me that I was 30+ years older than when I used to do this all the time. I used to have well-tuned muscles for this task. I was younger, slenderer, better muscled, and more flexible. What am I doing? I could throw out my back or miss and cut the end of my foot off. Out of all the types of wood I could have taken on, I took on the densest, hardest wood in NE Missouri. Am I NUTS?
Just the same, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, opened my eyes, reared back and let fly with the axe. It landed pretty much where I intended it to go, scoring the log. I took a few more whacks with the axe, then grabbed the splitting maul and started in with it. Pretty soon, after a few swings, a big chunk of that log came flying off with a pop, and I felt the rush of feeling the maul peel right through 18 inches of solid wood.
I wish I could have seen my own grin.
Over the next half hour, things came back to me I did not even realize were buried in my memory banks. Layers of clothing started to peel off as I felt myself sweat. My hands found the right spots on the handle. I automatically used already split pieces to prop up the piece I was working on. Before you know it, I had a little pile of split logs, just the right size. Realizing one little pile was enough, I quit, and got a soda and sat down to think about what had just happened. I was tired, but not sore. I wasn't sore the next morning, either--I'd done it about right.
But as I sat and drank my soda outside in my "post-splitting" phase of the exercise, I realized just how GOOD it all felt. Something I used to hate to do became pleasurable. I felt very physically and spiritually "connected". I felt empowered. I found myself saying, "God, I can't believe I'm telling you this, but I'm glad I had learned how to do that, all those many years ago."
I'm sure God laughed.
It brought me to some other interesting spiritual awakenings. Nothing that happens in our lives is for naught. It made me realize that things we hated, things that hurt us, things we discarded as "no use to us," can eventually come to good. Mistakes aren't mistakes, and things we came to regret only remain regrets if we choose to leave them there. Left the size they are, they are useless--but if we dare to take them apart, no matter how hard they are, they can come apart through the power of things we forgot we have or never knew we possessed--in other words, with God's help. Most importantly, we can turn loathing into gratitude. We can take what seemed inert, dead, and useless, and turn it into heat, light, and warmth.
That in itself, is a form of resurrection, isn't it?
The Stations of the Resurrection--Sixth Station--Jesus Appears to the Disciples in Jerusalem
("Jesus Appears to the Disciples After Resurrection," by Imre Morocz)
The Sixth Station--Jesus Appears to the Disciples in Jerusalem
Leader: O Risen Christ, Light of the world, we adore you;
People: You appeared and ate fish with your disciples.
A lively discussion ensued between the eleven and the disciples who had seen Jesus on the road to Emmaus. All of them had been afraid to tell what had happened to them, until each had admitted their story to the other. What could this mean? It was still hard for them to keep it all straight in their heads. The images of the crucified Jesus, the memories of wrapping him in his burial cloth, were still incredibly fresh, and confusing.
Suddenly, Jesus appeared in the midst of them. All of the conversation suddenly stopped, and all eyes turned towards him. The speechlessness of the disciples threw a heavy silence into the air.
Jesus broke the silence with a loving voice. "Peace be with you," he smiled, as he held out his hands and showed his feet to them, drawing them near with his hands, encouraging them to touch his wounds. "Don't be afraid." One can only imagine their joy as they reached out to him, held his hands, and hugged him. "Do you have anything to eat?" he asked. Someone gave him a piece of broiled fish. Again, all eyes were upon him as he ate it. He was really swallowing it and eating it--he MUST be real! This can't be a dream, a figment of the imagination, they thought. After enjoying the fish, Jesus began teaching them again. It felt like the good days before the crucifixion. The disciples smiled at each other as they listened. It felt too good to be true.
Leader: As Jesus stood before the disciples to teach,
People: They could scarcely believe the moment was real.
Leader: Let us pray.
(a brief period of silence is observed.)
Almighty God,
we read your words, we attend worship, we speak your name,
but what we really crave is your true Presence
and the true Presence of your Son.
Enable us to see Christ's true face,
his wounded hands and feet,
and his resurrected body.
Help us to feel his true presence in us
during those times we partake of his body and blood.
Create in us his real Presence--
as real as the fish he ate in front of the disciples,
and renew us in our own resurrections.
People: Amen.
Leader: Alleluia! Christ is risen!
People: The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Friday, April 23, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
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