If I were to just pick one passage that would define my ministry or at least my theology it would have to be Luke 24 and the Road to Emmaus. This is a beautiful encounter with Jesus and two disciples, not some of the twelve, disciples. In Luke it is these two who first witness the Risen Lord who get to be affirmed of the secret that Jesus is out of the tomb.
As these two are walking on their journey home, after great disappointment, they encounter a stranger along the way. They welcome this stranger into their journey and they teach and tell him things about Jesus as well as learn from him. At the end they welcome him into a meal and as the bread breaks their eyes are opened and they recognize that it is indeed Jesus!
Life is a journey. We are on a path walking, stumbling and even sometimes confused but when we invite Jesus to walk alongside us our walk is transformed. When we invite the Divine into our lives, our lives are changed and we can feel the power. And if we are luckily we will meet God, there in our journey.
As a Pastor I also see myself in the role of Jesus now that Jesus has ascended, I am called to walk with people along their own journeys - teaching them but also listening to them and letting them teach me. I am called to shepherd people through the rough times and to rejoice with people during the happy moments. I am called on this journey to help reveal the Divine Holy Presence to people and often do that by breaking bread and offering communion.
This is a powerful and wonderful passage.
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Sunday, April 23, 2017
Darkness
Wrapping my coat around my shivering shoulders, I began the long descent into the darkness and the damp. I was entering a cavern, taking a step below ground into the earth. It was cool wet air; there was very little light; the spaces were tight and the ceilings were low; but more importantly there were bats!
Every Easter I recall the memories I have as a child going to caverns, which are many. Is it the darkness of them, perhaps. Probably, however, it is the tomb like feeling I give to these caverns. When I hear the Passion story and the horror of Jesus being put into a tomb and a large rock rolled over it. I can't help but think of the tombs carved into mountains and the cold damp shiver of caverns. Stone is not a giving substance - lay on it for too long and the back will confirm that! Stone is often cold and without light to reflect on the stone service, stone is dark.
Although we celebrate with light dress and Easter egg hunts; although we celebrate the joy of salvation on Easter, Easter is in many ways a holiday surround by darkness. Unlike Jesus' birth on Christmas, on Easter we are celebrating his death. All-be-it a death that brought salvation to us, the passages of celebration soon turn to passage of fear darkness.
The Sunday after Easter we are reminded of this as we recall the disciples sitting in a dark and locked upper room, most probably in mourning of the loss of Jesus (although not complete loss). And yet another miracle happened! Jesus appeared. Jesus their friend and teacher, Jesus the miracle maker, stood in front of them. And into that darkness brought the true joy and light of Easter.
It is easy to come to church once a year, or perhaps twice, and celebrate the joy of Easter - the joy of Jesus. It is another thing to in the midst of your darkest times to find and see the God who dwells within even the darkness. Jesus entered the locked room of the disciples and found them. We too can find Jesus standing in our darkness and our own locked rooms, we just need open our eyes.
Jesus did not come to redeemer those who find themselves righteous but instead came to offer grace, forgiveness and thus salvation to those in the darkness seeking the light. Peter denied Christ, Thomas questioned and all proved to have doubts either in themselves or in the resurrection of Christ. Yet God did not give up on them or turn from them. Jesus did not go out and find another group of 12 to send out and spread his message now that he rose from the dead - finding their behavior to be unacceptable. Instead Jesus entered the locked room of his disciples and gifted them with the Holy Spirit - gifted them with the Divine!
Let us realize the power and redemption that is found in Christ for all of us who believe! Let that power sink in, even into the darkest of our thoughts and unbelief.
Every Easter I recall the memories I have as a child going to caverns, which are many. Is it the darkness of them, perhaps. Probably, however, it is the tomb like feeling I give to these caverns. When I hear the Passion story and the horror of Jesus being put into a tomb and a large rock rolled over it. I can't help but think of the tombs carved into mountains and the cold damp shiver of caverns. Stone is not a giving substance - lay on it for too long and the back will confirm that! Stone is often cold and without light to reflect on the stone service, stone is dark.
Although we celebrate with light dress and Easter egg hunts; although we celebrate the joy of salvation on Easter, Easter is in many ways a holiday surround by darkness. Unlike Jesus' birth on Christmas, on Easter we are celebrating his death. All-be-it a death that brought salvation to us, the passages of celebration soon turn to passage of fear darkness.
The Sunday after Easter we are reminded of this as we recall the disciples sitting in a dark and locked upper room, most probably in mourning of the loss of Jesus (although not complete loss). And yet another miracle happened! Jesus appeared. Jesus their friend and teacher, Jesus the miracle maker, stood in front of them. And into that darkness brought the true joy and light of Easter.
It is easy to come to church once a year, or perhaps twice, and celebrate the joy of Easter - the joy of Jesus. It is another thing to in the midst of your darkest times to find and see the God who dwells within even the darkness. Jesus entered the locked room of the disciples and found them. We too can find Jesus standing in our darkness and our own locked rooms, we just need open our eyes.
Jesus did not come to redeemer those who find themselves righteous but instead came to offer grace, forgiveness and thus salvation to those in the darkness seeking the light. Peter denied Christ, Thomas questioned and all proved to have doubts either in themselves or in the resurrection of Christ. Yet God did not give up on them or turn from them. Jesus did not go out and find another group of 12 to send out and spread his message now that he rose from the dead - finding their behavior to be unacceptable. Instead Jesus entered the locked room of his disciples and gifted them with the Holy Spirit - gifted them with the Divine!
Let us realize the power and redemption that is found in Christ for all of us who believe! Let that power sink in, even into the darkest of our thoughts and unbelief.
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