MONDAY MORNING AFTER EASTER SUNDAY

Low Country, Wrightsville Beach, NC

We are an Easter people living in a Black Friday world.  

May calm waters, warm sunlight, blue skies and hope prevail today while God enables all of us to see His kingdom to come and His will to be done, through us, among us, on earth as it is in heaven!

 

LOOKING INTO THE FACE OF GOD

                                          Lenten Roses, Jamestown, NC

Hellebores or Lenten Roses make an excellent winter hardy shade perennial for the woodland garden.  I tried a variety of plants in my backyard wooded area but thankfully I stumbled upon these evergreen plants that have thrived under the trees and require only minimal care.  They bloom during the Lenten season when practically nothing else is ready to poke their heads above ground until they are certain that freezing temperatures have passed.

These plants also self-propagate by bursting their seed pods all around them at the end of the growing cycle.  The plants were originally grown for their medicinal properties.  And although they are toxic, the trait makes them prized deer-resistant garden plants for areas that suffer from wildlife pressures.

We found a nursery outside our community that actually specialized in growing these plants and was appropriately named Gethsemane Gardens!  The flowering heads of these reverent plants are generally bowed in the garden and its always a surprise to bend down to their level and look into the face of God, as we move from the Christmas season of God appearing in the flesh on this vibrant Earth and defeating sin and death at this imminent time of Easter.

EASTER APPARITION HAIKU

Apparition, Glenola, NC

The apparition,
was moving from west to east,
sunset to sunrise.

Formed like cirrus clouds,
but much lower in the sky,
appearing quickly!

Flowing wispy hair,
directing us to the east,
pure white flowing robe.

What is the meaning?
What's the signal in the noise?
Vapor or spirit?

An apparition,
revealed Christ to the Wise Men,
announcing his birth.

An angel of God,
revealed His second birth to
Mary Magdalene.

Look to the sunrise,
symbolizing victory,
on Easter morning!

THE WILDERNESS OF LIFE

Judean Wilderness, Qumran, Israel
Mount of Temptation, Jericho, Israel

We hear about and experience the “storms of life” that cycle through all of our lives with challenges and dark times. Those storms are out of our control and in many cases we just need to trust in the protection of our Creator and weather the storm until we emerge safely on the other side. But what about those experiences in the “wilderness of life”, i.e., those menacing places that we willingly wander into and then find ourselves overwhelmed and lost?

These wilderness places can be barren and hopeless with no easy exit signs pointing the way out. We may have arrived there by seeking an easy escape from life. But then once the euphoria wore off, we had wandered even more deeply into the wilderness and found ourselves more lost and disoriented. Or we may have chased the rabbit of fame and fortune into the briar patch and down into the endless rabbit hole of fleeting worldly treasures. Often we witness news accounts of folks that wander off a remote mountain trail and become separated from their hiking group in dense forests. Or we read about an off-roader that becomes disoriented in a remote area. Some of these lost souls are never found until it’s too late. Some by the grace of God are found alive by courageous first responders that are able to bring them back to safety.

The Judean wilderness that Jesus walked into after his baptism in the Jordan River near the Dead Sea is an arid, barren desert country. The flat desert transitions into rolling limestone hills and then into porous mountains marked with sheltering caves. Legend reveals that he found refuge during the forty days he spent fasting and resisting temptations in a cave near Jericho. The location is now covered by a plain monastery on the Mount of Temptation. Once Jesus was victorious over the worldly temptations of self-destruction, he was strengthened and prepared for his three year ministry, death and resurrection.

The forty days of Lent we recognize are a time of reflection and preparation leading up to the celebration of Easter resurrection and the victory over evil and death in this broken world. That understanding gives us the strength and hope that sustains us through the stormy and wilderness times of life. And we are uplifted by the message that Adam Hamilton closes with every Easter service—“The worst thing is never the last thing!” if we do not find our way out to the other side.

MARY OF MAGDALA

Torah Table End, Migdal, Israel
Magdala Synagogue, Migdal, Israel
Valley of the Doves, Migdal, Israel
Torah Table Top, Migdal, Israel

Mary Magdalene was among the few who had stood by Jesus at his crucifixion and watched in horror as her Lord was killed on that infamous Black Friday. She had entered the garden tomb before daylight to anoint the body on this first Easter Sunday and found the tomb empty. She stood in the garden crying because she thought the Romans had taken the body away. And as she turned, Jesus appeared and asked her why she was crying and who she was looking for in the garden. Mary mistook the resurrected body of Jesus for a gardener until he called her name, “Mary”. And she cried out in Aramaic “Rabboni!” which means teacher. He instructed her to go and tell the disciples that he was alive which left her with the Augustine legacy of the “Apostle to the Apostles”. Women had no status in this first century culture, but Jesus acknowledged women as equal reflectors of God’s image. Given this male dominated society, revealing himself first to a woman provides even more credibility for the resurrection. A purely fabricated account would have quite probably written a male into the role.

Mary was from a small fishing village on the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee called Magdala. Magdala was destroyed by the Romans about the time the second temple was also leveled in 70 AD. She was also referred to as the Magdalene in the Bible. Jesus had cast out seven demons from Mary, but that may be a reference to a complex mental or physical illness instead of any form of sinfulness. The male culture of those days who were uncomfortable with a female apostle may have intentionally merged Mary with the unnamed woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. Mary was not a repentant prostitute and these efforts to demonize her in particular and disempower women in general though the centuries are unfounded. She is now considered a saint by the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran churches with a feast day of July 22.

Father Juan Solana, a Roman Catholic priest, had a dream. He envisioned building a serene spiritual retreat for Christian pilgrims on the northwest shores of the Sea of Galilee. This Galilee region in Israel was the primary location on earth where the Son of God lived out his human existence while teaching and preaching about the Kingdom of God for mankind and healing the sick and disabled outcasts of society. A routine archaeological requirement in Israel with its centuries of history is to carry out a salvage dig on any potential building site prior to excavation. This work began in 2009 and almost immediately Father Salona described the miraculous discovery of a stone slab as providential. The subsequent discovery of a local coin dating from the year 29 confirmed the existence of a first century Galilee synagogue. And further excavation revealed a marketplace, water pools to cure the famous Galilee fish, and a large public building. It soon became clear that they had just discovered the ancient little fishing village of Magdala.

An ornately engraved stone that was found in the synagogue ruins was quite probably used as a table for reading the Torah. The time period places the synagogue right in the sweet spot of Jesus’ ministry and he quite probably read from the Torah on that table in this place. The Valley of the Doves contains a 22 mile trail from Nazareth to Magdala on the Sea of Galilee. The base for Jesus and his disciples was in Capernaum, just five miles away and their footsteps were all over this country. Our tour group not only traced their footsteps in the Valley of the Doves, but now we were also walking in and around the small village of Magdala where they visited and the Magdalene resided.

Mary of Magdala was present at the beginning of a movement that transformed the world. She was quite possibly more of a disciple than the disciples, but the culture of her time wouldn’t acknowledge her. As we move on into the twenty first century, God has revealed the birthplace of one of the most influential women in Christianity with the opportunity to also discover the woman who lived there. And now we all have the privilege of walking in the footsteps of the Apostle to the Apostles from Magdala and recognizing her rightful role as an early Christian leader and the first to announce the good news of the miracle of the resurrection!

The Hope of Easter, 2015

FOREVER GARDEN

Easter Garden, Jerusalem, Israel
Via Dolorosa Station IX, Jerusalem, Israel

I’ve always been a bit of a visual learner, so it was a challenge for me to associate with some of the sacred places in the Holy Land which humans had basically covered with well-intentioned reverence. Ironically, two such places included the site of Jesus’s birth in the Church of the Nativity and the site of his death at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Both locations included exceptionally ornate surroundings of a literal hole in the marble flooring. You could stand in line to insert your hand into the hole to touch the rock below--or you could simply meditate on the event that occured in close proximity.

We walked the narrow crowded streets of Old Jerusalem amid the variety of small shops selling brightly colored scarves, pottery, olive wood carvings, and fresh foods. Along the “way of sorrow” (Via Dolorosa) we stopped and remembered the events at the Stations of the Cross regarding Jesus’ agonizing walk to his crucifixion at Golgotha. The walk was made more meaningful by an intermittent rain that accompanied us along the way. Our walk ended at Station IX which recognizes the third time Jesus stumbled on his path to destiny. This station is located next to the entrance of a monastery and the subterranean Chapel of Saint Helena in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. We then queued up inside the church to go inside a Greek Orthodox Church that had been constructed around a cave tomb where tradition says the body of Jesus was laid to rest and was resurrected. Christians consider this the holiest place on earth. The interior was fully decorated with brass and glass.

As we neared the end of our Holy Land journey, “the arena of God’s revelation of himself to humankind”, our last stop in Jerusalem became one of the most meaningful. We traveled to the Garden Tomb where many Christians go to celebrate the resurrection. These tombs carved out of the ubiquitous rock outcroppings indigenous to the area had been discovered at a later date. There is no absolute certainty of where Jesus’ resurrection actually occurred. But this setting has been developed to visually pull even the most casual pilgrim into the experience of the resurrection. Jesus told one of the two men crucified on either side of him that he would be with him in paradise. Paradise is a Persian word for “walled garden”. When a Persian king chose to honor one of his subjects, he invited him to walk with him in the palace garden.

We gathered in a small shelter on the site and celebrated a short communion service with small olive wood cups of wine and flat bread. The experience was a great remembrance of Christ’s passion, presence, grace and love for His creation. It also became a reflective last meal for a group of disciples that had been drawn together by a common bond, in the spirit and land of the Last Supper that Jesus celebrated with his twelve disciples. The light rain subsided as we left the shelter and entered one of the garden tombs in silence. When I turned to exit the stone tomb I noticed a wooden sign over the opening that proclaimed, “He is not here—for He is risen!” And as we departed the garden grounds to begin a rather arduous trip back home, we passed by branches of fresh cherry tree blossoms framing the empty tomb—a very natural and visual sign of the Easter promise for new life and hope in a beautiful forever garden!

THE CROSS

Flint Hills Cross, Strong City, KS

Only God could transform a horrific cross of unspeakable suffering and death into a beautiful symbol of love and eternal life. And validate that the worst thing is never the last thing.

AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS

Heads Bowed, Jamestown, NC
Crucified, Jamestown, NC

The delicate blooms of a slender dogwood tree are not only a welcome sign of spring, but also a symbolic remembrance of the crucifixion of the Son of God. The blooms generally appear just above eye level and form a cross with nail rust and red stains on the outer edges. A crown of thorns in the center complete the image of a Savior’s blood sacrifice for the redemption of all mankind.

The apostle Luke records that there were an enlightened few bowing at the foot of Jesus’ cross who understood the meaning of this literally earth shattering event. This small gathering included his mother Mary, Mary Magdalene who Jesus had purged of seven demons and the beloved disciple John. Many others had deserted him for fear of their lives, but these few chose to support him and pray for him.

The Lenten Roses presently blooming under the dogwood trees in my backyard present a symbolic remembrance of those gathered at the foot of the wooden cross with reverent bowed heads. They seem to gather together in humble worship and you are drawn to bow with them as all nature morns the events leading up to God’s sacrifice on that Black Friday over two thousand years ago. But once you are drawn to their ground level countenance, the beautiful faces of these roses of Lent will open the eyes of your heart to the promised hope of Easter resurrection reflected in the symbolic form of the coming dogwood blooms! And wherever in the world today that Christians gather in a sanctuary of worship, you will find them with heads bowed at the foot of the cross.

EASTER SACRAMENT

Communion Cup, Greensboro, NC

Once again we’ve entered into the season of Lent leading up to the celebration of the resurrection’s power over sin and death. And the Easter sacrament at the epicenter of this celebration is Holy Communion. Because the two primary sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion consist of the physical elements of water, bread and wine, they provide us with a very tangible experience of faith—if we’re in the right frame of mind during these times of worship. By invoking the presence of God, common water in baptism becomes a gracious water of life and a spiritual cleansing. By invoking His presence in communion, the spiritual substance of the body and blood of our Savior are manifested in the signs of divine grace by the bread and wine. Although we use these elements in daily life without giving them a second thought, when they are introduced into the sacraments at worship both our physical and spiritual senses are elevated.

It’s imperative that we enter into these sacraments with a sense of purpose and a right mind. John Wesley has written that to do otherwise is meaningless; “Before you use any means of grace, let it be deeply impressed on your soul: separate from God, it is a dry leaf, a shadow”. I have to confess that I have participated in communion on occasion and returned to my seat without any recollection of the meaning of the sacrament. In essence, I have to reprimand myself because I have just had a light snack and nothing more. The moment was squandered.

I’m reminded of a somber Lenten evening service where I had been asked to assist in serving the communion elements. I was given a basket of bread cubes sanctified as “the body of Christ, broken for you”. As the members and guests were filing up to our station, I was mindlessly presenting my basket of bread to those in worship. After making eye contact and doing this for just a few people, I turned back toward the next person and didn’t see anybody. Then I glanced down into the full gaze of a warmly smiling elderly woman who was looking up in full anticipation of sharing in the sacrament. But this person was gently holding out both cupped hands to receive the body, not take it. Embarrassed that I had not been handing this element to folks, I immediately placed a cube of bread into the woman’s hands and she knowingly passed by. I then made certain that everyone continued to receive the body of Christ.

The small woman with the warm smile must have been a guest that evening, as I never saw her again because I was looking to thank her for the subtle reminder. And we should always be gracious to strangers, as you never know when you might be entertaining angels.

A UNIQUE CREATION

Aura, Greensboro, NC

There are two accounts of men being restored to life after dying that are just nine chapters apart in the book of John. John 11 tells of Jesus restoring the body of his good friend Lazarus after he had been in the tomb for four days. The dead man’s body appeared when Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out”! He who is life can surely restore life! The hands and feet were still wrapped in linen and a cloth was around his face. His earthly body had been brought back to life to demonstrate Jesus’ power over life and death, but Lazarus remained a mortal and faced a second death at a later date.

John and Peter run to the tomb where the crucified Jesus had been laid after Mary excitedly reported that the tomb was empty on that first Easter morning. When they entered, they found strips of linen lying there. The burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head was still in its place. The linens were positioned as if he had passed right through them. It would have been impossible for a grave robber to have taken the body and left the linens undisturbed.
When Mary confronted Jesus in the burial garden, she didn’t immediately recognize him until he called out her name. Later, he appeared among the disciples within a locked room where they had gathered in fear of being arrested themselves. When he appeared a second time, Thomas was made to believe by touching his pierced hands and side. Later, he joined the disciples by the sea shore and shared a breakfast of bread and fish.

The resurrected body was unique. It was not subject to the same laws of nature or the flesh and blood restored to Lazarus. Jesus’ resurrection was both literal and physical and he was not a disembodied spirit. It seems a totally different creation that awaits you and I had emerged on that first Easter morning!

RESILIENT EASTER SPIRIT

Snowy Lenton Rose--Jamestown, NC

A smiling elderly man sporting a baseball hat over pure white hair entered the Cancer Center waiting room with his wife and sat across from us. He easily struck up a conversation with a couple of women awaiting treatments about the sudden April cold spell which was spitting intermittent spring rain and snow showers outside.

I was passing time engrossed in my book and couldn’t hear all of the conversation, but I did catch him saying, “We haven’t gotten much rain lately during this drought, but I’m sure we’ll get by. It’s the Lord’s land. I’m just looking after it. The Lord’s been good to me though. I’ve got some cancers, but I’ll get over it."

You could easily relate this wise man to someone who’s been very close to the earth and the reality of basic life truths. It was etched into each tanned character line of his face. He was in touch with the realities of the circle of life. He understood that the trials and tribulations in this life are relatively short when weighed in the balance of eternal life on this Easter season of rebirth and new life. He understood the meaning of stewardship and trust revealed in Genesis 2:15 and John 3:16!