Compassion Resurrected

“If we do our grieving deep and well, we become participants in a communal uprising, a resurrection in which the dead live on in the commitment of the survivors.” Parker J. Palmer

Without the thoroughness of loss we cannot experience the transition into resurrection. The log in the fire is transformed utterly into energy, heat and ash. Those who have died are energy if we gather around our loss of them and experience the fire of their lives. This pertains especially to the loss of those who have died through injustice. When we gather around their graves and mourn we are lifted up by their transcendent resurrection energy, our compassion grows and their hope becomes ours. The reverse is no doubt true when we avoid our grief and thus miss out on the resurrection fire. (Thoughts inspired by Parker J. Palmer & Latin American poem – ‘They have threatened us with resurrection’)

The truth is that our grieving with others attaches us with their cause, their lot, suffering and condition in a profound way. Teach me how to grieve God that compassion may flow abundantly.

Everyday resurrection meals

“Our Sunday worship is important. The bible studies we attend are important. The retreats we make are important. But over a lifetime, the unnoticed and unrecognized presence of the risen Christ at our meals may be more formative of the life in Christ in us.” E. Peterson (Living the Resurrection).

It is important to note that some of the most critical spiritual moments of teaching and spiritual experience happen around meals – the Passover meal, the Emmaus meal, the beach in Galilee. It raises all kinds of questions as to how we go about our Eucharist meal and how we ought to meet more often around the common daily meal in Christian Fellowship. It also asks the question – how often we meet around the table as a family and recognize in our discussions that Christ has been with us in our daily recap stories and in our laughter.

“We can’t master spiritual formation” Eugene Peterson

In a small book released in March this year called: “Living the Resurrection” are a few lecture notes E. Peterson gave at Regent College, Vancouver.

The events of the resurrection found in all our Gospels lead Peterson to the conclusion that meeting with the Resurrected Christ is something that we cannot easily put into tight, easy compartments of spiritual progress. We are quick to formalize and strategize our spiritual awakening into programmes that help us feel a sense of achievement and puts us in control of its making. Meeting with the resurrected Christ may change this altogether when like the early disciples meeting the empty tomb face to face experienced the wonder of things out of their control but regardless, a spiritual awakening.

Whirlwind People

Death, the inevitable party pooper is himself a real blight in coming to terms with the extremities of our life. Is the hope that singed hair on burning pyre, tore skin by pawing lion and sat in cold barred rooms alive today? The hope that sings of the other place an eternal dream that dies not here. The way we pray - our existence save, indicative of who we are, shallow, blind, a gust of wind, a whirlwind about to end.

Not How, nor What, but Whom?

We had a great birthday bash last night. We sat with blankets outside as the weather got a tad frosty. The fires were burning to keep our backs warm as we ate Kate’s soup, the Lamb was succulent and delicious and Anne’s pears soaked in wine with custard were something else. It is good to celebrate life when you can. Nobody else does it for you, unless you are fortunate?

Bonhoeffer is grabbing my attention. The contextual theology (thoughts about God that are instructed by the contemporary situation) that we are bombarded with in our theological seminary’s has almost replaced the classical theological of Christology, Atonement etc. It is refreshing to dialogue with the theological masterminds of yesteryear. Bon. (for short) suggests we ask the question Who? And not How? Or What? when confronting the person of Jesus. The error according to Bon. is to know Jesus as an influence in history, a power that has shaped the world. The other error is to see Jesus as an ideal that is imposed through a God who transcends into our history from outside of it. This thinking uses questions like How? and What? but forget the most important point of Christ and that is Who? The person rather than the power or influence is most important. How we know Christ is to recognize Jesus dead and risen. Only when we profess Jesus risen can we ask the question Who? The presence of Jesus is thus now, not history, not an influence once come into the world. So when next in prayer, maybe spend a little time on the question Who? and see where it leads you. Not what he has done for you or what he can do for you, that is all about power not person. Let his person fill us with His presence and let us find our center there.

Resurrection physics

Am I truly blessed because I have not seen Jesus risen, but yet believe it? It is much harder yes. A scientific paradigm cannot calculate mystery and wonder. No science textbook has ever wowed me into anything greater unless it has helped me ponder the indescribable and mysterious otherness of creation. Our secular brains are not meant to believe in such things as the resurrection. We are not trained to believe this way. You are blessed because you can observe life objectively. That is today’s blessing. To distance oneself from the event studied and find oneself lost in relative skepticism. I would rather be lost in mysterious wonder really. To believe that there is a greater being ushering in something more beautiful than quarks and other less appealing subatomic particles.

Gospel Gossip

Easter tomorrow and I am preaching on the God who seeks life rather than suffering. The woman at the tomb were instructed that Christ was not to be found among the dead but the living. The God-man Jesus spent most of his life "giving life" in all manner and means and not sitting with only a sympathetic ear. Another aspect of the scripture account came to me this morning. After realizing the risen Jesus, the woman rush back to tell everybody. This also includes Peter who goes back to tell. There is no ways you can contain the import of such an event within yourself. There are many things in life that are wiser kept closer to the breast, but the surprise of life offered to us by God should be imparted with enthusiasm. The response will no doubt be with cynical retort, but the heart alive in the risen Christ will blurt it out non-the-less. It is important that we move from Church on Sunday blurting forth the Good News. It is the one day I encourage folk to Gossip as much as they want. But, that is Gossip with a big “G.” Gospel gossip. I have asked worshipers leaving our Tenebrae and Good Friday services to leave in quietness and reverence, but will not do the same tomorrow. Christ is risen.