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| Image by Alla Olkhovska |
A GREETING
My soul shall rejoice in the Lord!
(Psalm 35:9a)
A READING
Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
(John 20:11-20)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE PRAYER
These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.
(Psalm 42:4)
A REFLECTIVE PRAYER
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it...
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years...
Practice resurrection.
- from Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
by Wendell Berry
VERSE OF THE DAY
Remember I am with you always, to the end of the age.
(Matthew 28:20)
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| Image by Alla Olkhovska |
“They have taken away my lord and I do not know where they have laid him.”
This exclamation from Mary to the angels is the hinge moment between Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. We do not know where God is on Holy Saturday. We do not know how to be near God or how to find God. God seems lost. But the good news is that God finds us. When Mary is at her most lost, Jesus calls to her by name.
The text makes sure we know that "rabbouni," means "teacher." It holds that spelling because it is Mary's Galileean accent on "rabboni," the Judean term. Despite being written at least sixty years after these events -- and in Greek -- the writer has gone out of their way to preserve the Hebrew accent of Mary's speech. It underlines the intimacy and the profound personal connection she has with Jesus. In all three of the other gospel versions of this scene, Jesus tells Mary and/or the women that he is going ahead of them to the Galilee. He is going home, in every possible sense.
The encounter of Mary and Jesus in the garden is available to all of us at any time of the day or night and in any moment in our lives. Like the vulnerable and troubled human Jesus, and the anxious Mary of the tomb, we all have times when we live with the agonies of physical, emotional and/or psychological pain, in smaller and greater amounts. How can we remember and carry forward the faith of Mary, even if we have not encountered the differently embodied Jesus of the Resurrection? When we feel that God is absent or missing, when we can’t hear God working in our lives, how can we say, "rabbouni" in our language of origin, our own accent, as a way of handing our vulnerability and anxiety and fear to Jesus?
The resurrected Jesus renews us in our faithful commitment to embody the work of giving life to others in whatever way we know we can: to work for justice, to resist oppression and censorship, to ask critical questions, to show kindness, to live in gratitude. Mary Magdalene goes from this quiet moment to become one of the most remembered women of all time. Ritual brought her to the tomb, as ritual often brings us together. Faith awakened her. From her solitary witness, a river of news becomes a stream and a torrent and a sea. From our deepest fears come our deepest joys.
When we feel the absence of God, we can become afraid, as Mary was. But Jesus and God are never really absent from us. God comes to us, ready to fill our lives and make it whole again. In moving from Holy Saturday to Easter Sunday, we can take time to do the cautious steps of waking up, stretching our limbs, looking to the sky and feeling the sense that peace has perhaps arrived. This is how we will lean into the hard work of witness, and be a part of how that work unfolds. Our discipleship calls us to “practice resurrection” by looking for the ways we might help make it possible for others to have that sensation that something has changed, there is a new beginning.
He has risen! How will you practice resurrection in the days to come, and always?
* * * * * * * *
A STORY OF ENDURANCE
In the endurance story on Day 5, we featured Alla Olkhovska, a Ukrainian gardener in the war zone that is Kharkiv, near the border of Ukraine and Russia. In that video (which was made last autumn), Alla shares her fear of surviving another winter, when war intentionally is harsher and supplies more challenging to find during those months. After a period of quiet on her social media, Alla recently posted this video. Here, she offers us tips on pruning clematis even while there is still frost and cold. Bundled up, and reaching into the still cold ground, she finds the first shoots of spring. During this project, a connection was made with Alla to obtain a series of photographs of her flowers. (The ones on this page, however, are public from her website.) Her capacity for finding joy in the midst of sorrow was vivid, even on email. It is in the spirit of her strength, deep faith and love of Creation, that we close this devotional project, and dedicate it to her. May we all find ways to be this awake to the capacity for new life, in the midst of even our deepest fears.
This marks the end of the LC† Awakened by the Spirit devotional project. Grateful thanks to all who participated. Special gratitude to those who sent emails, posted comments to Facebook, and to all those who shared the devotions into their wider communities. As always, deep thanks to Catherine Evenden, Henriette Thompson and Pastor Steve Hoffard for their generous support. May the peace of Christ be with you this Eastertide and may you know the love that surpasses all understanding, in your relationships with God and with each other. See you in the summer! Blessed Easter! -- Sherry Coman
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LC† Awakened by the Spirit is a project of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook, and on Twitter. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work.
Thank you and peace be with you!
