TAKE NOTE!!!
Psalm 4; 1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36b-48
Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender
I’ve spent quite some time this week rubbing the palm of my right hand with the fingertips of my left hand, in a circle. You are welcomed to try it. I find it reminds me of the notion of corporeality, that is, the very real and physical sensations of our human bodies. Flesh and bones, sinews and nerve endings, stretched tendons and blood, coalesce to make me human.
This is what God assumed when He was born a baby. For what is not assumed cannot be redeemed. There is no Shalom (a) lechem without the Resurrected Life of Christ. It is the whole of His existence, birth, life, death and now risen, that fleshes out this lived reality. “See, look at my hands and my feet; its’ really Me. Flesh and bones. I’m not a ghost.” TAKE NOTE!!!
It had been a very active Sunday. First, the women go to the tomb and are met by angels who say, “Don’t be afraid. He’s not here. He is risen, just like He said.” They run, get Peter and the beloved disciple who, unsure of the women’s testimonies, run to the tomb themselves and see it empty. There are 2 dejected and frightened disciples who walk and talk together on their way to Emmaus. A man comes up along side them whom they don’t recognize. He asks, “What are you talking about?” They all end up back in Jerusalem gathered in a big room, abuzz with energy!
“Did you hear? The Tomb is empty. The stone is rolled away! I saw it myself.” “He ate fish with us and then He disappeared. We think it was Him but He was so bruised and battered we’re not sure.” “We had angels speak to us...maybe?.” Everyone talking at once, interrupting one another, so excited and yet so scared. Empire had killed their Messiah and friend a few days before, they knew they were next, it was only a matter of time.
JESUS HIMSELF...
Jesus Himself.
Jesus, Himself.
Stands among them.
He speaks, ““Shalom (a) lechem (Peace be yours)”.
It is Jesus, now the Christ, risen from the dead, who gives His peace. Which means His love, His forgiveness, His favor and His blessing. The very first words out of the Risen Lord’s mouth: “Shalom (a) lechem. Peace be yours.”
Pretty amazing gift to all those who turned away. No call for repentance, or even faith for that matter; just wide-open grace. “Peace.”
“The peace of Christ be with you. And also with you.” We say it every Sunday!
(Really slow!). This radical, healing, resurrection based, peace,
poured out like the dew of Hermon on the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord ordained his blessing, lechem, life evermore. Psalm 133.
Look at my hands, look at my feet. It is really me. Touch me and know.
These Wounded Hands, Eternity’s Magnolia, marred yet beautiful.
Is this the image we bear? Take Note!!!
Life evermore. A resurrected life. This Life is given for you. It is God’s great salvation plan, to stake a claim on your life. You are not the luggage left on the airport carousel, only to be stacked in an uneven pile, waiting for someone, anyone, to come back for them. Rather, God is reconciled with you and for you to offer you wholeness, shalom, and in fact, the whole creation groaning for redemption, is saved.
In this reimagination of life after death, we are not given the mechanics of resurrection, how in the world did this happen? Rather, we are given a possibility that while suffering, sorrow and violence are part and parcel of this fallen world, God is in the midst of the tragedies. Our wounds are Jesus’ wounds. Our sorrows are Jesus’ sorrows. He carries them all the way to the cross and beyond, to this new territory, called holy, whereby forgiveness, mercy, compassion, generosity, and hope reign supreme. It is Jesus’ bodily resurrection that initiates the groundbreaking for a place so breath-taking, so beautiful, words hardly prevail.
Listen to how poet Denise Levertov says it:
On Belief in the Physical Resurrection of Jesus
by Denise Levertov
It is for all
'literalists of the imagination,'
poets or not,
that miracle
is possible and essential.
Are some intricate minds
nourished on concept,
as epiphytes flourish
high in the canopy?
Can they
subsist on the light,
on the half
of metaphor that's not
grounded in dust, grit,
heavy
carnal clay?
Do signs contain and utter,
for them
all the reality
that they need? Resurrection, for them,
an internal power, but not
a matter of flesh?
For the others,
of whom I am one,
miracles (ultimate need, bread
of life,) are miracles just because
people so tuned
to the humdrum laws:
gravity, mortality-
can't open
to symbol's power
unless convinced of its ground,
its roots
in bone and blood.
We must feel
the pulse in the wound
to believe
that 'with God
all things
are possible,'
taste
bread at Emmaus
that warm hands
broke and blessed.” Unquote
TAKE NOTE!!
I think there are some challenges for us here in this 21st century life of the mind devoid of most ideas about life after death. We are inundated with messages to secure our future, protect our goods, guard ourselves so no one takes advantage. The holy life of Jesus is a direct knock on the locked doors where we hide out, eating our fear. It is hard to have open conversations about our own death or our fear of losing someone we love. Yet it happens. One dies too young, too soon, at the hands of another, an accident, an overdose, a police killing, a pandemic. What we know to be true is life is a grand mixture of great joy and great sorrow. There is no real security, no guns or weapons, nor wealth or power, that will give us ultimate control.
Instead, Jesus offers His peace, His wounded hands raised. This complex scaffolding to build a life on as individuals and in this community of WPC. Practices of generosity, deep and abiding forgiveness, a heart for others, empathy for the suffering that causes such distress, attempts to understand even our enemies, at least at moments. We know our imitation of Christ is lacking, imperfect, our witness compromised either by our fear, or our sin or both, those things we have done and those things we have left undone. Yet, by the mercies of God we are claimed to be His witnesses. To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love. By our very lives we are to show forth this grace that has been extended to us. We are tethered in Christ, and no one can take that away. Nothing you do or say takes it away either. For it is truly all about God and God’s way.
TAKE NOTE!!! Amen