For those who don’t follow the church calendar it’s easy to overlook that we remain in the season of Easter or what is known to some as Eastertide. So, the theme of resurrection rolls on until Pentacost Sunday 50 days after Easter. And it’s this season of the year that can serve as a powerful reminder for those who are captivated and called by resurrection to point out that through Jesus everything on the planet is groaning in one great act of giving birth as it is being renovated, reborn, and realigned.
This past week at Access we practiced our identity as resurrection people as we hosted what is referred to as a “Moment of Blessing.” Recently one of our friends from the street community was found deceased on the bank of a nearby river. All that I remember of her is that she was a jittery, quick moving, and highly intelligent young woman of about 30 years of age.
The early church recognized their role as resurrection people and would find the deceased on the margins of the empire and offer a dignified memorial and honorable burial. So, it seemed fitting that we gather outside of the coffee house with those who knew her best and read aloud the 23rd Psalm and the Beatitudes, sing a couple songs and allow her friends to express how they felt about their significant loss.
It was an awkward and beautiful moment that allowed everyone in attendance whether we knew her or not to acknowledge her life and death as a child of God. We claimed that what was tragically taken by heroin and violence will one day be restored to whole life.
It’s in a moment like this that I’m reminded that resurrection people see all things through the unique and mysterious lenses of resurrection.
This is what Paul was so crazy about in his epistles especially in 1 Corinthians 15
It's resurrection, resurrection, always resurrection, that undergirds what I do and say, the way I live. If there's no resurrection, "We eat, we drink, the next day we die," and that's all there is to it. But don't fool yourselves. (The Message)
Think dandelions…
As kids we used to love the fluffy remains of the seed heads. We’d pick one, hold it up to our mouth and be momentarily mesmerized to see how our breath scattered the little parachute-like particles through the air. Then we’d drop the stem to the ground having fully enjoyed it for what it was. This was a resurrection moment.
But let’s be brutally honest. For most of us as we grow older dandelions are nothing more than the heroin addict on the street… a nuisance and distraction... a menace to society. After all, they’re just a weed that interrupts a perfectly green lawn, so wouldn’t we be better off without them?
...Perhaps the urban equivalent to the dandelion is the wall covered with graffiti. From one vantage point it’s the liberated expression of those who will never find or afford gallery space within the main art district. It’s a creative colorful burst that reflects the beauty and image of our Creator.
From still another it’s just a weed, a useless criminal defacing of public property which removes value and business away from hard working productive citizens.
Resurrection perspective...
How we choose to see in the immediacy of the present moment impacts everything. The shape the clouds take, the cracks in the sidewalk, and even those weeds growing out of them if we so choose are subtle manifestations of the presence of the One we call God.
At least for the remainder of this Eastertide let’s capture moments to thoughtfully pause...
Leave those reactionary value judgments that rob us of these sacraments alone as you gaze upon that stuff that at first glace seems devoid of meaning (dandelions, beggars & drunks, shoes on the power lines, etc). We, as followers of Jesus, are a people of the resurrection those who radically recognize that death does not get the last word. So, then gaze upon that stuff that’s hard to look at and be invited to the awareness that all things belong as meaningful symbols of resurrection.
"It is here. We are on it. It is under us."
- Eugene Peterson, Practice Resurrection.
amen.
Posted by: Livesimplylovedeeply.wordpress.com | June 08, 2011 at 04:38 PM