resurrection – St. Andrew's Episcopal Church

The essential paradox: Christ the King on the cross

This Sunday we celebrate the Feast Day of Christ the King. We end this liturgical year hearing the story of Jesus’ crucifixion. This has got to be the greatest paradox in all of our Christian faith and narrative. Have you ever wondered how the words “crucifixion of Jesus” are connected to “Christ the King”? What about this association could possibly make sense? In the gospel of Luke, a simple statement announces this dramatic act: Jesus is crucified, set between two criminals, one who joins in the taunting and mocking, and the other who recognizes the reality of Jesus and asks to be remembered in paradise.

During my trip to the Holy Land, one of the most meaningful experiences I encountered was at the Garden of Gethsemane. It was the moment when I comprehended the role and truth of Jesus’ suffering — the suffering we are all invited into. Jesus suffered so that he would know and sanctify our very humanly existence which includes suffering, but most of all Jesus’ suffering was essential because the world was not yet ready to claim him as the Lord of lords, the King of kings; not ready yet to allow him to be sovereign over their lives, to move toward hope and promise, rather than despair. Jesus only wanted our world to be changed by God’s abundant love, but people rejected it. They couldn’t see it; they couldn’t move toward or into it. Sadly, we can see remnants of that kind of disbelieving in our world today. But we can make a different choice (preview of my sermon on Sunday). We can indeed live our lives as if Jesus were our King. We can lay down our cloaks, hailing Jesus with the words, “Hosanna in the highest!” We pray it each Sunday: “for thine is the Kingdom, power and glory, now and forever.” Let us imagine together what it means for Jesus’ kingdom to be for us now, in our lives. This is what he whispered to the criminal to his side in his statement, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Here are some of my favorite photos from our time in Gethsemane. I hope they speak to you, as they did to me.

garden-of-gethsemane-worship — Our prayer service as we entered this space.

garden-of-gethsemane-olive-trees-and-sky — The olive trees, mighty and strong, bringing forth new growth out of a deadness within.

garden-of-gethsemane-old-olive-tree — An aged tree, surviving because of it’s ability to keep finding new life.

garden-of-gethsemane-garden-prayer — A meaningful prayer

garden-of-gethsemane-garden-peace — The Prince of Peace.

garden-of-gethsemane-cross — The alpha and the omega. The beginning and the end — and everything in between.

garden-of-gethsemane-cross-2 — One of the many expressions of the cross of Christ in Jerusalem.

garden-of-gethsemane-church-fresco — The beauty of the frescos depicting the agony of Christ.

garden-of-gethsemane-church-franciscan-monk — People in prayer, especially the Franciscans who claimed these sites as holy.

garden-of-gethsemane-church-ceiling — The amazing ceiling of the church . Made me think that “the heavens adore thee!”

garden-of-gethsemane-church-door2 — The truth of the Olive branch – the branch of righteousness.

Christ is King. Alleluia. Alleluia!

Resurrection. Restoration. Reorientation.

After 24 hours of traveling from Jerusalem to Shippensburg, I arrived safely home. In the tiredness I feel this morning, and in light of the comments yesterday by others in our group that “I need a vacation from my vacation!”, I realize there’s a significant distinction between restoration, which we often get from a relaxing and restful vacation, and a pilgrimage which has led us to our place of resurrection.

In my pondering, I believe restoration or renewal returns us, with new energy, to who were before. This often happens to me when I sit on our sailboat: I feel physically rested, my mind is clearer, my heart more open, and I feel more alive and more “like myself”. We all need this rhythm of restoration in our lives and our contemplative practices often are what guide our path toward this time of feeling ready to face the world before us with renewed energy, focus, and strength.

But resurrection changes us. It creates something anew in our hearts, it awakens desires and passions around change in our lives or our world, and it often alters our mental perspective toward the events around us. And it’s hard work and it costs energy. So after a pilgrimage, I think it’s only naturally to feel a bit drained. As one of our pilgrims said yesterday, we have to allow our lives to grow and to “fit into our new shape”. This is the reorientation part: reflecting upon and allowing our experiences to change our lives and to be reoriented to the new self God has created in us on our pilgrimage.

outside-holy-sepulcher — Bright blue morning sky of Jerusalem by the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, after finding the place of my resurrection.

It is true that for me today will be a day of restoration, not only of unpacking and settling into my wonderful life with my family and my home in the woods and the energy and ministry of our parish, but also to gain the energy to allow my life to fit into the new shape God has offered me during my pilgrimage, that shape of deeper surrender to the will of God.

May God bless us all as we travel the pilgrim’s way of resurrection and reorientation and grant us the grace to be restored in the Spirit for this hard and challenging work.

Ready to come home.

This morning I took with me the altar veil (the cloth which covers the chalice and paten) which was made out of Gretchen’s wedding dress. I chose this item to bring from St. Andrew’s, since it represented to me a true understanding of community and communion, the giving of oneself to the greater good and the glory of God. It represented to me so much of what I found as the place of my resurrection: self-emptying, surrender, commitment, and dedication to following Jesus.

Today I laid it upon the marble slab, which somehow oozes this fragrance, perhaps of myrrh, and feels like a very holy space to me. I flattened it out, in the midst of others who were placing crosses, icons, embroidery, or their hands upon the holy altar of Jesus’ healing.

img_2796-1 — Mother Barbara offering a part of us to be anointed where Jesus’ body was laid.

I prayed for our parish, for healing and grace to abound, for courage and strength to follow the way of the cross to pervade our every move, to turn ours hearts ever more toward the ones in our neighborhoods who desperately need to be drawn into community. I felt grace. I felt abundance. I felt Jesus blessing us, this day and always.

I return to you this week, with an open heart and a renewed sense of gratitude and joy, that we have found each other and offer ministry together out of our love of Christ.

Touching a piece of my resurrection

Today I found a part of what I came searching for as a pilgrim. I framed my pilgrimage in John Phillip Newell’s understanding that a pilgrimage is a return to the place of your resurrection. I learned today that the place of my resurrection involves complete surrender to God. I experienced this release and joy at the Western Wall (previously called the Wailing Wall). This is the only remaining portion of the 2nd temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. Jews come here as a pilgrimage and also, it appeared today, as a regular or even daily ritual in their worship life. Often people write prayers on small slips of paper and insert them into the wall. I wrote mine, and it became a profession of my love for God ~ my complete surrender to the love which drives my life.

As Mother Betsy and I were walking toward the wall, with our head coverings on and a sense of reverence in our hearts, the image that came to my mind, heart, and soul was when Betsy and I were preparing to walk down the aisle for her ordination as a deacon, and she looked at me with wide-eyes and said, “I feel like I’m getting ready to marry Jesus!”. I replied, “Yes, Betsy, you are.”

Today, as I approached the wall, in the midst of women whose hearts were turned to the same God, I touched the wall, laying my hands and head upon the hard smooth surface, and prayed from the depths of my heart. I prayed for my family, then my parish family, then allowed prayers to float to my heart, and then I ended with a complete sense of love and union with God. Tears filled my eyes, reverence and awe filled my heart, and a peace settled into my soul, that once again, I opened the veil and lived into the vow I made in baptism and ordination, that indeed, my heart was filled with the love of God. This is a part of our resurrection, our understanding that we and our lives are completely dedicated to loving God. I feel blessed and honored to have taken my place among women of God who turn their thoughts, cares, devotion, and love to the God so present in this holy site.

We continued our journey, next to the Dome of the Rock, the site of Abraham’s potential sacrifice of Issac and the third holiest site is Islam, where Muhammed was taken on his night journey to Jerusalem. My favorite image from this place where we were clearly guests invited to honor another’s understanding of our God, was listening to a teacher chant the Koran to another, filling the air with beautiful sounds and a sense of passing along the faith.

From these two powerful experiences of witnessing other expressions of obedience and observance to the God of the three Abrahamic faiths, we came home to the Cathedral and joined in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. There is much to ponder from this day but my sense is that faith or God is not to be claimed, controlled, nor put boundaries around, but rather we are called to show respect for and appreciation for the multitude of ways God can be honored in people’s lives.

The other powerful experience for me today was going to the Church of St. Anne’s where we saw the pools of Bethsaida, where Jesus performed healing miracles. It was amazing to walk down into the lowest level excavated which contained the pools that Jesus would have seen and where he spoke to the man who had waited years to go into the pools and Jesus said, “Get up and walk”. We offered prayers and received anointing and I left with a broader awareness of the healing grace offered to us by Christ.