Then and Now

In the Easter Earthquake study, Harnish quotes Karl Barth regarding death:

Now we see in a mirror  dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith  hope and love abide, there three; and the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor. 13:12-13)  Barth said, "Because God's grace has come to help us in our misery thorough our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ....We...stand with him at the boarder where the now and the then touch each other.

See the thens and nows? For us, who stand on this side of death - on the "then" side - death is horrible. It means loved ones are gone, it means how we see life comes to an end. I think for God it is not the same. For God, it is a line between the then and the now. 

Hosanna

Hosanna.

If someone asked you what that word means, what would you say?  I would answer that it is a word of praise - a word of adoration.

When I googled it, the definition was "an expression of adoration, praise, or joy."  

But as I was reading my devotional today from Harnish's study (Easter Earthquake), I read, "That Hebrew word means 'help' or 'save.'" That was confirmed when I googled it again, and found that it literally means "I beg you to save!" 

Isn't it an ah-ha moment that the word of adoration is more than that - that it is a cry for help? So, when we praise God with the word Hosanna, we are also asking for salvation. Perfect word.

God's Laughter

I continue my reading of Harnish's Easter Earthquake. In it, he shares Eugene O'Neill story of Lazarus telling of how he was raised from the dead by Jesus (it's in the play, Lazarus Laughed):

When Lazarus describes his experience...'I heard the heart of Jesus laughing in my heart...and my heart reborn to the love of life cred 'Yes!" and I laughed in the laughter of God.'"

I've never really considered what the experience must have been like for Lazarus, other than to think it must have been confusing.  I love the image that God's laughter is what brought him to life.

Think of who in your life could be "brought to life" through the laughter of God that you share with him or her.

Fearful of Life

In James Harnish's study, Easter Earthquake, he speaks of M. Scott Peck:

"Peck also discovered that the further we proceed in diminishing our narcissism - our self-centeredness and sense of self-importance - the more we discover ourselves becoming not only less fearful of death, but also less fearful of life....  

There is a connection in that sentence that I've never considered before.  I'm certain there are times, for all of us, when we hesitate to follow Christ because we are afraid.  Are we fearful of life because we are self-centered? That makes sense to me now that it has been pointed out.  Fearful of life because we consdiered ourselves too much - and what we might lose.

He goes on to say:

We begin to experience a sustained kind of happiness we never experienced before, as we become more self-forgetful and hence progressively more able to remember God.

Stigmata

In his study, Easter Earthquake, James Harnish says, "...a medical dictionary defined stigmataas "cutaneous evidence of systemic illness."  

We think of Christ's scars as stigmata - evidence of his suffering on the cross.  Harnish goes further than that to provide examples of stigmata in our society: starving children, refugees, murder victims....  And if you use the example of "cutaneous evidence of systemic illness," those comparisons make sense.

Where in your community do you see stigmata? How is your church and how are you called to take on that suffering as Christ did? 

Expecting Resurrection

Last week, I wrote about Abram and Sarai (renamed Abraham and Sarah) who laughed when the angel told them they would have a son and be the beginning of a multitude.  

In his study, Harnish says that when the women went to the tomb to care for Jesus' body, they didn't expect to find a resurrection. They never thought to see a risen Christ. They only worried about the stone, and how to roll it away.

Again, we are on this side of the story, and we know what happened, so our surprise when (in Mark 16) they see a man in a white robe sitting on a rock, and no corpse in site, is dulled.  We aren't surprised.  We aren't shocked.  They are, but we miss it, because God isn't surprising us.

Has our lack of anticipation dulled us to the presence of God in lives? Where is God working? Do we see it? We we believe we will ever see it? Is it something reserved only for the women who come to the tomb? Or do we ever open our eyes to the possibility of resurrection in our every day lives?

Impossible to Believe

In Harnish's Easter Earthquake study, he quotes Frederick Buechner's interpretation of Genesis 17 - when an angel tells Abram and Sarai (99 and 91 years old) that they will be the parents of a child.  Remember the scripture? They laugh.

Buechner paints this wonderful image of the couple laughing at the unbelievability of the whole thing.  And then the Buechner quote says, "They are laughing because the angel not only seems to believe it but seems to expect them to believe it too."

Of course, we have the benefit of standing on this side of history - we know the end of the story - so we take it for granted that what the angels says does come true, but can't we imagine how difficult it would have been for Abram and Sarai to believe what the angel was telling them? And how hilarious it would have been for the angel to EXPECT them to believe it?

And then God does what we would consider to be impossible, and the barren, elderly couple has a son, who they name Isaac, which means "laughter."

What is it that someone would tell you that would be so impossible for you to believe that you would laugh at them? What is it that God is trying to tell you that you think is so hilarious that belief is unbelievable? What is God trying to do in your life or through your life that is so unexpected that you can't believe it?

What would happen if you believed?

The Broad Place

Last week, I wrote about James Harnish's explanation and examination of the word merhab. It means both broad place and salvation.

He talked about how, when he grew up, salvation was defined as the moment at the altar when a person gave his or her life to God while "Just as I am" was being sung.  It was a moment.  A particular time of yes.

I can relate to that, even though that hasn't been part of how salvation has been described to me in my faith development. Even so, especially on my Walk To Emmaus experiences, I have heard people describe that Moment of Decision - the Moment of Salvation.

And I haven't experienced that. My experience has been ongoing, with a variety of steps and decisions to follow Christ.  And I think that is just as valid as the Moment.

Harnish says:

Salvation is an ongoing work of grace through which I am being released from the suffocating smallness of life turned in on itself to live in the spacious greatness of God's boundless life and love.

Right there - that is the connection beween broad places and salvation. Salvation is the experience of broadness in life.  Salvation is the broad place in life.

Merhab

James Harnish, in the Lenten study I'm working through, talks about the word Hebrew word merhab. It means "vast expanse or broad place." Interestingly, it can also mean salvation:

• Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me in a  broad place. (Psalm 118:5)
• He brought me out into a broad place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me. (Psalm 18:16)
• and have not delivered me into he hand of th enemy; you have set my feet in a  broad place. (Psalm 31:8)
• He brought me out into a broad place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me. (2 Samuel 22:20)

Look at each of those and consider how two definitions, that to me seem vastly different (broad place and salvation) become almost interchangable.

More on this next Monday....

Wild Beasts

I'm participating in an e-course called Easter Earthquake: How Resurrection Shakes Our World. It's based on a book written by James A. Harnish and is led by him online. 

Today's meditation was entitled "Wrestling Wild Beasts with Jesus." One of the scriptures to read for the day was Mark 1:12-13:

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan  and he was with wild beast;and the angles waited on him.  

The time Jesus spends in the wilderness is also described in Matthew and Luke, but in those gospels, the specific temptations Jesus faced are described. I've never noticed before that in Mark, they aren't.  

He is tempted by Satan - the Greek verb used is peirazo - and it is used later to describe the action of Jesus' opponents in Jerusalem ("The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, asking him for a sign from heaven, to test him." Mark 8:11 and then again in Mark 12:13-17).  I find that very interesting.

But what about the wild beasts? My study bible says this reference is unclear.  Harnish compares it to the wild beasts we face every day.

I like that image. What are the wild beasts of temptations you face every day? What wild beasts stalk you in the wilderness? When Mark doesn't name them, we are able to name them ourselves. I think it helps us to remember that Jesus faced temptation in the wilderness, and that he walks with us in our own wilderness, whatever the wild beasts might be.

Perspectives: Salvation

"Perhaps one of the most indisious tempations we face is to beliee that salvation is all about us, that the poupose of God's amazing work of grace and death and resurerection of Jeuss is only for indiviudal human souls.In fact, God's svaing purpose encompasses the whole creation, and we are called to particpiate in that salvation."

James Harnish