Into your hands I commend my spirit

Good Friday Reflection

We Remember his hands,
Gesturing to the fishermen, He called them
To set down their nets and become fishers of people.
His hands gave healing to the sick and the unclean
The spirit of healing flowed from his hands
He laid his hands on each of them and cured them
He laid his hands on one, and immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.
Water became wine and a few loaves and fishes became a feast.

He predicted he would end up betrayed into human hands
But he continued to heal and to teach parables of the kingdom
The powers wanted to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people.
Though they tried, they did not lay hands upon him when he was a babe
They did not lay hands upon him in the temple
They did not lay hands upon him on the plain
They did not lay hands upon him when he healed
They did not lay hands upon him when he cleaned the temple
And he saw that they did not lay hands upon him
Day after day in the temple, they did not lay hands on him.
But this is their hour, and the power of darkness
Brought their hands upon him.

The journey he has made into the world from God
is nearly done,
but his work and his life will endure in a new way.

His work of healing,
of teaching,
of preaching,
of walking the way of God in the world.
Welcoming the outcast,
visiting the lonely,
the sick
those in prison,
healing those in turmoil,
liberating the oppressed.
He walked with them,
healed them
and offered hope.
But his work and his life will endure in a new way.

His life is gift,
God’s gift to God’s creation.
Ours, too are pure gift,
We are brought into the world
and are held in loving hands as infants,
hands of our parents,
hands of our guardians,
hands of the ones who baptize us,
the hands of our siblings,
and the hands of our teachers, priests and the hands of our friends.
We lay our hands upon others in healing,
we hold the hurt of others as we offer our open hands up in prayer,
we hold up our hands to receive the Eucharistic Feast.
We offer up our hands as we commend our lives to God’s service.
From your hands we have received our lives,
Into your hands we commend our lives and our spirit.

Their hands held him,
Their hands nailed his hands to the cross.
In the moment that worldly hands bound him
He offered no curse
No condemnation
But the gift of radical forgiveness
He saw the hands that would bring him home,
The hands that had supported him all along,
The hands that had held him up in the temple,
The hands that supported him in the wilderness,
The hands that had offered direction and comfort.

In that moment that the hands of the world bound him,
He commended his spirit to the hands that endure,
When he might have cried out in anger or fear
Jesus offered a prayer from the Psalms,
“Into your hands I commend my spirit”
No longer bound by the hands of his captors,
No longer bound by his hands to the cross,
Jesus makes his own funeral commendation,
This cry is no cry of loneliness
of dereliction,
but is a prayer and a deep hope.
He seeks out the hands of his father, from whose hands he became incarnate
The hands that hold the entire world, and caress from when newborn children until today.

In that moment of cosmic loneliness,
He felt God’s hands reaching to him,
He saw the hands of his Father,
his Abba,
caressing him
offering love,
"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
In the moment when the hands of the world betrayed him
a prayer.

Calling out into the darkness
But, in hope and love,
God would hear him and hold him
Not a distant deity without care or concern
But a compassionate and loving God
He trusted the loving hands of his Father
He trusted those hands that had held him from the beginning
And were there all along
Holding him, supporting him, and guiding him.

His life is gift,
God’s gift to God’s creation.
Darkness came over the whole land,
The sun’s light failed,
The curtain of the temple was torn in two,
Crying with a loud voice,
“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

Good Friday 2006 - I am called to blog.

On Good Friday we are called to be like Thomas. We are called to live in doubt and fear. We are called to remember what it was like not only for the disciples, but for Jesus, the Son of God, God himself, who decended to hell.

As I write it is just past noon. The skies around Gathsemane have gone dark. The people who have mocked, spit, and scorned are now beginning to wonder; are now beginning to fear. "What if we got this wrong?" The disciples have scattered (hence the link above) and are now continuing to wonder; are now continuing to fear. "What if we got this wrong?" I sit in front of my computer, some 2000 years later, now wondering; now fearing, but my wonder and fear are a little different. "What if in all my business, all my field work, I miss the point? What if I forget to put my fingers in his hand and my hand in his side? What if I don't feel the sorrow and doubt before revelling in the resurrection?" I'm so thankful to have this place to read, pray, think, and write. For 15 minutes I am able to get out of my business and focus on my faith.

Today I am called to be like Thomas. I am called to fear and doubt. I am called to forget what I know is going to happen on Sunday and focus on the pain and sorrow of today. I am called to remember my role in the crucifixion. I am called to reflect on my God decending into hell.

I am called to blog.

From Fear to Joy: John 20 (BCP & RCL)

In Easter 2’s Gospel reading, we hear the story of Jesus on the evening of his resurrection as he enters the house of fear and doubt, re-creates his disciples and sends them out to embody God’s peace to the world. However, before he enters, the disciples hide in a house behind locked doors in fear of the Jewish authorities. This setting is quite different than the one in which the disciples sat with Jesus just a few days before: eating bread and drinking wine with their Lord. Then, they were twelve with Jesus. Now they are but ten: Judas betrayed Jesus, and Thomas is absent. Like sitting in a coastal home awaiting a tropical storm surge they sit in a house of fear.

They have some reason to be anxious. Wouldn’t we also be stressed out? This is not a poker night, this is a frightful night. The Greek word for fear in John’s gospel is “phobos,” fearfulness, timidity; shrinking from fear” – and the disciples do shrink from fear. We can imagine that the disciples bolting the doors; duct taping the windows, and stockpiling the canned food. Though the disciples hear Mary’s message of the resurrection they obviously don’t yet believe that message. In this house of fear, the disciples probably long for the past. They remember their Lord and wonder: “what will happen now?” Would he judge mercifully when he returns? The disciples were not model followers in those last days. Even Peter denied Jesus at the end. While he was alive and taught them, the twelve believed; or thought they did. But, now two are gone, what will happen to the rest of the disciples? Jesus had come, and promised he would come again. John reminds us just earlier in Chapter 20, v. 9:

“For as yet they did not understand the Scripture,

that He must rise again from the dead.”

Sitting there in that room, the disciples long for the past. But, in the present, they sit nervously, breathing the spirit of fear.

And how fear can immobilize us! Though we work to keep fear at bay, we, too, are no strangers to fear: terrorism, global warming, environmental destruction, gun violence, aging, and death. Fear can grab us and once started, it can overwhelm us like a flood. We fear for the safety of our young ones, our aging parents, and our fragile friends. Our hearts pound when the telephone rings in the middle of the night. We have resided in the house of fear. We know fear, and it can immobilize us, it can cause us to hole up in our own safe houses, our own gated communities. We can hide behind locked doors, security systems, and we try to avoid “dangerous areas.” Does our fear prevent us from living abundant lives? (Jn. 10.10) Does our fear also prevent us from looking beyond ourselves to those who don’t look like us, who don’t sound like us, who are the “other”? Does our fear prevent us from opening our doors and reaching across the divides of religion, of race, of class, of theological position?

In the midst of this house of fear, Jesus enters and says: “Peace Be With You.” Fear drains from hearts; and thoughts of the past and future are annihilated in the present. The doors open. Looking at the eyes of Jesus, hearing his voice, and seeing his outstretched arms, the disciples see the beauty and calm of the present moment. Jesus enters the house of fear and transforms fear into the radical Joy of the Resurrection!

Rules (BCP)

For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world.

It is used so often its almost cliche, but CS Lewis' analogy of the world as a football match (soccer game) is an apt one. I used to be an under-8 soccer referee and believe me, a soccer game without rules is NOT FUN. So too, John writes that the rules of God are not a burden, but in fact a set up for the overcoming of the world.

It is so easy during the Easter season to preach only the triumphalist gospel, but if we give due reverence to the Lectionary we can see that we are to model the sacrifice of Christ. We are to give up those things which may feel good, but take us away from the love of God. Grace is given freely, but faith without works is dead.

High Christology (BCP)

And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. - Acts

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. - John

We spent a lot of time in New Testament and ST-1A (Jesus Christ and Salvation) debating the assertion of the development of a high Christology (view of Jesus) over time. Now I can't say I recall definately who was saying what, nor can I say much about Acts (since we didn't get there), but comparing Acts and John has proven interesting for me.

Acts, and early history of Christianity, is thought to have been written by the same author as the Gospel According to Luke. Both texts were from about 1 generation following the resurrection. John on the other hand is considered to be a much later text (150 or so CE). In comparing the verses above however it seems both hold within them a rather high view of Jesus. Acts alludes to Isaiah and the suffering servant, while John comes straight out and calls Jesus not only the Messiah, but the Son of God.

No story today, just seems like an intersting place to go on the exegetical journey.

BCP- Aslan

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

I must admit that there is still a large part of me who believes that I will gain some type of spiritual fruit through intention. While I believe with Luther that there is nothing that I can do to earn Grace that Grace does become more evident by actively working toward it. Jesus does not say "Your saved now go about your business" He says, "Follow me." For me actions are important if for nothing else it takes me out of the mindset that I can somehow think my way somewhere. It is good to be back doing something even through the effort.

For a class I am to think about persons who have influenced me. Providing I do not disappear again (again I sometimes forget that intention is not action so while my intention today is not to disappear it will be my feet that will have the final vote) I will be seeking to reflect on persons who have influenced. Aslan has definitely influenced me.

More than that CS Lewis vision has influenced me. I was struck this morning with Jesus "breathing" the holy spirit on them. While I had connected Aslan to Jesus I never connected his breathing with anything. This was a pleasant discovery. More on Lewis later...