Experiencing God in our own way

Easter, 2008

Notes to think about

(thanks to Herbert O'Driscoll for the inspiration!)

· They were left, a flock without a shepherd. These people who had been gathered in from all walks of life to imagine a goal larger than themselves were left in a state of confusion about what to do next. The man who had walked among them, healed the sick and comforted the forlorn was gone with the statement “it is finished”.

· They did however, remain in community. How do we know this?

· Following the crucifixion we hear about Mary Magdalene – a devout follower of Jesus, going to his tomb. She approached it early in the morning which is an interesting detail in that it was not really safe for her to do so. Remember that it was Passover and Jerusalem was full – likely the population had swelled from 40,000 to 60,000 for the holiday. She was a woman travelling without a male companion which would have left her open to many different forms of persecution.

· When she saw the stone had been rolled away from the tomb – she ran TO the community. This is how we know that they had stayed together. She did not deal with this startling revelation alone – she did not run away in isolation but she ran to her community. We can take a lesson from this. When we are confronted with something difficult, troubling, traumatic or confusing we should run TO community and of course, we hope that this will be a healthy and safe enough community for you to run to.

· Next we have Simon Peter and “the one whom Jesus loved” (likely John) in a foot race to the tomb. John (likely one of the youngest disciples) arrives first and he stops at the tomb and leans over to peer in to witness its emptiness. John was assessing the evidence.

· We can imagine Simon Peter pushing past John to enter the tomb. He made an intuitive leap and entered in without stopping to weigh the evidence presented.

· Only then do we see John entering the tomb and “he saw and believed”. John needed something tangible – he needed proof.

· And then Simon Peter and John left and went home.

· And then we have Mary – weeping. The meaning of this word is more than crying, more than just shedding a tear. She was weeping from the depth of her soul as if part of her was missing. It was the same description of Jesus weeping at the death of his friend Lazarus. More than just a sniffle but an aching, echoing physical response to the loss of someone who was no longer with us.

· Mary answered witnessing the loss of even the decaying body of Christ from a purely emotional level.

· I think that these three descriptions do well to sum up how we, too, experience the world, experience Christ, experience our faith.

· Some of us like John, stop to weigh the evidence. We stand apart and separate from our emotional selves and silently or loudly demand proof before we will believe. These folks need something that they can touch, see, hear, smell or taste. Many people experience the world in this way.

· Some us are like Simon Peter. We enter into life with no filters, ready to investigate for ourselves and willing to take an intuitive leap. These folks are willing to experience new things without necessarily weighing out the pros and cons before leaping.

· Some of us are like Mary Magdalene. We respond from the heart, from a deep emotional place, where we have no need of evidence. These folks enter into the world from a feeling place, a place where people’s emotions are the most important thing.

· And thank God for that diversity.

You’ve heard me say before that if everyone were like me we’d all feel good about ourselves and laugh a lot but there’d likely be no