A
Reflection/Poem for Easter Sunday St. Andrew’s Church, Nags Head,
N.C.
April 12, 2020 Thomas E Wilson, Supply Clergy
Leaving
Messages
Pat
and I have this dog, Yoda, the Wonder Dog, and I walk him twice a
day. Walking is, as you can guess perhaps a euphemism, a necessity
for exercise for him and his old man and as a way to avoid time spent
cleaning up carpets. But it is much more for him, because he spends a
lot time sniffing the ground picking up all sorts of interesting
scents as we are walking. What Yoda is really interested in doing is
to look for messages left by other dogs (what I call p-mail) to which
he can respond by leaving another message. The dog messages are
probably something like, “Here I am! I am cute, strong and willing
to claim this space as my own. Write back if you want to continue
this conversation!”
Leaving
messages. On the walks last week, before the rains came, other
messages were left on some of the sidewalks. They were written in
brightly multi-colored chalk words, all in capital letters. They said
thing like: “HOPE”, “YOUR SMILE IS MORE CONTAGIOUS THAN THE
COVID-19!”, “EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT!!”, and a
drawing of a bright smiling Sun over the information with an arrow
pointing - “THE BEACH IS OPEN!”
Leaving
messages. I don’t know who drew these sidewalk chalk messages, but
I smiled each time I walked past them. On the surface, the messages
were not something especially churchy, except they were deeply
religious in the true deeper meaning of the root words in Latin,
“religio.”
“Ligio”
is a word for ligature, something which binds things things together,
for example a tubal ligation is the tying together of tubes. If you
add the pre-fix “re”, then it means to do it again. Religion, at
its deepest sense, is the tying of people to each other and to a
power greater than themselves. I think the artist of the chalk
drawings meant to tie the residents of my neighborhood together even
when we were going through with the exercise in Social Distancing
which we were practicing in response to the COVID 19 pandemic. The
underlying fear of the virus was made worse because of our tendency
to make divisions. The message under all the messages is that we are
all in this together and we are not alone.
Leaving
messages. Leaving messages was the ministry of Jesus; the Christ that
the Gospel of John called, “The Word.” In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus
is the one who looks at the old stories the people told in scripture
and at the customs of the law and reinterpreted them by saying, “You
have heard it said of old... but I say... . ” In today's Gospel
reading from Matthew, he meets the two women at the tomb who were
there to try to fulfill the old law. Matthew recounts Jesus saying
“χαίρετε”, which the translator for the version the church
uses as “Greeting.” But the word “kairete”, while indeed a
greeting, is a statement that says “rejoice.” The message in this
word that Jesus is leaving is two-fold:
1)
It is an everyday ordinary greeting, so it says don't be surprised at
the things that God can do in bringing fullness of life in everyday
extraordinary life. And
2)
Our purpose in life is to rejoice, even in the bad times. In that
way, he is finishing the message he was giving in the Sermon on the
Mount when he told them to rejoice and be glad when all manner of
things can happen. God is redeeming all things, even death itself. We
do not have to be dominated by fear. Indeed, Jesus tells them that,
echoing the Angel at the Tomb's message of “μὴ φοβεῖσθε”,
“Don't be afraid!” And he tells them to share that message.
Jesus
leaves his death in the same way he lived his life by leaving
messages of how to live a life being a messenger. Jesus' message was
not in words but in his life; a life dominated by compassion for
others, a bringer of peace, a healer of wounds, a reconciler of
divisions, a giver of love, a forgiver of the offenses of others and
ourselves, a builder of a community of faith in a power greater than
ourselves, a willingness to accept and share the suffering of others,
a decision to treat life as a journey we are all passing through
together, and a believer, not just with words but in a life lived
out, that God redeems all things, even death itself.
So
what does that have to do with us ordinary dog-faced people here on
the Outer Banks in the 21st
Century in the middle of a fearful pandemic, who are ordered to stay
home? The message to us messengers, you and me, on this Easter Day
is, “μὴ φοβεῖσθε”, mey phobeisthe, “Don't be
afraid!”, and “χαίρετε”, kairete, “Rejoice!”
Living
life is leaving messages to others, to ourselves, to the world we
share, and to the future we build together. What is the message you
will share today?
Leaving
Messages
Yoda's
saying, “Ready or not, here am I!
Walking
down this path sniffing away
trying
to remember all is in my sway,
in
my work to be part of binds that tie.”
The
Priest behind him walking slowly
Wanting
to walk fast to get things done,
All
little tasks to finish under the sun,
Realizing
however this task is also holy.
Wondering
if all of his agendas are ego-
-driven;
knows they need to be changed
He’d
not from resurrection be estranged
And
there’ll be enough room for “religio”.
Freed
from fear with a rejoicing thereof,
leaving
living messages based in love.
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