On the Way to Wonder

Dr. Hawn a professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology, shared the following insights into the background of this modern day worship song written in 1971.  It is inspired by John 14:19

¹⁹ In a little while the world will no longer see me,

but you will see me; because I live,

you also will live.

and was one of the five most requested songs to be included in the UM Hymnal at that time.

         The hymn starts where we started our reflections this week, at the empty tomb on Easter Sunday.  The second stanza reflects the hope a Christian having children in the ‘70s, that was the time of the Viet Nam war, social upheaval of values, and Watergate.  The author was having a third child into a time of social chaos but hope could be found in the resurrection.  The third stanza focuses on the eternal hope of heaven because of the resurrection.

         “Because He Lives” was awarded the Gospel Song of the Year for 1974 by the Gospel Music Association and the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP).  The Gaiters sang the song and added to its fame.
         I’m sure that life at the time of the Romans was no worse than the world unrest in the 70s or the unrest we face today that is so readily broadcast on media.  It is easy to question the wisdom of bringing children into this world.  As the apostles and followers of Jesus huddled behind closed door that first Easter evening, they may not have sung this song to encourage their souls but there may have been another.  I pray the lyrics encourage you as you face the uncertainties of tomorrow.

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“Because He Lives I Can Face Tomorrow”

Dr. Hawn a professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology, shared the following insights into the background of this modern day worship song written in 1971.  It is inspired by John 14:19

¹⁹ In a little while the world will no longer see me,

but you will see me; because I live,

you also will live.

and was one of the five most requested songs to be included in the UM Hymnal at that time.

         The hymn starts where we started our reflections this week, at the empty tomb on Easter Sunday.  The second stanza reflects the hope a Christian having children in the ‘70s, that was the time of the Viet Nam war, social upheaval of values, and Watergate.  The author was having a third child into a time of social chaos but hope could be found in the resurrection.  The third stanza focuses on the eternal hope of heaven because of the resurrection.

         “Because He Lives” was awarded the Gospel Song of the Year for 1974 by the Gospel Music Association and the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP).  The Gaiters sang the song and added to its fame.
         I’m sure that life at the time of the Romans was no worse than the world unrest in the 70s or the unrest we face today that is so readily broadcast on media.  It is easy to question the wisdom of bringing children into this world.  As the apostles and followers of Jesus huddled behind closed door that first Easter evening, they may not have sung this song to encourage their souls but there may have been another.  I pray the lyrics encourage you as you face the uncertainties of tomorrow.

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Luke 24: 12

¹² Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb.

Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, 

and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

Now the historical details of Easter morning get a little more vague.  Like most reports of an accident, each observer remembers the facts differently.  All four gospels agree that the women went to the tomb.  All agree the tomb was empty, the body gone.  Most even agree that some sort of divine being, an angel, one or two, inform the women that Jesus is risen.  Now the reports begin to take on texture.  John shares that the women returned to the apostles and Peter and another apostle ran to the tomb to check out the story.  Luke reports that Peter ran to the tomb.  Mark does not mention the apostles.  Matthew reports that the women on the return met the risen Christ.  The details of who told whom do not change the dynamics that first morning that Jesus was risen.

         According to Luke, Peter checked out the report for himself but was still wondering.  What does Christ being risen mean?  Would he resume normal life like Lazarus had done?  The meaning is still unfolding.  When we marry, we commit to another but we do not really know how that relationship will unfold.  When we have that baby, we are committed even if medical care is needed or other complications occur.  The acceptance letter to college does not help us understand the hours of lectures and study that will be necessary nor does it guarantee what degree we will finally accomplish.  “The Lord is Risen” is the starting point of the Easter season that will gradually mean more and more as we investigate the various reports of people who actually encountered the risen Christ.

         Let us take a moment and remember that original point of faith that started our spiritual journey.  There have been good days and hard days!  There have been the spiritual highs of “mountain top experiences” and for many of us the “dark night of the soul” as we struggle with doubt, disappointment, and a seemingly silent partner in this relationship.  Ups and downs.  Perhaps like Peter you heard, you saw, and you still wonder what it all means.  If there is one question you would like the Holy Spirit to answer during this Easter season, write it down and turn it over to God in prayer.  May we pray with the man who brought his son to Jesus after the Mount of Transfiguration, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)

Luke 24: 4-6

⁵ The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground,

but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?

He is not here, but has risen.

⁶ Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,

The Easter morning story opens with grief and shock, emotions we are familiar with.  The women rise early to go anoint the body of Jesus crucified in front of them and laid in a tomb.   Grief is an appropriate response to brutality and death. They arrive to find the tomb open, the body gone, and two strange men there.  Shock is an appropriate emotional response to extreme surprise.  The men ask the women a question, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.  Remember.”  Might we ask, “Where are we looking for Jesus today?” and “What must we remember?”

            The angels confirm reality.  The grave is empty.  But they give an alternate explanation.  Christ is risen.  The meaning of that is still not understood but a new lens has been presented for understanding reality.  Lazarus rose but returned to normal life.  Jesus raised other seemingly dead children and they resumed normal life.  What does “risen” really mean?

     The angels also refer the women to prophecy.  A resurrection was predicted and Jesus himself told them it would happen but they had not understood.  Remember those experiences and conversations.  They were so convinced Jesus was bringing political revolution that they were not looking for a death and resurrection.  Sometimes we are so set in what we expect that  we are blinded to other options.  For those of us who did not marry that spouse we were so convinced was “the right person,” we were crushed and heart broken and had to reorganize our lives.  We might have cried when our first choice of college did not come through.  The women “bow their faces to the ground” in a stance of prayer and the angels tell them not to look at the ground but look at prophecy, look up from the dead to the living.  The angels offer a new explanation and a new perspective.

     Some of us love testimonials as people talk about an encounter with Jesus.  Others of us love to read Scripture.  To many music speaks to them of Jesus and nature inspires many.  Jesus can speak to us through many places today but he cannot be found among the dead.  Sometimes we face experiences that bring deep grief, disappointment, and surprise.  It is often as we bow that our faith gives us a new perspective and hope.  Perhaps we can thank God who walked beside us through rough times and helped us understand our experience differently and let us pray that we can be people who bring hope and light to others walking through times of despair!  Blessings.  He is risen and we are learning what that means.

Luke 24: 2-4

On Easter morning, the women arrived at the tomb.  They are pondering how to move away the stone that sealed the it so they could get to Jesus’ body and anoint it.

² They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

³ but when they went in, they did not find the body.

⁴ While they were perplexed about this,

suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.

⁵ The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground…

The unexpected has a way of throwing us off balance.  I was sitting in the living room of my home in Kenya when the phone rang and my sister informed me that my father was near death.  If I were to come home, now was the time.  I was shocked.  One night when we were in the “bush”, our chickens started squawking loudly.  A six foot cobra had crawled into their pen!  What to do?  I have never come home to a house torn apart by a thief but we see the scene on the TV.  Visions of the devastation of the bombings reaches our eyes each evening, not to mention the refugees fleeing to our borders.  The unexpected demands a response.  The women were “perplexed.”  Another word might be confused, speechless, baffled or puzzled. They were “terrified” by the strange men.

         When our routine is disrupted, our plans changed, we often say “life happened.”  As Luke hears the report, he notes that the women see the open tomb, the missing body, and then two men in dazzling clothes – perhaps angels.  John reports that the women ran to Peter to report.  Mark says the women were “alarmed,” reported the angel and ran to report to the disciples.  Matthew reports similarly.

         How do you respond when your plans are upended and when you meet the unexpected?  Where do you turn for clarification, and who do you run to?  I see that the women were very human in their response of surprise and their feathers were ruffled.  They were not super saints suddenly seeking prayer but genuinely responded as we might.  I do see also that they found comfort from “an angel” and from fleeing to their friends.  I do believe we are sometimes gifted with angelic visits but often God uses us to be that “angel” in the life of someone distressed at a life crisis.  Crises are shocking and turning to friends and God is a good response.  Blessings as you navigate the surprises of your day and blessings as you stand with a friend or your friend stands with you.  A story is unfolding!

Luke 24: 1

Yesterday we celebrated Easter with all the joy and understanding that 2,000 years has brought.  The church calendar transitions from “Lent” when we walked to Jerusalem with Jesus, to Holy Week or Passion Week when we sat in the events that led to the crucifixion and then the last three days of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. It all culminated on Easter Sunday with an empty tomb and our cry, “Christ is risen, he is risen indeed.”  For the next six weeks we focus on the Easter Season. This is the time when we look at the proof that Jesus really did resurrect and really is alive … today … and what it means.  Meditating on their stories speaks deeply to our lives today too.  The Romans were not thrown out back then. Ukraine and atrocities occurring in our world challenge us to ponder just how real the resurrection was and what its implications are for our lives.  So let’s start at the beginning.

“On the first day of the week, very early in the morning,

the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.”

         The women are in deep grief.  Their world has been torn apart.  Their hero has been brutally killed right in-front of them.  I cannot imagine what feelings were swirling in their hearts.  Watching a loved one die from Alzeihmers or a child disintegrate under the influence of an addiction or seeing a marriage slowly whither impacting all those touched by that relationship, cancer, bombing in Ukraine, killings in Uganda all give us glimpses of the deep despair that can settle on our lives.  The Gospel of John says in 20:1 that “while it was still dark.”  Perhaps the women could not sleep from grief.  Perhaps they were in the habit of rising early to prepare for the day.  I love to rise early and watch the dawn gradually break on the  horizon and see the skyline take shape, hopefully turn gradually orange and then fade into light.  These women were in deep grief and in that grief did what they knew was required of them.  They put one foot in front of the other and went to put spices on the body of their fallen friend.

         Sometimes life is like that.  It is so dark, we can only have a glimmer of hope for the coming dawn.  So what helped them?  They had each other.  We say “misery loves company” but having a friend who is willing to listen and help you process is a wonderful gift.  They did that which they knew needed to be done.  Routines help us get through the day.  I love the line in “Sleepless in Seattle” where the hero says he is going to just live each day by sheer routine until he feels alive again.  The journey to the tomb is part of the story and need not be skipped.  There are days when our feet walk a path we hoped we would never have to walk.

         So who are the friends who have your back on those dark days as you wait for the dawn?  I pray you are a friend like that to people. Do you have routines that carry you when your heart needs a timeout to grieve?  Not all journeys are cruises and adventures!  But we can take comfort that the dawn is coming, friends do make a difference, and a new dawn is breaking!  Blessings as you journey.

Luke 22:1-6

The night before the big event we remember this week, the crucifixion of Jesus, all the characters for what is to unfold have gathered in Jerusalem.  The crowds have come to Jerusalem for the Passover and have been cheering Jesus so far.  That scares the teachers of the law and the chief priests who are looking for a way to kill Jesus.  The disciples are there with Jesus to celebrate also and are pondering among themselves what their role will be in the new kingdom.  There is one more participant not usually mentioned.  “Then Satan entered Judas.”  Satan is a fallen angel, not God.  He is not present everywhere.  He is not all knowing.  He is not all powerful.  The Bible calls him the Father of Lies, the Deceiver, the Devil, the Tempter, Ruler of Demons, Beelzebul, the Evil One, and more.  We often generalize and just talk about “evil.”  He is a spiritual being, a fallen angel, at war with God.  He now “enters” Judas and uses him to develop a plan with religious authorities for capturing Jesus without the people knowing.  Judas presents the plan to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard.  Judas is conspiring with “evil” and with religious authorities!

         “The devil made me do it!” is a common saying for claiming innocence.  It is different from “I didn’t know the gun was loaded” for the latter owns agency of the deed but the former is an abdication of personal intent, agency or even involvement.    We are claiming that an evil power overwhelmed us and we were helpless.  History has debated what was going on with Judas that allowed him to play the role he played in the arrest of Jesus.  Some have felt that Judas was really just trying to force Jesus’ hand because the arrest would necessitate the confrontation that would bring about the defeat of Rome.  Others feel Judas was the victim of demonic manipulation.  What we do know is that evil, Satan, directly confront good, God, Jesus.  Please do not sugar coat this fact by focusing on the approaching Easter.

     For the next three days, we will see this drama unfold.  Tomorrow Thursday is called Maundy Thursday after the Latin word “mandatum” or mandate, rule.  Jesus washes the feet of the disciples, institutes communion at the Last Supper, and tells the disciples on the way to Gethsemane, “A new command I give, love one another.”  Friday goes from the Garden of Gethsemane to the trial to the crucifixion.  Saturday we sit in silence.  We grieve the evil events of the past, of the present, and personal.

         The question to reflect on today, though, is to examine our hearts and consciences to ponder if we have been drawn into schemes, feelings, thoughts, or perhaps habits that we know do not glorify God.  Are there ways that evil has tempted us to be less than our better selves?  Care we conspiring?  Now is the time to repent and turn from evil.  Be honest.  Blessings!

Luke 21:1-4

We have several idioms to talk about our poverty or lack of resources.  If we are “scraping the bottom of the barrel,” we are down to the dregs, the last of our resources.  We say we are “down and out.”  We have come on “hard times.”  Perhaps we have a “cash flow problem.”  We can’t make ends meet.  Some of us remember those days in our youth, or the Great Depression, or a time of war.  We rejoice we are having better times now.    Jesus is in Jerusalem and at the Temple.  It is the last week of his life.  He has no home but is staying with friends on the edge of town.  He knows his popularity is about to change to mob.  All the spiritual capital he has built up with miracles, with healings, with good sermons is about to disappear like a giant spiritual stock market crash.  Yesterday we saw the tensions rise as he overthrew sellers in the Temple courts.  Religious leaders are plotting his death.  What happens next is significant1

         Jesus draws the attention of his disciples to a poor widow who is putting “two very small copper coins” in the offering box.  She gave her all to God and was ready to live with the consequences life would bring her.  This is not tithing.  This is total commitment.  Jesus would be called upon to place his life on the line soon and perhaps he drew strength from her example.  The disciples were not about to “take a victory lap” but were headed to a faith that would require they give their all.  The disciples didn’t get it and we usually don’t get it either. 

         Could Jesus be saying, life does not come from the stuff we have that allows us to share a portion with friends.  Life comes from committed relationships that hold during hard times and during good times.  It is when we know someone has our back and is not a fair weather friend that we truly know love.  This unnamed widow has become synonymous with commitment, sharing her all in her poverty.  As we walk through Holy Week, we are again called upon to examine our hearts and reflect on our commitment to God, even during hard times, times of pandemic, times of war, times of financial insecurity.  Perhaps today we can name one area where we feel totally inadequate and unable to face the challenge.  Name it but also name the many ways that God has blessed you and name people who have been there when you needed help.  Thank God.  Blessings as you pray.

Luke 19:45-48

Have you ever gotten really angry?  Not just peeved but just down right angry.  Some of us cry when something gets under our skin because we are just so frustrated.  Other people resort to swearing.  We all have seen that child in the grocery store throwing a tantrum because the child is not getting the cereal of choice.  Anger is not a fun emotion.  My students in Kenya believed very firmly that if a person dies angry, they couldn’t go to heaven.  A patient man was near the top of their values.  A generous person would be the only possible rival.  Generosity and patience were deeply admired.  Expressions of anger were never acceptable.

         Yesterday Jesus approached Jerusalem to the waving of Palm Branches and shouts of “Hosanna”.  The crowds were hanging on his every action and every word, just waiting for a confrontation with the Roman powers that oppressed them.  Interestingly, today our text shares that he enters Jerusalem and it is not the Romans with all their cruelty that Jesus attacks but the overt abuse of spiritual power seen in the practice of the Temple system.  Jesus entered the Temple courts and drove out those selling items.  The Temple courts were like the third ring out in the temple and where the “ordinary people” gathered.  “My house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers”, he bellowed.  I’m guessing that was a sight!

         How do we understand that scene?  It is hard to put it together with the tender Jesus welcoming the little children that we love to paint pictures of.  Was Jesus out of control?  I don’t think so.  Could it be that Jesus is upset about price gouging and taking advantage of poor people or is it something more? I suspect that as Jesus is approaching crucifixion, he is making a major statement about how religion works.  We do not buy our way into heaven through sacrifices or even good works.  The sacrifices were not to make an angry God like us to a means of allowing us a way to clean our conscience so we can stop hiding from God.  He will deal with sin.  The purpose of the Temple is for prayer, a place where we center ourselves spiritually and can cry out for mercy or sing out in praise.  It is a place to focus our relationship on God, not focus on business.  Jesus went beyond sermons and parables.  Jesus was angry and “drove out those who were selling.”  God gets angry when we abuse the freedom of faith or abuse the faith of others.  God is a real being with real feelings and abuse enrages him.  We like to think of a loving God we can cuddle with but this week, Jesus is going to do battle with sin.  Serious.  God wants relationship, not appeasing gifts…with you!  Let’s ponder that today.

¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear;

for fear has to do with punishment,

and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.1 John 4:18

Today I attended a luncheon where a chaplain who had worked with police and spoken around the world shared a song, “You love away my fears.”  I thought of the people we pondered this week.  Zacchaeus hid in a tree because he wanted to see Jesus but was afraid and too short.  A blind beggar hears Jesus passing and gathers his courage and voice and cries out, “Son of David, have mercy on me.”  Servants entrusted with money are left to manage a nobleman’s investments until he returns from a trip. 

         I did not find the exact song on the Internet but I did find a similar song that is new to me and so I share with you about the affects of faith on fear.  It is modern and upbeat.  You will not hear it on Sunday but it captures the joy of Palm Sunday and the joy of those who interacted with Jesus this week.  They praised and this song praises.  Enjoy!