by Christine Sine
A few years ago we attended a Good Friday Tenebrae service at our church. It was a very moving service of readings from those who have walked before us as well as from scripture. We started with the sanctuary alive with light and ended with it in darkness except for the Christ candle which stood at the foot of the cross.
I was reminded of the service as I reflected on this broken image of Jesus today. Jesus body was broken and all seemed lost. Imagine how hard Saturday must have been for the disciples just as it is hard for us to live in the valley where hope seems lost and the world seems untouched by the promises of God. We mourn too for broken hopes and promises. All seems to be in darkness but out of brokenness can come new life.
Here are the readings that most impacted me.
It is in the darkness, when there is nothing left in us that can please or comfort our minds, when we seem to be useless and worthy of all contempt, when we seem to have failed, when we seem to be destroyed and devoured, it is then that the deep and secret selfishness that is too close to us for us to identify is stripped away from our souls. It is in this darkness that we find liberty. It is in this abandonment that we are made strong. This is the night which empties us and makes us pure. (Thomas Merton)
To each one of us Christ is saying: If you want your life and mission to be fruitful, like mine, do as I do. Be converted into a seed that lets itself be buried. Let yourself be killed. Do not be afraid. Those who shun suffering will remain alone. No one is more alone than the selfish. But if you give your life out of love for others, as I give mine for all, you will reap a great harvest. (Oscar Romero)
This is the night which empties us and makes us whole.
Out of my reflections on this service came this poem:
Today we mourn.
For promises unfulfilled
for wholeness unrealized
for brokenness still afflicting.
Today there is only darkness.
Our hopes are buried
our longings shrouded
our desires entombed.
Today the grave engulfs us.
We walk in hell
empty, stripped of life
no light only darkness.
Today God seems to have failed.
Yet here we find freedom
Between death and resurrection
This is the night which empties us
and makes us whole.
By Catherine Lawton —
We grieve when snow falls
on Good Friday eve.
What about the greening,
the beginnings of spring? when
like manna fallen from Heaven–
“My body broken for you” into
flakes and crumbs–
soft, pure-white flesh
spread upon all that lies
both dormant and sprouting,
at morn reflects the rising sun;
except in rockiest places,
saturates fallow and seeded,
both broken and wasted ground.
By Lilly Lewin
I’ve been using a hashtag this week on instagram #almostEaster. It truly is almost Easter, but there are important things that happen this weekend before the celebration on Sunday. Here are two poems to help you process Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Sit with the one that resonates with you. Print it out, our print out both. Ponder the poem or poems as you take a walk, or sit somewhere quietly. You might draw something or journal some in response. What if you didn’t know that Sunday was coming? What if you didn’t have any hope of an Easter and the resurrection? Remember, that’s just what the disciples faced that weekend.
You might take time to watch the Gospel of John on Netflix or the great documentary called ‘ Jesus Count Down to Calvary” narrated by Hugh Bonneville of Downton Abbey to help you engage the feeling before the hope of resurrection.
May we remember the silent tomb and the despair of uncertainty of that sabbath day so long ago, before we rush to celebrate this Sunday.
God on a Stick by Paul Hobbs
They spit on his face and then they crucify him.
Jesus our Lord
He dies as a sinner
He dies as a blasphemer,
as an idolater,
as one who denies God
As one who betrays him
I stand before the cross and wonder
He is not guilty of these things but takes our place
He dies as one who boasts,
who gossips
As one who dishonors his parents
As a cheat, as a liar, as a thief
He dies as a fraud and an embezzler
I stand before the cross and fear
He is not guilty of these things but takes our place.
He dies as a sinner
He dies as one with evil thoughts
As a slave to lust, as a fornicator
As an adulterer, as an abuser of children
I kneel before the cross and weep
He is not guilty of these things but takes our place.
He dies as one full of jealousy
As one who is selfish, unkind and rude
As one who destructively manipulates others.
As one who envies and hates
He dies as a sadist
As one who destroys and murders
I pray before the cross and rejoice
He is not guilty of these things but takes our place
He is not to blame but dies to take the blame for us.
He is dying to forgive us
Stand, stand…
And watch Jesus die
Alone and with nothing…
God on a stick.
The Day before Easter by Lilly Lewin
the day before easter
the Light of the World…
pierced our darkness,
set us free
we did not notice him
we expected something else
we wanted our own impression of a savior
not one who died and was buried
not one who suffered
not one who was condemned
the Light of the World ….
pierced our darkness
set us free
we missed the gift
we closed our eyes
we didn’t understand
we didn’t want to listen
when he said he had to die
we denied him
we betrayed him
we got scared and ran away
the Light of the World…
pierced our darkness
set us free
we took him down
we wrapped him with spices
we buried him in the tomb
we couldn’t even mourn him there
we were afraid
it was the sabbath
the Light of the World
who pierced our darkness
was no longer….
the Light, our Light, was gone
snuffed out, buried in the cold stone tomb
no hope,
no joy,
no laughter on this sabbath day…
lilly lewin April 2004
©lilly lewin and freerangeworship
by Christine Sine
This Good Friday prayer which I wrote several years ago, and the image that goes with it is one of my favorites, if one can say such a thing about this awful day in the life of Jesus.
Find a quiet place where you can reflect for a few minutes on these last days of Jesus life.
Look at the photo – Jesus tears are our tears, his suffering is our suffering.
What comes to your mind as you gaze upon this image?
Now read the prayer. What is your response?
by Christine Sine
Here is the good news. Out beyond the world of exclusion, and rejection and hostility, there is on offer a world of welcome that sees the other not as threat or competitor but as cohort on the pilgrimage of humanity. That alternative world of welcome is signed by bread and by wine; but it is known by lives that reach out and touch in order to heal and transform. (Walter Brueggemann: A Way Other Than Our Own 85)
How easily during this Holy Week we focus on the despair and betrayal, conflict and exclusion. How hard it is for many of us to find hope. And this year the grief over what has happened in Paris to Notre Dame Cathedral seems to spread a pall of smoke over all our good intentions and unfulfilled dreams.
Yet Notre Dame will be rebuilt. It is still structurally sound we are told. Life will emerge from the ashes, and it will be stronger and probably more beautiful than ever, but it will take a long time.
Notre Dame seems to stand as a symbol of what this week is about. Out of death life emerges, out of the crucifixion of our hopes a greater hope emerges.
What do you hope for this week? In what ways will you welcome God’s alternative world of love and hope, of generosity and freedom?
by Christine Sine
It’s Holy Week. Jesus is getting ready – not for the cross but for resurrection. “For the joy that was set before him” he willing planted the seed of his body so that walls could be broken down and new life could emerge. These words from my post yesterday continue to resound in my mind. How am I getting ready for the resurrection? How am I getting ready for the season of new life and joy that is in front of me, of all of us? Where do I already see glimpses of that new world, with Jesus the gardener right there sowing and planting and cultivating?
I think we so easily get stuck at the cross. It is as though our hopes and dreams never find life and birth because we, like the disciples don’t really believe that resurrection and new life is possible
Join the Awe and Wonder Challenge
This year for the season of Easter which extends from Easter Sunday to Pentecost, here on Godspace, we have chosen the theme “Season of Awe and Wonder” and I want to invite you to join us. Our daily experience of life, God and God’s world are meant to inspire us with awe and wonder. Our failure to notice the miracles around us is a failure of the spirit as well as the sense.
So let’s see if we can awaken our spirits as well as our senses this year.
Let’s take notice of the awe and wonder sightings around us.
See if you can notice six awe inspiring things each day.
Keep an awe and wonder journal over the next six weeks.
Write about them in your journal. Make a collage or sketch. Take a photo and paste it in your journal… send your inspiring ideas to us so that others too can enjoy the delight of what you are experiencing and hopefully enter into more of the joy of our awesome God too.
Get Your Dose of Awe and Wonder
Where are you awed by the presence of Jesus in your life and neighborhood? Where do you feel the awe inspiring thrill of what Jesus is giving birth too?
Not surprisingly this theme is motivated in part by my book The Gift of Wonder. In Chapter 2 where I talk about awe and wonder, the exercise at the end of the chapter has the following suggestions:
- Go for a walk and savor the experience with all your senses – listening, looking, tasting, touching and smelling what you encounter.
- Look through the lens of your camera or phone. What new perspectives does this bring to the scene?
- Pick up an unusually shaped rock or leaf or shell. What caught your attention? Hold it in your hand. How does it feel? What does it remind you of?
- Now find a quiet place to reflect. Use your crayons and permanent markers to create a pattern on your found item. What does this small piece of creation teach you about God?
- What else triggered a sense of awe in you today? Was it an unexpected smile, children playing or an inspiring story?
It’s not too late for our special discount on The Gift of Wonder bundle. Order today. This is only available through Godspace.
Awe Begets Awe
The more we notice the awe inspiring nature of God’s world around us, the more awe inspiring and wonderful it seems. Suddenly the resurrected Jesus appears in our midst and we feel more alive than we ever have before.
And it’s not just nature that comes alive with awe and wonder either. Suddenly we are awed by the presence of Jesus in the people we meet or pass in the street. Stories of refugees inspire us with their resilience and hope in the face of disaster. Look at this amazing photo – I am awed by what desperate people will do in their hope for a better life. And I am inspired by what they are willing to endure. How much discomfort am I willing to put up with for the better life that Christ offers me I wonder?
The only thing stronger than fear is hope
What fills you will awe as you look forward to the resurrection of Jesus?
What gives you hope?
Where did you get your dose of awe and wonder today?
NOTE: As an Amazon Associate I receive a small amount for purchases made through appropriate links. Thank you for supporting Godspace I this way.
by Christine Sine
This week as we pass through the last few days of Lent and walk with Jesus towards the cross, I continue to reflect on my Lenten garden. This week my garden has not changed much, at least not on the surface. Yet hidden beneath the surface new life is germinating. Yesterday I sprinkled wildflower seeds over the garden. Then I watered the seeds, and now I hope to watch them grow.
It’s Holy Week. Jesus is getting ready – not for the cross but for resurrection. “For the joy that was set before him” he willing planted the seed of his body so that walls could be broken down and new life could emerge.
My actions have been inspired by the magnificent photos of Californian desert landscapes bursting into bloom in ways that they have not done for decades. Such beauty thriving where we thought there was only barrenness and lifelessness. Such beauty that has inspired hundreds of thousands of people to drive for hours out into the desert to see. Hundreds and thousands of people who will never be quite the same because of the little bit of God’s beauty that they have gazed on in awe and wonder.
What are the seeds that you need to plant in your life and community to restore desert landscapes of conflict and violence? Or perhaps it is to restore relationships that have been damaged by greed or lack of forgiveness.
Breaking Down Walls Isn’t Enough
It is not enough to break down walls I realize. Scarred and damaged landscapes where walls have been broken down can be transformed into places of beauty and inspiration, but only if we plant new seeds and nurture them into new life. Seeds need to be planted in the places where walls once stood.
Don’t forget: It’s Holy Week. Jesus is getting ready – not for the cross but for resurrection. “For the joy that was set before him” he willing planted the seed of his body so that walls could be broken down and new life could emerge.
Soil that is left uncovered becomes a dust bowl, or it can spread deserts as we have seen in North Africa where the Sahara desert slowly and relentlessly expands each year. Yet even here there is hope. Last week I read about the dozens of countries that have been working to plant a “great green wall” across Africa.
The tree-planting project, which has been dubbed The Great Green Wall of Africa, stretches across roughly 6,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) of terrain at the southern edge of the Sahara desert, a region known as the Sahel.
The region was once a lush oasis of greenery and foliage back in the 1970s, but the combined forces of population growth, unsustainable land management, and climate change turned the area into a barren and degraded swath of land.
Over 12 million acres (5 million hectares) of degraded land has been restored in Nigeria; roughly 30 million acres of drought-resistant trees have been planted across Senegal; and a whopping 37 million acres of land has been restored in Ethiopia – just to name a few of the states involved.
Byproducts of the restored landscape include many groundwater wells refilled with drinking water, rural towns with additional food supplies, and new sources of work and income for villagers, thanks to the need for tree maintenance.
What walls have you broken down during this season of Lent that need to be replanted with life giving plants?
Plant A Seed A Day.
Would you commit to plant one seed a day of love and kindness or generosity over the season of Easter? That I think is all that it would take for us to see our world transformed in ways that we cannot imagine.
Last week I also read about Jadav Payeng, the Indian man who has nurtured 1,360 acres of forest on what was once a barren landscape devastated by erosion. He has planted a tree a day for 40 years. After almost four decades of growth, his forest is now inhabited by hundreds of elephants, Bengal tigers, rhinos, boars, deer, reptiles, and birds.
“It’s not as if I did it alone,” Paying told NPR. “You plant one or two trees, and they have to seed. And once they seed, the wind knows how to plant them, the birds here know how to sow them, cows know, elephants know, even the … river knows. The entire ecosystem knows.” (Read more).
Sometimes we feel overwhelmed by the task ahead. Breaking down walls, creating new bridges of love and caring seems impossible yet planted seeds do sprout and grow, just as the seed of Jesus’ life was planted and grew into a mighty tree. Seeds can grow into might trees that send out flowers and produce more seeds that spread. It is possible to bring change and transform barren landscapes into places where life flourishes.
Prayerfully watch the video below. Allow the inspiration of Jadav Payeng’s life to seep into your soul. What seeds might God be asking you to plant to bring new life to places where walls once stood?
As an Amazon Associate, I receive a small amount for purchases made through appropriate links.
Thank you for supporting Godspace in this way.
When referencing or quoting Godspace Light, please be sure to include the Author (Christine Sine unless otherwise noted), the Title of the article or resource, the Source link where appropriate, and ©Godspacelight.com. Thank you!