Isaiah 25:6-9
Easter Evening - Years A, B, C
Easter - Year B
"All Saints" - Year B
Universalists arise! We have nothing to lose and a feast to gain.
When we set about ensuring that everyone has a seat at the table before ourselves we ensure our own place and get to eat sooner than later. As we wipe away tears so people can catch a glimpse of the table and find their placecard we speed the time when we can sit down to the feast. In the process of assisting shame to be refined into esteem we energize people to come to the table rather than sit immobilized in the ashes.
We have nothing to lose by helping others into G*D's presence. We have everything to gain, including turning death from enemy into friendly advisor.
When such as ourselves cast out remorse we truly laugh and sing and feast.
On Maundy Thursday we have a foretaste that strengthens us to broadcast an invitation list to an even greater feast. And, yes, of course, everyone's invited.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/april2003.html
Isaiah 25:6-9 or Acts 10:34-43
Ps. 118:1-2, 14-24
1 Corinthians 15:1-11 or Acts 10:34-43
John 20:1-18 or Mark 16:1-8
No earthquake in Mark. "When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back."
As you look back at your own life-journey (not always "spiritual") can you identify those times when your eye had been downcast, but, when you did, accidentally or hopefully, look up, it was obvious the dragon's maw no longer awaited you?
These are important markers, individually and communally, when we are then able to enter the tomb we so feared or were resigned to.
As in Mark, we may find even these subsequent experiences to be as frightening in their reality as they had been in their expectation. We may yet run afraid, away. But always there is a remembrance of a stone having rolled away and we can regroup to move beyond a next fear.
The ending of Mark is a marker for us in this process. Just how many endings there are to the resurrectional story, no one will ever know. They don't end with the recorded accretion of endings in Mark. We are still adding new endings to this old story. One way or another, fear never has the last word.
What we know as the original ending of Mark begs for completion in our lives. We have hurried (then and then and then) onward through this story that had no beginning and has no end. We have run right up to and past the last word of "afraid" and found ourselves hanging over an existential abyss - How'd we get here? What are we going to do now? Will this be the last word?
Mark's masterpiece has a masterpiece of an ending that tosses the salvation of G*D and Creation right back to us. Are you going to run forever, away, or stand over your nothing left and trust again, build again, live again?
- - -
so a new heaven and new earth
are about to be created
will this creation be a partnership
or a wholly-owned subsidiary
if without remembrance
will it long endure
without labor's seeming vanity
where resurrection's blessing
as came death so comes life
through you and me and us
choose this day
a last fruit - a first
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html
Isaiah 25:6-9 or Acts 10:34-43
God shows no partiality. There is a time for all things. A time for a feast and a time for destruction. A time for being praised for doing good and a time for being hanged for doing good.
We tend to think in series and if one expectation goes awry, all our expectations are dimmed or deleted. In a series you have hierarchy the first resistance needs to paid attention to and then the next. While the last can stop the whole chain it is generally best to check from first to last to see where the problem is.
God tends to be in parallel. If something goes awry the circuit continues. In parallel it is easier to see where the difficulty is. It is in this way that no partiality be shown. All that is needed is to care for the situation at hand.
The recent March 29, 2006 issue of The Onion carried one of their lovely heretical cartoons that had Jesus being crucified on parallel pieces of wood rather than a cross. How else might you look at life the through parallel eyes of no partiality?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/april2006.html
As a partner with G*D and Neighb*r we can ask in this night whether one more tear has been wiped away from all faces with tears. There may not be smiles yet, but there can be one less tear. There is still enough for everyone to participate in a feast.
Those without tears sustain a shroud cast over all others and will drown from the inside, not another flood. Dives will finally give up their place at the feast. While always welcome in a community not under their control, they may not be able to accept that welcome for a long time.
To tear off a corner of the shroud to dab someone’s tears is a participation in the rebuilding of community—a connexion restored. So claim the feast for someone else as they claim it for you. Together we will walk together in the cool of the evening and G*D’s tear will turn to an enormous grin bigger than a circus tent.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/04/isaiah-256-9-easter-evening.html