After a year or more of pursuing this vague idea of living spiritually, God has been calling me into wonder. And not just wondering why or how things are, though that too. I mean an awe, an apprehension and living within mystery. A living out of the Albert Einstein quote, “He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.”
And so as Easter approached, it occurred to me that living spiritually and Easter especially is about wonder, mystery. God, so often doing and being just beyond our ability to fully grasp. Even if we know and believe the facts of Jesus’ resurrection, there is much we cannot explain or understand.
Neal Armstrong said, “Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.” There is mystery and wonder in a once occupied tomb now empty. But the heart of Easter is that we cannot completely understand. And the call of the empty tomb and Jesus alive again is to lean into that mystery and wonder, not control and contain it with anemic explanations, either expressions of faith or unbelief.
The Promise began in this pursuit of wonder and led to a conversation about the hidden wonder of Easter and the question, “Why an empty tomb?” By the end of the conversation, we were wondering what the world would be like if the women returning to Jesus’ tomb had found his body still there.
Thus I rewrote Luke 24:1-12 (If this is sin, God forgive me) to reflect Jesus not fulfilling his promise to rise again. Then I gave the storyboard to a gifted young film-maker, Drew Byerly, who filmed and directed our heresy.
Take a moment to reflect. How would I be different? How would you be different? Assuredly we would not be who we are, we would not be changed. Then listen to Neal Browne read what Luke actually wrote. And then spend a few minutes with me in my Easter sermon exploring the question: “Why an Empty Tomb?”
P.S. I am taking a short Sabbatical and taking time to listen, read, learn, pray, walk, and write (though not for public consumption). I will return to blogging in a couple of weeks.
wishing you a good and fruitful Sabbatical!,…
I, for one, am certainly glad to “know” that a very Special “Someone” (Who intimately cares for us!) WAS able to “break through” the normal/ordinary and “apparent” confines of this “life” in which we now live,… if what we have, endure, deal with, day to unending day, is “it”/ “all their is”, with nothing else to look forward to ~~ no legitimate escape hatch/no better arbiter than our own selves ~~ we would soon find ourselves to be pitiable creatures indeed,…
I thank God that your suggestive video scenario did NOT happen in actual fact,… but had it been remotely “so”, I doubt that any one of us would even be here now,…
I tried to use the links to your sermon and the other voice, but perhaps I don’t have the necessary “computer stuff” to allow it to function, as it didn’t play anything for me,… I am sorry to have missed it!,… wishing you a bon “spiritual” voyage!,… God Bless!,… g
Thanks, Georgi-ann. Try this link http://tnc3.org/sermons/ and click on listen.
ooh,… looks good!,… but I must need to do something like update javascript or something else, b/c it doesn’t play for me,… I’ll keep on working on it,… but please don’t waste your own time on trying to figure it out,… I’m notoriously slow at understanding the most basic internet things, but I have some good, well-equipped family members who can/will advise me at some point,… & thanks!
Scary bold thinking. But sometimes that’s what we need to do see more of our God who is so much beyond our whole comprehension. It’s all in the attitude in which we do that bold thinking; I think yours is perfectly ok!
This project changed the way each of us viewed Easter. Glad for the resurrection!