Hi dear friends,
No creative excuses this time for why I have neglected this little writing space of mine for too long. I anticipate sharing some of my musings from the last few months with all of you but I think I will have to take it one entry at a time. All of these reflections are significant to me, but the one that is the basis for so many of the rest is very connected to the celebration of Easter.
This year, the Easter holidays led me to new places. Here in Honduras, we receive a week off, and I had the good fortune to travel with two friends from work to Nicaragua, with one mission: to surf. You might be wondering, “ Does Grace know how to surf? Negative. Do I know how to surf now, you ask? That’s a no again, Instead, I acquired: a bad tan, skinned knees, lots of salt water in my belly, and a new appreciation for the mighty sea and those who brave it in the name of catching a good wave. I also was able to see the beautiful powder carpets and Catholic processions in downtown Tegucigalpa on Black Friday, and went to my first 5:30 a.m. Resurrection Sunday service at the church, La Reformada—unforgettable.
Easter in Central America has also led me to new ways of valuing the meaning of it.
For me, Easter has mostly meant three days of remembering Christ’s death on the cross but I ‘ve always placed more interest on the resurrection part. But since I was first introduced at Calvin to the Christian tradition of a 40 day observance called Lent, I have slowly begun experiencing this time of the year differently.
This year, Lent has been such a gift. Forty days of reflection in fact does truly inspire one to participate in this act of waiting with eager anticipation to celebrate God’s victory over death. Perhaps not so strangely it didn’t find myself reflecting over resurrection, but instead it’s been the concept of dying that I have started to befriend. The promise of new life for us rides on the coattails of much less popular teaching that we must all die before receiving the abundance of life Christ came to bring. It’s oddly interesting to me that new.life for us was a result of the death of Christ. Death was a prerequisite for new life..
In the same way, I believe that God teaches, instructs us to enter into this act of dying.
It seems so absurd. Try as I might, death has always seemed so much like an end. And often it has simply felt so futile and tragic. One of my favorite authors, Henri Nouwen affirms that truly, “ the paradox is indeed that new life is born out of the pains of the old,” and I am starting to around to this. But how is it that death is something that we as disciples of Christ need? Annie Dillard in Tinker at Pilgrim Creek writes eloquently about how death is such a simple part of nature. It is not evil. It is not just a necessary part of life, but an integral part of the good life. Life and death are uniquely linked
God promises a new life, not just when we physically die, but through his Spirit that he sends, we can reach a new life in Christ now. But, how many of us have been able to taste this new life? Death and new life are such hard things for us to enter into, but I’ve come to find out is that the struggle is even greater when we try to come to this new life still clinging to our old one. Throughout the bible we hear references about the importance of this not so symbolic dying and what happens when we don’t. “ And whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it “(Matthew 10:38). I read the words of the Apostle John, and feel that the message is reiterated and affirmed “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” John 12:24.
I don’t about you all but this is very counterintuitive for me in my struggle to survive in a word that is constantly telling me to cling to myself for dear life. What I hadn’t thought about before was the kind of life I was clinging to exactly
This Sunday we celebrated communion in church and I was reminded again of the act of dying. In order to discard our old nature we must die. We then have the opportunity to become receptive vessels for the Spirit that can give us new life. As we were standing in a large circle, I repeated the words “ this is Christ’s body, broken for me,” and paused to think about what these acts had begun to mean to me now.
As I take and eat the bread in remembrance of Christ’s body, I now know that Christ’s death means that I must die along side him as well. But oh, but the joy, for if we are obedient to God’s call to take up the cross and join in the suffering and death of Christ, we also participate in the resurrection of Christ and the new life we seek. Thus we see that our dying allows us to eagerly and hungrily take Christ’s body broken for us as he calls, “ take and eat, take and eat.”
“ Death is part of a much great and much deeper event, the fullness of which we cannot comprehend, but of which we know that is a life-bringing event. When Jesus said that if a grain of wheat dies it will yield a rich harvest, he not only spoke about his own death but indicated the new meaning he would give to our death. The friends of Jesus saw him and heard him only a few times after the Easter morning, but their lives were completely changed. What seemed to be the end proved to be the beginning; what seemed to be a cause for fear proved to be a cause for courage; what seemed to be defeat proved to be victory; and what seemed to be the basis for despair proved to be the basis for hope.
Henri Nouwen
So maybe dear friends, maybe instead of death being merely something to be triumphed over, maybe its something that God is calling us to as well. Amazingly, it ‘s beginning to appear to me that where death is affirmed, hope finds its roots as well, as Henri writes.
Love, Love, and more Love,
Grace
