Surprise visits Resurrection

Surprise visits

“JESUS IS APT TO COME, into the very midst of life at its most real and inescapable. Not in a blaze of unearthly light, not in the midst of a sermon, not in the throes of some kind of religious daydream, but . . . at supper time, or walking along a road. This is the element that all the stories about Christ's return to life have in common: Mary waiting at the empty tomb and suddenly turning around to see somebody standing there—someone she thought at first was the gardener; all the disciples except Thomas hiding out in a locked house, and then his coming and standing in the midst; and later, when Thomas was there, his coming again and standing in the midst; Peter taking his boat back after a night at sea, and there on the shore, near a little fire of coals, a familiar figure asking, "Children, have you any fish?"; the two men at Emmaus who knew him in the breaking of the bread. He never approached from on high, but always in the midst, in the midst of people, in the midst of real life and the questions that real life asks.”

Frederick Buechner, originally published in The Magnificent Defeat

Resurrection Chapel at Washington National Cathedral

Buechner is describing how we see Jesus in our lives, in our real lives. We do not necessarily need to go on some great pilgrimage or be in an ancient cathedral.  God is all around us in our everydayness. Our ministry as spiritual friends is helping each other see God in our everyday lives.

 All of these resurrection stories give us many clues as to where and how to find Jesus. Jesus’s appearance is a surprise. It is off of the agenda. Jesus is usually not immediately recognized. Jesus does ordinary things like cooking and eating and walking. Jesus looks like an ordinary person but may do extraordinary things like walking through walls. Jesus still bears his wounds, but they are healed.  Jesus feeds us. Jesus calls us by name. Jesus appears to ordinary people. With the exception of Jesus’ appearance to Paul on the road to Damascus, Jesus appears to those who know him. Most importantly, Jesus speaks truth and love and peace.

If you want to know more about resurrection, mediate on these stories.

Joanna       joannaseibert.com  

Wounded healears

Wounded healers

“May our Lord Jesus Christ who walks on wounded feet,

walk with you.

May our Lord Jesus Christ who serves with wounded hands, serve with you.

May our Lord Jesus Christ who loves with a wounded heart, love with you.

And may you see the face of Christ in everyone you meet.

And may the blessing of God the Father, God the Son,

and God the Holy Spirit be with you and remain with you always. Amen!”

Borrowed from the Assisting priest Bill Ericson, at Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, Gulf Shores, Alabama.

Rev. Gurdon Brewster's wood and bronze sculpture Welcome Home in Chapel of Saint Augustine of Hippo at Cathedral College on grounds of Washington National Cathedral

It takes some time to realize how our own difficulties or what Stuart Hoke would call, our own darkness, are what make us able to know how to minister to others as well as to connect to Christ. When our woundedness is redeemed and worked through we are called to reach out to others who also have been wounded. It usually is not helpful or at all comforting to know this while we are being wounded or while the wounds are still raw and open, but with time, our prayers can be that we make it to the recovery room and move from victim to survivor and then hopefully to healer.

The scars do not go away, but are a reminder that we share these wounds with Christ and the rest of a suffering world. I do eventually give this prayer to spiritual friends who are seeking answers to their unreasonable suffering over time, hoping they may be able to connect their wounds to Christ. There are not answers, but hopefully we all can see how we are not alone and how the God we are trying to connect to also knows about suffering. God suffers with us and beside us and reaches out to us through God’s own presence and God’s own wounds to offer connection and healing.

Joanna       joannaseibert.com

Anders Swan Lake

 Guest Writer Isabel Anders

Swan Lake Surprise Transfiguration

“[The prince] had seen that small and seemingly powerless actions, or simple coalitions of light, sound, and color, can be supremely powerful in regard to the soul of a man, and can take him to other worlds. And he had seen that, though sometimes hidden, they exist in this world in legions, in armies, in multitudes. I am sure that when he saw the swans gliding around the point [rising in a gold-and-white column] he apprehended another realm, as one sometimes does, and was ready to follow, far into oblivion, wherever it led in darkness or in light.” 

Swan Lake, Mark Helprin and Chris Van Allsburg (N. Y. Ariel Books, 1989, pp. 72-73).

“There are certain great and beautiful things that to all appearances find defeat in this world. All proof, all reason, show them to have fallen, and as often as not our hope is merely our punishment. But in this world there are as well wrenching and great surprises that take us beyond what we can reason and what we can prove” (p. 79).

I recently reread the wonderful telling of Swan Lake by Mark Helprin, author of Winter’s Tale (1983), with stunning illustrations by Chris Van Allsburg, and the above passages struck me as reminiscent of the disciples’ presence at Jesus’ Transfiguration, as well as many other experiences and revelations of beauty in Scripture that seem to be pivot points of faith.

A. M. Allchin has written: “The communion of saints is never an abstract or ethereal thing … it is rooted in this earth, in places where people have lived and loved, and seen the glory of God shining out in the common light of every day.”

And Simone Weil, who urges attention to the material world, writes in Gravity and Grace: “The mind is not forced to believe in the existence of anything … the only organ of contact with existence is acceptance, love. That is why beauty and reality are identical. That is why joy and the sense of reality are identical.” 

It seems that a prayer for more experiences of beauty has important implications for Christians—for all of us desiring to continue in the life of faith, in awe and longing for its destination.

Isabel Anders

Managing Editor, Synthesis Publications

Synthesispub.com