Myrrh bearers

Myrrh bearers

“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.” Luke 24:1.

Spend some time meditating on this icon from www.uncutmountainsupply.com, maker of Orthodox Christian iconography. This is a picture of one of the myrrh bearers, one of the women taking spices to the empty tomb before dawn on an Easter morning. This is what I think Christ calls us to do. We are to bring what is costly to us, our intellect, our feelings, our intuitions, simply our presence, and look for the Christ in the world. We are called to look especially for Christ in those we think are physically and spiritually and mentally dead. We can only find Christ when we give of ourselves, freely, even when we sometimes know it may be dangerous.

We carry with us precious perfumes, costly spices. This is what each of our lives is made up of.

When we have been harmed or have sinned against our neighbor and cannot forgive or accept forgiveness, our life is closed up. We build walls, thick walls, tall walls. We do not want anyone to get in to see our own ugliness or we live in fear that we will be harmed again. We are like a jar filled with this precious oil closed tight. When we accept forgiveness and forgive, we lift up the top, and the bottle is opened.

Now myrrh is not the sweet pungent aroma like frankincense. It is earthy, woody, smoky. It is derived from a hardened tree sap. Myrrh has been used for thousands of years and is mentioned in the Bible over one hundred fifty times. It was used as a natural remedy, an antiseptic to treat wounds, and to purify the dead.

After this oil has been blessed, we might put some in a small dish and use it a healing service symbolically letting its aroma seep through the walls around our bodies, letting it purify the dead parts of ourselves, letting it heal our wounds and bring us back to a life in the resurrection.

But there is more. Next we are being asked now to go out into the world carrying within us or on us the precious myrrh that was shared with us. We are now myrrh bearers to heal each we see and meet in the world.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Holy Places and Holy Stories

Holy Places and Holy Stories

“Bethlehem and Nazareth and Jerusalem remind us that is to possible to touch, and hold and see God, even in this life, in the guise of helpless infants, worried parents, broken bodies and empty tombs.”Br. James Koester, Society of St. John the Evangelist ssje.org, Brother Give Us a Word, September 12, 2018

Entrance to Children’s Chapel, National Cathedral Washington DC

Many of you have visited the Holy Land and been to these thin places. You also recount that it has made the stories of what happened at each place more vivid. For those who have not traveled to these particular sites, the stories are still powerful and often can come alive in our own imagination, often through art. There are also places that represent these holy shrines that can also bring them alive. I am thinking of the National Cathedral and the Bethlehem Chapel, the Children’s Chapel, the Chapel of Joseph of Arimathea, and the Chapel of the Resurrection.

Each location can also represent a part of our own lives.

Our Bethlehem is not only the place of our birth, but the place where we start to begin to feel alive, reborn, become the person God created us to be. Our Bethlehem often is a retreat place where our life is changed.

Our Nazareth is not only the place where we were raised but also the places where we are still cared for by the people and places who still nourish and restore us. For many, their Nazareth is their church or spiritual community.

Jerusalem is the holiest of places. It is the place God most often lives. It is where we suffer and parts of us have to die. It is where out of this suffering we find resurrection. I see Jerusalem most often in a grief recovery group called Walking the Mourner’s Path. That is where I see great suffering transformed into a new life, honoring the person that was loved who died and becoming wounded healers to others who have suffered.

In many ways each city is a new life, a new birth, a resurrection. Renewal can be messier at some places and easier and gentler at others.

Today may we contemplate where these holy cities reside in our lives. Where are the places or the groups of people we go to to be reborn, to be nourished, and to be resurrected out of suffering?

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Us Against or For Them

Us against Them or Could it be Us for Them

Guest Writer: Chris Schaefer

“What if we would commit to…opening ourselves to the value we know the others possess as beloved children of God? Maybe our efforts would begin the change that the world desperately needs. Maybe we can become the pebble tossed into the pond that creates ripple after ripple, transforming a destructive Us against Them culture into an Us for Them culture, consistent with the self-denying challenge of our Lord Jesus” The Rev. Ken Kesselus, Bastrop, Texas part of his sermon on Mark 8:27-38 as seen on the episcopaldigitalnetwork.com Sermons that work

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Mark 8:34

She turned to me tears in her eyes and said “They just don’t understand what goes on in my head. They don’t see me!” She is a schizophrenic (by her own admission), homeless young woman that has come into a charity’s thrift shop looking for food. She has been there often before, and the manager of the store has just spoken harshly to her.

The crowd is standing, frozen in place, starring at this forlorn, unstable, dirty woman. Is it “Us against Them” or is this my opportunity to be an “Us for Them”? Can we step out of the “Us” crowd to extend our hands to the “Them”? Yes! Something guides me, and we walk hand in hand out of the store. Through her tears and confusion, she talks of being abandoned by everyone and of her total defeat.

It is her eyes that draw me in, blood shot from lack of sleep and hollow from being lost in a world that steps around her. Nowhere to sleep, nothing to eat, and no medication. With nowhere to turn, her desperation is palatable. Others also step out of the crowd, she is given some food, money and a ride to a shelter and most importantly she felt the extended hands of love and caring.

It is her eyes that have stayed with me. Where is she? Is she safe? Did she stay in the place that could help her? There are the cynics that will say “you can’t fix her, she will be right back on the street, you know she just used that money for drugs!” Maybe, maybe not! But I will pray for her and I will hope that maybe just maybe this was the time that she knew someone loved her and did see her! I must think this way because there will be another homeless person in a thrift store, another forlorn elder in a memory center, another injured soul in a hospital.

I wonder about how Christ has used others and this particular lady to remind us of the least of our brothers and sisters. Christ reminded us through her that writing a check to our local charity is not enough. He wants us to love, to step out of the crowd, to stretch out our hands. To see the forlorn homeless woman, this beloved child of God! To listen, to touch, and love her. By following Jesus in His footsteps, we must step out of the crowd, denying ourselves in our fears, and to make our world more about Us for Them. We can start the ripple effect one person at a time.

Chris Schaefer