Practicing Resurrection

Easter 2
April 11, 2010
at Our Lady of Grace Monastery

Order of Saint Benedict

Rev. 1:4-8
John 20:19-31

They had been in process of becoming a community for nearly 3 years, having received invitation to be part a select group of learners, learning and sharing ministry experiences. They had changed in that time: changed residences and occupations, leaving one vocation to heed another. For some there were more radical or transformative changes than for others. They had seen much together and sometimes in smaller groups. They had witnessed wonderful teaching and preaching, shared amazing stories, experienced death and life, told of weeping parents and sisters and brothers in the throes of illness and death, only to discover life.

They had broken bread together, slept together, shared the journey, asked questions, argued and laughed, claimed to be the best group and had their feet washed, and were anointed with fragrant oils and holy touch. They had put some puzzling pieces together and had been woven into a one of a kind garment, with some frayed ends and some dropped stitches, not always evenly knit to perfection,
but beautiful none the less. They had some mountainous memories, well spring occasions, some dark valleys, and yes, even nodded off to sleep on an occasion or two.

They had been given the gift of invitation to become friends, with the challenge to grow in grace; to walk with prayer-filled steps, to pray in new ways, to mind their thoughts, to face their fears, to walk on water, to perform miracles, to practice resurrection.

And it all came down to these final days, and they were not sure what was to come, of what to hope for. They thought they heard: “It is finished” ….it’s over and done.

So here we are…closed in. Presently in a safe place, not wanting to leave, knowing we must. Wondering. Having shared pain and sorrow and confessed deepest desires, longings, the need to know freedom, forgiveness, acceptance, in our own ongoing conversions...

Longing to keep hold of what has been offered in these sacred events now past…we sit...empty handed, feeling a bit fragmented, needing to breath plotting our next individual moves. Wondering


Invited into the Gospel story, we are invited to practice resurrection.

So this is what I believe… my own practicing of resurrection, inviting you to test this out and to step into this practice with me.

The Living Christ is here, among us, behind the closed doors of this building, this room, this heart, this life. The Living Christ is standing, sitting, sharing our empty hands and hearts as we expose the wounds of our bodies and souls.

Sr. Luke, Sr. Betty … you have been Christ to us, as have all the Sisters at Our Lady of Grace, as you have welcomed us as Christ. Thank you for helping me to practice resurrection by seeing the Living Christ in you.

Women Touched by Grace, you are the Living Christ, revealing your woundedness, not denying any of it, but offering that woundedness as a sign of resurrection.
Thank you. You come, offering the Living Presence of Christ.

PEACE
Jesus said among them saying, “Peace be with you.” 3 times in this passage his greeting is “Peace be with you.” On the night in which he was betrayed, according to this same gospel writer he said, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you… not like the peace of this world. Do not let your hearts be troubled.. [nor] afraid.” (John 14)

In a few moments we will be invited to stand and share the Peace of Christ. What is it we share? A greeting. A blessing. A prayer. But it is also a practice; we are practicing resurrection, acknowledging that we recognize the Living Presence of Christ in one another with our own wounds exposed. This is Christ is us and among us and with us. The mystics, (Mystic Cowgirls included), practice peace, solitude, silence, serenity… for they have come to know that practicing peace is the gateway to practicing the presence of Christ.

SEEING
The mystics have also taught seeing with the 3^rd eye, a God vision, and listening with the 3^rd ear, or the ear of the heart where holiness resides. Thomas trusted in his TWO eyes. He needed to practice seeing with the third eye. This gospel writer, as we may know as John, a mystic, fills his writing with language about “seeing” and “believing” and is urging his readers to keep on seeing beyond the vision of our 2 eyes and listening with more than our 2 ears, to practice seeing and to keep on believing, to practice resurrection of Christ among us.

THE BREATH
Jesus breathed on them. Take a moment. Breathe. “Receive the Holy Spirit”, he said. God, in creation, breathed life into ADAMAH. (Genesis 2) Ezekiel, the prophet of God, tells of his directive from God to prophesy to the WIND, to the BREATH, to breathe life into that which was dead. (Ezekiel 37) Jesus breathed life into those behind closed doors, who were wounded, wondering, uncertain, and frightened; breathed holiness into them.

Take a moment. Breathe. Remember.

And then Jesus spoke of FORGIVENESS.
A few days prior, Jesus had not only encouraged them to be at peace, but told them they would all run and hide and even deny him. Now his first word is “peace” and his second is about forgiveness. He doesn’t say “I forgive you, live in peace”. He has is already done that.

from Desmond Tutu and daughter:
Failure and shame shut your eyes So you can’t see me.
Anguish and pain shriek with your voice and you can’t hear me.
Guilt makes you turn aside and you think I have walked away. But through it all I am right here,

Right here where you wept lonely tears for me,
Right here where you thought you didn’t want me to be,
I AM… Between, within, and all around you…. I AM

The disciples' work now was to forgive themselves and to forgive each other… to decide what they would retain…which burdening sin they would decide to retain and keep and continue to carry. And who gets to carry it???? I suspect the “retainer”.
Forgiveness frees not only the offender but also the one offended.

Practicing resurrection Jesus offers peace, Jesus breathes holiness, Jesus invites freedom in forgiveness…All in the context of being sent.

“As the Father has sent me, so I send you."

We cannot stay here.
We have to open the doors and go out.
We have to continue to practice resurrection, even when our eyes and ears tells us otherwise.
We have to practice the living presence of Christ who we will meet through being like Christ, through being Christ, who invites us to be like God, forgiving sin and be freed through merciful forgiveness, living in peace, and so living in the presence of Christ, being signs of Christ even in our woundedness so that we may keep on believing and living into that for which we were called. To become the living Christ.

…to you, 20 Women Touched by Grace, and the churches and people you serve across the continent….

Grace to you and peace from God who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before the throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the earth

[As the Father has sent me, so I send you]

To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and our God, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. AMEN.