Bridget of Sweden

Today is the day for the story of Bridget (Bridgid/Brigitta) of Sweden. She lived in the 1300s, born of nobility, and was the mother of eight and lived her married life in the court of the Swedish king Magnus II. Bridget had great influence over the kings of Sweden in her lifetime and even made earnest admonitions to many others, including the current Pope. Though Magnus never fully reformed, he did help her in allowing her to pursue her religious activities. She passed into the joys of eternity July 23, 1373, at the age of 71.

The art work was done by Carl Larsson from a Book on Famous Women of Sweden.

Bridget is remembered for her charitable heart. Margery Kempe says Bridget was "kind and meek to every creature", while strong and courageous, and "she had a laughing face". From a young age Bridget had visions and her many revelations were written down, and translated into many languages, and still in print. Rather than being isolated from the affairs of the world, her visions involved her in many contemporary issues.

What interests me most is how much our visual imaginings of Jesus' life from birth to death are affected by art depictions. Bridget's visions had a great impact on Renaissance art.

Mary Magdalene

July 22 is my Heather's birthday. Hope you had a nice birthday Heather!

July 22 on the church calendar is Mary Magdalene's remembrance day. Prior to the DaVinci Code book, what would google have for Mary Magdalene besides her life being affected by the living Jesus Christ. I would write that 'His embracing her as an outcast, Jesus loved her into the kingdom'. But now after the book's popularity, that might not be the best way to phrase how Jesus saved Mary Magdalene. But that phrase is what I believe.

So which Mary in the gospels is this Mary? I've read the confusions. Some think she's a prostitute and the one who weeped and wiped Jesus' feet; some think she's Lazarus's sister, who sat at Jesus' feet, and anointed his feet too? The actual use of Mary Magdalene is used of the woman who was healed of seven demons (did she weep at Jesus' feet too? I'm confused. But why wouldn't she too be so grateful and be at Jesus feet?).

Mary Magdalene is also mentioned at both the cross and the empty tomb. In fact, she's the first witness and missionary - 'sent one', to go tell the others the good news. We so often just picture Jesus walking about with the twelve men, when in reality there were many women in the close followers too.

If Mary Magdalene could speak to us today, she'd tell us that whoever she really was makes no difference because "we are all sinners in need of the saving power of God, whether our sins have been lurid or not". And like in the picture, I too have embraced the cross and what it means for my life - my everyday aliveness!

Mercy Quote

The pearl of justice is found in the heart of mercy.
- Catherine of Siena

Mercy and justice do go together, don't they?

Some would see justice more in their reading of scripture, other's, mercy. Me? ... I'm analyzing how pearls are made ... a speck of dust and then layers ...

Definition of pearl: a hard roundish object formed within a soft tissue of a mollusk shell...

Something as ordinary as dirt, intruding and irritating, becoming something rare, fine, and beautiful.

The Kingdom of Heaven was compared to a pearl of great price, by Jesus. "Casting pearls before swine"? When do we know someone is unappreciative of the value and beauty of the gospel? When do we 'give up' on someone, give up on mercy?

Veronica

Today is Veronica's day on the calendar. When I watched the movie "The Passion of Christ", I recognized her (as I saw so much other usage of history and art in the movie - like I loved the frozen scene reminding me of Michelangelo's 'Pieta').

The very name "Veronica" comes from "vera icon" meaning "true image".

Was there a Veronica as Jesus carried the load of His cross - dragging, stumbling, collapsing, sweating ...who wiped Jesus' face? It is claimed there is a cloth, a relic, which bears the image of Christ. I don't focus on whether there's a cloth with a miraculous face image of Jesus.

I like to believe there was a woman of compassion, who stepped out of the crowd of onlookers, and helped Jesus, by wiping the sweat from his eyes and face. My focus is given to the love and charity that prompted her action. This good deed became the sixth, in the fourteen Stations of the Cross, that so many Christians 'live' through every Good Friday.

I am glad for a day each year, in the busyness of life, to stop and ponder her action, that overflowed from a compassionate heart. Oh, that my heart be so full of overflowing love ...

Thomas

Today is the calendar day to remember the Apostle Thomas's story. His story? Not much is known of Thomas and if not for the Gospel of John, we wouldn't know much of anything. Other's have mentioned Thomas in their writings. And it's said he was allotted to go to India as a missionary and died a martyrs death.

He's called "Doubting Thomas" by most Christians. The term is used in a sardonic way - like "better are we who believe without the need to see!" Or like it's wrong to doubt. Are Christians not to doubt? If no doubts, why would we need faith?! "Doubt is the shadow cast by faith" - Hans Kung. (The painting is by Caravaggio.)

Thomas is also referred to as Dydimous, meaning "twin". The idea of twin reminds me that I can be two people - both a doubting person and a believing person at the same time. In my doubts, a community of faith can help me see the Truth, and not let doubt destroy me.

I liked what Michael Yaconelli said of Thomas in his book Dangerous Wonder (oh, that Mike were still alive to write more wonder-full books!). Thomas asked a lot of questions. He had a childlike curiosity. During the last supper, Jesus assured the disciples they knew where He was going. Thomas, just like a questioning child ... "where?", "why?" ...

Thomas missed seeing Jesus after the Crucifixion. Thomas wasn't satisfied with just seeing Jesus, he wanted more. He wanted to touch Jesus, embrace Him! I don't see Thomas as doubting. I see him as longing for Jesus. I thirst, hunger, and long for more of Jesus too.

"Curiosity is a hunger of the soul, and because Thomas was strong and courageous and spoke bluntly, he was daring enough to ask tough questions. He was not refusing to believe, he was refusing to settle for secondhand faith. Thomas was driven to know truth--to mingle with it, wrestle with it, become intimate with it." Mike wrote.

On Thomas's calendar day I remind myself Jesus wants me to live as a child - curious, daring, reckless, adventurous ... Not asking questions just for information, but for relationship.

Who Am I?

I read two things this morning that got me thinking ...

A Nietzsche quote (he is so quotable, and tho he didn't understand what Jesus and his disciples was really about, he was so right-on in many of his comments on Christians and humanity) -

"We are unknown, we knowers, to ourselves ... Of necessity we remain strangers to ourselves, we understand ourselves not, in our selves we are bound to be mistaken for each of us holds good to all eternity the motto, 'Each is the farthest away from himself'--as far as ourselves are concerned we are not knowers."

This was in context with the subject of a book Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book - that we can learn more in ten minutes about the Crab Nebula in Taurus, which is 6,000 light-years away, than we presently know about ourself, even though we've been stuck with ourself all our life.

And I read James 1, and paraphrasing here, verses 22-24 -
"You listen, but you do not act upon what you read and hear ... Hearing and not doing is like looking at yourself in a mirror, and after walking away you immediately forget what kind of person you are ..."

I've lately been reading in both Numbers and Deuteronomy and see how ridiculous the Israelites were! So many times in frustration, God wanted to wipe them out! They 'saw' so much, and yet in the next instant would forget and grumble and live wrongly. If they, like children, had so much of God's personal attention and guidance, and saw so many miraculous things on a daily basis, can't 'grow up' into a mature faith - how can we?

They wandered the desert for 40 years, killing off a generation and growing up a new generation. Before they were to enter the new land, God did not want them to melt into the surrounding cultures. He wanted them to know who they were and not forget. How did he do that? He gave them rhythmical calendar celebrations and lots of visuals and imagery and ritual/tradition to instill into their lives so they would remember and not forget who they were/are in God.

We too can get so caught up in our current culture and learnings and not know who we are. How best to remember who we are? First: know and believe that God loves me first as I am, and that He desires a relationship with me. Then act on that!

The very nature of love means choice. Choice means I need to know something (or someone), so I can make good choices. But there's so much to know! I boil it all down to simply going about my days in love with God. The same tools God gave the Israelites, I have for my use too. I use the calendar days and all the connected stories of so many who have lived in love with God. If God was there for them in their midst, then He's going to be here for me today and tomorrow. I can know who I am, and live better ... live fully alive! live more whole.

Peter and Paul

Yesterday, the 29th, was the church calendar day for remembering both Peter and Paul. Every year I remember differing things about them.

Some years I've felt so empty that I remember Saul's lightening bolt experience of God and beg God for something similar for me, even if just a wimpy candlelight flicker of hope. Some years I've focused on Jesus' asking Peter three times, "Do you love Me?" - and remember God loves me first - me, as ME.

This year? First I thought how both had their names changed by God. God pursued them and renamed them.They butted heads with each other and challenged one another and this all was a part of the newness to come. Devout Jews, what does it mean to follow Jesus? What does this new community of believers mean, and what does it look like?

They were so different - Peter was a simple uneducated fisherman who probably had no knowledge of the theological debates of his time. He simply responded to Jesus in a direct, impulsive way. Paul was well educated, sharp, deeply concerned about truth, and willing to persecute those he considered in grave error.

The church is built upon the foundations laid by both Peter and Paul. Their togetherness on the same calendar day speaks to me of unity, of working together, even with all our differences of backgrounds, and varieties of strengths and weaknesses, and emotions and rational/reasonings.

John the Baptist Day

It's six months till Christmas! It's Summer Christmas. This is the day the creators of the church calendar chose for John the Baptist's birthday, so we'd remember him and his story and his message for our soul's benefit. AND it is full blown summer with earth's bounty.

(This is also the day in history that the first state-sponsored terror against Christians began; the first wave of Imperial persecutions at the hand of Roman Emperor Nero.)

As I said yesterday about summer, nature is breathing out all its extravagance of warmth, plants and color. In comparison to Fall and Winter, my soul relaxes and has less concentration. Inwardly I'm in more of a day-dreamy state.

When Summer Solstice rolls around I always think, "Oh yeah, John the Baptist Day is approaching" and I remember his messages. Amid the abundance of summer's growth and fruiting, John was simply clad, and lived in the wilderness. Amid summer's heat and brilliance, John speaks of repentance and urges us to be introspective. He reminds me to look inward and be awake to the universe's mysteries.

While the external landscape calls me into all sorts of activity, I need to not forget or neglect the deep, rich and resourceful landscape of my inner soul.

John began the announcement of the coming of the Kingdom and the Lamb of God, and said, "Prepare the way of the Lord","repent" (change my thinking). A reminder in the midst of summer's madness not to stray from the path, keeping my feet on solid ground; and keep my soul in balance in life's busyness.

"He (Jesus) must increase; I must decrease."

The days are now growing shorter leading to winter and a birth.

Midsummer Night's Eve or St John's Eve

Tonight is Midsummer Night's Eve, tho summer solstice was the 21st. Shakespeare set his play A Midsummer Night's Dream on this night, with all its magical forest revelries. It's also called St John's Eve.

I've been to two Midsummer Night parties. One was at a friend's home and most people came in costumes or at least a face mask. The other was in a park. Beauty was everywhere: the gardens, the short rain, the breeze blowing colored scarves we hung in the trees, ducks and jumping fish in a pond, colorful table coverings and flowers in vases and candles, and then the varied extravagance of beautiful women. We ate sitting on blankets and pillows from around the world, around a ring of candles and flowers. We shared thoughts and blessings and writings and a collage.

A friend asked me awhile back to share my thoughts about nature's seasons. So I'm just now getting around to it since this solstice reminds me of it. We are actually very rhythmical creatures, though technology brings produce and flowers out of season and we can now push buttons that disassociate us from the rhythms of nature. We become a-rhythmical.

Could this disassociation also keep us from thinking there's something more encompassing than ourselves, something/Someone greater than ourselves? With technology we keep pulling the future toward us wanting everything to happen more quickly, yet we complain there's not enough time. We want instant gratification yet have let-downs of "is this all?"

We can easily tend to our physical nourishment, but what nourishes our soul? What brings healing? joy? There's a saying - "To travel hopefully is better than to arrive". Nourishment for me comes from making space in my days: anticipating life's mysteries, and God's surprises. Anticipation leads to reverence, which partners with wonder.

I love our era with all our choices of convenience. But for my soul, I do not want to neglect the needed space for Truth, goodness, and beauty - life's fundamentals. My soul breathes, taking in the world through my senses. My approach to the year's seasons or rhythms is like practicing the steps of the year's dance.

Winter is a breathing in, both externally and internally. As the natural world withdraws into the earth and we draw into the warmth of the house. Inwardly I'm very active with thinking, reading, pondering and creativity. It feels like a time of rest.

Spring and Fall equinoxes are a balance of light and dark and seem to bring more busyness. From Winter's rest Spring brings new life, warmth and color. But it has its setbacks with it's late frosts and hail, both externally and internally.

Summer Solstice is a breathing out time. Nature is the exhale of the earth. Leaf and bright colors are put on. Lots of growth and external activity. But internally? We kind of 'fall asleep' into a dreamy summer state.

Fall absorbs the summer activity back into the earth. Summer dreams are not always attainable and with fall we 'come down to earth' - reality. We wake from our dreamy state. Autumn's 'trial by fire' with its fall colors brings an inner fire, bringing a warmth for the darkness of winter ahead. The clarity of my mind restores in the fall and along with it a new vigor and freshness.

This is the harmony of nature's seasons and moods I've blended with my internal seasonal path of my soul - what I call "soul breathing". I'll be saying more about this tomorrow, John the Baptist Day, as his message to me addresses my summer dreamy state.

On my circular calendar I've tried to visually show this seasonal progression with colors of the rainbow around the circle. Winter being dark purple to blue ...

Cracked Pot

A friend, Beth, sent me this story. I love it. After the story I'll tell you about the 'cracked pot' I made, pictured here.
_____________

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots,
each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck.   

One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.

At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily,
with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments.  
But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection,
and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do. 

After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure,
it spoke to the woman one day by the stream.
'I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side
causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.' 

The old woman smiled,
'Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path,
but not on the other pot's side?'
'That's because I have always known about your flaw,
so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path,
and every day while we walk back, you water them.' 

'For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers
to decorate the table.  Without you being just the way you are, 
there would not be this beauty to grace the house.'

Each of us has our own unique flaw.
But it's the cracks and flaws we each have
that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.  

You've just got to take each person for what they are
and look for the good in them.   
SO, to all of my crackpot friends,
have a great day and remember to smell the flowers
on your side of the path!
________________
I was in a small group of gals - we've grown spiritually together. One evening we had some clay, and just did a quicky project of forming a pot that we imagined representing ourselves. So I did mine with very bright colors. I wasn't thinking of me as bright and colorful, but that I'm not a black and white person, nor gray, and prefer color (and that's not in dress, but my outlook on life)! And I intentionally did create holes and cracks, because I had just come to understand...

In striving to live so 'right', striving for perfection ... it seemed futile and I realized Pharisaical. The Pharisees were the main people Jesus railed upon. They didn't recognize their need. I started recognizing the beauty of my imperfections, realizing the more cracks, the more places for the light of Jesus to shine through.

But now, I'm going to be thinking beyond light, to dripping water that helps give life ...

The Gift of Art

I'm home from a meeting at church - a meeting of artists ... how to find and draw out people in our body of Christ ... value their giftedness (beyond just the typical written Word spoken and talked about, and then the music) ... let the rest of the body know more about 'their' body ... help people learn to see!

What's the 'help people learn to see' piece? I read a line in a 'art and the church' book about the fact, and yes, it is 'fact', that as protestants we are malnourished when it comes to our imagination. (I'm protestant and I have a lively imagination ... but ... )

Did you ever think that it truly takes imagination to read and grasp scripture? 

In this book it showed a bass-relief artwork of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem - he was riding side-saddle. If you saw that, would your imagination run away with your thoughts on the possibilities of that image?! The point, is that most of us would just register 'Triumphal entry of Jesus', and that's all.

Imagination thoughts?: Hmmm ... we think of Jesus as King, besides Divinity - why didn't he ride in in a Roman chariot, or riding a majestic horse? ... maybe horses are a too militaristic, warrior posture ... donkey, okay, peaceful ... but side-saddle? ... isn't that a feminine posture? ... hmmmm

I don't like filling in all the blanks for you. Just my hint at 'feminine' ... doesn't that help you imagine further?

I'm so glad the walls of our church are full of art. We want more. People still walk by without really 'seeing'. We don't have a white wall in our church, we have color. We are not a Black and White Church! There is so much color ... and I'm thinking it's way beyond the spectrum we actually see ...

Brendan

So the Irish Saved Civilization, but did they discover America? Irish monk Brendan, who's Feast Day is today, founded many monasteries and boldly traveled visiting Scotland, Wales, Brittany and Iceland. But no one knows whether the sagas told, written, and sung, of a voyage to North America are fiction or nonfiction. Could he have crossed the ocean in a curragh - a round, hide-covered boat, a glorified canoe? 

Brendan lived from around 484-577. A stamp was issued in 1994 picturing such a journey. This man called 'The Navigator' and 'The Voyager', is pictured in stained glass at the US Naval Academy in Maryland. Frederick Buechner tells his story in a book called Brendan. Ogham, Irish inscriptions written prior to the 800's, have been found in North America.

Even if a religious allegory, it reminds me of a word I learned: peregrinatio. It's a hard word to define. Our definition of 'pilgrimage' does not really fit this word because since the Middle Ages pilgrimages have plans and destinations and when the goal is accomplished, people return home. 

It's been told that three men were in such a skin boat without oars, and when found they said they were "on a pilgrimage, we care not where". It's a celtic word for a journey undertaken for the love of God - surprising and risky and not really having some end or goal in view. But it's not a restless wandering because there seems to be some sense of grounding, and 'at-homeness'.

Brendan's story reminds me that I too have an at-homeness in God, but am I willing to go wherever the Spirit desires me, into the unsafe and unfamiliar - both external and internal journeying?!

Julian of Norwich

Protestant me (though I hate that word, but it does kinda 'place' me - maybe I should use 'Reformed', since I'm always reforming, but I don't like it's lingering images either...) - but to move on, I'm going to talk of another Saint. Mystic Julian is mentioned in some saint books and recognized with a calendar date in some faiths, but I don't think the Catholic church has included her in their calendar.

But 'calendar girl' me, is adding Juliana to my calendar because I like some of her thoughts. I posted a long time ago that the Church recognized people on their death days since they see that as their 'birthday' into heaven. (Though I didn't grow up with any of this, I find it interesting, and it is a part of church history - the 3rd Testament stories. Paul refers to us all as saints, and we have our stories too - a continuation of the Book of Acts.) Julian became very ill May 8 and died around now in 1423.

Julian of Norwich is known for her 'showings' written about in her Revelations of Divine Love. She lived at a time when people greatly desired visions from God (do we?) even to the point of experiencing Christ's death with a stigmata. Julian was 'shown' Christ's sufferings with extraordinary intensity, but also received assurance of God's unwavering love for mankind and his infinite capacity for forgiveness - "I must tell you about the goodness of God".

Julian desired to see reality as God sees it. Julian seemed to be given the gift of seeing life outside of our chronos earthly measurable time. In God's kairos unmeasurable time - actually 'no time' - she saw the Fall of Adam and the Incarnation of Christ as the same event. "When Adam fell, God's son fell; because the true union made in heaven, God's son could not leave Adam, for by Adam I understand all men. Adam fell from life to death into the valley of this wretched world, and after that into Hell. God's son fell with Adam into the valley of the Virgin's womb, in order to free Adam from guilt in heaven and in earth; and with his great power he fetched him out of hell."

When in bed sick she fixed her eyes on a crucifix because a parson had told her, "Look upon it and be comforted, in reverence to him that died for you and me." And then she said, "the room was dim all around me, as dark as if it had been night, except that in the image of the cross an ordinary household light remained - I could not understand how."

I mention the last paragraph because of having looked up the word 'crucible' in the Oxford Dictionary. I've mentioned I love words (like the fun language poem a couple days ago), and I like to see words' origins, since definitions and images change over time. How would you define crucible?
It's latin origin is "lamp on a crucifix". I love this.

I sat with the origin of 'crucible' for awhile and ended up creating a needlefelted image of it. It got incorporated into a wall-hanging of three pictures I'll have to describe later.


Thinking more on Juliana not being acknowledged in the Catholic Calendar ... I wonder if it would have anything to do with her seeing God as our mother as well as our father ... "God as nurturing ... giving birth to humanity ... that the body that died in its birth-pangs on the cross remains a source of generous maternal nourishment for humanity". In actuality, the Church looks for miracles after ones death, which would be evidence of them being in heaven. I think how they LIVED LIFE would be the most important.

Another tangent: If the 'present moment' is what touches eternity, how many of us really LIVE in the present moment? The past and future are not here and now. The only thing we have control over is what to do in the present moment?!

My hopes and efforts are to live with the cross ever before my vision and choices. And when it's dark, I trust God, that there's a light on the cross and my path.

Catherine of Siena

This is the day I remember aspects of Catherine of Siena's story. With many of my posts being Saint Days, you'd think I'm Catholic. I'm not, and didn't grow up knowing anything of church history, and to tell you the truth, I never read the Bible for myself till I was 19, though I grew up in a 'Christian home'.

At a desert place in my life, I wanted to strengthen my knowledge of the past. I began with Jewish history, realizing their history is retold rhythmically each calendar year. As my reading took me into early Christian history I started reading stories of people who had days on the calendar that the church had set up. I see it as a carrying on of the first and second Testament stories into the Third Testament.

Why not carry on the many verses in Old Testament scriptures telling us to "tell the children". It's a great way of knowing myself, that my identity is in this larger drama than me, myself, and I.

Several years ago, when other people were filling out a questionnaire, that asked who your hero/heroine is, with people like Dr Phil and Oprah ... I filled the blank in with Catherine of Siena.

When you read saint hagiography there's so much we, looking back on, think is ridiculous and weird. It sometimes takes a lot of wading through before you find the real person.

Catherine was the 23rd child born in her family and was very religious from a young age. At 16 she rebelliously cut off her hair and cloistered herself in a room of her home. When 18 her family let her join the Dominican order where she spent another 3 years in seclusion.

It was an era when people desired visions and the stigmata and many women betrothed themselves to Christ. Many too lived with harsh asceticism.

The part of her story that really spoke to me was when after the three years of seclusion Jesus said, "Enough. The only way you can serve me is in the service of your neighbor"! I could easily be a hermit or contemplative and just read and putter around my home.

Catherine, along with Teresa of Avila are the only women Doctors of the Church. She died in 1380 at the age of 33. She lived through Europe's Famine and the Plague of 1374 nursing people. People called her "Mama". She also wrote many letters to kings and popes (unheard of by women of her time). She lived during the Church's Great Schism when there were two popes and then three - divided between France and Italy. She worked tirelessly to help heal the Church.

Her spiritual testament is found in her book The Dialogue. The last two years of her life she spent praying for church unity.

In one of my books I wrote (but don't know where it's from) -

"Athletes of the Spirit usually start out in physical inactivity and mystical exercise."

Jewish Children's Story

Since today is officially Passover I didn't share this story before Easter. I did share it with the MOPS gals to whom I'm a Mentor Mom. I periodically check out children's stories even though I no longer have little kids. I've often seen how much we can learn from children and children's stories.

Too many children's stories are written with agendas, so are sermonettes and 'twaddle'. In collecting old books, we have some that are Children's Sermons. Some people might like them, but I hate them. Most talk AT and DOWN TO kids and don't really engage them and invite them in. Most REAL stories carry truth whether the author strove for that or not. They are actually better when the author just lets the story create itself (as an artist I understand this).

I often tell the story I found of Leah and Harry. They lived in an apartment building and were lucky to have their own bathroom and a bathtub. Most people had to share the bathroom down the hall.

Their mama was known to be a great cook. Twice a year she made gefilte fish - in the fall for Rosh Hoshana, the Jewish New Year, and in the Spring for Passover. Right before the Festival, carp fish were hard to find in the stores. So mama liked to buy her carp almost a week before Passover to make sure she got the nicest, fattest, shiniest one. Mama bought her fish live and carried it home in a pail of water.

At home Leah ran the water in the bathtub and Mama would dump the carp into the tub. Leah and Harry had fun going to the bathroom because they'd bring pieces of bread or rusty lettuce for the fish to eat.

One year, the carp seemed much livelier and friendlier with brighter eyes. They even gave this one a name. This was not just any old carp, they just had to save "Joe".

"Mrs Ginzburg has a bathtub," Leah said.

So in a bucket between the two of them, Leah and Harry carried Joe downstairs. Mrs Ginzburg said she couldn't keep the fish from her friend, their mother, but that he better go in the tub, for now, because he didn't look too good, "And you better go tell your Papa."

Papa, coming home from work, was glad to see them, but not glad to hear about the fish. "But we love him and want to keep him for a pet!" Papa took the fish from Mrs Ginzburg's tub and returned it to their tub and they never told Mama. And the kids never again could eat gefilte fish.

A few days later, Papa came home with a beautiful tri-colored cat. They named it Joe.

"Then the Lord said to Moses 'On the 10th day of this month each man is to get a lamb for his family, one lamb to a house ... And you shall keep it until the evening of the 14th day of this month and then slaughter it, and their blood shall be smeared on the two doorposts of every home..."

After living in the kids' shoes (maybe bear feet or sandals) and feeling their emotions the reality of Exodus 12 really hits me. Could the kids in the Hebrew families have become attached to, even giving it a name, the lamb to be killed? And then I think of the Lamb of God - the disciples having lived with Jesus for three years before he was killed.

Passover and Omer

This evening is the beginning of Passover. Because Passover fell on the Sabbath this year, Jews had to make their Sedar meal preparations yesterday since no work is done on the Sabbath.

I've already posted about this year being the calendar catch-up year for the Jewish lunar based calendar. Every nineteen years they add an extra Adar month. Eastern Orthodox churches follow the lunar base for festivals so will be celebrating Easter, Pesach, tomorrow - so two Easters! And like I said before too, Jews celebrated Purim two times this year. The real Purim ended up on our Good Friday.

A friend sent out an email about celebrating Ascension Day on May first and I emailed her what I'm going to write here. But after my long history/theology soliloquy, I ended with telling her if she wants to celebrate Ascension Day twice, she can. And because of what's being written and talked about in Christian circles about Pentecost, I guess I'm kinda celebrating it twice this year too, or stretching Omer longer.

Why do I make a big deal out of this? I like the larger story, the bigger picture that brings more depth to our Christian celebrations and traditions.

Jews had three harvest festivals that they went to Jerusalem for (found in Leviticus 23, Deuteronomy 16, and more). The first two are known as First Fruit Festivals. Barley is the first cereal grain to be harvested and brought to the temple for blessing.

The Sunday following Passover, begins this First Fruit Festival period of counting seven-sevens between the barley and then the wheat harvest festival, called Shavuot. This period of 49 days is called 'Counting the Omer', an 'in-between-time'.

I took a picture of a past year's Counting Omer chart I made. Every Spring this rectangle of rectangles sits on a kitchen counter. Since I strive for more meaning to my ordinary linear calendar days, I like visuals or anything that reminds my heart and brings anticipation of God's presence. Glueing pieces of grain, or marking off the days, helps bring meaning - a God-consciousness activity - to these days. I try and create space in my days for God to show up - anticipating surprises from God - God 'winks'.

The Jewish Festival of First Fruits became our Easter. Jesus rose from the dead on the Jewish festival day that many Jews had come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover and then their first harvest fruit of barley. I Corinthians 15:20 says, "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruit of those who are asleep." How exciting is that?! Do you think that was part of a plan? a cool detail in the large drama of life?!

I will start counting the 49 days tomorrow. If you started with the Easter day we celebrated this year, you'll end up with the 50th day being Mother's Day. To me that's all wrong! The 49-50th day really falls on June 8-9 this year.

See the little red box in my picture? That's the 40th day in the counting - that's Ascension Day. You can talk about this event, but it's more fun to take a picnic lunch and blanket and eat somewhere outside and look up into the sky and talk about the story at the end of Luke and Acts 1 when Jesus left this earth. Imagine being a disciple - you've lived with Jesus for 3 years dreaming of setting up an earthly kingdom and then watch Jesus leave, "Hey, but wait a minute, where are you going? This is not what I had in mind!" The physical presence of Jesus left them. What now?

At this time Jesus told them to return to Jerusalem and wait the ten days until the next Jewish Harvest Festival. I'm sure the disciples were reliving all the memories and words of those three years with Jesus, wondering what the heck he really meant! while waiting for the Shavuot Festival. Remembering and praying and waiting.

Every year at this time the Jews read the 10 Commandments, remembering Moses and the commandments inscribed by God on stone on Mt Sinai in the desert. But the Jews are missing the bigger picture. To Jeremiah (31:33) God said, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it" who's message carried further in II Corinthians 3:3 says, "You are a letter of Christ written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts."

Jesus died and then resurrected on Easter becoming the first fruit at the early first fruit festival. In our Christian year, 50 days later, Shavuot became Pentecost, and as Christians we have the Holy Spirit living within us, and are first fruits too. So from the letter of the law, to the Spirit; from stone to human hearts.

I hang seven descending doves over our kitchen table for Pentecost as another visual reminder for my heart. Pentecost is the birthday of the Church. Does your church celebrate Pentecost? I've never been in a church that celebrated it. We remember God the Father and Son in the Incarnation and Death and Resurrection, but do we celebrate the Holy Spirit and what it all means to our Christianity? A remembrance of letters in stone to the Spirit in our hearts; remembering that the letter of the law brings death, but the Spirit brings life. Remembering the gifts and fruits of the Spirit.

This year our church is finally going to celebrate Pentecost Day. I've been asked to help 'preach' that weekend. I guess my years of talking about the Calendar depth, including Pentecost, is bearing fruit. We're going to tell everyone to come wearing red. We're going to have balloons and birthday cake.

Instead of calling this season Eastertide, I see it as a Season of Redemption. On Passover, the Jews eat history, remembering freedom from slavery. But freedom for what? What is physical freedom without an identity of who you are? Mt Sinai with God and the 10 Commandments gave them a spiritual freedom, a knowing they were part of a larger story. But the 'story of redemption' is even larger for us who believe in the Incarnation, Resurrection, and Pentecost.

There is a great drama that God asks us to be a part of. God still takes on human flesh today, expanding the Incarnation to us followers of Jesus. The God above became the God alongside, and then the God within. Is this not Wild?!!!!!!!!!!!

Criticism

Should I say anything or let the pictures speak for themselves. If you think of them in relation to me or Monte ... Or think of what goes on in churches and culture and history ...

Heaven?

Life after death ... How do you envision it?

It seems the Resurrection of Jesus started a muddle.

What is Heaven?

It seems most of our beliefs of heaven and hell are from Dante.

It's an interesting thing to think about.

Ever hear the phrases: Church Triumphant, Church Expectant, and Church Militant? What do they mean?

Beauty

Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Or might I ask, is it merely in the eye of the beholder? Or is it something 'out there'?

"You can recognize truth by its beauty and simplicity."

- Richard Feynman, Nobel laureate in physics

Science and Theology Meet in The Evidential Power of Beauty

"Beauty is the battlefield where God and Satan contend with each other for the hearts of men."

- Fyodor Dostoyevski in The Brothers Karamazov

Buechner and Dillard "Remember" Quotes

Instead of adding these to the last post, I thought I'd post them separate. Of the variety of books I read, these are two more of my favorite 'very interesting' authors.

I like the word "remember" and it's in Scripture more than 300 times. The thief on the cross asked, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And Jesus at the table said, "Do this to remember me."

"When you remember me, it means that you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me." - Frederick Buechner

OH, does that tug at my heart reminding me just now as I typed that above of this quote in the book Deep Unto Deep by Dana Candler: "When I stand before Him face to face one day soon, when I meet His eyes for the first time, will I experience a memory in that gaze? Will there be familiarity?"

"I have no problem with miracles ... that isn't the question I struggle with. To me, the real question is, 'How in the world can we remember God?' I like that part of the Bible that lists kings as good and bad. Suddenly there comes this one, King Josiah, who orders the temple to be cleaned up and inadvertently discovers the Law. This happens after generations of rulers and after the Israelites followed God through the Exodus. Somehow they had forgotten the whole thing, every piece of it. A whole nation simply forgot God." - Annie Dillard

This quote tugs at my heart as well. It reminds me of Nehemiah 8 when Ezra does read the Scripture they found. The people STOOD for the entire reading of the Torah, hearing it for the first time, and they wept. Then they partied!

Burning Heart

This morning's reading brought me to the two guys walking the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. This is another story in Scripture I love. I would so love to hear Jesus tell stories. They were trying to make sense of what just happened in Jerusalem. Jesus walked up asking, "What are you so intently discussing?" and walked and talked with them.

Everyone was so sad. All their hopes that Jesus was the one to redeem Israel were shattered. Jesus couldn't have been the one, because they killed him.

We ourselves have just come through the season of Lent and lived again through the week of passion. I put a potted cross Dawson made years ago for me along with a barbed wire 'thorn of crowns' on our kitchen table adorned in black from Good Friday through Saturday night. In the hopeless waiting, in puzzlement over it all, we can ask questions too, like: How can we make sense of it all? What on earth has gone so badly wrong? Why should this have happened? If we want God's hope, God's love, God's thoughts instead of ours - then we have to go though a time of silence, of resting, of unknowing.

John's "Word of God" fell silent; the living water no longer flowed; the bread from heaven scattered; the light of the world got snuffed out; the good shepherd, snatched away from the flock; the grain of wheat, falling into the earth died; the Messiah came, and his own rejected him.

Then I ponder two lines from a poem, (I think by TS Eliot): "On the seventh day God rested in the tomb/ Having finished on the sixth day all his work of joy and doom."

But surprise!
Jesus started appearing to people. He had already gone through death and out into God's new world, God's new creation and he's come forward to meet us, 'back to the present'. Though it still seems dark out there, the new world has begun.

Mary Magdalene was the first to see the risen Jesus. "Very early in the morning while still dark, she came to the tomb..." She, the first witness, brought Peter and John running to the empty tomb, puzzled and worried and scared. This was something they'd never imagined! Jesus appeared to people with his body fully alive.

Jesus is wanting us to leave the old creation behind on the cross and work at making more bits of the new creation happen within the world as it still is. Didn't Jesus keep saying, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" here and now?!


Before I go to bed Saturday night I drape the potted cross in a white lace tablecloth and hang a garland of roses. It's our early morning visual reminder of the resurrection. Some years, since Dawson and I raised silk worm moths and him other moths, I've put cocoons on the table for the days leading up to Easter, and hang butterflies we made from feathers over the table Saturday night. It helps kids understand the resurrection process better.

We need to pray for vision and wisdom to know where God can and will make new creation happen in our lives, in our hearts, in our homes and communities.

We stand on resurrection ground. We are in the Season of Easter between now and Pentecost. We need more prayer, more parties, more knocking on God's door to see what he wants us to be doing; and more celebration of God's new creation!

The two on the road to Emmaus didn't recognize Jesus. While walking, he told them stories from Scripture. They invited him home with them to eat. The moment Jesus broke the bread, they recognized him, and then Jesus disappeared. He reappeared later to the gathered disciples and there again shared stories. Like the two said, I too would love to feel (and maybe I do), "Didn't our hearts burn within us as he talked, opening up Scritpures to us on the road?"!

GOOD? Friday

Other than Jesus' words on the cross "It is finished" (accomplished, completed) and his words in Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ "I make all things new", I wouldn't call what Jesus went through 'good'.

Maundy Thursday (Passover) - Seder

Some churches have Maundy Thursday services tonight. "Maundy" is Latin for "mandatum" or "commandment" because at the Last Supper Jesus said, "A new commandment I give you: Love one another ..." Because Jesus washed the disciples feet that night, some churches wash feet.

At this meal, the disciples were expecting it to be a traditional Passover ritual they grew up with. On Passover Jews eat history, remembering the Exodus story with a Seder ("ordered") meal. This Holy day was to awaken Israel's past into her present. Passover spoke powerfully of God rescuing His people.



The disciples had no clue Jesus was going to die. Jesus shared the meal with them, with special twists that would tell his story more powerfully than any other way. Jesus must have played the role of the father in the typical seder, but as he did with everything, he made the Passover become personal. Jesus' new Passover speaks even more powerfully of God rescuing His people in a new and complete way.

Many years I've done a seder meal at home. I have a Haggadah I can copy that is a script for the ordered meal. Sometimes our kids have had friends over, and they take advantage of the idea of reclining at the table, which we've heard the Jews typically did - with low tables. It truly is eating history.

Now that one of our pastor's is Jewish, this will be the second year in a row we'll have a seder meal at our church tonight. As Christians, there's so much more depth to the ritual. "...Every time you eat this bread and drink the cup..." we are actually announcing to the world around, to the principalities and powers that keep people enslaved and fearful and angry or not living to their full selves, that Jesus is Lord, and that his death has broken the power of sin and fear and sorrow and shame. This meal propels us out into the community in the confidence that God is at work.

The Passover meal became the Lord's Supper. The Passover Lamb becomes the Lamb of God. Instead of just remembering the slaughtered firstborn of Egypt - we remember that Abba Father slayed His firstborn. Instead of smeared blood protecting the firstborn - Abba protects those who drink from His firstborn's cup.

Jesus made himself the center of the Passover re-enactment. Jesus established the physical bread and wine so we will never forget his gracious act of love for us. It's a meal that speaks more volumes than any theory. We participate in his life (and death) for us. We physically remember. Jesus asks us to "taste, see, and know My presence".