Easter thoughts

We had a pretty strange Easter weekend. For the past few years, I've been pretty involved with church stuff, so have known intimately what would happen with the services, etc, and that's been my primary focus. This year, I didn't have any of those responsibilities, so was looking forward to just heading along to the services as part of what we did over the weekend.

For Good Friday, we went to my parents' church, and up the front there was a painting that one of the women from the congregation did a few years ago (I'm hoping to get a copy of it to post on here later). It was a great piece of art, of Jesus on the cross, head bowed, hair in front of his eyes. I thought it was great - very poignant. What stunned Ali and I, though, was that a number of times, later in the day, Josh (who's 4, remember) kept talking about it. He started by saying "The picture at church made me sad". When we asked him why, he said "because the man in the painting looked sad". We explained to him that it was Jesus, and he was dying on the cross, which is why he was sad.

What struck me was how often I stop to recognise that I should be sad, too. It's so easy to know the story, to know Jesus died, but with Easter Sunday in the background, therefore not allowing the fullness of what transpired to hit home. As I said, I've been involved in many Easter services, and one of the things that used to irk me was when people would complain that our Good Friday service was too dark, or too depressing, or words to that effect. I need to be slapped around the head with the truth that this man, a man with feelings, who suffered incredible pain, who died, made an incredible sacrifice. It's not enough to stop at understanding atonement or penal substitution. Those things are important, but so is the fact that Jesus chose to die, for me, for you. I should be sad, and I'm glad that Josh was, too.

Easter Sunday, we had plans to go to another church, but unfortunately, Rachel got really crook late Saturday night, and spent most of Sunday throwing up. She was really weak, very lethargic, slept a lot, and was really quiet (something not quite normal for her...!) This morning (Monday), she was still pretty weak, but after some food throughout the day, she perked up and was back to her normal self. I was amazed at how great it was to hear her talk, laugh, cry... even scream. It was just wonderful to have our little girl back to normal.

In the midst of that, another Easter revelation came to me - the joy, the unspeakable joy that the disciples must have felt when Jesus was amongst them following his resurrection. To think you were never going to hear him again, laugh with him again, eat with him again... and then there he is, in the flesh, back.

As equally as Good Friday should be about grief, about darkness, sadness, reflection, Easter Sunday should be about joy, celebration, laughing, eating, remembering that Jesus is not gone, he's with us - he went through the darkness, and came out the other side, to bring light to all.

I love Easter.

absence >> yearning

We're currently in the middle of a record heatwave here in Adelaide (for any time of the year, let alone the first month of Autumn). Today is the 15th day in a row that we have had a temperature over 35C (95F). That's a lot of heat in anyone's language...

I'm unashamedly a summer person - I much prefer to get around in shorts and a t-shirt than anything else, and love the sunshine, daylight savings, warmth. Yet something funny has happened in the last few days (something which normally happens every summer at some point for me - I'm developing a yearning for winter! I'd really love to have a rainy day (we're in the middle of a drought here, as well), a cold night where we could switch the heater on, get into some trakkies, snuggle under a blanket and watch a good movie or read a good book. (I know it won't last - give me a few days of cold wind, driving rain and I'll be back on the summer bandwagon)

But it made me think - perhaps our yearnings are shaped a lot by absence, rather than presence (or perhaps a combination of the absence of one thing with the constant presence of the opposite?). During this heatwave, it's been the absence of cool, of rain, while living in the constant presence of heat (some nights it hasn't dipped below 30C) that has given me a yearning for winter. Conversely, in winter, when the sun is more absent, when warmth and light also go missing, and rain and darkness become constant companions, this produces a yearning for summer.

Does that give a new understanding to the purpose of lent, which finishes this weekend with Easter? The idea of fasting during lent is also about absence - about deliberately removing something from our presence. And when that yearning kicks in, we are to turn not to a yearning for whatever it is we are fasting from, but rather to a greater yearning for more of God in our lives.

May you know more of God's presence in your life, as we begin this Holy Week.

lent

As has become a part of my daily rhythm, I listened to the Jesuit "Pray as you go" podcast this morning. In it, they made reference to the meaning of Lent relating to Spring and new life, which makes sense, when you consider the seasons in the Northern Hemisphere.

As I'm in the Southern Hemisphere, it hit me how much difference that may make, in the lead up to Easter. For me, the most powerful aspects of Easter have always revolved around Good Friday - the sacrifice, the death, the pain, the suffering. The joy of Easter Sunday has always been part of Easter, absolutely, but for me, often the focus has been on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

As I reflected on the comments about new life, I wondered whether it makes a difference that Easter for us is generally in April - the middle of Autumn - a time of dying, decay, daylight savings ending, darkness, and perhaps that shapes the Easter experience. For our friends in the Northern Hemisphere, Easter occurs at a time when new life is born in the fields, when it is warming up, the days are getting longer, and perhaps this shapes the focus on Easter to a more joyful, fresh experience.

It's funny how we can be affected by the environment we live in, without even realizing it...

foundations

I've been doing a bit more work around our house this week - some odd jobs that needed to be finished off, including some paving and some painting.

What's hit me again is just how important foundations are. It plays a huge part in whether you have to do something once, or keep doing the same things. If I pave the path with a solid foundation under it, taking a bit more time, it'll last a lot longer. If I take shortcuts, it'll fall apart, and probably have to be repaved. If paint jobs are done well the first time (good surface prep, good coverage), this will mean the job will look a lot better and, again, last a lot longer.

Surely, it's the same with our spirituality, but how much do we focus on the foundations - on two fronts?

For people who are involved in walking with those taking their first steps in finding out what it means to follow Jesus authentically, how much effort do we put into the "surface prep", the foundations? What is appropriate and helpful surface prep, foundation laying? And if we don't lay a foundation, why are we surprised when things are a lot more complicated down the track?

For all of us, when we shortcut the basics, and the fundamentals (of course, discerning what the fundamentals are is a whole other discussion), again, why are we surprised when things get complicated, confused? What would it mean for us to "last a lot longer"?