Eastertide 4th Week: Orientation.

The Lord created medicines

   out of the earth. (Sirach 38:4)

Dear Abby, 

Orientation for your near three years of studies in the Physician’s Assistant Program at the University of South Alabama begins in a few days. So, you moved from San Marcos, TX some ten hours east along Interstate Ten to Mobile, AL, where you move into a home of your very own—some three blocks from the university, I’m told. What is it like to be a homeowner?

We will be interested in your Orientation and your classes for the semester. I’ve had a lot of interaction with Physician’s Assistants lately. They are the ones I communicate with. The PAs tell me when I can take the bandages off my head, and the stitches out of my scalp, and activate my stimulator. I tell them, “My granddaughter is studying to be a PA.” They light up.

A few years back, we did a road trip with the Sjodahls along Interstate Ten from New Orleans to Tallahassee, FL. We passed right through Mobile, but it meant nothing to me then. But now, it’s a special place.

 

Easter Sunday: pan ethnē (παν έθνη)

 The Messiah is to suffer

   and rise from the dead…

So that forgiveness of sins

   will be proclaimed to all nations. (Luke 24:46-48)

Dear Priscilla,

It is a lonely Easter Sunday for us. It has to do with the lingering pandemic. I’m quarantined till DBS surgery a week from Thursday. It’s my first Easter away from church—the fellowship, the community of saints who gather on this Sunday of all Sundays.

The “pan” in “pandemic” caused me to think of our risen Lord’s words: “pan ethnē.” You can figure it out without even knowing Greek: “all ethnicities;” or, as usually translated, “all nations.” That’s how us gentiles get in on it. Our Risen Lord teaches us that that was always in the heart of God—in all scripture, that the terms of Jesus’ death had to do with the salvation “of all people” (Lk 2:10).

Jen just dropped by on her way to church along with Sarah and Josh; so, it is not a totally lonely Easter after all. When they left for church, we found your Easter service on YouTube—Harris Creek. We looked for you among the worshipers. You pastor talked about the cross being the cure for the sickness of sin. A “pan” salvation for the pandemic of sin.

 

Lent: Friends

Greet our friends

   by name. (3 John 15)

Dear Priscilla,

I’m looking at the picture you sent Grammy of you with your university friends. I’m so happy you have found such good friends. I hope, like your sister Abby, you will be able to bring them by someday so that we can know them by name. Jesus refers to his Bethany friend as “Our friend Lazarus” (Jn 11:11). That is the thing about good friends—you want others, even your grandparents, to know them too.

I didn’t realize how difficult high school friendships were for you. In the midst of the COVID epidemic you moved from Vandegrift High School in Austin, TX, up I-25 near 1,000 miles to Dakota Ridge High School in Littleton, CO. Maybe God, like with Job, is making up double for what you lost. I pray you will be able to nestle into your university years, enjoy your university friendships, and even enjoy your university studies. Enter into your collegiate life with joy and thanksgiving. It is a special time.

Lent: Tears

Hold back your tears;

   don’t lose hope. (Jeremiah 31:16-17) 

Dear Anna,

I’m sorry to hear you did not get into Harvard or Yale, though you were interviewed by both. You had high hopes. You can’t help but be disappointed; even to tears. Tears are good. It means you care—that you have big aspirations and hopes. “‘Don’t lose hope!’ says the Lord” (Jr 31:17).

We try to comfort with phrases like: “God has a plan for your life;” or, “God closes one door to open another.” There’s truth to it. But we can’t speak the words of comfort until we allow sorrow to run its course. Lenten season allows us to sorrow with Jesus. Jesus wept. There is Easter Morning; but, between now and then, it is okay to cry. God allows us our tears. The Psalms are full of laments: “In my grief, I wondered if God really cares” (Ps 77 sung by the congregation).

 

 

Lent: Graduation

 Blessed are those

  who join in the festal walk. (Psalm 89:15)

Dear Abby,

Since we missed your Texas State University graduation due to COVID; Grammy and I were looking forward all the more to your Master’s graduation. But now we hear you won’t be able to join in the graduation ceremony; because Orientation to your Physician Assistant Program at Southern Alabama University starts the day before. That’s not fair. We were hoping to celebrate with you and see you walk in your festal Master’s Robe with those dangling sleeves swaying in the breeze.

We will figure out a celebration date of our own. Maybe Grammy and I will make a trip out to Mobile and see your new digs. The Bible makes provision for those who can’t make it to the big festivals:

If you can’t make it to the festival; you may sell the tithe portion of your crops and herds. Use the money to buy anything you want: cattle, sheep, wine, or beer—anything that looks good to you. You and your family can then feast in the Presence of the Lord, your God, and have a good time (Dt 14:24-26).

That’s what we will do—a family celebration in your new home.

Lent: Where is God?

Jesus suffered

   and died for us. (Hebrews 13)

Dear Pricilla,

The thing about these European wars is that they are wars between Christian nations. Even communist Russia calls on the Russian Orthodox Church to pray for victory. As Abraham Lincoln said of our Civil War: “Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. … The prayers of both could not be answered. …The Almighty has His own purposes.”

That does not mean we do not take sides. Since Jesus “suffered and died,” we take the side of the victims—the Ukrainians and Zelensky, their brave president. It does mean that we must be careful, as Lincoln warned, not to drag the Almighty into our agenda and our purposes. God has His own purposes.

Which leads us to a more difficult question, “Why does our loving God allow such injustice, violence and suffering? If God really is Almighty, why doesn’t God put a stop to such wars and violence?”

Lent is the season when the church turns to our Suffering Savior who “suffered, outside the city, in order to cleanse the people by His own blood” (Hb 13:12).  On the Cross, God enters into our suffering. The writer to the Hebrews points out that Jesus suffered “outside the city.” I wonder if that means, all Powers and nations, tribes and ethnicities that call on the name of God must find Him outside of their control—their ideology, politics, or claims to righteousness? Easter Morning does not cancel the Cross; but rather makes the cross The Cross—that place, outside the city, were God is to be found.

 

Lent: Rock of our Salvation.

 The Rock, his work is perfect,

   and all his ways are just.

A faithful God, without deceit,

   just and upright is He. (Deuteronomy 32:4)

 Dear Rachel,

The war is troublesome. Zelensky tries to convince us that Putin’s threat of nuclear weapons is just a bluff. We are not so sure. So we keep our distance and watch and see how the war plays out. It is so tragic.

The Biblical metaphor of God as The Rock is an unfit analogy, but it caused me to think of Zelensky this morning… how he is a rock over against the Powers--that Russia should stumble over such a rock. He, of course, is not The Rock “without deceit, just and upright.” He’s a flawed mortal who, when it counted, stood up against the Powers. It’s a rare sight. Even if he loses, he wins—rock like.

Something like our Lenten Jesus; The Victim of the Powers who becomes “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” The Rock over which the Powers “fall and break” (Is 8:13 & 1Pt 2:7-10).