American Christians have forgotten the Easter season. We celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus on one day and then return to ordinary time. But Christ appeared over and over again for forty days in resurrected form. We cannot sustain this resurrection season because that kind of sustained joy overwhelms us. This book is designed to help us sustain Easter.
American Christians have forgotten the Easter season. We celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus on one day and then return to ordinary time. But Christ appeared over and over again for forty days in resurrected form. We cannot sustain this resurrection season because that kind of sustained joy overwhelms us. This book is designed to help us sustain Easter.
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Overview
American Christians have forgotten the Easter season. We celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus on one day and then return to ordinary time. But Christ appeared over and over again for forty days in resurrected form. We cannot sustain this resurrection season because that kind of sustained joy overwhelms us. This book is designed to help us sustain Easter.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780819228482 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Church Publishing, Incorporated |
| Publication date: | 10/20/2013 |
| Pages: | 160 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.00(w) x 6.80(h) x 0.40(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Resurrecting Easter
Meditations for the Great 50 Days
By Kate Moorehead
Church Publishing Incorporated
Copyright © 2013 Kate MooreheadAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8192-2848-2
CHAPTER 1
Week 1
Mary
DAY 1 The Truth
Returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. (Luke 24:9–10)
In order to experience the miracle of resurrection, you must first face the fact that you are going to die. Mary Magdalene saw the risen Christ at the tomb. She had to go there, to that dark place where death lay visible for her to examine. It was in the face of death that she found life.
Most Americans run away from death. We euphemistically say that someone "passed away." We talk about our 401Ks as if we are preparing to live in retirement forever, but we do not prepare for death.
Most of us seem to believe that if we avoid the subject of death, maybe death won't happen to us. Maybe if we use Oil of Olay and work out enough, and watch our cholesterol, then death won't come for us.
When people in their eighties get cancer, many of them are shocked. They ask, "Why did God do this to me?" as if God has tricked them out of their lives. One woman, at eighty-nine, asked me as she lay on her deathbed why God was punishing her.
"Why is God doing this to me?" she said.
I tried to talk to her about the inevitability of death, that all bodies grow old and die, but she did not seem to hear me. "My dear friend," I said, "didn't you know that the death rate is 100 percent? Our bodies were simply not designed by God to last forever. They run out of juice. Your body is old and worn-out. It is time to talk about dying."
This is the best part of my job as a priest. I get to tell the truth. I get to come into people's homes and ask if they have thought about dying, if they love God, if they say their prayers, if they are ready. Often my bluntness shocks them. Many will cry. Many will tell me that they really want to go, but their loved ones will not let them. One woman begged me not to let her husband put her on life-support when the time came for her to die.
Our hospitals are designed to fight death with everything we have. Doctors are made to feel like failures if they do not "save" a life. But what often ends up happening is that they end up prolonging dying, not saving life. I cannot count the times when I have begged families and doctors to allow patients to die. People get so confused. They actually think that it is a sin to let a loved one who is terminally ill and on life-support die. But they are only prolonging pain and suffering. Part of life is letting go and there is such a large difference between love and attachment.
You cannot contemplate resurrection without looking at the tomb, without contemplating death. There is no other way to eternal life but through death itself, through the tomb. We don't just continue life as we know it. Life doesn't just go on uninterrupted. We must die first and only then can we hope to live in Christ.
If you admit that you are going to die, then your life can become a love letter to God. You can think of your life as a gift, the gift of a limited period of time in which you can choose how to serve God. And you can prepare for your death so that it is beautiful and edifies all those who love you.
How can we understand the miracle of the resurrection if we do not look into the tomb and see the darkness? Death is coming for you. It will come. And the only thing that you will be able to cling to is your belief in a God who loved you enough to face death for you.
DAY 2 Being Yourself with God
Early on the first day of the week, when it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. (John 20:1)
When I was a child, Molly Smith was my best friend. A simple chain-link fence with a small gate connected our backyards. We went through that gate a lot. She would come over to my house. I would drift over to hers. We skateboarded in the neighborhood and vowed to never wear dresses. I cannot imagine my childhood without Molly.
Molly was no good at sports. She never could get her feet to move fast enough. She seemed to be perpetually falling down. I would laugh at her, pressure her, tell her to move faster. I thought that she was lazy.
Molly and I collected stickers. We loved our sticker albums with a passion. I had more stickers than Molly and I loved rubbing it in.
After we graduated from high school, Molly and I went to separate colleges. In the spring of my sophomore year, I got a call from my mom. Molly's roommate had found her in a coma. They'd rushed her to the hospital, where the doctors discovered that she had too much fluid on her brain. It had been building up for her entire life. That was why she was clumsy and bad at sports. If her roommate had not found her, she might have died in her dorm room.
I felt terrible for all those years of laughing at her and yelling at her to run faster. I never knew why she couldn't respond with more energy.
I found my sticker album and made Molly a large card. On it, I tried to fit every single sticker I owned.
Mary Magdalene had something wrong with her brain. In biblical times, when someone was sick in a way that no one could see or understand, they diagnosed the problem as demons. Epilepsy, schizophrenia, mental illness of any kind, when people hurt themselves or others for no visible reason, their afflictions were attributed to demons. If there was no other visible cause for an abnormality, pain, or suffering, it was called a demon. And Mary had seven demons. Seven different kinds of pain and suffering. Seven things that no one could explain.
So Mary suffered. She was not herself. She lived in a world of misunderstanding and pain.
Then Jesus came and when he came, everything changed.
Jesus did not punish Mary for her demons or lecture her. He healed her. And for the first time in her life, she was truly herself.
Once Mary discovered herself in Jesus, she would not leave his side. She could not bear to be away from him. He was everything to her. Mary Magdalene alone was present at the foot of the cross in all four of the Gospel accounts. She never left Jesus, even when he was bleeding and dying. Not even the horror of the cross could drive her away.
On the third day, when the sun began to rise, she raced to the tomb. She must have felt like half of her heart was removed when he died. She was drawn to his body almost unconsciously, needing to be there with him, even in death.
Mary's first response to the disappearance of his body was shock and grief. She wept. Maybe she could not see through her tears. Maybe she just could not conceive of him being alive, but when Jesus appeared, she did not recognize him.
Jesus called her back to herself. It is so fascinating to me that he didn't identify himself. He didn't say, "Hey, it's me! Jesus!" Instead, he said her name. He named her.
"Mary."
He brought her back to herself, as he had when he healed her. And she woke up to the resurrection life, to the fact that he was there all along, that he lived, and that she lived in him.
I have always been afraid that I might simply blend into some kind of divine morass in heaven, that it might be somewhat like a drop of water hitting the ocean, my soul simply swallowed up by God. Though this might sound good to some, it sounds scary to me. But this story of Mary's encounter with the risen Christ tells us something important. Mary recognized the resurrected Christ when he knew her, when he spoke her name. She recognized resurrection because the resurrected Christ knew her. Could it be, then, that we will be known in heaven by the risen Christ, that he will call our names as well?
DAY 3 To Those Who Loved Him ...
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. (John 20:11)
Mary Magdalene loved Jesus. When he died, her heart was broken.
It is vital to begin contemplation of the resurrection by realizing that Jesus appeared to those who loved him. Jesus did not appear to Pilate or Judas. Jesus did not appear to the high priest, the centurion, or the Pharisees. In the Gospel accounts Jesus appeared only to his disciples and friends.
Most of these disciples had failed him completely. Peter abandoned him and denied even knowing him. The majority of his disciples fled his crucifixion, leaving him to die a violent death without their presence or support. But despite all their failures, these people did love Jesus. It was that love that kept their relationship with him intact, even when they abandoned him to die.
Jesus appears first to the women. The women did not abandon Jesus at his death. The women were the first to appear at the tomb. Hence they were first to see evidence of the risen Christ. In all four of the Gospels, Mary Magdalene alone is present both at the cross and at the tomb. No wonder she was the first to see the resurrected Christ.
What does God mean to tell us by revealing the risen Lord only to those who loved him? I believe that the message is simple.
You cannot taste eternal life if you do not love God.
It is love, not intelligence, not good behavior, not even the highest kinds of morality that draws the soul to God. All good behavior is a fruit of the love that must exist between the believer and God.
Jesus' great commandment is true. If we want to live beyond this life, then our way forward is clear. Jesus spelled it out for us when he said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.... And love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37–39).
It makes me wonder what would have happened if no one had loved Jesus. We would have missed out on the resurrection.
God did not reveal the risen one to those who did things perfectly, to those who said the right things or never made a mistake. God revealed the risen one to those who loved him, who longed for him.
DAY 4 Marriage in Heaven
Jesus said, "For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven." (Mark 12:25)
We do not hear of Mary Magdalene again after the resurrection accounts. Unlike the other disciples, we have no record of Mary going out into the world to preach the gospel. Her preaching was finished when she told the disciples that Jesus was alive. We do not hear about Mary Magdalene in the book of Acts or in the epistles of Paul. Her first and last words are recorded on that first day of the week when she proclaimed, "I have seen the Lord!" From that point onward, she is silent. How strange that one of the most important women in all of scripture seems to just disappear.
The love that Mary felt for Jesus was so strong that it jumps off the pages of the Gospel. More than any other disciple, she could not leave Jesus. She adored him. Mary's adoration of Jesus has caused scholars and novelists alike to surmise that Mary and Jesus were married or at least that they were having sex. After all, when Jesus appears at the tomb, he tells her not to hold him, the implication being that she was planning on putting her arms around him. Did they have a physical relationship?
In the middle of his earthly ministry, Jesus tells the disciples that there will be no marriage in heaven. No one will be given in marriage and there will be no issue if a woman dies who has had many husbands. In other words, in the resurrection life there is no longer sex, or marriage, or any kind of coupling.
People will often ask me if they will see their loved ones in heaven. I believe that they will but the love we feel here for our family and friends and even for our spouses is a small part of the greater love that exists in God. All love will become clear to us as coming from God in heaven.
Mary did adore Jesus. But I believe that her love was far above and beyond sexual love. It was a love that released her from her demonic possession and caused her to serve him all the days of his life. It was a love so complete that she could not leave him when he hung on the cross, or after he died. And after he rose and ascended into heaven, she was simply quiet. Perhaps Mary's heart was full; perhaps she had nothing more to say.
DAY 5 Attachment
Jesus said, "Don't hold on to me." (John 20:17)
When Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene in the resurrected form, she wanted to hold on to him. He had to tell her not to hold him, for he had not yet ascended to God. Jesus belonged to God. He could be loved, but he could not be held.
In my years as a priest, I have learned that there is an enormous difference between love and attachment.
Anna was a woman who had waited to get married. She wanted to find the perfect man. By thirty-eight, she began to realize that the perfect man might not be out there, so she settled for a good man. And once they got married, they immediately began to try to have children.
Anna had wanted to be a mother her whole life. Her happily-ever-after consisted of a husband and two kids, a boy and a girl. When she gave birth to first a girl and then a boy, she thought that life had reached its peak. She was beginning her happily-ever-after. And she loved her children. Oh, she loved them. She stayed at home to take care of them, focusing on every detail of their lives, from their diet to their clothing to all their activities. She was the perfect mom.
But her children began to have behavioral issues fairly early on. Her daughter seemed angry and would throw dramatic temper tantrums. Her son seemed unfocused, dazed. And the more her children did not behave, the harder Anna tried. She was consumed with anxiety. Her children had everything children could ask for, so why were they not behaving? She gave them everything. She loved them so much. Yet they were angry.
"I love my children," she would say. "I give them everything that they need: food, shelter, clothing. Why are they not behaving? Why are they not happy? What is wrong with me?"
Anna loved her children, but she was also attached to them. She no longer saw them as unique individuals. She was constantly comparing them to what she wanted them to be. It was their job to fulfill her expectations and when they didn't, she became more controlling and they became more angry. She really couldn't see them at all, not as God made them.
What Anna failed to do was to let go of her expectations. She never simply asked herself, "Who are my children? What are they trying to tell me? How can I give my life to them?" Instead she worshipped an idol, a vision of family that does not really exist. She thought that she loved her children, but she was in love with an image of them. In her desire to make them fit her ideal, she was suffocating them.
The people we love the most are those who are paradoxically the hardest to truly love. Our love for them gets so easily coated over with expectations, attachments, guilt, and other issues. We find ourselves not listening to the ones we truly love. We want them to be the people we want them to be, not the children of God that God has created them to be. The longer that we live with others, the less that we listen to them. Our disappointment with them looms so large that it can prevent us from seeing them at all. "Fulfill my expectations," we tell them. "Do what I need and want." And we no longer listen to the ones we supposedly love the most. We just hold onto them.
I cannot tell you how many times I have sat in hospital rooms with someone who is clearly longing to die, yet their loves ones will not let them go. I will ask the family members, "Who is this about? Is this love or is this attachment? Is this about meeting your needs, or is it about meeting the needs of the person you love? Is having your loved one around really better than letting go when you are causing undue pain and prolonging the dying process? Whose needs are being met here?"
There is no way to enter the resurrected life without letting go of this physical life. That means letting go of your stuff as well as the people to whom you are attached. You cannot bring anyone or anything with you when you die. I believe that God calls us all to practice letting go even before we die, to practice the art of loving without attachment.
DAY 6 Fixing What Is Broken
But she did not know that it was Jesus. (John 20:14)
My grandpa was a handy man and loved the outdoors. He loved to fish, to hunt, and to build just about anything. His garage was his workshop, full of tools and wood of all kinds. He loved to make lamps out of driftwood from the sea.
When I was about five, my grandpa made me a beautiful kite of paper and hollow bamboo. We went to the beach on Sanibel Island to fly the kite. I ran as fast as my little legs would carry me and the kite rose up in the sky, higher and higher into the wind. He laughed and clapped, too old to run but happy to watch.
As I ran, I did not see a high lifeguard chair in front of me. "Watch out for the chair!" Grandpa called, but I paid no attention. I ran the kite right into the chair just as it was being launched. The kite got stuck on the rails of the chair. I pulled harder. "Careful!" Grandpa warned. I did not listen but just pulled harder. The kite snapped in two.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Resurrecting Easter by Kate Moorehead. Copyright © 2013 Kate Moorehead. Excerpted by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction
HOLY SATURDAY The Resurrection and the Sabbath
WEEK 1 Mary
WEEK 2 Peter
WEEK 3 The Disciples
WEEK 4 Paul
WEEK 5 John of Patmos
WEEK 6 James and Thomas
WEEK 7 The Holy Spirit
Conclusion: Resurrection Moments
What People are Saying About This
“Kate Moorehead, a gifted church leader and pastor, is also a priest with a cause—reclaiming the Great Fifty Days of Easter as a vital spiritual resource. These wise and often moving daily meditations are filled with wisdom and encouragement for discovering the reality of
Easter in our day-to-day lives. Here you will find windows aplenty onto a world shining in resurrection light.”
—The Reverend Dr. Samuel T. Lloyd III, former dean of Washington National Cathedral, now at Trinity Church in Boston
“Kate Moorehead consistently advocates for a generous Christian orthodoxy grounded in faithful, disciplined practice and joyful living.
Her books are inspirational, accessible and practical. I highly recommend her work!”
—The Right Reverend J. Scott Barker, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska
“The Very Reverend Kate Moorehead has made a marvelous contribution toward recovering one of the greatest and least celebrated seasons of the Church Year; Eastertide. She has written a compelling series of meditations on the Great Fifty Days of Easter which will inspire her readers to embrace the power of the Resurrection on Easter and beyond.
Kate has a wonderful way of lovingly confronting her readers with the essential truths of the Christian faith. Put this book on your reading list.”
—The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe, Vice President of the House of Bishops, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas