Dearly Beloved,
What fun we had this last Sunday! I've included a few photos below. There is something powerfully medicinal about laughter, playfulness, and celebration -- especially when we are not denying or ignoring the pain of our world and the pain of our lives but instead holding space for that, too. I am so very grateful for our relationship with First Christian Church. And our ability to have fun together!
Did many of you get to see the partial eclipse on Monday? I was under the weather, so missed it, but what an amazing thing! I've seen pictures from across the country, and there is something just awe inspiring, something truly wonder-full about this eery event, about the cosmos aligning just so, about God's creation and the dance between light and darkness, the tension between what is known and knowable and what remains mystery.
It is interesting to hold the mystery and stories surrounding a solar eclipse alongside the mystery and stories surrounding the resurrection. For many, the eclipse represents a time of transition, transformation, death and rebirth, love, endings and beginnings.
Sunday's scripture (from the Gospel according to Luke) tells of two apostles on the road. A stranger joins them and they are shocked to learn that he does not know about all that has just happened with Jesus of Nazareth. And then the stranger begins to teach them -- to illuminate the scripture stories, back and back and back. It's getting late, so as they near their destination, the two friends invite the stranger to stay with them. They sit down to eat, and the stranger blesses the meal, breaks the bread. In that moment, they recognize Christ in their midst. And he is gone.
Don't you wonder why they can't recognize him earlier? Does he look so different from the Jesus they knew and loved? What is it that happens in the blessing and breaking of bread? What changes that he becomes recognizable? What transformations have taken place?
Their question to each other is: "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?"
"Were not our hearts burning within us?"
When I consider the wonder, the mystery, the transformation that I observe in nature, my heart burns within me. When I experience and reflect on the connections I have with others, the gift of hearing their stories, of holding their pain, their fear, their joy, of journeying with them (of journeying with you!), my heart burns within me!
When does your heart burn within you? Can you notice in the moment, or is it only later that you realize what has happened? What would it be like if we could trust, in those moments, that we are on sacred ground, that Christ is in our midst, that we are witnessing transformation and transition, death and resurrection? What would it be like if we slowed down to pay attention more often to the times and places and ways that our hearts burn within us?
These, my beloveds, are the questions I am carrying in my heart today. How about you?
I look forward to living these questions (and others!) with you on Sunday morning.
With love and in wonder,
Thandiwe
