Through my study window I see the spot!
It's still covered in snow, but this Spring, I'll get my hands gloriously dirty again, planting my Jerusalem Cross Garden in this new place in north Spokane that we call home. And through Jerusalem-cross-gardening, the "gardening of soil and soul," I look forward to surrendering again to the way of the cross. It is the way that helps us through events like those of Christchurch, New Zealand. 50 Muslims murdered, 50 wounded as they prayed. And all live-streamed as poison to the "it is good" of God.
How do we get through such times and still believe love wins?
In worship this Sunday we were invited to join Father, Son and Holy Spirit around the Lamb (the chalice in the icon to the right). Rublev’s icon of the Holy Trinity encouraged us to take our place with the One-in-Three, the Three-in-One, in the circle of love around the altar, and to dwell there in the house of love rather than the house of fear. There is a space left before the altar for each of us. And it is here, in joining the circle, that we are loved into loving like Jesus did, by surrendering to the Trinitarian flow. Living constantly in the house of love makes a Jesus-type witness possible. And the witness our Lenten journey reminds us of again this year is that there is no circle of love without a cross. From the fullness of our place in the circle of love, the Spirit helps us respond with holy mischief, even though it costs us, to say, “'No’ to the way of the sword, ‘yes’ to the way of the Lord,” and to act boldly for love in Christ's name.
During worship we hung a green crane (photo to right) for Christchurch beneath the white and red ones to remember the dead and wounded. We hung this green crane to mark our deep sorrow that Christendom still has not learned that we follow the Prince of Peace who told Peter, with no equivocation, "Put away your sword.”
And as the shadow of the Lenten cross suspended above the altar falls over the circle of love projected onto the wall (see photo), we quietly hear Jesus' loving words, “Father forgive,” as he chooses to gift his own life rather than take the life of another.
Jesus did it. We can too. And love wins. Again! - as we learn to pray compassionately even for perpetrators, and follow prayer with courageous action, the Christ alive within us, to love like Jesus and Paul, and Bonhoeffer, and King, and Ghandi, Romero, Kolb, and so many other unsung heroes.
How do we get through these times and still believe love wins? We become Christ's church, loving as Jesus did.
How do we get through these times and still believe love wins? We become Christ's church, loving as Jesus did.
