Tag Archives: Grief

Grief

Kingdom building

June 15, 2019

Scripture Reading: John 16:12-15
‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Jesus understood grief. I wonder if that is just apart of being all-knowing as God or from experiencing grief in his humanness or both. Joseph had apparently died between Jesus’ visit at the age of 12 to the temple and the beginning of his ministry. The loss of John the Baptist was surely deep felt. Grief has a numbing affect until humans become strong enough to deal with loss. I think the 40 days after the Resurrection was a similar time for the Disciples. They had lost Jesus, then he returned, then they lost his immediate presence again. It took time for them to recover from the shock of all of that to be able to accept the Holy Spirit.

Cultures experience loss that they must grieve and then let go. Several years ago, I attended a training workshop on how to help staff transition to new ways of working. It even suggested holding a mock funeral to help people accept the reality of the new. When I started working for the State Department of Human Services, we kept a handwritten file of alphabetized cards color-coded by type of case in five-draw filing cabinets. We transitioned to digital information in the early 1970’s but it was not until probably 1980 or so that we gave up those cards. Most staff stopped using them after a year or so of digital records.

Hanging on to negative culture forces hurt societies and can cripple them from progressing. Racism, misogyny, and other forms of denigrating people and discriminating against them is holding our society back from gaining all the wealth of worth in each person God created. The time has come to let the old ways go and to welcome the Holy Spirit’s guidance to becoming one in Christ.

Prayer: Lord, help us to see what we are clinging to that is holding back the full realization of your Kingdom. Free us from our bigotry and send all that wasted energy into building a new and better world. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Grief’s Denial

TranfigurationEpiphany
Celebration of God
Manifested in the World
February 14, 2015

Scripture Reading: Mark 9:2-9

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’ Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.  — Mark 9:2-8

 Six days ago, Jesus told the disciples he was to be killed and rise three days later and Peter rebuked him. Now Jesus takes Peter, James and John to a high mountain where they experience a vision of Elijah and Moses talking with Jesus. Peter wants to build structures to mark this special place. Peter was a man of action caught up in a whirlwind of reality that surpassed anything he could do. Ever been there?

My dad apparently had a heart attack late one Saturday. He had very bad stomach ulcers and although he had experienced chest pains, thought it was just his “old tum-tum”. He couldn’t breathe without sitting upright by Sunday and was retaining water. Taken to the local hospital he was immediately transferred to the Veterans Hospital in Oklahoma City where I met the ambulance and completed the check in. My mother and brother arrived shortly by car. The doctor soon came out and said Dad had suffered a massive heart attack with extensive heart damage. The prognosis was bad and only time would tell. He died one week after the first attack. My very intelligent mother did not take in at all what the doctor said. Years later she still did not remember it. She was in denial, the first stage of grief. Peter and, I image, the other disciples were all in denial not sure what was happening.

It is an appropriate lesson for us as we inch ever closer to Lent. It is hard to comprehend the measure of love with which God endowed us, not just in the life, but also in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Once we can accept the bad news of Jesus’ pending death, we can open ourselves fully to God’s great gift of love and saving grace. Amen.

Prayer: O Lord, it hurts to lose the ones we love. I would have loved to walk the paths of Israel with you, think I would have drank in every word that you said, and cannot imagine what it felt like to see you crucified. Walk with me now as I approach the road of Lent and open my heart as well as my mind to your last teachings. Be with me hanging back in the shadows, as I walk the road with you to Golgotha even knowing that I will soon stand with Mary Magdalene by the empty tomb. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.