Sacred Scarred

Glimpses of Resurrection

Passion week in and of itself is a busy week if nothing else.  Jesus teaches and talks, prays and walks, loves, gives, serves, eats, commands, invites, rebukes, laughs...and all this before a betrayal, an arrest, trials, beatings, mockings, and the horror of the cross.  There is a hurricane of activity that ends in the life of Jesus being taken. 

In the aftermath of the crucifixion there is confusion, there is fear, there is emotion, there is pain.  It is a mess.  And then the resurrection.  Life comes forth from death.  Joy comes forth from sorrow.  Hope comes forth from doubt.  Jesus comes forth from the grave.

Death on Friday.  Life on Sunday.  And a mess in between.  I believe that this world is a Saturday world.  It lives amidst the confusion and fear and emotion and pain.  It exists in the mess.  But resurrection is coming.  And we who understand the resurrection of Jesus have the opportunity to bring a glimpse of resurrection into lives lived in the mess.

On Easter Sunday I will board a plane bound for New Orleans.  I find this to be especially appropriate.  My reflections on the Cross and on the Resurrection this week have brought me to the point once again of wanting to take action.  I want to stand up for injustice.  I want to fight suffering.  I want to be the voice for those without a voice.  I want to take up a cross, commit my spirit into the hands of the Father, and die to myself in order to provide a glimpse of resurrection.

Kingdom Community Campers

Spent Sunday night and Monday in some version of the twilight zone.  My wife, dog, and I went camping with my brother-in-law and his girlfriend.  Due to a lack of inexpensive dog-friendly campgrounds in NJ, I searched high and low on the internet and found one that seemed to fit the bill (close, cheap, dogs welcome).  We packed up the gear, drove out toward the Jersey shore and set up shop at Old Cedar Campground.  My camping experience is mostly in state forests - kind of secluded, the occasional neighbor, good chance of deer and bears and other sordid critters.  Old Cedar Campground was not like my experience. 

Old Cedar Campground is a community of tent and RV dwellers who seem to spend the summer cooking on the Coleman stove, fishing in the fishing pond, swimming in the swimming hole, and occasionally venturing over to play suffle board or participate in "Brownbag Bingo" at the pavillion.  Confederate flags, pick-up trucks, mullets, beer-bellies, dogs, dirty children, dirtier teenagers, a petting zoo, the list could go on...and so we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere existing shoulder to shoulder with a culture of people who were unlike the norm.  And I loved it.  You can get the slightest glimpse of my new found love HERE.

What I loved most was this...there was a sense of community.  People said "hello" when they rode their bike by, they stopped in to let their dog sniff our dog, they offered us firewood, they chatted about the weather or the Indianapolis 500, they handled our cameras with care as they took our picture for posterity.  People were people...and we all lived on a level playing ground because we had all chosen to stay at Old Cedar Campground.  What you drove or how big your non-mobile home was or where you worked didn't matter.  "Attention Campers - we are at Old Cedar Campground and at Old Cedar Campground we are all campers."

And I got to thinking about the Kingdom of God and how Kingdom Community should be like Old Cedar Campground.  Christ-followers should extend themselves to each other, Christ-followers should serve each other, Christ-followers should exist in community where everyone is on level playing ground.  What you drive or wear or where you work shouldn't matter.  What should matter is that we have all chosen Jesus.  "Attention Christ-followers - we are a part of the Kingdom and as a part of the Kingdom we are all community."