Pastoral Ponderings . . .

So I wonder why Mary Magdalene, and “the other Mary” went back?

In the chapter before, the evening of the crucifixion, Matthew says the women watched him die, and then sat on a bench watching Joseph of Arimathea put his body in the tomb, and roll the stone in place.

Then Matthew says the religious leaders wanted to make sure none of his followers would “fake” his resurrection by stealing his body. So they had Governor Pilate post a guard, and seal it shut with mortar.

Why would Mary Magdalene and the Other Mary go back? There wasn’t anything left to see. No doubt there were many, who predicted that this would happen to Jesus. After all, he was rattling a lot of cages as he went around teaching and working miracles. He was breaking taboos and traditions, crossing boundaries, questioning authorities right and left, and speaking truth to power.

I can imagine there were plenty saying,“Yeah we could see that coming. He was going down for sure.” I mean after all, crucifixion wasn’t something new. Historians say there were often hundreds of crucifixions lining one road to Jerusalem at any given time, depending on how many examples the Romans wanted to set, to keep the people down. People knew if you wanted to stay alive, you kept your mouth shut, and your head down. But Christ Jesus didn’t do that, did he. And everybody watched what happened to him.

So why did Mary Magdalene and the Other Mary go back? There were Roman guards there, and God knows who else ready to take names . . . Why did they go back? What was the point?

There’s a lot of reality that can make us say “What’s the point” these days. There’s so many things I wish I could do something about. Maybe you too? Easter at Tabor isn’t the same as it was before. A lot’s changed. So many faces we’ll never see again. Greenhouse gases remain as firmly in place, as the stone at his tomb. Our Great Salt Lake remains on life-support. Cis-gender males keep passing laws, to control other people’s bodies. And it’s getting to the point where the numbers of people being pushed into poverty and homelessness is something society just can’t sweep under the rug anymore.

Can these realities be changed? What’s the point of even looking at such insurmountable things? It just creates heartache and heartburn. I think many of us feel stuck and helpless. Many have said they predicted this a long time ago. Should we just learn to live with it? Find another planet?

“Keep your mouth shut and your head down” is still a real thing today. It keeps things predictable, for those who want to keep it that way. Students held a rally against gun violence at City Hall in Salt Lake the Wednesday before Easter. Had a school walk-out. Turns out there were counter-protesters waiting for them there: grown-ups yelling at them, telling them they were brain-washed. Grown-ups yelling profanities, and making obscene gestures at them.

Maybe that was predictable too. Because some students didn’t do the walk out. Said they didn’t feel safe. That makes sense to me.

But I don’t think “Keep your mouth shut and your head down” was the way God came to show us, in Christ Jesus. What I see in the Easter morning story is just a handful of people doing the right thing. Sometimes the risky thing. Courageous people, questioning, wondering, showing up.

Only two women went back in Matthew’s story. I think that took courage. They weren’t “keeping their heads down.” They were bold. And maybe they had just enough faith in what Jesus taught by example; just enough hope, just enough determination, to do the unpredictable thing: they went back. And what did they see? The most unpredictable thing possible. A new thing the world had never seen before: God’s fulfillment of a promise made eons before, in a covenant symbolized by Noah’s rainbow.

As I experience more about the way of Christ, I see that Creator is always about creating something new. That Spirit is about inspiration: inspiring hearts and minds to dream and work together for the change the Creator’s about. And that the Savior, isn’t about “keeping heads down, and mouths shut.” I see a Savior all about showing up, not giving up.

I see a Savior not about some other planet, but all about This world that God created and so loves They were willing to die for it, for us, so that we’d know there is a way into the change they’re about. The change the empty tomb symbolizes.

Out of nothing, God creates. Out of death, God makes new life appear. Out of pessimistic realism, and hopeless determinism, our Creator brings hope.

I think in the resurrection of the Prince of Peace, God creates hope, not for the pie in the sky when we die, but for these times we’re living in. For these desperate times when time feels so short. God creates hope. Because I think it’s hope that keeps us humans moving forward, coming back to the insurmountable.

Hope that brings collaboration, inspiration, and perspiration to the cause Christ Jesus has always been about: incarnating divine love for this world. God gifted us with the New Creation on Easter morning, out of love for the world.

We were hearing and telling stories of Resilience throughout the season of Lent at Tabor: the resilience of the people of Los Zapotes, Jalisco MX (Norma Klemz’s hometown). The resilience in ourselves that Pastor DanaLee Simon helped us touch by leading us in a spiritual exercise of gratitude. Casey White was the last to share. He said he often likes to ask folks what brought them here to experience Tabor’s life and worship. He said, “what brought me to Tabor were my parents, in a stroller, 67 years ago.” “Didn’t have much choice in the matter.”

Then he said,“What has kept me at Tabor has been its spirit of welcoming, adapting, and listening to a God who continues to say, “I’m not done with you yet Tabor! I still have big plans for you.” Maybe that’s the God, in Christ, Mary Magdalene and the Other Mary came to know?

“Go quickly,” the angel said to those bold women, “tell others:” God’s not finished with you yet! -- Pastor David