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One thing I notice about our present age is an increasing impatience with people, movements, amenities, service, and response and reaction time; we are not impressed by the thoughtful contemplation or research of someone who does not answer our email immediately. The slow burn and the crock-pot stew of living evoke stress and, at times, violent reactions. Have you ever been the slowpoke on the freeway and felt the frustration and ire thrown at you by drivers wanting to push past you?
Mental health experts, medical practitioners, spiritual leaders, and sometimes those who love us most counsel us to slow down, let life open around us, and pace our expectations and demands with kindness and concern. We are encouraged to keep an open mind, and perhaps one strategy for keeping an open mind is to breathe more deeply, listen more intently, and let life surprise us now and then.
We are now three weeks after Easter, and our tendency might be to "move on" with the story, skip the commissioning, the growing pains, the trials and errors, the missteps, the persecutions, and get straight to Pentecost. But there is more to glean from Jesus's sacrificial act and God's reality-shifting plan. In a sense, Jesus returns to the beginning with his disciples as he appears to them. He opens their minds with his appearance and walks them through God's intentions with lenses from the other side of divine victory.
We have those lenses. We are Easter people, no matter the time of year. The risen Christ is the center of our knowing God, and we have the privilege of seeing life through the eyes of Christ after his resurrection. We will never have to fearfully wait for the next installment because we have the full story, and it is a joyous one!
Let us approach scripture with open minds, ready to receive new insights from God. Even if we've heard a passage countless time before, there's always the potential for a fresh understanding, a moment of illumination that makes us exclaim, 'Ah, now I see!'
I'm looking forward to seeing you this coming Sunday. Let's gather to worship God with open minds and willing hearts.
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