Hallelujah Chorus

Another Easter Sunday is here!  Hallelujah, He is risen!  We have hope and a future!  As I sit here this morning, I'm having to force myself to stay in this moment and repeat the words, Hallelujah He is risen.  For in my life this Easter weekend there is much beautiful distraction...my family is in town, there are pictures to be made, food to be cooked, stories to be told, laughter to consume me, dresses and shirts to iron and dishes to wash.  These beautiful distractions of life give me great pleasure and joy but as this Easter Day wears on I can sense that the chorus of Hallelujah may become more faint.  Let it not be so, Lord.

The story of Easter morning from Luke 24 is one I never tire of reading.  There is so much drama and joy and unexpectedness.  The women walking to the tomb to anoint His body with spices and perfumes, the stone rolled away, the shock, the two men in clothes that gleamed like lightening, the women returning to the disciples to share the shock of their discovery, Peter racing back to see for himself.  And on the same day, two friends walking to Emmaus have an encounter, "were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"Luke 24:32

33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?  Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet.  And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.
He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. Luke 24:33-45

We can well imagine how exciting and disturbing all these happenings had to have been for these men and women. For the last three years, their lives had been dedicated to this Teacher. And inasmuch as they traveled with Him, listened to Him and saw His miracles, the reality seemed to become too, too much to believe on that morning of all mornings.  Doubts, discussions, fear, joy and amazement were all words used to describe their emotions.  I wonder if the disciples were simply in information overload or in shock!  It had to be mind-blowing for them.  As they were discussing the events surely their thoughts ran to what do we do next?  What do we do now?  What will happen next?  And beautifully enough, the Savior then appears before them to instruct and guide them to open their minds so that they could understand the next step, the next hour, the next day.

These words from the scripture also describe my emotions.  I've experienced Easter morning.  It is a time of joy and amazement.  Hallelujah, Christ is risen!  But now, right now the big event is over.  The Easter service is over, the Easter Bunny has appeared and lunch is finished.  I see tail-lights looking back at me...now its just me.....and I realize that all I really want is to go back and listen for the Hallelujah chorus.  I want to experience Easter like the disciples.  It was so healing for them to discuss all that they had seen and witnessed.  It was spiritually healthy for them to question and wonder and ponder the events of the day.  They were vulnerable enough with each other to talk about the hard issues of the day.  Can't we do the same?  Have we looked at Easter, I mean, really looked at it?  And asked what is next in my life?  What is my next step?  What do I do with this Easter news? Do I treat today as just another beautiful Sunday or do I let it change me?  Does this Easter Day become Easter living?  Is today the day I let go of my pain, my heartache and accept, finally accept His work on my behalf?   And because of that work....finally accept His unconditional love, joy and peace?  For it is the very work of His cross that gives me hope.  Doesn't my heart burn within me when I completely let Him have all of me?

For today and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow....don't let the Hallelujah fade from my mind and heart, Lord.  Let me live and shout it over and over again to those who have yet to learn the words.

P.S. Personal note: Happy Birthday Mama!  

The Work of Peacemaking

The call to peacemaking from Matthew 5:9 befuddles me.  Perhaps this is a verse that only applies to those who have the personality or giftedness of peacemaking.  Surely this is one verse that I can discount as "does not apply."  But then I began to think and remember:
Those long days of work and picking up my two elementary age children who were arguing and needing peacemaking well before we found our driveway!  I remember those same two living life as teenagers and the peacemaking that occurred in our house!  Then my memory took me back even further to my parents and our household.  By the time I was in junior high school I was the remaining child in my parents home.  There were disagreements in those days too.  I found peacemaking was easier than "walking on egg shells."  So perhaps I have some experience in this field after all...

But I'm pondering as to whether this call to peacemaking is deeper than the circumstantial situations I've described.  I wanted to know how truly interested Jesus was in peacemaking.  Upon the birth of Jesus it was announced in Luke 2:14: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.  In John 18, when Jesus was about to be arrested, Peter drew his sword and struck a high priest's servant, cutting off his right ear.  Jesus went into peacemaking mode and stopped Peter and commanded him to put his sword away.  Then in Luke at the death of Jesus, He becomes the peace-giver granting favor to the repenting thief on the cross.
At His birth, in His life and in His death Jesus lived peace-making and peace-giving.  So how can I?  How can you? How do I offer peace to the world in which I live.

It seems to me that I can only offer peace when I, myself have accepted God's peace within my own soul.  For you see what I have realized is that in my life I have had many peacemaker roles.
...to my parents
...at work
...to my children: Nick and Sarah
...to my brother/sisters
...in the church

But these roles have mostly focused on simply 'getting through' conflict and NOT resolving or addressing the deeper brokenness of each relationship.  True peacemaking and peace giving are at their core: genuine, difficult and oh, so worth it.  For it is in the difficulty of finding the peace that our own inner peace can be restored.  J. Ellsworth Kalas states it this way, "But how exactly does one make peace?  Nearly all of us claim to want peace...Since peace is so universally admired and presumable so universally sought after, it must not be that easy to achieve, else our human race would have won the goal several millennia ago....Most of us realize that we have conflicts within our own person - angers, resentments, bitterness, and fears."  Let's do the work of peace in our own hearts and lives.  For it only then that we can truly accept Jesus' peace into our own lives and offer peacemaking to the lives of others.

One of Jesus last great lessons occurred just before His crucifixion and is found in John 14:27.  Jesus is speaking to his disciples.....us:
Peace, I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts by troubled and do not be afraid.

He's offering us a life of peace, He's offering us healing for our damaged emotions and our damaged selves.  Can we accept His free gift of peace?  And then begin to share peacemaking in our everyday worlds?

I've written a few times about our family's journey into the world of addiction and recovery. In simplest terms this means that as one of our members become addicted so did our lives as well.  A sickness took over our family and each member in it experienced the illness in a different way.  Each of us was hurt, wounded and suffered differently.  And for the last 4.9 years we have chosen to work toward healing.  Each member of the family is working to find recovery.  It has taken many tears, prayers, and so much honesty that my heart has ached at times.  We have found that the only true peace, and therefore our ability to offer peacemaking, has come from the most hurtful but brutal honesty with each other.  For once those old places of woundedness were touched...the healing peace was able to come in.

This peace business is not for the light-hearted.  It is not for those who would prefer to keep their honest feelings hidden.  But it is for those actively seeking peace and seeking to become peacemakers.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Matthew 5:9

Be brave.  Be a peacemaker today.  Be a peace giver.