Greeting Holy People of God,
During the season of Lent we met John’s characters – Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman at the well, the healed blind man and Mary, Martha and Lazarus and thought about the risks they took and how these characters and their stories help us to believe. They build bridges with their experiences with Jesus and the questions they ask. Their experiences and questions help us to cross the bridge and come to Jesus at night or in the heat of the day, know that he will meet us there and walk with us. Jesus helps us to see more and to unwrapped the grave clothes and think again about hearing Jesus’ voice calling to us even when we are dead.
When we came together on Wednesday evenings for food, fellowship and worship we got to meet our Wednesday Witnesses, people who not only serve others but also help us to make connections that we would not otherwise make. Like a bridge, they bring us to new places – new places like walking with us as we navigate our health and the medical institutions with Faith Community Nurse, Carolyn Laxson or Mosaic’s crew who seek to meet the needs of those with learning disabilities, giving them more options and more opportunities for us to connect with worship and homes to live in. Or our missionaries, like Stacey and Utpal Saha who connect us with Bangladesh in a part of world where Christians are not always welcomed and the name of Jesus is more difficult to proclaim. Or Deb Dunkhase from Open Heartland who started by playing with children in trailer parks late in the afternoon and one conversation led to another and grew a totally volunteer organization to serve an immigrant population in Iowa City, mostly families with young children. And our very own, Bishop Current who is working to continue to build relationships with our brothers and sisters in Tanzania. All of these witnesses act as a bridge to help travel further with God and each other.
These next days Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil are witnesses that also build bridges for us helping us to move further into being children of the resurrection and ascension. These days help us to walk through the deep valley where the shadows of death and despair linger. The witness of these days shape the living of our lives and our dying and the promise of life with Christ through everything.
These days witness to us what we are to do in the environment of betrayal, whether that is Judas’ betrayal or the Pharoah’s betrayal, God comes to us to set us free, to build a bridge for us to enter the kind of life God desires. A life that prepares us for life with God. A life where we serve one another and we let our master wash our feet so that we learn not only how to serve but also how to receive grace.
On Good Friday we come to hear and sit with Jesus as he dies and hear his words from the cross. These words are a bridge and witness for us as we live with death and accompany those who die. Jesus speaks words of forgiveness, promise, and community. Jesus also names our struggles with abandonment, desire and the dead end of death. The goodness of this day is an opportunity to sit with Jesus as he dies and ponder what it means to be a part of God’s family.
Easter Vigil is that time where we light the candles we had placed near the Good Friday cross and sit again in the wake of Jesus’ death, telling those old stories and listening for the promise of new life and resurrection. We recommit ourselves to our baptismal promises and welcome back the word we have fasted from and feast again on the Lord’s Supper.
These days are bridges that lead us to Jesus and help us walk together as a community of faith. Let’s meet at these Holy Week bridges with hope of walking with Jesus. Because it’s all about Jesus.
Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,
Pastor Connie Spitzack
