The Third Week of Easter: From FEAR to FRIENDSHIP

STEP ONE: BREATHE

Take a deep, cleansing breath. Allow the air to fill your lungs and expand your body. Exhale and empty yourself into the room. Repeat three times - once for the one who Created you, once for the Incarnate One who walks beside you, and once for the Spirit whose life fills your being.

STEP TWO: DWELL IN WORD

“But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.”

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— Matthew 28: 5-6

A PERSONAL STORY

“Get out my Betty Crocker Cookbook and find the recipe for Refrigerator Rolls. If you can read, you can bake!”

With that my mom left the kitchen to go sit down. It was almost Thanksgiving, and I was home from college for the week. My mom had just had a procedure on her heart – it was very early in what would be her nearly 20 year struggle with coronary artery disease – so she was pretty worn out. Certainly in no shape to knead dough and make buns for our family Thanksgiving celebration the next day. That was the first time someone other than her had made bread for Thanksgiving dinner.

I don’t know who will be making the bread this year. My mom passed away on January 29th – just before all this Covid-19 chaos landed in our country. Her health had been very fragile for a long time, and I had often wondered if I would get to say goodbye in person when the time came. As it turned out, the 6 hours between the Twin Cities and central Iowa was too long a drive, and she was gone before I could get there.

There’s never a good time to lose your mom, but my particular situation left me feeling adrift. Just over two weeks before I had said goodbye to the congregation I had been serving in Minnesota because my husband and I had accepted a call to be missionaries in Madagascar. We were working to get our house on the market to sell while saying goodbye to many of our worldly possessions in preparation for the move. And now, as I was saying goodbye to so many things in my life, I would also be saying goodbye to my mother.

The end of that week was filled with details – details for the visitation, details for the funeral, details at the florist, details for printing bulletins. To be honest, I was thankful for all the details because they kept my mind busy. The next week, though, was New Missionary Orientation at the ELCA Churchwide offices. While I did my best to be engaged and present at the orientation, it was hard to keep my mind focused on the adventure ahead while the loss of my mother was so fresh.

The Churchwide offices have a chapel service each Wednesday morning, which we attended the week of orientation. I hadn’t thought too much about taking Communion until I heard the words spoken, “…And so, with all the choirs of angels, with the church on earth and the hosts of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn…” And I lost it. I was caught in the front row with tears streaming down my cheeks. But I couldn’t help it – in that moment the realization of the truth of Holy Communion came over me. The truth that in that moment we feast with all believers everywhere – my congregation that I had left, the neighbors and friends in Minnesota we were working on leaving, my family who were mourning two hours away, and even my mom, along with her parents and grandparents and everyone she had loved and lost in this life.

In that meal we were all united. Perhaps only for a brief moment, but we were together again. Through that piece of bread and sip of wine, we were knit together into Christ’s body. A body that existed beyond time and space. A body that had already overcome death, for my mom and for me. In that moment we were together.

I don’t know who made the bread, and I suppose it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that, wherever we are, whatever the bread looks like, in that moment we are together, and Christ is with us.

The virus has meant that I haven’t taken Communion many times since that day. With worship services digitized and sharing food frowned upon, the Christian community has been called into a time of fasting from our Lord’s Supper. This reality can leave us with questions - Where do we find this knitting together into community? How do we reach out and touch God when we are isolated from one another? How long, O Lord, before we are together again?

But in God we can have confidence that one day we will again hear those words and receive that bread. And until then we place our trust in the promise of our God who is present for us, even outside of the earthly signs of bread and wine.

STEP THREE: PRAY

God of bread, we know that for some in our midst food can be hard to come by. Use our hands as you work to bring needed food to all who hunger. We pray you would also give to us all that we need to make it through this day, and each day that follows, until we join with all the hosts of heaven around your great banquet table. Amen

Today’s devotion is by Pastor Amanda Applehans.