Tina's TEOTWAWKI Journal, Day 31

Today was Easter.

This was the Easter of isolation, the Easter of online services and drive-in church and quarantine.

This was also the Easter of distant connections, of preachers preaching over YouTube and Facebook Live, of praise teams singing due to previous recordings . . . and of choirs and singers singing separately, uploading their parts, and sending them to technicians who, through the magic of editing, turned it into a virtual performance.

The tech team at my own church did just that, combining a large handful of voices singing "At The Cross".  I was amazed.  And very touched.

In England, the Royal Choral Society did a virtual performance of the Hallelujah Chorus, keeping up their tradition of performing every year since 1876, except during the Blitz in World War II.  

This was the Easter where we sat isolated in our homes, much like the first disciples sat, but not with "the doors locked for fear of the Jews" (i.e. the Jewish rulers in that time and place).  We have not cowered in fear but we have hunkered down in hope. 

The disciples needed a real Mary Magdalene to tell them, Jesus isn't in the tomb!  And even when two of them ran to the empty tomb, they still didn't believe He'd been resurrected.  They still hid behind a locked door . . . but one that Jesus could walk through to tell them, "Peace be with you!"  

We are not hiding behind locked doors this Easter because we fear being arrested and persecuted for our faith.  Rather, we are hunkering down in hope that there will be a light at the end of the tunnel, that the threat of disease will someday lessen enough for us to resume somewhat of a normal life and normal activity. 

Some are making this Easter about violation of rights, violation of our First Amendment "freedom of religion".  At least one church in suburban Louisville gathered in defiance of their governor's order banning gatherings of groups of ten or more.  Perhaps other churches have met in similar ways, claiming that they are not afraid and that we should not live our lives in fear. 

People, even Jesus left an area when people were thinking of killing him.  He stayed away from places where he thought that he might be arrested.  He was smart enough to tell Satan himself that the Bible said, don't put God to the test when Satan said that, "God will save you if you jump from the temple" and even quoted Scripture to 'prove' it.

If mosques, synagogues, and temples were being told they could gather and Christian churches were not, I'd be worried that my freedom of religion in the United States was being abridged and I would be very concerned.  That might be a case for "we must obey God rather than man".  

But defying a public health order is not the way to show that you have faith in God and will not let your life be ruled by fear.  It is a way to make yourself look stupid.

Fortunately, most Christians I know have spent this Easter in isolation, in this hunkering down in hope, communicating through text and Zoom and Facebook Live and Google Meet and however else they choose to communicate.

Because we know that, no matter what, He is risen.  He is risen indeed!

Okay, back to the snark alert:

It's the end of the world as we know it

It's the end of the world as we know it

It's the end of the world as we know it

And I feel fine!

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.

Tina’s TEOTWAWKI Journal, Day 30

Day 30.  Tomorrow will be Easter, and nothing, no virus, will stop us Christians from proclaiming, “He is risen.  He is risen indeed!”

I spent part of the day going through and throwing out papers and most of this evening building a table to put my sewing machine on.  

Now enjoying chilling out with my husband and humming our theme song:

It’s the end of the world as we know it
It’s the end of the world as we know it
It’s the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine!

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.

Tina's TEOTWAWKI Journal, Day 24

Day 24.  It's already Day 24?  

It's now become the routine to log onto the Internet and sign into our virtual church website, rather than pack up the car and drive to the church building.  There are things I like about "virtual church", especially the "virtual lobby" where we can chat with each other before our session starts. 

But writing the above sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, out of a Ray Bradbury or Isaac Asimov story.  

It is just not the same as approaching someone in real life, feeling a tactile hug, the polyester knit or cotton cloth of someone's dress or suit against your face when you hug them; feeling the squeeze of their arms around you, hearing them ask how you are.  Smelling the coffee in the lobby area, hearing the praise team warming up, standing up to pray, sitting down in the pews, being able to talk face to face with your preacher or with your fellow church members.  

How long, I wonder, before we will all be able to do that again?

But today, still imprisoned by an invisible virus, we listened to our preacher, whose words are not imprisoned.  (Paul reminded Timothy in 2 Timothy that "God's word is not chained.")  I took away two important points from his sermon today:

1.  Just because you feel the fear doesn't mean you don't have faith.   It's okay to accept the circumstances of where we are at the moment.  My go-to phrase, it seems, has become "That stinks" because what we are dealing with right now, let's face it, does stink.  When I'm exceptionally bothered, I will use the phrase, "That sucks."  Certain things do suck right now.  Staying home gets old.  There is only so much organizing you can do before you organize yourself out of your own house.  There is only so much cleaning you can do.  There are only so many times I can listen to some of my husband's and son's conversations.  There are only so many times they can listen to mine.  

The circumstances of where we are are fearful ones.  I've started to worry when I go out, am I going to pick up the virus?  Am I going to get sick or maybe make my husband or son sick?  Today my son and I went for a fast trip to pick up French fries (which weren't in the order I picked up at Kroger yesterday because they weren't available.)  I think I freaked Matthew out when I wiped down the handle of the grocery cart with a wipe before he took it back to the carrel.  But the thing is, my fear is not unfounded these days.  If any of you remember the TV series Monk, about a detective with obsessive-compulsive disorder, he carried around wipes wherever he went.  Most of his fears were unfounded . . . but these days, worrying that you just might get sick from a trip to the grocery store isn't necessarily unfounded.

Yeah, I admit, I feel fear.  I am glad our preacher said today that feeling fear didn't mean you didn't have faith.   I dislike it when people who have fear and who express their fear are shamed for it.  "Don't you know that there are 365 'fear nots' in the Bible?  That's one for each day!"  "We're not slaves of fear!  We have the spirit of God!"  Well, Jesus did tell his disciples not to be afraid, but he never shamed them for feeling the fear. 

2.  Sometimes you have to behave better than you feel.  Don, our preacher, mentioned that he disliked the phrase "fake it till you make it".  It's a phrase that's often used in recovery.  I think, though, that "behaving better than you feel" may be what people sometimes mean when they say "fake it till you make it".  There are times when I want to yell at my son, at my husband, behave badly to people in public.  But I can't.  Or rather, I choose not to because the consequences of my momentary loss of temper could be very severe.  (There are people in Washington, DC that I wish would learn the lesson of behaving better than you feel!)

Don also talked about fatigue:  flu fatigue, virus fatigue, staying at home fatigue.  I have it.  It is hard, being under "stay at home" orders, knowing you can't go out when you want to and where you want to.  It's even harder, exponentially harder, when you are one of those on the "front lines", delivering groceries, checking people out at the store, nursing the ill, caring for the ill, trying to minister in whatever way you need to.  And I cannot put myself in the shoes of someone who IS ill, or a loved one of someone who is ill or dying.

This afternoon I took a nap, to deal with the physical fatigue.  And I am poking around on my genealogy and working on other writing.  Perhaps that will be a couple of things that will help with the "lockdown fatigue". 

I shared tonight in our small group's Zoom meeting that spring would always come, and that summer and winter would not cease.

I also told them what I shared with the checkout person at the grocery store today.

Matthew made a comment about Easter, and I said that Easter was going to be next week.  The checkout girl said, "If they let us."  I said, "I don't know if you're Christian or not (she said she was) but nothing can stop us from saying that Jesus is risen."  

That is a fact that no flu fatigue, no coronavirus, no lockdown, no stay at home order can circumvent or reverse.  Jesus will not go back into the grave just because we are on lockdown!

Spring will come.  Easter will come.  Resurrection will be remembered. 

In the meantime, let me put my tongue firmly in cheek and sing our theme song:

It's the end of the world as we know it

It's the end of the world as we know it

It's the end of the world as we know it

And I feel fine!

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.

When God got the last laugh (repost)

(This is a repost of this blog entry, from April 5, 2015.)

Today, God got the last laugh.

The laughter began before dawn, when a dead body regained consciousness in a cold tomb.

Or perhaps it began with an earthquake, which rolled a stone away and scared guards so that they became "like dead men".

I'm not sure if Jesus strode out boldly with a swagger, or if he just peeked out from the tomb, thinking, "Hello?  Where is everybody?" and then walked out.

The party in hell was over.  The party in hell had broken up with screams of horror and shouts of anger.  How dare he?  How dare he get the last laugh on us?

The first person he revealed himself to was a woman, Mary of Magdala, the Mary that wept because they had taken her Lord away and she didn't know where he was.

It was when he said to her, "Mary," that she knew who he was.

I wonder if, when she turned towards him, Jesus was smiling.

I wonder if he smiled when he appeared to the two on the road to Emmaus.

And I wonder if he smiled when he first appeared to the apostles who were hiding in the upper room.  We know he said, "Peace be with you!" and showed him his hands and feet.  But I wonder if the expression on his face said, "Look!  It's me!  I'm here!  Isn't that great!  I told you it was going to happen, and it did!"

This is Easter Sunday. 

Easter is a holiday associated with bunnies (chocolate and otherwise), baskets, eggs dyed in different colors, new clothes, parades, and white shoes.  It's also associated with large dinners--usually with ham as the main course--with family visits and perhaps a surprise from the Easter Bunny.  (One year, a gift from the Easter Bunny came with a note and a carrot with teeth marks in it.  I told everyone who would listen that those teeth marks were proof that there really was an Easter Bunny.  It was years before I realized that my dad had written the note and probably had bitten into that carrot as well!)

This is the holiday where people and Easter lilies will crowd churches, and many will repeat as part of a liturgy, "He is risen." "He is risen indeed."

But do we really understand that, on this day, God got the last laugh?

If man had created God in his own image, as is sometimes alleged, hope would have died at the cross.  The apostle Paul, in I Corinthians 15:12-19, says:

"But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." (emphasis mine, TAS)

The cross would have been proof that God was created in the image of man, for the cross meant death--physical death of a man, the death of hope, the death of dreams the death of everything.

But God got the last laugh.

Jesus said he would rise from the dead . . . and he did.

The witness of men, the witness of Scripture speaks--indeed, it shouts--that "Christ has indeed been risen from the dead!" as I Corinthians 15:20 says.  

When we speak today that "Christ is risen indeed," it is not merely a recitation of a liturgy that has been passed down for two thousand years.  Instead, it is a testament to a God that got the last laugh--over Satan, over sin, over death.

I wonder, if when the disciples saw Jesus, he looked like this, as painted by artist Jack Jewell:

This is the day when God got the last laugh.

He is risen.

He is risen indeed!

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation. 

Death, rendered defeated . . .

Today is Easter.  As part of our Easter services, one of the songs we sang was "Forever (We Sing Hallelujah)."  It wasn't a song I wasn't familiar with, and after hearing it, I loved it.  

One of the lines has stuck with me:  "Now death, where is your sting?/Our resurrected King/Has rendered you defeated."

"Our resurrected king has rendered you defeated."

That sounds like a classic British understatement:  "Our resurrected king has rendered you defeated," said very calmly while dressed in an army uniform.

Or like a line in a formal demand for surrender:  "Our resurrected king has rendered you defeated."

Or like Tyler Perry's Medea, looking down her nose and snorting,"Oh, please!  Our resurrected king has rendered you defeated."

The word "render," in this context, means "cause to be or become, make."

Death has been made defeated, caused to be defeated, become defeated.  Today is the day when we celebrate the defeat of death, by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  

If you want a more in-your-face way to say it:

In other words, death, you are down for the count.

You are lying flat on your back, on the canvas, the referee has counted to nine, and he's raising his arm and opening his mouth to say, "Ten!"
The fat lady has finished her warm-up and has strutted out onto the stage to do her solo.

The response to your demand for surrender has been met with, "Nuts!"

Death, you are outta here!

Forever He is glorified

Forever He is lifted high

Forever He is risen

He is alive

He is alive!

He is risen.

He is risen indeed.

Hallelujah!

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.

When God got the last laugh

Today, God got the last laugh.

The laughter began before dawn, when a dead body regained consciousness in a cold tomb.

Or perhaps it began with an earthquake, which rolled a stone away and scared guards so that they became "like dead men".

I'm not sure if Jesus strode out boldly with a swagger, or if he just peeked out from the tomb, thinking, "Where is everybody?" and then walked out.

The party in hell was over.  The party in hell had broken up with screams of horror and shouts of anger.  How dare he?  How dare he get the last laugh on us?

The first person he revealed himself to was a woman, Mary of Magdala, whom we know today as Mary Magdalene.  This was the Mary that wept because they had taken her Lord away and she didn't know where he was.

It was when he said to her, "Mary," that she knew who he was.

I wonder if, when she turned towards him, Jesus was smiling.

I wonder if he smiled when he appeared to the two on the road to Emmaus.

And I wonder if he smiled when he first appeared to the apostles who were hiding in the upper room.  We know he said, "Peace be with you!" and showed him his hands and feet.  But I wonder if the expression on his face said, "Look!  It's me!  I'm here!  Isn't that great!  I told you it was going to happen, and it did!"

This is Easter Sunday.  

Easter is a holiday associated with bunnies (chocolate and otherwise), baskets, eggs dyed in different colors, new clothes, parades, and white shoes.  It's also associated with large dinners--usually with ham as the main course--with family visits and perhaps a surprise from the Easter Bunny.  (One year, a gift from the Easter Bunny came with a note and a carrot with teeth marks in it.  I told everyone who would listen that those teeth marks were proof that there really was an Easter Bunny.  It was years before I realized that my dad had written the note and probably had bitten into that carrot as well!)

This is the holiday where people and Easter lilies will crowd churches, and many will repeat as part of a liturgy, "He is risen." "He is risen indeed."

But do we really understand that, on this day, God got the last laugh?

If man had created God in his own image, as is sometimes alleged, hope would have died at the cross.  The apostle Paul, in I Corinthians 15:12-19, says:

"But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." (emphasis mine, TAS)

The cross would have been proof that God was created in the image of man, for the cross meant death--physical death of a man, the death of hope, the death of dreams the death of everything. 

But God got the last laugh. 

Jesus said he would rise from the dead . . . and he did.

The witness of men, the witness of Scripture speaks--indeed, it shouts--that "Christ has indeed been risen from the dead!" as I Corinthians 15:20 says.  

When we speak today that "Christ is risen indeed," it is not merely a recitation of a liturgy that has been passed down for two thousand years.  Instead, it is a testament to a God that got the last laugh--over Satan, over sin, over death.

I wonder, if when the disciples saw Jesus, he looked like this, as painted by artist Jack Jewell:

This is the day when God got the last laugh.

He is risen.

He is risen indeed!

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.