Pastor’s Ponderings

….There were also women looking on from a distance….

….they used to follow him and provided for him…

….they saw where the body was laid…when the sun had risen, they went…

….When they looked up, they saw that the stone…had been rolled back…

                                                                                                                            Mark 15:40-16:8

 

 

when they looked up                                                                                Erling Shultz, April 2022

 

just a few days ago –

 

looking on from a distance

     they had seen the intentional deception:

looking on from a distance,

          with eyes clouded with dismay,

     they observed;

          the betrayal and the suffering,

          the nailing and the scorn,

          the death and the darkness;

looking on from a distance,

          with eyes squinting in despair,

     they saw where the Body was laid

 

not long before –

looking on from a nearness

     they had seen the initial reception:

looking on from a nearness,

          with eyes recording a promise,

     they witnessed;

          the lonely and lost reunited,

          the poor and children blessed,

          the broken and sick renewed;

looking on from a nearness,

          with eyes dilated in aspiration,

     they saw who the Body advocates

 

now –

looking off from nowhere

     they see only routine before them:

looking off from nowhere,

          with eyes downcast in affliction,

     they scrutinize;

          the spices for the task ahead,

          the dependability of their next step,

          the barrier of humanities stone;

looking off from nowhere,

          with eyes focused on lost expectations,

     they miss the Body to claim

 

then –

when they looked up

     they see the impasse displaced:

when they looked up,

          with eyes blurry with mistrust,

     they re-vision;

          a guidance toward a new task,

          a disruption in the rational,

          a gift within the emptiness;

when they looked up,

          with eyes adjusting to mystery,

     they perceive a Body freed to resume

 

eternally –

when I look beyond the stone

     I see Life more fully:

when I look beyond the stone,

          with eyes attuned on an Empty Tomb,

     I conceive Creation probabilities;

          peace that transcends,

          grace that transforms,

          justice that transfigures;

when I look beyond the stone,

          with eyes set on Easter Hope,

     I know a Body of Love

 

(the gift of the emptiness

               – perceived in this moment of particularity –

          is vision simultaneously upon 

     Was and Is and Will)