As I said yesterday in my blog the post Holy Week slump has set in, so I am downing electronic tools for a few days to recharge my batteries and any evening devotionals that appear on the Circuit Facebook page will be down to colleagues and lay preachers who have volunteered to take over for a bit, with the occasional piece appearing as a guest post here on Virtual Methodist. I've always felt bad about the downing tools immediately after Easter phenomenon. I agree with N.T. Wright that in an ideal world Easter should be a longer celebration than Holy Week as we are suposed to be resurrection people. But this is not an ideal world, even less so than normal at the moment, and I need a rest. But I was delighted when I got today's guest post from the most recent member to join the circuit team. Lynn McFarland, the Lay Minister based primarily in Sandy Row Methodist. The image (which I happily posted as the second #EasterArt post this morning) and the blog reflect the sense of joy that I am sure N.T. Wright would approve of:
I was transfixed by my chosen picture "The Tambourine" by James McNeill Whistler the instant I first saw it on a trip to Glasgow. It was a small charcoal and pastel drawing and if I had not known otherwise, I would have sworn my paternal grandmother modeled for this. It was, in fact, Eva Carrington (1880-1979) I believe. The model was actually tall and statuesque while my granny was a petite birdlike wee thing. But this drawing reminded me of how I had watched Nanny doing her stretches in the kitchen as she waited for a kettle to boil or watched a pot simmer. It was the first picture that came to mind to accompany the Easter Monday lectionary reading (Mathew 28: 8-15). Particularly verse 8 where it talks about the women being “afraid yet filled with joy...”
This drawing speaks to me of joy and even though I cannot hear the music the lady was dancing to, I am in awe of her kicking that tambourine! I keep a poor copy of this on the mirror at my front door so it can speak to me every day. It brings to life the joy of those first women whom we can read earlier in Matthew’s Gospel are “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary”. (Matthew 28:1) It also speaks to me of liberation, firstly the freedom of the model unencumbered by heavy skirts usually worn when the drawing was created. Secondly there is the freedom of the Marys. The mortal men they had served were in fear too but they were in hiding. The women had special news “He has risen, just as he said” (Matthew 28:6). They might not understand but they still ran. They had freedom from their fear which we read of in Matthew 28:8.
These women in the Gospel had a kind of liberation too as they went from being in the back story, in support of the entourage to being front and centre, carrying very important news. Their beloved Master spoke to them before the others. He had done what he had promised, he was not a normal man. Surely they could believe what Simon Peter had said to Jesus. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” (Matthew 16:16)
Joy and happiness are not the same thing. Briefly, happiness can be based on ‘worldly pleasures’ like money or possessions while joy is more a state of the soul. Set in the context of the fear and mourning of COVID19, asking you to find the joy of knowing the Lord has risen may seem insensitive. However I also call to mind a slim volume written by Bob Gass, “Joy comes in the morning. Finding Comfort in The Time of Loss”. In it the reader is reminded “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” (Psalm 30:5 ESV).
However as we come to the end of this Easter Monday, I draw your attention more to the concept of Chapter 2 of that book, “Knowing whose hand you’re holding.” Therein can reside the joy. Bob Gass put it, “Silence is not absence.” We can read God’s comfort and promise to us in Psalm 139
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.”
(Psalm 139:7-8)
Fear and pain may may at times displace joy. We may not feel God but he is always there and wants us to know the joy that one he can offer.
Shalom
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