Soon, we will begin to start using this kind of language to define our lives: Pre-Pandemic and Post-Pandemic. What I mean by this is that the Corona Pandemic will be so life altering that this generation will be marked to speak of life either before the pandemic times or life after the pandemic times.
When you read the Old Testament we can clearly see great moments that divided people's understanding of God, life and a constantly moving "new normal." Think about the Great Flood, the Exodus, the Babylonian Captivity and life before the birth of Christ and life after the death of Christ, these all etched the epochs of time clearly by these definitive and life altering events.
We mark times in our lives now by natural disasters of hurricanes, tornadoes and national crises such as 9/11 or the assassination of John F. Kennedy. We talk about life before such an event and life after a crisis. It's how we understand our story. It's how we understand life. It's how we come to understand God.
When I look this morning at my pre-pandemic life, I was already going through massive change and transition. Our world was already thrown upside down by a trans-continental move; the death of Laz (our dog for 12 years), the shifting of the ministry we had founded from being a retreat centric model to now an online resource model; the leaving of friends and a new beginning where ever thing was different. We had lost our "normal" long before the pandemic hit. The Corona Pandemic only underscored a tectonic plate shifting in the world.
But this particular pandemic shifting is incomparable in our lives. My grandchildren's souls are being formed right now through this tectonic shift and it is too early to see how they will be affected--but they will. Everyone is affected by life defining moments where our thinking changes--our lives changes--our very soul changes. We are still in the pandemic. It's not the time to envision life after the pandemic. We can't do that yet. We don't even know if we will survive it? You can't predict a future when you are in the midst of a crisis that is this life-altering. Our job now is to survive it. Our job now is to live!
In 2003, Gwen and I had major shaping event in our lives. It was a moment that we both understand as life before an event--and life after an event. We had moved to Colorado to begin the foundational work of beginning Potter's Inn. But soon after moving and resettling, the bottom fell out of our lives and we began to spiral down. One single event changed the direction of our lives forever. We turned to a trusted counselor to help us put our lives together again. In the midst of our time with the counselor, the counselor asked me to hold a crucifix as I told my own sad story of suffering and implosion. Prior to that time, I had never held a crucifix--much less spent much time looking at one. Baptist boys would never had done such a thing.
But in those hours of telling my sad story to the counselor, holding and gripping the crucifix the shift began to happen inside me that was like this pandemic shift. For the first time in my entire life, I finally got how important the suffering of Jesus was--how important the suffering of Jesus actually is for us today.
The counselor took his time with me asking me to really look closely at the body of Jesus nailed to the cross. Notice his drooping head. Notice his rib cage. Notice the nails. Notice his vulnerability. Notice his crown of thorns. Notice his outstretched arms. Notice his utter suffering.
The Suffering Servant was really suffering--really suffering.
I had believed in Easter since I was a small boy but I had not believed in the suffering of Jesus. I did not see the connection. It was life altering; theology deconstructing and soul healing.
Good Friday can be this kind of "pre-" and "post- "understanding for us of not just our suffering in the pandemic and the profound loss we feel, but more. Any kind of suffering and any kind of grief links us to all who have suffered--to all who have experienced great loss. Through suffering, we lose the scales to our eyes to perhaps, finally glimpse at the suffering love of God in the death of Jesus. We can't really "see" life as it really is until there is the kind of suffering which drops us to our knees. Through this kind of suffering, everything begins to really change.
There really cannot be resurrection until there is death. That is the bottom line and this is precisely why Good Friday is as important as Easter. They go together. Any one involved in any 12 step or recovery process can tell you that there is no recovery until there is an admission of our reality--our death. Then, and only then, can a personal Easter happen.
As we enter into this Easter weekend, how would you define your life before the pandemic? What adjectives would you choose to mark your life, as you knew it BEFORE you knew the word and the realities and implications of Corona?
This is the crucifix that I was given to help me to never forget the suffering of this day--this very good Friday.
