This newsletter comes to you from The Upper Room Center for Christian Spiritual Formation, an evolving offering of Upper Room resources, past and present.
Good Friday by John S. Mogabgab
What is this darkness? Perhaps it is the mystery of divine vulnerability.
“When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon" (Mark 15:33).
In Mark's Gospel an overwhelming darkness cloaks the land midway between the time of Jesus' crucifixion and the moment of his death. The agonizing hours of that terrible afternoon stretch out between two definitive marks of our tortured human condition: the crucifixion, through which a world delirious with fear and confusion immobilizes the incarnate God on the wooden crossbeam of its own alienation, and then death, that cosmic affront to the Creator of life.
The immovable solidity of the cross and the irrevocable silence of death frame a vision of God's most profound vulnerability. Yet precisely here on bare Golgotha, where God's vulnerability is so starkly visible, it is also most deeply concealed, engulfed in a darkness that obscures even the most prominent features of the land.
What is this darkness? Perhaps it is the mystery of divine vulnerability. In the secret depths of this mystery a new work of immeasurable proportions is underway, a new destiny is forming for the creation which hitherto had been condemned to death: "On him lies a punishment that brings us peace, and through his wounds we are healed" (Isa. 53:5, JB).
From “Editor’s Introduction,” WeavingsJournal (July/August 1993). John S. Mogabgab was the founding editor for Weavings: A Journal of the Christian Spiritual Life.
Practice: Weeping with God by Jan Johnson
If obsessing on news reports is not the best of all responses to violence and tragedy, what is? While better responses include comforting the afflicted, joining a cleanup crew, donating money, or getting involved in settings that promote reconciliation, there is another important response in which off-site folks can participate: the ongoing weeping with God, whose heart throbs when humans harm and oppress each other. Whether the violence is directed at us, surrounds us, or even rises up within us, we can train our heart to grieve on a regular basis in order to release our claim on vengeance because we are children of God.
Such weeping is, I believe, an ongoing discipline for those in whom God dwells. Sandwiched between scripture’s difficult biddings to “bless those who persecute you” and “live in harmony with one another,” is the command: “weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:14-16). ...
In Christian spiritual tradition, certain kinds of weeping are a charism, or gift of the Spirit. Captured in the Greek word penthos, such weeping involves a broken and contrite heart and inward godly sorrow. Stories of the Desert Fathers often include the bidding to stay in one’s cell and weep for one’s sins. “Useful” grief included “weeping over one’s own faults and “weeping over the weakness of one’s neighbors.” It is this latter action—weeping over others’ bent lives and the evil phase they have chosen, and even for the redemption of their lives—that helps us respond to tragedy and disaster without vengeance.
From “Weeping with God as a Spiritual Discipline,” by Jan Johnson in Weavings Journal (May/June 2004). Copyright © 2004 The Upper Room.
What to Do in the Darkness by Marilyn McEntyre
Go slowly
Consent to it
But don't wallow in it
Know it as a place of germination
And growth
Remember the light
Take an outstretched hand if you find one
Exercise unused senses
Find the path by walking it
Practice trust
Watch for dawn
From Weavings Journal, (March/April 2004). Copyright © 2004 The Upper Room.
Audio Lectio
Pray with us the gospel lessions for Good Friday and Easter. Audio Lectio is a guided meditation using each week's gospel reading from the lectionary.
Weavings Reprint
Earth Has No Sorrow that Heaven Cannot Heal, a reprint of an article by Luther E. Smith. Available in The Upper Room Bookstore.
Prayer by Pam Hawkins
O loving Christ who waits for all to move forward, to change inward, to love outward. Wait now with me as I long and learn to become more like you. Guide me to wait with the lost, to stand with the weak, to have a heart for the brokenhearted. Amen.
From The Awkward Season: Prayers for Lent. © 2009 by Pamela C. Hawkins. Used with permission of Upper Room Books.
Two-Year Academy
Join us on the journey -- upcoming Two-Year Academies for Spiritual Formation. California - beginning in July. Alabama - beginning in August. Learn more.
Blessings to you during this Holy Week.
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