By Ann Hostetler, English professor at Goshen College Reprinted from Lenten Devotions DEVOTIONAL: On this Saturday before Easter we remember that Jesus’s body lay in a tomb, subject to decay. Yet as we prepare for tomorrow, we know that when Jesus’s disciples and friends came to visit him in the tomb, they discovered that the stone had been rolled away. As we say farewell to our loved ones in this world, we may experience the holy moments when the body leaves the soul, as well as the grief of sitting with the body they have left behind. Yet we can also sense through grief the release and joy they must feel in their transition to a new state of being, because the scripture has given us these words: “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” Transfiguration When I enter your room for the last time, I see a shell-- broken—your head thrown back, mouth open—as though something has hatched and taken flight. Just this morning I rubbed your ankles with oil, but now your legs are stiff to the touch, purple stains pool under tissue paper skin as capillary walls give way, the process of return beginning. At the hospital entrance, I met the women weeping-- mother, sister, niece, pastor-- who tell me the story of your last breath, which I imagine now-- my sister plays her violin—Cast thy Burden Upon the Lord—and after days of uphill breathing your face reflects a moment of sheer delight—Christ We Do All Adore Thee. I carry this story with me like a garment. Each time I tell it the circle widens as with the telling of another story, an empty tomb, the stone rolled away, and nothing to fill the empty space but language. SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians 15:19-26 (NRSV)
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Melanie Stanley-Soulen pastored Allen-Lee United Methodist Church from 2007 until 2013. Archives
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