DAY 14

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A GREETING
I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O God.
(Psalm 9:2)

A READING
Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise.
O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a radiant dew,
and the earth will give birth to those long dead.
(Isaiah 26:19)

MUSIC

A MEDITATIVE VERSES
Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see:
the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.
(Matthew 11:4-5)

A POEM
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you.
- from The Waste Land, by T.S. Eliot

VERSE OF THE DAY
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled,
and do not let them be afraid.
(John 14:27)

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Image by Matt

Many of us carry around in our hearts the stories that have most impacted us. These may have come from our family, and from our own upbringing in faith. They may be about people we know or they might be the stories that have been taught to us from the Bible and other sacred traditions. It might be hard for us to imagine that the disciples were carrying such stories around as well, and could recite many of them by heart. The capacity to memorize and retell in the ancient world is beyond our imagination today, but was commonplace then. Much of the Hebrew Bible would have been known to the disciples in some form, through oral tradition.

The book of Isaiah was very popular in the time of Jesus and the New testament is filled with allusions to it. Nowadays, scholars divide Isaiah into roughly three sections — First, Second and Third Isaiah — with the break happening approximately at Isaiah 40 for book two and Isaiah 60 for book 3. Thus, our reading today comes from the earliest portion of Isaiah.

Being able to transform lives was a very vivid sign of a messiah -- and this includes raising people who appeared to have died. The widow's son, Jairus' daughter and Lazarus are three people whom Jesus appears to restore to life. In his message to John in prison in Matthew 11, Jesus reassures him of who he is by quoting three different sections of Isaiah that specifically name the ways in which he is fulfilling the gift of enacting miracles, including raising up those who were gone.

Raising the dead as an image of the Messiah would continue even after Jesus’ resurrection. Paul would start and end his letter to the Romans with an allusion to this same passage in Isaiah 26. The awakening is about more than just bodies rising from the grave. It's a symbol of transformation in individuals and entire communities and systems of government and justice. How can you be encouraged to take an idea you once had and give it new life? Who might one day benefit from your vision?

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A STORY OF ENDURANCE
Père-Lachaise is an east Paris cemetery renowned as the final resting place for many famous artists, musicians, writers and performers. Among its denizens are Chopin, Colette, Proust and Edith Piaf. Changing approaches to cemetery maintenance have led to a project of 'rewilding' or greening the cemeteries of Paris. The shift in thinking marks a turn from respecting those who are gone by keeping them free of any sign of encroaching weeds, pests or wildlife --- to inviting that wildlife in and allowing it to flourish. As a result, the cemeteries are becoming small thriving spaces of flora and fauna, where animals and plants are 'taking over.' While still controversial for some, the artists themselves might approve, knowing that they are accompanied by nature in death as much as in life. Read a non-paywall New York Times article about this.

Image by Dmitry Kostyukov, found in the New York Times article linked above.

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LC† Awakened by the Spirit is a project of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook, and on Twitter. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work.
Thank you and peace be with you!