10th Trinity August September
Luke 7:11-17
And it came to pass that on the next day Jesus went
into a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with
him. And as he drew near to the gate of the city, they became aware that a dead
man was being carried out—the only born son of his mother, and she was a widow.
And a large crowd of people from the city accompanied her.
Pierre Bouillon
And seeing her, the Lord felt her suffering, and said to her, “Weep no more.”
And approaching, he touched the coffin, and pallbearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!”
The dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother. Astonishment and awe seized all who were standing there, and they began to praise God and to glorify what was here revealed, saying,
“A prophet powerful in spirit has been raised among us, and God has come down to us, his people.”
Word about him spread out into all of Judea and all
of the neighboring regions.
10th Trinity August, September
September 27, 2020
Luke 7, 11-17
Death is a great mystery to us. It is also a great masquerade. The being of death is a pretender.
In today’s reading, a young man has died. One senses the
communal loss and anguish. He is now ‘outside’, out beyond the city gates,
beyond the crowd and his bereft and widowed mother. But he is not beyond
Christ. Christ approaches him in death and bids him live, to rise above what
would bind him and hold him down.
We too go through our dying times, even in life; times when
we suffer the paralysis of grief; times like now when our former life dies away
from us. And for us too, Christ approaches, especially just at such times. He
bids us rise from our sleep, our grief, from our deaths.
For He is the Master of the cycle of life, death and life
again. Living things die; they fall, but like seeds. And from them a new life
germinates. We die our smaller and greater deaths, but new life is already
germinating within us, through Christ. For in the funeral service of the
Christian Community Christ says, I am the New Birth in Death. I am the Life in
dying. As the poet Novalis says,
What dropped us all into abysmal woe,
Pulls us forward with sweet
yearning now.
In everlasting life death found
its goal,
For thou art Death who at last
makes us whole.*
