In this passage, Jesus is mourning the loss of a friend. But his heart is moved by the mourning of the community. In Jamaican culture, to baal is a full physical expression of one’s pain. It is not merely water falling from one’s eyes. We’ve experienced much loss through our harmful words, institutional violence and global pandemic. At times, harm has been up close and personal. The loss of a childhood friend moved me differently than the statistics.
In 2020, we were locked inside and could not turn our faces from communal grief. So many in the church wondered: how might we, like Jesus, mourn what is lost and make conditions for resurrection to happen? Once the full expression of pain is experienced, Jesus rolls up his sleeves and invites the crowd to get to work, removing the stone and bandages of death.
Repentance is not just the act of saying, “I am sorry,” but an opportunity to speak the truth so that the facts might change. It is about doing the work, going beyond the mere catchphrase. The work isn’t just about large public gestures of repentance. It is also about how you see your fellow-creature (human and otherwise). Doing the work is showing up and seeing the belovedness in every being, allowing your heart to be so moved by their grief that the resurrecting love of Christ is the central energetic force that propels you to move through the world baaling.
—Tamara Plummer
Saints, share your personal REFLECTIONS here:
Lent Reflection – March 19th 2021
In this passage, Jesus is mourning the loss of a friend. But his heart is moved by the mourning of the community. In Jamaican culture, to baal is a full physical expression of one’s pain. It is not merely water falling from one’s eyes. We’ve experienced much loss through our harmful words, institutional violence and global pandemic. At times, harm has been up close and personal. The loss of a childhood friend moved me differently than the statistics.
In 2020, we were locked inside and could not turn our faces from communal grief. So many in the church wondered: how might we, like Jesus, mourn what is lost and make conditions for resurrection to happen? Once the full expression of pain is experienced, Jesus rolls up his sleeves and invites the crowd to get to work, removing the stone and bandages of death.
Repentance is not just the act of saying, “I am sorry,” but an opportunity to speak the truth so that the facts might change. It is about doing the work, going beyond the mere catchphrase. The work isn’t just about large public gestures of repentance. It is also about how you see your fellow-creature (human and otherwise). Doing the work is showing up and seeing the belovedness in every being, allowing your heart to be so moved by their grief that the resurrecting love of Christ is the central energetic force that propels you to move through the world baaling.
—Tamara Plummer
Saints, share your personal REFLECTIONS here: