Several thoughts coming together here, and all centred on resurrection and recovery...
On Easter Sunday I preached on the transformational possibilities released through the resurrection, how the risen and transformed Christ reveals to us the possibility of resurrection and transformation in our own lives. I used the (often used) illustration of a butterfly, noting that it begins life as a caterpillar and has to go through the transformation process by entering into the chrysalis where everything is in flux. In fact everything becomes a messy goop, and it is out of the mess that the new creature emerges. That emergence comes with a struggle, and the butterfly gains its strength through the struggle to emerge, to "help" a butterfly to break free from it's chrysalis tomb by opening it so that struggle is not needed will result in a weak and deficient creature that will never reach its full potential and soar!
Continuing to think along these lines I begin to wonder if we often rush the mystery of Easter and all too readily plunge back into the ordinary life. How easily we move in just three days from O Sacred Head Sore Wounded to Thine be the Glory, and yet a careful reading of the gospels reveals to us the doubts and fears that the disciples experienced in the days following the resurrection. Many times Jesus was not recognised, and his appearance though it certainly evoked joy, sometimes brought about terror and questions.
Luke 24 tells us:
"just as they were telling about it, Jesus himself was suddenly standing there among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. But the whole group was startled and frightened, thinking they were seeing a ghost!"
Matthew 28:
"When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted."
John 20:
"At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus."
These and other descriptions of those first encounters reveal fear, doubt, and questions, writing today Maggi Dawn says:
"Whatever the resurrection meant, exactly, it didn’t mean that everything was back to normal. It meant that hope had not died with him; it meant that all their categories of thought had to be adjusted around this new situation. But in practical terms? perhaps it meant that something very new and amazing was breaking out, but perhaps it meant that they were to go home and resume normal life.
What to do? and how to live? It wasn’t clear at all. One gospeller tells us that some of them went back to Galilee and their fishing business. Another says they waited in Jerusalem. Hanging about, or plodding through life’s daily events, the resurrection had certainly not changed their lives in an instant, like winning the lottery or something."
Their lives were not changed in an instant, the events of Jesus life now needed re-framing in an entirely new way, death had been defeated, something new had begun, and in some ways the church in all its diversity is still grappling with what all of this means.
We live in such an instant world that all too often we miss the depths of mystery that the Easter Gospels reveal to us, we don't dwell with the disciples in their fears and doubts, we want to move on to rush to proclaim the good news before we have grasped what the good news is...
And the truth is that the disciples had to wait with and dwell in this messy place of flux until Pentecost...
...and dare I say beyond Pentecost...
I wonder if an appropriate picture for the church should be of the chrysalis. Could it be that in daring to choose to be in Christ that we enter the tomb ( the chrysalis) with him and this is where we still are in many real senses, we are not yet what we will be, but all of the ingredients, all of the potential is there. And yet because he is raised we are raised and are actively called to be his body on earth, to reveal and live his resurrection to the world...
No wonder we get confused!
So where did the thoughts on depression come from and why are they in this blog post title..?
A while ago I blogged on Mike Yardy and depression, and was encouraged by not only his openness and honesty regarding his illness, but also by Hugh Morris, the English team coach who was reported as saying:
"Yardy would be given the full support of everyone connected with the national team....... our priority now is to ensure that he returns home to his family and is able to spend time recovering with a strong support network around him"
Today Sussex head Coach Mark Robinson has been reported as saying:
"But it is just like anybody being injured. You have to give them time to heal properly and what you don’t want to do is rush them back so that they have a recurrence of the injury. It’s the same for Yards."
Time to heal, time to heal from depression, time to heal from shock and grief....
Time...
For Yardy, the time to heal is crucial, and so it was for the disciples, and dare I say so it is for the church today. We have just plunged ourselves headlong into an intense week, re-living the events of The Passion and Easter, if we have done so lightly then we may just skim along, but if we have been touched by the mystery, challenged afresh by the possibilities, awed by the depth of love, and wonder of resurrection power, then maybe just maybe we need time...
Time to take it in, time to heal, time to ponder and wonder, to dwell with our doubts and fears, to re-emerge stronger and closer to God somehow...
