Sense of Place

SENSE OF PLACE - Easter Sunday - Be3 UMC

John 20:1-18

I want to back up to the scripture in John right before the Resurrection Scripture. It’s the end of chapter 19, where Jesus has died. 

It says, “After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. 

Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. 

Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.”

Like families did for a few thousand years, these gentlemen (and in other scripture there are women too) they lovingly prepare the body – they wash him, wrap him in linen burial cloth, and anoint him with oils and spices. This was the way people mourned. Then they “buried” him in the tomb and sealed it with a large stone. THIS place was made sacred in the preparation and burying of Jesus’ body by his friends.

When we bury our loved ones in cemeteries or in a columbarium, we are able to go back and visit them – place flowers at their grave, clear away the weeds from the stone, place a small stone or memento there. With these actions, we “make” a place. 

What do I mean by “make a place?” Let me explain.

A place is – an area, a building, a city or town or village, or house. Right? A school, a dorm room, an office.

How do you “make a place?”

Throughout Lent, I read a book called Placemaker: Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty, and Peace by Christie Purifoy. In this book, Purifoy walks us through the beginning of her married life to now. They moved numerous times during those years and she learned about how to “make a place.”

She writes, “If peace is a state of harmony, if it is a kind of wholeness or completeness, then peaceful places are spacious places where our whole selves can abide. They are places with room enough for our joys and our sorrows, room enough for our neighbors and all those in need of comfort, rest, and renewal.

What is placemaking? It is deliberately sending your roots deep into a place, like a tree. It means allowing yourself to be nourished by a place even as you shape it for the better.” 

So, when you “make a place” – you plant there, you send your roots deep into the place. You allow yourself to be nourished there.

For Joseph, Nicodemus and the Marys and the other disciples – this burial place was “made sacred, made holy.” This is the place their friend and Lord was laid to rest. It isn’t a happy place, but it is a meaningful place of rest.

NOW – to our scripture for today.

Mary Magdalene, a disciple and close friend of Jesus’ goes EARLY in the morning while it’s still dark to the tomb AND…the large stone has been moved. SHE FREAKS – run to Peter and John thinking someone has stolen Jesus’ body. SOMEONE has defiled their holy place they made for Jesus!

A place can be “unmade” as a place can be “made.” When there is violence in a home or a battle on a farmer’s field – it is defiled and unmade. THIS is what they thought had happened here. Purifoy writes, “We were confronted by some of the ways in which humans unmake a place.”

John bends down and sees the linen wrappings/cloth on the floor, but doesn’t go in.

Peter goes into the tomb. He sees the cloth that was wrapped about Jesus’ body AND his head. The head cloth is folded nicely in place. WOW. Such suspense. 

As Mary is bent over weeping, she sees two angels in while sitting where Jesus’ body had been. “They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 

JESUS SAYS to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Teacher!’ 

She thinks the burial place has been ruined and Jesus has been stolen – only to turn and see Jesus when he calls her name.

IT IS SOOOOO DRAMATIC! and SWEET.

BUT THEN - 

“Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.”

Don’t hold on to me because I haven’t ascended to the Father. So, he’s not staying. We have the place where he was baptized and the place where he fed the 5,000 and the place where had the Last Supper, and then the Garden of Gethsemane, and then Calvary where he died and then the garden with the tomb. In fact, thousands probably millions of people travel, pilgrimage to Israel to see these holy places. Jesus is no longer there either though.

So – where do we “make a place” for Jesus NOW? 

I have a few suggestions:

God longs for the place he has chosen as a dwelling for his name. 

God’s longing “weaves in and out and through the whole story the Bible tells.” 

“First there was a garden. Then there was great land. There was a tribe, a tent, an ark, a temple. There was a city, a Son, and a church", writes Purifoy.

“Today, there is me. Today, there is you. So many homes God has had, and to each one of us, he says, “I am knocking. Please let me in. You ARE my home. I am YOUR home. Remain in me.” But remaining is not such an easy thing to do. To remain requires a stillness and a steadfastness in spite of the many things that will make us want to pick up and run." 

1) God longs for a place IN US! In 50 days, we will celebrate Pentecost when the Holy Spirit comes down and comes into the hearts of the those in the 1^stcentury and then for us – when we are born – the Holy Spirit is IN US. Will we “make a place” for it to dwell and grow and flourish? Do we pray daily, attend worship with others, love our friends AND enemies? Do we trust in God and follow him?

2) God longs for a place IN OUR CHURCH! Jesus said, whenever two or three people are together in my name, I am there with them. When we gather each Thursday night in God’s name, WE are “making a place” for God to dwell. When we love and support one another, we have “made this a place” for God to dwell. When we plant our roots down deep – WE allow yourselves to be nourished by a place even as we shape it for the better.

3) God longs for a place IN OUR COMMUNITY! How do we share this peace we find in Jesus? 

Purifoy writes, “If home at its best offers deep and abiding peace, then perhaps we are most aware of that gift, with its sense of wholeness and completeness, when we are seated with friends in the shade of a tree. 

‘In that day, ‘the Lord had said, ‘each of you will invite your neighbor to sit under your vine and fig tree.’ 

We may still be waiting for the perfection of ‘that day,’ but we prepare for its coming and taste its arrival when we share the places we are making with others or when we receive hospitality others offer to us.”

On Friday, a friend told me about The Turquoise Table and I think it’s something we could do in our front yard – we kind of already are with our garden boxes and our seating on the porch, but this is cool and it is a movement that “makes a place” for us to be neighborly – be loving and caring – how God wants us to be and do in this place.

Kristin Schell says, “Opening up our lives to others can seem scary, but it doesn’t have to be. It can be as simple as painting an ordinary picnic table turquoise and placing it in your front yard. It sounds so simple, it’s ridiculous. 

In fact, that’s just what I thought when I painted my picnic table bright turquoise (Sherwin-Williams Nifty Turquoise, if you’re wondering) and placed it under a magnolia tree, close to the edge our lively street.

That very day, life in our neighborhood and my life changed in meaningful ways. All because of The Turquoise Table.

The Turquoise Table has become a meeting place—kind of like the old village well—for neighbors, friends, and even strangers, to hang out and do life together. The table has spurred a front yard revival in our neighborhood and had become a welcome place to gather and love. We call ourselves Front Yard People.

As it turns out, turquoise tables are popping up all over the place – even as far away as Uganda. We’ve got an encouraging community of people—just like you—who are looking for simple ways to create community right right where they live. Wanna make a difference in your community—join us!”

 So – on this Resurrection Sunday when we celebrate that Jesus is NOT on that cross and he is NOT in that tomb, on Resurrection Sunday – he was walking around saying, “tell others that you have seen the Lord.” – I’M BACK! Death did not have the final word and it doesn’t for us either.

But celebrating the Resurrection isn’t enough. An opportunity presents itself when Jesus leaves that tomb. An opportunity to make his home, his place elsewhere. Is it in you? Will it be in you?

That’s the true miracle of the Resurrection – that God lives on IN US – he makes his place IN US.