This Sunday at Peace

Scripture: John 14

a note from Holly

It’s been a full month and then some.

I’ve been to Texas and Florida, then Tennessee, and then back to Texas.

Graduation. Death. Death.  A lot in there.

And, as ever, there are some things you can’t learn, and some things you just don’t know, until you have been through them.

Like truly how much support means. The simple things: a kind word. Cards in the mail. Flowers from someone you barely know. Friends who show up. A large extended family. Memorial gifts to the migrant fund.

This Sunday, we are in a stretch of scripture, from John 13 to 17, called the Farewell Discourse. Jesus is going away, and, as my friend and scholar Matt Myer Bouillon points out, it’s a 1-2 punch:

I’m leaving, and you’ve let me down.

What follows are 4 chapters of reassurance. It reads like a small book you share with someone in grief, or a stack of cards, filled with familiar words.

There’s an odd twist, too. At Christmas, we celebrate Jesus coming to us, showing us how to live with love and grace.  But here, Jesus is leaving, and his departure is something to celebrate, too.

There’s plenty here for Memorial Day as we think about those who have formed us, the grace we have known in them, and sometimes in spite of them, and how we carry that on in our own lives.

Thankful, as ever, for your gift and your love.

Holly