First Sunday in Lent

Larry V. Smoose

Reformation, Media

“As he came up out of the water, Jesus saw the heavens torn apart . . .”(Mark 1:9)

I never noticed that particular phrase before – the powerful verb describing this scene in which heaven is TORN apart. -- A rending of the very fabric of heaven.  It almost has a destructive quality to it, a ripping, slashing, shredding image that makes us realize that something dramatic is happening here. 

Why would God tear apart heaven?  I could understand why God might want to tear apart earth – all the problems we’ve got – the cumulative impact of human sin over the centuries in which the violence and animosity evident in the time of king David and even before that, are still plaguing the middle East – no wonder the solution of peace is so difficult with the accumulation of suspicion, distrust, and vengeful motives on both sides.  And in our own nation we are reeling under the incredible force of greed’s pummeling attack on our lives.  Decades of living beyond our means, borrowing more, saving less, grasping at get rich quick schemes –whether it be lotteries or casinos or stock market derivatives.  I could understand why God would want to tear apart the earth and start over – except he had already done that once, and as our first lesson made clear, God promised never to do it again – the war bow was disarmed and has become a rainbow of promise.

So why would God want to tear apart heaven?  I think I got at least part of the answer as I watched a play, Gee’s Bend at the Arden Theater.  It is a true story of a group of African American women from Gee’s Bend, Alabama – a little isolated town on the banks of the Alabama river.  The women have become famous for their quilting – and I have to say that while I have always admired quilts, I never appreciated the full significance of quilts until I saw this play.

The play began with a song, an old spiritual:

How we got over.

How we got over, oh my Lord

my soul looks back and wonder

How we got over.

This is the song being sung as Sadie Pettway, a 15 year old girl from the isolated hamlet of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, stands on the banks of the Alabama River, describing one of her recent recurring dreams. In her dream, Sadie is being carried away by the river, protected by its current. She does not fear the river because she trusts that it will keep her safe. As she stands beside the water, she prays and asks the Lord to bring her the meaning of this dream. . . and, in the play we see that this is Sadie’s baptism.

How we got over.

How we got over, oh my Lord

my soul looks back and wonder

How we got over.

Gee’s Bend is the story of how these women got over – how they got through the tough times in their lives – How they survived the death of children, tough economic times, abusive marriages, beatings from participation in civil rights marches, and all of the daily life struggles that represent reality for so many people. 

Inspired by that, went to the Philadelphia museum of art to see the special display of Gee’s Bends quilts that were on exhibit there.  I don’t know when I began to make the connection between the quilts and the lives of the women at Gee’s Bend, but somewhere in the midst of seeing those quilts, I began to understand that the pieces of cloth the women were using for the quilts were like the torn fabric of their lives.  (TEAR MY SHIRT)  Like this old worn out shirt – it has witnessed more than its share of my life – and probably should have been thrown out long ago – trashed.  But these women would take the worn out fabrics and with patience, perseverance, they would tear it apart -  then they would take use the pieces of that old fabric and stitch them into a new creation – and often, as they would carefully piece them together, they would be even more beautiful than the original piece of clothing. 

Quilting takes a lot of patience – hand-stitching the pieces of torn fabric back together.  All of it is held together by a slender strand of thread (hold up a spool of thread and unwind a strand)  – it seems almost insignificant against the backdrop of the multi-colored layers of fabric, but it is the thread that holds it all together, in and out, over and under the fabric –  I had to look so closely at some of those quilts to see how the thread was so carefully holding it all together – the little pieces of denim and gingham – the torn fabrics of life. 

And he saw heaven torn apart – It was God, tearing the fabric of heaven to bring healing to earth. 

Baptism would be the thread that would hold together Jesus’ life.   It would be this Baptism that God would use the stitch together all of the bits and pieces of his torn life and tattered ministry.  God knew even then what his Son would face – even then he knew the full reality of temptations in the wilderness, the misunderstanding of people, the journey to Jerusalem, the arrest and beatings, the cross and nails, the crown of thorns and the spear.

Baptism that would become the astonishing power of God’s Holy Spirit to create new life – to stitch together the frayed, shabby, lifeless remains of an earthly ministry.  In Jesus, God brings the fabric of heaven to earth and when the fabric of his life is pounded and beaten and used up – ready to be thrown into the trash heap known as Golgotha -  God patiently, gently tears it apart  - this is my body – and he adds it to the frayed, worn, tattered fabric of our lives take and eat.  Then, with that slender thread of Baptism, he binds us together with Jesus – our frayed lives and his stitched together into a new creation – called the church.  (Hold up VBS quilt of kids’ churches)

That is what we are – bits of fabric,  our lives stitched together.  If you look carefully you can see the pain of a loss healed, a relationship mended or perhaps sewn to a new piece of fabric, you can see the frayed edges and the faded colors that bring memories of childhood laughter or scrapped knees or drops of paint from the ceiling of that new porch roof.  Life – the torn lives, frayed edges, worn out knees of wounded people who have known healing, broken people stitched back together, bound together by a slender thread called baptism and lovingly sewn by a God who knows that astonishing beauty can emerge from the frayed and torn pieces of our lives – each piece looking as if it was always meant to be right here in this patchwork quilt called the church.

And, then, wondrously, God gives this quilt of our lives to those in need in our society.  It has not been made to be hung up in a museum or put on display, it is given away to – the refugees, the victims of disaster, the evacuees of war, the forsaken and forgotten, all wondering how they will survive, how they will recover, how they will go on – and we wrap the quilt of the church, around them – The quilt of our lives stitched together so lovingly by God now embraces them with so that  the new life we have received helps give them the new life they need – that they might know the warmth of God’s love enveloping them.  God’s power to bring healing and new life to the world is at work – one quilted life at a time.

How we got over.

How we got over, oh my Lord

my soul looks back and wonder

How we got over.

Sadie discovered what we also know - Only By Your Grace, Lord, Only by Your Grace do we get over – Heaven was torn open – to bring healing to earth.

Amen.