Closed

Closed

We are hearing this word a lot.  Businesses closed. Borders are closed.  Doors to homes are closed to neighbors, friends and family. And still we try to open what is closed.  Human nature at it’s most natural response.  Change what is closed to suit our curiosity, our need to control… you get it.  Whole books and movies have centered around closed “doors” that people open – just think “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and take it from there.

I can’t remember the first time I closed something. I do remember teaching our girls about closed.  There were even games to refine their skills.  Probably started with a cabinet door or drawer.  Toddler opens cabinet door.  Mommy excitedly says,  “look what you can do!”. Followed by Mommy seeing toddler reaching for pots and pans, Tupperware, mixer, food processor and saying in shock, “let’s close the cabinet door now!”.  That solved that, right? Nope.  The taller we get, the more we try every single thing that has a top, a door, a moving part that is constructed to keep something shut (closed).  The older we get the less we think about how we learned to close something.

Some of us are better at closing things than others.  Refrigerator doors are getting a real workout right now.  It has always been more fun to open than close.  Unless you are the one using a door to express how you feel, and it is being slammed to make a point… I’m out of here and I want you to know it.  Or maybe it’s “I am leaving angry!*/# – & !”.  Sure, closed with a slam could also mean “I am in a big hurry!”.

We are in a big hurry to move past this time of “sheltering in”. I’m getting tired of that gentle phrase aren’t you?  Let’s just say the truth, “we are closed in. Locked away, shut behind doors, staring out windows longing to touch.”  That too, is a most natural response.

We are learning things behind these closed doors.  It’s not just us, its the whole world.  Facing the implications and reality of closed has changed us as we mindfully operate in the mindset of NOT opening ourselves and others to exposure to illness and death.  Seeing again, that we are masters of adaptation, using 3-D computers to make masks for medical personnel to keep them safe and whole companies re-setting their business to help with shortages. take Lands End. This outdoorsy high end mail order company is now refitted production to make medical masks! We are learners on a curve so steep its a mountain to continue business – sit down restaurants are now delivering, wholesalers are filling orders directly to homes – heck – Edible Arrangements are delivering uncut fresh fruit with no delivery charge! We can adapt.

Worship centers are closed.  Easter is coming, and we are trying to open the church doors some way, bringing some semblance of what we are used to, familiar with. And there is a child safety lock hampering our normal way of worship. The door is able to be cracked, but the monster is still behind it.  It is not time to open that door yet.  And it will be o.k.  In fact it might even be the best Easter yet as we get back to the basics of what it was like to have Easter morning without all the trappings we have added to it over time.

I encourage you in heart and spirit to journey this week with Jesus.  Walk the road to Jerusalem that leads to the cross.  Join in the spare, real experience of Christ, where there were no songs, prayers, readings, lighting and extinguishing of candles, no flowering of crosses. No scents of lilies or sounds of magnificent praise and triumphant resurrection.  Not yet.

This Holy Week, walk in simplicity.  Behind the doors of daily life, let Christ reveal the power of closed for its own sake.  Closed is a wealth of teaching that our Rabbi will reveal as we listen with “ears to hear”.  We will not be able to embrace what will be opened on Easter morning without facing into what is closed. 

God can turn all things to good, accompanying us in the darkest of times, bringing light to our souls and promise to each day.  

Closed is nothing in the face of our God! I love you, I am praying for you and God is with you.  

Pastor Lisa

For the words we long to sing together, let us sing along with this precious hymn.
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