Saturday, April 5
Read: Psalm 126; Exodus 12:21-27; John 11:45-57
When I went to the Holy Land, we were shown what were known as tear ducts. They were these little jars of clay or glass which were used to save tears for funerals. They would be pulled out for either professional mourners to use at funeral processions or to hold onto after an event of mourning.
I was struck by such a process of preserving something which is often dismissed as tied to grief or pain. Yet for our ancient ancestors, tears were seen as holy, something to speak into both the pain and joy to come in human life. Thus, they were to be collected and either used again or held onto as a memory of the ones they loved.
Our psalmist in Psalm 126 speaks to the power of tears being a link to our joy. The psalmist begins by speaking of days gone by when things were good and there was joy and laughter. All could say the Lord was with the people. Then the psalmist cries for God to restore their fortunes like the flowing Negev River. God can take their tears and turn them to joy, bringing an abundance of life.
The psalmist names a profound truth with our tears; God takes these holy droplets of water and transforms them into joy. The tears point to the gifts God has given us and one of those gifts is that of love. When we cry, particularly in the face of death, we are celebrating the gift of life and love which is there.
The season of Lent invites us to face the mortality of those we love and our own. Often during this season, I think of the tears I have shed over those in my life who have died. When my father died on an Ash Wednesday eleven years ago, I learned how tears and grief are the price we pay for love. We cry because who we loved is not with us anymore and there is a profound hole in our hearts. And the tears do not stop after the funeral; they come repeatedly. The tears can come from seeing a show where the scenes of grief are similar, singing a hymn they loved to sing, or going to the spaces they loved.
Yet the psalmist names how these tears are the very thing to connect us to joy and to the Lord. God takes our tears and speaks to us about the things important to us: our faith in Jesus’ presence, the gift of love we had from those dearly departed saints, and the opportunity to continue abundant life. We are reminded of how our very human tears are a gift from God pointing back to Jesus who dearly loves us. The season of Lent invites us to see our tears as gifts so our joy may be complete in the one who makes us whole and gives us joy eternal.
Prayer:
Holy God, we thank you for the gift of life. We give you thanks for our tears and the gift of love which speaks through them. Help us in this season of Lent to see our tears as hope from ashes. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
The Reverend Dr. Hunter Pugh is Pastor of the Brantley and Brunson Chapel United Methodist churches. He also serves as adjunct faculty in the Religion Department at Huntingdon College.
