Seeker

I didn't know that the Hebrew word for a funeral - 'levayah' - means 'accompaniment' until I read a post called Earth and Pine at Velveteen Rabbi's blog. She writes about the last act at a Jewish burial of mourners throwing handfuls or shovelfulls of earth over the casket and how this is seen as 'the last act of kindness one can perform for someone who has died, having "accompanied the soul of the person we love as far as we can go." At Christian burials a similar tradition of throwing token amounts earth over the coffin is usually followed. By this we acknowledge that as far as the person's bodily remains are concerned, there is nothing more to be done but to complete the burial. The physical burial work is done by the grave digger/filler, sometimes seen waiting discreetly at a distance until all the mourners have left. Why don't some or all stay and watch this or why don't able-bodied relatives help with this? Because it wou...

The anger, despair and overwhelming sorrow of grief is a unversal human experience. I think it's beautifully portrayed in this detail of a mourning woman. It's from the painting 'Deposition' by the 15th century Flemish painter Rogier van der Weyden . The original oil on panel is in the Museo del Prado, Madrid . I chose to post this today in an attempt to imaginatively enter the experience of a few women who saw Jesus die, then taken down from the cross and laid in a tomb. Yesterday during the silence in a Good Friday service I found myself thinking about Jesus' mother at her son's crucifixion. It was almost unbearable for me, even just thinking about Mary's experience. What did she feel like the next day I wonder? How did she with Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women get through that long sabbath? Tomorrow, Easter Sunday, I expect to preach from Luke's account of the women with their spices going early to Jesus...