It is a matter of death and resurrection

John F. Kennedy. Princess Diana. The explosion of the Shuttle. 9/11. All of these take us back to when tragedy struck nations and people. Many of us can say where we were when these events happened. Our country and other countries have had many life lessons from these times.

On Monday, I paused to remember the death of my brother some 25 years ago. I remembered that when he died it was a wake-up call to pay attention to places in my own life that needed a little bit of attention. Back then, I spent time reflecting on where I needed resurrection to happen. I watched my father begin to open up and talk about what he was thinking about and feeling. I saw a mother wrestle with what it meant to have a child die before a parent. His death brought us together in new and amazing ways. It was painful. It was life giving. It was death and resurrection.

I am not at all thankful that he died.   I am thankful that I could use that time to observe my life. I am guessing that it was the beginning of my wrestling with my sexuality. I doubt that I knew that at the time.

Death can bring Resurrection. We are close to Holy Week. Palm Sunday will call us into the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and the stories of his death coming closer and closer.

Holy Week invites us to explore what it means to have had Jesus be killed and rise again. I invite you to take the time to give thanks for your lives and to think about what might need to die in you so that you may have newness - Resurrection.

It began innocently enough: I decided to create a reminder about this Sunday being the start of Daylight Savings Time. I used a picture I took a little while ago from the choir stalls, added some text and posted it on our Facebook page. Within minutes, it had been shared by other Facebook users. A day and a half later, it had been shared by over 300 people, given nearly 500 "likes" on various users' timelines, and had been seen by over 25,000 (!) people from all over the country. That total continues to grow by the hour as I write this. 

An admitted latecomer to social media (my mother and I joined Facebook at the same time), I am an equally admitted convert. I'm still not convinced that my own daily maneuverings are of such interest as to warrant several posts a day on my personal Facebook page. However, I do believe in the power of social media when it comes to making connections, in particular for communities such as Grace. I am continually experimenting with ways to expand Grace's reach. One never knows who may be drawn to come and experience Grace in person as a result of having been exposed to us on the Internet.  My hope is that somehow, and in some way, Grace will touch those thousands of people from around the country who may have never heard of a community called Grace in a place called Oak Park. 

If you haven't yet liked our Facebook page, please do so. Then, be sure to be part of the conversation.

-Douglas VanHouten

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• Video three 

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