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John
20:11-16
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.
As she wept, she bent over to look into
the tomb; and she saw two angels
in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and
the other at the feet. They said
to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away
my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ When she had said this, she turned
round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you
weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said
to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him,
and I will take him away.’ Jesus
said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew,‘Rabbouni!’ (which
means Teacher).
Named
in love
I miss my name. Once, I longed for the day someone
would call me “Pastor.” I am still honored and blessed by that title, even
though the older I get the more I blush knowing I am unworthy of the office I
hold. There are so many others who are so much better, and I know my frailties
all too well.
But my longing simply to be named ‘David,’ as at my baptism, has nothing to
do with the struggle of living a life worthy of my calling.
The soul longs to hear a voice of love, a voice of intimate
acceptance calling you by name.
We ache for that voice whose warmth tells you that you
are truly known and cherished as the vulnerable human soul you are, a voice
that finds beauty in the very vulnerabilities we hide from the world.
The heart has ears to hear the voice of love, and in hearing
we know we are one, intimately bound to the love who calls our name. The result
is joy, always joy.
Something like this happens for Mary.
She weeps outside the tomb. Jesus calls her by name,
and she hears the Voice of Love intimately calling her to know that the dream
of Love’s triumph is not just a dream but true.
She knows … Love lives and calls us by name … that we, too, may know.
Pr.
David L. Miller
