Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran...(John 20:1 from John 20:1-18)

So: A resurrection word

‘So’: and for this reason; therefore.

I imagine Mary’s heart must have been pumping like it had never pumped before. Missing Jesus, hoping for Jesus, needing Jesus. And now his body appears to have been stolen away in the dark of night.

We are in the territory of stimulus and motivation, consequence and action. So, what shall I do now? So, what next? Mary ran to John and Peter to tell them what she had seen. I think, What moves me?

If ever there was a grand context for the word ‘So’, its here, faced with the ordinariness and strangeness of the resurrection of Jesus; bewilderingly seen alive with wounds, on boats, on roads and at table, recognisably the same yet also hidden, and walking through walls.

‘Jesus is not what they have thought him to be, and thus they must ‘learn’ him afresh, as from the beginning...they must begin again.’ Resurrection, Rowan Williams

‘So’ is a word of consequence, to, at least, begin afresh and think of Jesus in a new light, to reach out and touch this surprising Jesus again, as the disciples did.

Threshold meditation

With a ‘so’ (something of consequence) in mind go to the threshold meditation.