Stubbornness

Now after Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went out and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.
After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.
Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it. Mark 16:9-20 

Stubbornness

Dear loving and living Creator
you made us in your own image
giving us choice and freedom
and still we didn't listen or act.

When the fragile climate cried out
we didn't seem to notice at all
in our busyness and selfishness
our self-importance was our guide.

When the women who witnessed
the resurrection and the angels
we thought they were foolish
their hysterical accounts wrong.

Yet, here we stand alone again
realizing so late we need your hands
to heal us, to turn us all around
and show us how to humbly love.

When the all clear is finally sounded
let us not return to our blind stubbornness
let us nurture the strong bonds built
and live anew for love alone. Amen