Easter Season (March 23 to May 10)

I've been thinking a lot about the resurrection and its implications for me (us) today as a follower of Jesus. I have lived in a faith tradition that normally sees Easter as a one day event, but have come to appreciate an alternate keeping of time coming down through the ages - namely the Christian calendar.

It is in this keeping of time that I am learning that Easter is not a one day event, but a 50 day celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. It is a season of great astonishment and joy which culminates with the day of Pentecost when the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church is celebrated.

So this year, not only do I wish to participate in Lent (which I've done), but I want to spend the next 49 days pondering, living out, asking questions about, being astonished and humbled at the Resurrection of my Lord!

Some Easter thoughts by a favorite author:
The world has already been turned upside down; that’s what Easter is all about. It isn’t a matter of waiting until God eventually does something at the end of time. God has brought his future, his putting-his-world into rights future, into the presence of Jesus of Nazareth and he wants that future to be implicated more and more in the present. That’s what we pray for every time we say the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth at it is in heaven.”

… if Lent is a time to give things up, then Easter ought to be a time to take things up.

Easter is a time to sow new seeds and to plant out a few cuttings. If Calvary means to put things to death in your life that need killing off if you are to flourish as a Christian and as a truly human being, then Easter should mean planting, watering and training things up in your life (personal and corporate) that ought to be blossoming, filling the garden with color and perfume and in due course bearing fruit.

All right, the Sundays after Easter still lie within the Easter season. We still have Easter readings and hymns during them. But Easter week itself ought not to be the time when all clergy sigh with relief and go on holiday. It ought to be an eight-day festival, with champagne served after morning prayer or even before, with lots of alleluias and extra hymns and spectacular anthems. It is any wonder people find hard to believe in the resurrection of Jesus if we don’t throw our hats in the air? Is it any wonder we find it hard to live the resurrection if we don’t do it exuberantly in our liturgies? It is any wonder the world doesn’t take much notice if Easter is celebrated as simple the one-day happy ending tacked on to forty days of fasting and gloom? It’s long over due that we took a hard look at how we keep Easter in church, at home, in our personal lives, right through the system. And if it means rethinking some cherished habits, well, maybe it’s time to wake up.

+NT Wright

HE IS RISEN!!!

HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!

Remembering...

In the Christian calendar, Lent officially ends at sundown today. It ends, in many cases, with readings from John 13 - Jesus washing the disciples feet and the eating of the Passover meal that Jesus ate with His disciples. In many gatherings around the world, those assembled will wash one another's feet to re-enact what Jesus did and then they will partake of the bread and the cup together.

Then, as Phyllis Tickle writes, "in stark silence, those serving at the altar will clear away the vessels that have held the wine and bread. They will take such bits and pieces of consecrated bread and wine as may be left and lock them out of both sight and reach in a niche or sanctuary in the chancel wall.

They will clear away next all the cloths and fair linen that have draped the altar, bringing basins of water to wash the altar down, as people watch, many of them crying. No part of the sacred meal may be left. All trace of it must be obliterated. The altar of God's presence is closed while all of Heaven and earth together mourn what is being recalled. Last, the priest or pastor extinguishes the sanctuary light or lamp. It will not burn again until the Easter Vigil when, just after midnight, the cry will go up: He is risen! He is risen indeed!"

I don't know how you will spend the next 3 days. You may attend a gathering or you may not, but I hope that you participate in some sort of remembering. Remembering the story, remembering His life, remembering His death, remembering the groaning of all creation as God is laid to rest in a tomb, then remembering Sunday morning, and remembering to cry out, "He is risen!! He is risen indeed!!"

Maundy Thursday

I learned the other day that Maundy means "command". So Maundy Thursday is derived from the command of Jesus at the Last Supper to love one another. Right before He gives this command, he "acts" it out...Jesus gets up and washes His disciples feet.

As He does this, He asks them, "Do you realize what I have done for you?" It is a poignant question, both to the disciples and to us today. (It is actually amazing to look at all the questions Jesus asks through the gospels).

Someone wrote: Well might Jesus ask us if we understand what he has done for us. In this passage, he is speaking of the washing of the disciples' feet, and how the disciples themselves must become servants of one another. But how can we realize that the Second Person of the Trinity, the Word made flesh, so humbled Himself, not just to provide a basic scrubbing, but to wash away every bit of human sin, degradation and death?....No we don't realize what He has done, at least not entirely. Each year the Church returns to the mysteries of our Redemption so that we can consider them again, perhaps more deeply this time, perhaps with greater faith than ever. Or perhaps in stunned, humble silence, we will just let the magnitude of these saving acts wash over us.

Lord, as I watch You - the Master and Teacher - wash the feet of Your disciples, I realize that You have laid down a pattern for us, Your people. Help me to not just understand what You did in that act, but to live it out. Enable me to live out the command of loving one another whether that other is friend, brother or enemy. For Your sake, King Jesus!

Palm Sunday

This morning as we grabbed our palm leaves to carry into the service, I stopped to look down upon the one I held in my hand. It was lovely and green except that one leaf was beginning to turn brown and was showing signs of a blight or disease. I thought about switching out the branch and then realized that, for me, it was a great symbol of Palm Sunday.

It was the day when the crowds cheered and rejoiced over Jesus. They wanted to make Him king, they thought for sure He would deliver them from the hands of the Romans. They sang His praises!! But within a handful of hours that chorus of "hosannas" would become a cacophony of "crucify Him!!". They, like my branch were green with energy and desire, but would soon show the decay of fickle allegiences.

I often ask, how could they have done that? Loved Him one moment and chose a convicted murderer over Him the next...Then I stand back and see myself among them. I, too, love it when I think Jesus is going to do something in my favor. I sing His praises and act triumphant! However, when He doesn't do what I expect Him to do, I get kind of ticked off at Him and choose other things or people over Him! I choose my own ideas instead of Him!

Lord, as we stand on this side of Your death and resurrection, I can see now that You came as King, but in a different manner than those around you thought You would. May You give me the grace to always give you a triumphal entry - to always see you as King - but keep me from disowning You when You operate in ways I do not understand! This week, would you help me enter into Your Passion - to hear the story with new ears, to see You in new light, to be humbled deeper by Your death on the cross and to tremble at the announcement of Your resurrection!!

Patterns of Prayer - Week 6

As we enter into this last week of our patterns of prayer, I am so grateful for all of you who have taken the journey with us! Thank you too for those of you who have shared stories, prayers and your lives from the last few weeks! Just so you know, next week, I hope to post a little about Passion Week and reflections/prayers about the cross, Good Friday, resurrection...AND how we participate in the story to ready our hearts for Sunday!




So...this week has been a tough week for me as far as praying goes. My calendar has been full, my brain focused on lots of "stuff" to get done, and my heart kind of fuzzy. I guess it's been a real Lenten week - in the wilderness. A friend of mine summed it up this way (which really resonated with me, so I'm going to use her words):

As I laid in bed this morning thinking about how little I really did focus on last week’s prayer topic and thinking about the schedule I will have the next few days and for the next few weeks I felt Lent slipping away from me. God felt far away. I didn’t feel like praying – didn’t feel like praying for me or those I knew let alone for such all encompassing topics as the church or the world. God seemed silent. I felt like I hadn’t seen him much in my conversations or encounters lately and like I didn’t have the time to personally seek him out in my hectic travels… But, then I realized something… What I was feeling felt like it didn’t fit with Lent, but it was in fact the very essence of Lent. I had wanted Lent to be this journey of repairing brokenness, this journey of spending devoted time in prayer, this journey of sensing God’s presence and feeling close with him… but that’s not really Lent – Lent is wilderness – Lent is brokenness – Lent is loneliness – Lent is silence – Lent is God’s silence as well as mine. The Biblical story that Lent symbolizes is that of Christ’s temptation in the wilderness, the desert. It’s not a story of peace and tranquil quality time with God. It’s a story where the main character finds himself alone and lonely, without food and hungry – God is not around (at least not noticeably) instead there are temptations to face and Christ must cling to those words which God had spoken in the past because at the time God was silent.

Well said, Bethany...well said!



So the focus for this last week of our Lenten journey is the future. We've already looked at patterns within ourselves, patterns of confession, patterns of how we relate to our family, friends, and those who are "invisibles" or enemies. We've asked God to show us new patterns as we think about His Bride here in the US and give us new patterns of sight as we look at the rest of His world. So the question looming before us now is...how do we take these new patterns, new insights, new practices into the FUTURE and not fall back into old patterns?? Lent is not just about stopping or doing an activity for 40 days, but is about allowing God in that stopping or starting to change us and to live in that change into the future.

Praying Lent:
This week spend some time in quiet reflection over the past 5 weeks. What has God said to you? Where has He convicted you? Where has He given you a new pattern to live instead of an old? Then pray over all that and ask God to show you what this looks like into the future - His future. Pray for future generations of Christ followers. Pray for the future of the Church in the US and the world. Pray for future encounters with "invisibles" or family and friends. Pray for your future as you walk in relationship with God.

Living Lent:
For me, I am going to go photograph patterns this week. I want to use them as a prompt and reminder that God has new patterns of living for His people. I want to use them to pray and ask God what my part is in those patterns. I want to seek Him about taking my part of the pattern into the future. (If this exercise resonates with you, I'd love to see some of your images and perhaps insights from this week.)

Patterns of Prayer - Week 5

What a week!! We had the privilege of traveling to California for a wedding. Being the photographer, I got to see the beauty of a bride and the joy of a groom as he delights in her. It was a great reminder of Jesus' love for His Bride and what the church can be at her best!!

So far in our Lenten journey, we've looked internally, then locally; last week we focused nationally and now our focus will turn global. What are our patterns of thinking toward the rest of the world? Do we regularly pray for other parts of the world? Do we, as the family of God, pray for other believers elsewhere in the world? What do we think our obligation is toward them (the global church) and the rest of humanity?


Lots of questions, but ones I believe we must grapple with (especially now that the "World is Flat"...) And even at a time of an unstable economy here in our country, we still have so much compared to most of the rest of the world.

Praying Lent:
God, what is your heart for all the nations? How do we align our patterns of thinking and prayer with Your heart? How do you want us to live differently or what do you want us to do in regard to Your world? Would you pray these questions this week? Would you pray for people and organizations who are doing good things (God things!) in the rest of the world? Would you pray for peace and justice in places where they seem to live on the edge of turbulence?

Living Lent:
Easy: Perhaps we could put a globe on our kitchen tables. Each time we go to eat, let's pray for somewhere in the world. Pray that the Kingdom of God might be spread across those places.
Harder: Perhaps there is something you do daily (buy a newspaper, buy a Starbuck's coffee...). This week, consider not participating in that activity and take whatever money you would have spent on it and give it to an international relief organization. (Sure it may not be much, but if every person who reads this blog did it...well, who knows...)

God, I believe you created this world
And as such, You love it.
Give me Your heart for the global community I live in
Show me the part you want me to play in Your redemption of it.