Easter 2013

He is risen!
He is risen indeed!
These words echo
Through the centuries.
The words of resurrection.
The words of Easter.
The heartbeat of Christianity.

Photo by hoyameg

The disciples, lost and grieving,
Change in one day
Because he is risen.
Soon they will spread the news
Throughout the world
For they know the truth:

Death has been conquered,

Christ is alive.

We celebrate his resurrection

And his promise

That all who love God

And love others

Shall have eternal life.
He is risen.

He is risen today.

The Saturday before Easter

On this day,
The apostles are absent

From the gospels,
This missing day.
Jesus is dead
His disciples believe.
Their world is ashes.
Their grief is immense.
They fear for their lives.
They hide in the upper room.
Only the women dare to go out.
Jerusalem is strangely quiescent.

Pilate places a guard by the tomb.

This day Christ's body lies undisturbed.
Tomorrow the disciples' world

Will come alive
But not today.
We must remember

That missing day
When sorrow fills us,
When we tremble in fear,
When we hide from the world.
Those that knew our Savior best
Did not escape their human frailty,
Neither can we.
We know that with the morrow
Came relief and jubilation.
We have the risen Christ
Not the missing day.

Good Friday 2013

Why is it called Good Friday?

I have heard many answers.

None satisfy.

Jesus, the Word made flesh, God incarnate,

Died on Friday.  
The day after he shared the Passover meal  
With those that believed in him.

Fully human.

So human that he suffered agony

Nailed to a cross 
After a brutal flogging.

We recoil in horror

At his death

And think it took so long.

Six hours.

Most crucified took days to die 
Unless they were flogged.

Fully God

Who had never known death.

All God's creation past had drunk

Of that bitter cup,

But God had not.

God died on that first Good Friday,

As much of God

As could exist in human form.

A maimed, lifeless body was laid in

The cold stone tomb.

Creation waited.

Maundy Thursday 2013

Maundy Thursday.
Maundy for the British Monarch's
Alms for the poor. 

The Thursday before Easter.

The day before the crucifixion.

The day that Jesus washed his disciples feet

Even though he knew

His death was at hand.

The day Jesus and his disciples
Ate their Passover meal
In an upper room.
There Jesus instituted Communion,

The Lord's Supper,
Christians practice today.

There Judas shared bread with Jesus

Before he left to betray him.

Today many will gather for Communion.

Where believers partake of this sacrament
The Holy Spirit joins them.
Bread and wine,
Flesh and blood.

Remember the man. 

Remember the Word made flesh.
Remember God kneeling before each disciple.

Remember Jesus' patience.

Remember his sacrifice.

Spy Wednesday 2013

Judas and Peter

Spy Wednesday,

Holy Wednesday,

The Wednesday before the Crucifixion,

The day that Judas Iscariot

Conspires with the High Priest

And receives thirty pieces of silver
For the deed to come.
On the morrow,
With a kiss,

Judas hands Christ over 
To his enemies
In the time that follows

Peter denies Jesus thrice.
After Jesus' death
But before the resurrection,
Judas dies by his own hand. 
Peter sits in the upper room
Devastated that he betrayed his Teacher.
Judas dies unforgiven.
Peter knows forgiveness

From the risen Christ.
What is the difference between the fates

Of these two men?

Judas dies despised by all his breathren.
Peter dies the rock
On which Christ's church is erected.  
 Judas acts to take his life
While Peter waits.
Is that the answer?
When all is clothed in darkness,
Must we wait
 For God
Not act on impulse?

In this Easter season,
Give us the knowledge to know
When not to take action.
Give us the strength to wait for God.

Prayer for Holy Tuesday

Abba, Jesus called you,

Daddy, we would say.

Creator, sustainer of all, 

Where were you that Holy Week

So long ago?

Escorting the Son of Man

As he rode into Jerusalem on the donkey,

Weeping beside the Servant as he struggled toward The Skull,

Kissing death as the Lamb hung on the cross.

Watching as the Word

Was silent in the tomb.

Christ exalted you above himself.

Even as he opened the kingdom's gates

To let all enter. 

In the Lamb's sacrifice earth and heaven met.
The  Bread of Life was broken
Yet warms from within today. 
Only by caring for the least
Can we repay the suffering of The Christ of God,
Who was and is and will be
The great I Am.   

 Amen

 -

Holy Monday

Jesus has entered Jerusalem on Sunday

In triumph and to shouts of Hosanna.

Today he visits the temple.

The holiest place in Jerusalem.

The holiest place in Israel.
There he finds moneychangers.
There he finds dealers of animals and doves.
There Jesus becomes angry.
There with whip of cords in hand
He drives
The moneychangers
And 
The dealers from the temple.
In God's temple
There is no place for commerce.
Commerce must bow to God.

As we seek greater wealth,

Do we put commerce before God?   

Palm Sunday 2013

 

Children scurried down the aisles

Of churches this morning

Waving green palm fronds in the air

In memory of 

Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. 
On that day so long ago

The crowd spread their cloaks and palm leaves

Before his donkey's feet.

 People exulted.

Hosannas filled the air.

Soon the Romans would be gone,

They believed.

Jerusalem would be theirs alone.

But the cries of joy faded

In the wake of the High Priest's perfidy.

In one week, 
Christ would 

Be arrested,

Condemned

And

Crucified.

His body placed in a tomb.

Did Jesus know what was to come

As he rode into Jerusalem?

I think he did.

And still he came to Jerusalem

For us.