Easter 2014

My church day started with communion preparation.

Nine trays to be filled.

My duty this Sunday.

 My church celebrates the risen Christ

With the bread and wine

Of remembrance.

Next came an Easter egg hunt

Open to all in our city.

We are a church with few children

Except on Easter morning

When young voices echo

Through our old building.

Finally, organ music swelled.

The most joyous service of the year had begun.

Christ is risen!

The minister proclaimed from the pulpit

As he opened with a prayer.

I waited for the joy

That comes on Easter,

But it was not there.

Had I been too caught up

In the mundane

To know this day's exultation?

Then the choir sang

"He Is Not Here!"

As that anthem echoed through sanctuary,

My scalp tingled.

I stood outside Jerusalem

Gazing at an empty tomb,

Knowing that the world had been transformed.

He is risen!

And we all rise with him.

 

The Saturday before Easter Death Reigns

On this day,

Jesus is dead.
His body lies
In a dank, stone hole
Sealed against the light.
A part of God is dead.  
The Trinity is broken.
The Creator holds the breath of life,

But the stench of death

Fills the tomb. 
Without the Word, 
The Comforter is bereft.
Tomorrow,
Life will conquer death.
Jesus will rise
With the promise
Of resurrection for all,
But not this day.
This day death reigns.

Good Friday 2014

Why is it called Good Friday?

I have heard many answers.

None satisfy.

Jesus, the Word made flesh, God incarnate,

Died on a Friday, 
The day after he shared the Passover meal  
With those closest to him.

Fully human.

So human that he suffered just as we would

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.

Was Pilate's flogging a blessing

That gave a swifter death?

Fully God,

Who had never known death.

All creation gone before 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.

Love's breath stilled.

 Heaven wept.

Creation waited. 

Palm Sunday 2014

Children scurry down the aisles

Of churches small and large

Waving green palm fronds in the air

In memory of 

Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem
On what we now call Palm Sunday. 
On that day so long ago

The crowd spread cloaks and palm leaves

Before  Jesus' donkey's feet.

 People exulted.

Hosannas filled the air.

Soon the Romans would be gone,

They believed.

Jerusalem would be theirs alone.
But Jesus had warned them
That was not his message.
He came to usher in  God's kingdom
Not to fight the Romans.

As the days passed,
The cries of joy faded,
Turned to shouts of anger

By the High Priest's perfidy.

Christ was

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 God.
For us.

Communion Prayer for April 6, 2014

Romans 8:6-11

⁶ The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
⁹ You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life^[a] because of righteousness. ¹¹ And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of^[b] his Spirit who lives in you.

Dear Lord,

We come to share the bread and wine

In celebration and remembrance of you.

     The passage from Romans we read today 

Reminds us that You sent Your Spirit

To dwell within us and

Give us life and peace.

So we know

As we eat the bread and drink the wine

The Comforter joins us.

Amen.