Great is God’s Faithfulness
April 13, 2023
Happy Easter!
Great is God’s faithfulness! Oh-you thought that was over and done? This is actually a “season,” as in “Jesus is the reason for the season.” I should say, the risen Christ is the reason we celebrate resurrection every Sunday on “the Lord’s Day,” and the immediate experience of resurrection for the disciples from now through the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
Too much churchy stuff to keep reading?
Whatever happened yesterday, today is new. Today is a day to enjoy the hope of resurrection. Resurrection is not a theology about life after death.
In its fullest form, resurrection is a gift for living life after life. It is the gift of everyday’s new beginning.
I awoke this morning thinking, “If today was the last day of my life….”
I’m here now, at my life, in all its routine, watching for surprises, waiting for the other shoe to drop, creating the moments of joy and possibility, and going through the motions, all of it–with resurrection in mind. Whatever comes, for good or ill, resurrection gives me hope that I can endure with patience and hope, enjoy with celebration, and confidence, that with my next breath, life is everlasting. Even if mine is not here, I can leave rejoicing in the wonder of new life every morning for you and yours.
Great is the faithfulness of God! Morning by morning, new mercies to see….
Peace be with you!
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The Meaning of the Cross
Good Friday is not “good.”
Traditional language calls Jesus’ death on a cross a “sacrifice,” “substitute,” and claims Jesus “paid the penalty” for our wayward lives. This state execution, encouraged and supported by local religious co-conspirators, is described as a tool in the hands of an angry God. God exacted punishment for crimes against humanity from his own kid, who did nothing wrong. Who wants to be friends with that?
Is there an alternative?
Jesus died on a cross, not to please God, but to keep people in positions of authority and wealth and perceived safety.
Easter is the answer
Let us be resurrected, transformed, through Christ’s courageous and healing work of reconciliation, even if it leads us to pick up a cross ourselves.
Happy Easter, happy life! Peace,
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It’s been a week…
It’s been a week. No, several. It’s been a month of …days when all hell has been breaking loose and ripping apart neighborhoods, schools, families, nations, lives.
The Questions of the Week
We have been willing to confront the difficult days, challenging ideas, and looming death. Nevertheless, our world continues to spiral in chaos. This week the question is, “Where are you headed?” I’m not sure if the question is meant for us to consider about our lives, because I have only been able to ask that question of Jesus over the last couple of weeks. I have been at a loss for words. I have felt silenced in the face of all that is so messed up.
The Way for Those Who are Seeking
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Dry Bones
March 23, 2023
I have been thinking about skeletons, nope that kind, more like the ones that come in deaths and resurrections during this season of Lent—primarily my own.
CREDO. That is the name of the educational seminar I attended a few weeks back. It is Latin for “I believe.” Yet, it can be rendered, “I give my heart to.” I have not fully absorbed the learnings of the CREDO yet. It is all still simmering. This particular event was designed for late career ministers. Yep, I am in that stage.
We created a “Rule of Life,” The rule is meant to help us live a life according to the persons or things we give our heart to. Being an end of career and into retirement centered event, you can understand why I’m thinking more about my death and resurrection than Lazarus or Jesus.
Not that either of them are not part of the contemplation. After all, I have regularly recommitted my heart to Christ. Meaning, I have regularly fallen away from being focused on the way of Jesus that leads to life, to a rule of daily experiences and actions that are worthy of a child of God.
“Can these bones live,” God asks Ezekiel. This is our scripture for this week. I am finding a new joy in thinking about resurrection before Easter, in this season of Lent. I hope you will join this journey. Here’s something fun that made me smile.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYeQUXXYvK0
I hope you bring this kind of joy to the worship on Sunday, and to your life each and every day, by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ.
Peace,
Photo Credits: 2020-01-19 1st run Women’s Skeleton (2020 Winter Youth Olympics) by Sandro Halank–026.jpg Creative Commons Attribution 2.0; Human skeleton remains.jpg Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
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Anniversary Prayers
Anniversaries are on my mind. It so happens, a St. Andrew couple celebrated 55 years of marriage this week. Martha and I were attending a conference seventeen years ago today (3/16) when we realized that our friendship might be shifting gears to something more. Six years ago this weekend (3/18-3/19), St. Andrew Pres celebrated her 50th anniversary.
Our History
In the same way, let your light shine before others,
so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16
Our Future
Your Past, Present and Future
We “celebrate” this season every year. Christians do not avoid or minimize the suffering in the world, not even the suffering of God. Have you noticed we are not singing alleluias? Perhaps you noticed the color of the season, purple, signifying an extended time of expressing sorrow, regret or confessing guilt? Maybe you are planning spring break, egg hunts, new clothes and Easter family meals, skipping right on past Good Friday?
Please slow down and for these last few weeks before Easter Sunday, ask yourself, what am I seeking? How am I killing off the holy within myself just as the death of Jesus killed the disciples’ hope so long ago? Do I want to see Jesus only alive or am I willing to face the cross and my own despair about the missing holiness of the everyday life I am living? What in me needs the light of love? Can I imagine that God understands despair, hopelessness, enough to understand mine? Will I bring it to God? Will I seek Christ’s merciful gaze and offering of grace? Even as he dies on a cross?
Find Help
Beloved of God–May this anniversary Lenten season allow a new light to dawn on your spiritual seeking and may your light shine as you become a beacon of peace and love.
Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.
The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up, and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. James 5:13, James 5:15
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Intermittent Fasting–For all Embodied Souls
March 9, 2023
In a diet culture of striving for the perfect body, we miss the essential power of perfecting the soul. Our bodies are the “temple of the Holy Spirit.” (1 Cor 6: 19) A healthy physique, internally and externally, is only one aspect of approaching our capacity for well-being. How are you nurturing your soul?
Lent is a season to remind us of this essential component. Fasting is one of the spiritual disciplines of Lent. It is not the intermittent fasting of a weight-management plan. It is an ancient practice of a burden management plan. Fasting is meant to help us release the weight of pleasures that obscure the joy of faith.
Have you created a Lenten fast? Would you for the last few weeks of Lent? A daily prayer, 20 minutes, in which you refraining from your usual routine everyday until Easter morning. Our SAPC Facebook page is providing daily reflections from A Sanctified Art, and our website has a link to a daily devotional.
May this Lenten season provide you a path to unburdening your life of the heavy weights that keep you from attending your soul. Be freed to discover the power of daily or weekly personal worship that reveals the one thing necessary:
I keep the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;
my body also rests secure. (Ps 16: 8-9)
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