First Monday of Easter
Lectionary Texts:
Acts 2:14a-22-32
Matthew 28:9-15
Psalm 133 (UMH 850)
If you don't read any of the other lectionary texts for today, be sure to read Psalm 133. It's a beautiful example of what Jesus meant when he said, "I have come that you might have life, and might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10).
Thanks to April for her comments. As always, I would love to have more comments from more of you. In answer to one of April's points, there were indeed others who wanted to get rid of Roman rule, all of them by violence. One of them was Barabbas, the prisoner Pilate freed instead of Jesus. There were numerous groups fomenting revolt. Collectively we call them Zealots, although only one of these groups actually used this name. The groups worked together at times but often feuded between each other. Eventually in 66 AD they openly and violently rebelled against the Romans. The revolt would be called The Jewish War. We know a lot about this war from the Jewish historian Josephus in his book Bella Judaicum (The Jewish War). Josephus was an eyewitness to many of the events he records. The war effectively ended in May of 70 AD, when the Romans, after a long siege and a savage battle, destroyed the Temple and much of the rest of Jerusalem. Some Jews held out at Masada, a fortress city on the Dead Sea, until 73 AD, the official end of the War.
It's Monday, faith journey narrative day. Since I finished narrating my entire faith life, I've wondered what to do on Mondays. One of you said that I should just write about what's happening in my faith life now. At least for today, I'll take that advice.
Today is the first Monday of the Great Fifty Days, the season of Easter in the Christian Year. Toby Nguyen said in a sermon recently that Lent was her favorite season. She gave some good reasons why. My favorite season is Easter, for a good many reasons.
Easter is the season of resurrection. The first words we utter on Easter morning are "Christ is Risen," "He is risen indeed." The Easter season parallels the season of spring in the secular calendar. The weather warms; the flowers bloom; the trees get leaves. I love all these things. I go outdoors much more. It's freeing. This particular year is particularly freeing. Marianne and I are fully vaccinated. We can go places.
I can grocery shop, explore the new Wegman's. I can grill in comfort. It's a whole new world of cooking for me every year during Easter.
Easter is my favorite season devotionally. During Lent I scramble among different devotional/daily office resources, none of which fills my spiritual bill. Today I opened my Order of St. Luke Daily Office for Easter. It is gleaming white, the color of Easter. The prayers were filled with Alleluias, that word we don't say during Lent. The prayers were also filled with joy. The lectionary texts for the season of Easter have readings from Acts instead of OT. Acts is my favorite book of the Bible.
Two years ago Marianne and I were in Amsterdam with our friends and faithful blog readers, Kin and Vicki Church. We arrive after an overnight flight on Easter morning. We went to church at a small Anglican Church in the center of the city with a service in English. Though bleary eyed from the flight and lack of sleep, we enjoyed the service, the multi-ethnic packed house congregation and the reading responses in every accent of English you could imagine. The weather was mid-70's, which we were told was unheard of in The Netherlands in early April. A few days later we went to Kugenhof Gardens. Spectacular! Tulips in full bloom, all colors, for as far as the eye could see in any direction. It's the largest public garden in the world.
We went to church that Easter Sunday in part because I had never missed an Easter Sunday at church in my whole life. I could not have imagined on that Easter Sunday in Amsterdam that I would not be in church for the next two Easters. I pray and I have great hope that next Easter will be in church.
O radiant splendor of Christ arising,
your brilliance makes us seek protection from our eyes,
yet our spirits awaken to your glory, and
we rise up to meet you with our "Alleluias,"
In these moments at the dawning of a new day,
set our hearts and minds to abide with you until evening comes. Amen.
(Prayer for Monday in Easter week, The Daily Office (O.S.L.)
Faithfully
Christian
1 comment:
I love Lent, but I love Easter too. I asked my mom once what her favorite Bible story was, and she said the Exodus. That makes a lot of sense. Mine is the resurrection.
On Easter morning this year, before going to my mother's (we live close together in PA), I took my regular morning walk through mostly black West Philly. I saw a woman dressed for Easter, complete with a hat, and I said, "Happy Easter." She replied, "Happy resurrection day," but I got confused and thought she said, "Happy Presidential Day." I eventually figured it out.
I remember taking my friend Lisa to church one Easter. The pastor greeted her with "Christ is Risen!", but apparently she was not familiar with that tradition. She replied, "Uh, yeah!"
I texted one of my oldest and dearest friends, Myrna Perez, a civil rights attorney you have likely seen on MSNBC or CNN and a very good Christian by all outward markers and some inward ones too I'm pretty sure, a pretty picture of a tree and a Happy Easter. She wrote back, "Christ is Risen!" I wrote back, "Or as Brittney Spears would say, 'Ooops, he did it again!'"
Post a Comment