Today continues the celebration of the Resurrection, as we observe the Second Sunday of Easter. The lessons continue the story of what happened that first day of the week, and then also address how those events were understood by those who witnessed it.

We begin with a psalm of rejoicing, extolling the God who makes us secure and who does not abandon us to the pit. (Psalm 16) Then we begin to hear from the apostle Peter, as we will throughout Eastertide, both in his preaching to the citizens of Judea and Jerusalem (Acts 2:14a, 22-32) and in his letters to the early church, even to those who believed in Jesus but had never seen him. (1 Peter 1:3-9)

From John’s gospel, we hear the account of Jesus’ appearance to the disciples in the upper room on that evening of the resurrection day, and then again a week later. Jesus gives to them the Spirit that can free people from sin, and returns to allay the fear and doubt of those who find it hard to believe his resurrection. (John 20:19-31)

The readings, the Spirit, and the freedom from sin is ours to have as well. This is important, since often the fear and doubt are ours too. Nonetheless, we strive to live by faith, striving to believe even when we do not see.

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At the root of the church’s worship is this day, this remembrance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is what makes Christian worship distinctly Christian, and it is at the pivot of what happens at all other times of the year.

In our service, the story is captured in Matthew 28:1-10. This marvelous event is one of the ways God continues God’s faithfulness and makes manifest an everlasting love, as spoken in Jeremiah 31:1-6. “Everlasting” means that it is for us too, just as Paul exhorts the early church to be raised with Christ and to set hearts and minds on the ways of Christ. (Colossians 3:1-4)

So for us it is a day of unbridled rejoicing, with sights and sounds to magnify and amplify the splendor of this good news. Awake, dear hearts, with gladness. (more…)

The church gathers on this evening to remember with thanksgiving the redemption of God’s people. The events of Jesus’ crucifixion took place in the context of the celebration of Passover. So we too remember the deliverance of the children of Israel, and join in the ancient blessing of bread and wine, as the faithful people of God have done for generations and generations.

Our service opens with the festive words of the psalmist, filled with thanksgiving, and renewing promises to pray and keep our word with God. (Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19) We hear the account of Jesus’ meal with his disciples, at which he stooped to wash Peter’s feet, and exhorted his disciples (and us) to love one another similarly. (John 13:1-17, 31b-35) And at the time of the Lord’s Supper, we hear a portion of the account of the Passover meal, to be celebrated as a festival, and observed perpetually. (Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14)

Sharing this meal in the context of John’s gospel add a particular emphasis to this remembrance. John declares that Jesus was crucified on the Day of Preparation, the day the Passover lamb was slaughtered and readied for the festival. In this context, we have all the more reason to remember and adore our Paschal Lamb, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. (more…)

At the beginning of this holiest week in the Christian year, we gather to observe two themes in our worship. Both of them sum up the ways we have been preparing for Jerusalem throughout the Lenten season.

First, we remember Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, as the townsfolk and children shouted, “Hosanna! Save us!” We begin our service in the Gathering Place, much as crowds might have gathered at the gate of Jerusalem, collecting palms to wave before their Savior. The words of Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 set a festive mood, recounting the joy of entering into the place of God. The Gospel appointed for the opening of the service is Matthew’s account of that procession wherein Jesus arrived, not on a steed, but on a donkey. (Matthew 21:1-11)

Soon enough, however, we are reminded of the somber reason for Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. The choir anthem expresses it; the Readers’ Theatre summarizes Lent’s Encounters with the Cross and draws the focus to Jesus’ impending suffering and death; and the rest of the readings also give expression to the meaning of this week. Isaiah 50:4-9a sings of the resolve of the Innocent One to be obedient, to enter into the fray, and to trust that God will vindicate him and save him from shame. Then Paul sings the great Christ-hymn of Philippians 2:5-11, singing of the humble obedience that led this One to the cross and his subsequent exaltation.

So it is a day of exultation and of somber reflection. (more…)

On this Fifth Sunday in Lent, our readings focus our attention to a God who transforms even the very darkest of places and events of our lives. This God is even able and willing to reach into the darkness of tombs in order to make the glory of God even more brilliant.

The psalmist declares that with God there is power to redeem, and calls upon Israel to hope in God even in the deepest woe. (Psalm 130) Then Ezekiel writes about his vision of dried out bones being hung with new sinew and muscle, as God breathes new breath into them. It is a vision of Israel, and a promise of restoration. (Ezekiel 37:1-14)

Paul writes more about death and life as realms either of the body or of the spirit. More important than the dualism of Paul’s language is the tenet that a spirited, spiritual life is made possible and set free by the new life made known in a resurrected Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:6-11)

Finally, the Gospel reading is the familiar tale of Jesus visiting his friends Mary and Martha after Lazarus has died. They learn that even their friendship with Jesus did not mean he would come in time to prevent the deep sorrow of death. But when Jesus calls Lazarus forth from the darkness of the tomb, they discover the power of God in a new, unfathomable way. (John 11:1-45) Oh, if only we had such dramatic experiences and signs. (more…)

The Fourth Sunday in Lent provides us with wonderful Scripture readings — but not ones that present an obvious connection to each other or a clear common thread. (Or at least, not obvious to me.) But perhaps they do all tell of how “the LORD does not see as mortals see.” And each lesson does tell of how God transforms the mundane or gloomy parts of our lives into occasions of grace and wonder.

The Old Testament reading is the account of the selection of David to be king of Israel. Surprise, surprise! God did not choose the older, stronger sons of Jesse, but instead selected David, the youngest, and of all things, a shepherd. (1 Samuel 16:1-13) Who then but a shepherd could write such a moving psalm as the favorite Psalm 23.

St. Paul urges readers to put away things of darkness and to live as children of light. To bring forth what is good and right and true, “Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:8-14)

The gospel reading is the familiar account of Jesus’ encounter with a man born blind. The teachers wanted to ascribe somebody’s fault as the cause of his malady, but Jesus saw it another way — he was as he was so that the works of God might be made known in him. (John 9:1-41)

Can it be true for us too? That we are as we are so that the works of God might be made known in us? (more…)

Approaching the midpoint of our Lenten journey, the lessons on the Third Sunday in Lent remind us of the promises of God to give us all that is needed to sustain life. It was true in a practical sense for those who were thirsty in the wilderness, and it is true in an eternal sense for those who seek the salvation of God in their life journeys.

The psalm opens with familiar words, known to some as the Venite, inviting a song of praise to the one who formed the seas and the dry land. But the psalm takes a grim shift, closing with words of disgust for the wandering children of Israel at Meribah and Massah. (Psalm 95) The reading from Exodus 17:1-7 tells that story, when the wanderers quarreled with Moses so much that God provided water from a rock as a sign of God’s presence.

Paul seems to be writing to similarly quarrelous readers, encouraging endurance in the midst of suffering, striving for the kind of character that produces hope. In our weakness, Christ died for the ungodly, turning enmity into friendship with God. (Romans 5:1-11)

In the gospel reading, Jesus befriends an unlikely candidate, daring to even speak to a Samaritan woman, let alone to ask her for a drink and then to engage her in conversation about her life. In the discourse, Jesus identifies himself in a metaphor as Living Water, the kind that will not leave people thirsty again, and that will bring forth a similar spring from within those who drink of the water that he gives. (John 4:5-42) (more…)

On the Second Sunday in Lent, we are reminded of how salvation comes to us not by our own accomplishments, but through faith. Faith is the defining quality of a happy relationship with God, and faith makes righteous works pleasing to God.

Psalm 121 is a song of faith, looking to God as source and shelter, especially when help seems far away. Abraham’s faith is what permits him to respond to God’s blessing, and to go where he was led. (Genesis 12:1-4a) Paul amplifies the importance of Abraham’s faith, and elaborates on the importance of grace as the foundation for God’s continuing promise to Abraham’s descendants — and to us. (Romans 4:1-5, 13-17)

Jesus has an encounter with Nicodemus, who we might expect was doing everything just the way he should, except that his heart lacked this attitude of faith. “Be born anew; be born of water and the spirit,” he is told. God wants a regeneration of the heart, that transforms life froma  mere compliance to an abundant believing in the promises of God, the same God who lifted up the Son of Man so that the world would be saved. (John 3:1-17)

One way of understanding this being born anew is to understand it as the coming to faith in Christ, in kind of a once-and-forever change of heart. That is certainly the way I learned it as a child, and I am still taken by the stories of people who experience this newfound eye-opening experience for their first time.

As part of a Lenten discipline, this can also be an invitation to those of us who have professed a faith in Christ for many years. It provokes us to disrupt our own lapses into mere compliance, to regenerate our hearts on a daily basis, to shake up our “going through the motions,” and to be born anew again and again, to behold the grace and promises of God, and — like Abraham — to go where we are led through a desert to a new place. (more…)

On the First Sunday in Lent, our lessons provide us focus. To whom shall we look for guidance and teaching? Whom shall we heed? To whom shall we look for forgiveness and renewal? And whom shall we trust above all?

The psalmist begins with the joy of knowing forgiveness, and with acknowledging that it is God who provides perfect guidance and counsel. (Psalm 32) Contrast that to the story from Eden, where the woman crosses a line of demarcation between what God establishes as good and what a tempter and the woman herself decide ought to be good. (Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7)

Paul proclaims that, whether one’s sin is like that of Adam or of some other, the judgement upon sin will be overshadowed by grace, and condemnation will be overturned to justification through the righteousness of a new Adam, Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:12-19) This Jesus also encountered the tempter, but resisted the allure and remained steadfast and trusting in the ways of God alone. (Matthew 4:1-11)

We know temptation by many names in many forms. (more…)

Today we begin the journey that takes us through a deliberate period of self-reflection, repentance, and renewal. Most of us have routine ways in which we reflect, repent, and renew. But part of the rhythm of the church year is to encourage us to be more disciplined, more intentional in turning out the shame and secrets that lurk behind our facades of self-protection and impression management. Happily, when we do that, we are enlightened and uplifted by the graces of a God who is not put off by whatever we uncover and who stands ready to welcome all who turn to God for restoration and renewal.

“The unexamined life is not worth living,” counsels Socrates. The Scriptures gives us a bit more focus: “Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,” counsels the prophet. (Joel 2:1-2, 12-17) “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart,” counsels the psalmist. (Psalm 51:1-17) “We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God,” urges Paul. (2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10) And “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,” counsels Matthew, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21) (more…)