Easter Notes

On Friday we gathered in the dark, to reflect on the death of Jesus. This morning, we gather in the dark to reflect on the resurrection of Jesus. When our daughters were little, one of them asked why we didn’t have black Easter eggs. Black is a color for funerals, and Easter is the festival of Christian life, of life everlasting.

The cosmic upheaval of resurrection fits the same cosmic view of the crucifixion. The Bible shows prudence in refusing to describe the resurrection itself, only a message and appearances-these are Biblical signs of God's presence, but the presence of God inbreaking into a new phase of life, of life with us. To what will we be raised? This is a bodily resurrection. Jesus recognizes them and their feelings and speaks and gives plans for the future and still wants to go home to Galilee. For us, heaven will be the one place we can truly call home.

Fear is mentioned 3 times. The guards are fit for a tomb but not the living Jesus; they are as shaken as the earth, for no human guard can stand up against the Guardian of Life. The angelic presence is as dazzling as lightning; lightning is a sign of the presence of God but may also be a bit of a jab against Jupiter/Zeus holding a lightning bolt. The women are told not to be afraid by the angel and by Jesus. Most of us fear death, even if our faith tells us that we have nothing to fear. If the Truth be told, we are afraid of living an Easter life. Guards, inside and outside, prevent us from living in the light. Living a Jesus life would likely put us in danger. Living an Easter life puts us in danger, the danger of being truly happy.

The two named women were doing a kind deed of keeping vigil at the grave, as I assume the guards would prevent entry. Jesus does not go to lord it over the people who conducted his trials, nor his execution; nor does he go to the disciples who fled at first Jesus meets/ accompanies them-the disciples are still brothers. The greeting is really: rejoice. Try to begin to imagine the sheer relief the disciples felt that they were still brothers. Try to imagine their sheer shock that the buried Jesus was the living Jesus? Rejoice we do as well. We cannot assume that the resurrection of Jesus would perforce imply our resurrection. Why wouldn’t it be God’s blessing on his life alone? Only because we are brothers and sisters with Jesus Christ that we live in the spirit of Christ, can we find that hope.

Is. 25 lives again at Easter, as we wait still for the shroud to be lifted. Resurrection story does help dry our tears. The burial shroud is lifted from us as God points to resurrection, not death, to restoration, not destruction. Maybe Jesus recited these words at the resurrection, or maybe God spoke them. I’m delighted that the men’s group continues its tradition of giving us an Easter breakfast feast. Instead of the mercy lunches we host at a funeral, it is Isaiah’s party, where the wake we note is the eventual death of Death.

Resurrection is more than the reviving of a corpse. It is a new life. Still, it holds together the life we live. I find it comforting that even at resurrection, Jesus wants to go back home to Galilee. We speak of the March madness of the basketball tournaments. It is not March madness to hold that the Lord of life is the Lord of the living. Easter people keep their faces turned resolutely to the rising sun. Easter people look toward tomorrow’s open promise. We cannot start our deaths too early; we are never too old to live in earnest.

As we close this service, the light is breaking. Every morning the darkness of death retreats. This Easter Sunday light announces that death will not win in the end. We have to look hard in early spring for signs of new life ready to emerge. I see tiger lily coming out, and lettuce is planted. All of the natural analogies fall short of the full light of Easter. Easter is an utterly new thing. At the first creation, God said let there be light. In this new creation, God says at Easter, let there be life. Easter does seem too good to be true. Easter is coming face to face with the goodness of the God of life. Easter eggs are the color of life.

Good Friday Notes

Once again, we gather to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Jesus at Calvary. It is suitable to do so in the evening, with the light dimming. It is wok done well in the dark, reflecting on the death of a good man who died far too soon, under torture.

Matthew piles on the traditional end time events on the event of the crucifixion. The darkness at noon recalls the darkness over Egypt at the first Passover, now worldwide, perhaps, or over only the Promised Land. It recalls all of the descriptions of the Day of the Lord, but I like to think that God could not bear to have the light shine on such a terrible event. Temple curtain could be the sign of God doing the traditional act of mourning, or could be the announcement that God was on the loose, not limited to the temple precincts, or a sign of its destruction. The same applies to earthquake and presence of God and sign of end times/new age, It is as if nature mourns for the death of Jesus; nature is torn up, for the saints the death of Jesus brings resurrection- So, Good Friday met with seismic and silent responses.

Jesus was derided by all, so as to rub salt in the wounds. Jesus was deserted by all, everyone fled. Jesus was misunderstood by all. Even his last words of Psalm 22 as misinterpreted that he was calling for Elijah and not God. How utterly alone Jesus was. At this godforsaken moment even prayer was not heard. The only company Jesus had spent their time hounding him. Evil does not like to leave good alone.

The story of the crucifixion does not give any interpretations itself but is content with describing some of the events of that awful day. Sacrifice and scapegoats have been a way to keep violence contained, so a feud, or a tradition of violence does not break out Issue of an innocent scapegoat- Try reversing some of the issue of sacrifice/propitiation (in a way, the cross represents God's sacrifice of love to us, God's arms are held open for us on the cross)-It is hard for me to grasp the notion that the death of Jesus assuages the anger of God. I can’t understand the cross as a transaction of accounting the weight of sin in exchange for innocence-that sounds more demonic than divine to me. Again, God’s own feels the costly practice, not us. We are the recipients of its good, in that God is willing to use a terrible evil, inflicted by us, as a tool to wrestle good out of evil. Put differently, Jesus Christ loves us to death, even to death. As he himself said, greater love has no one than to lay down one’s life for friends. Even if we are enemies to the good, God is willing to see us as friends, friends worth dying for. God uses Jesus to represent humanity at its worst to give us a view of God at the divine best. Paul isn’t speaking of the crucifixion but he gets at its depth when he says that nothing, not even death can separate us from the love of god in Jesus Christ. Joseph’s words take on new power from Genesis. “You meant it for evil, but god meant it for good.” On Good Friday, I’m not sure if God said No or Yes. Was God saying, No, to all the evil, sin, and pain? Was God saying, Yes, beyond the abyss, beyond that chasm of suffering, to the life and message of a dying young man?

Quotes from Reynolds Price Letter to a Man in a fire-scalding moment-my sense of the grinding wheel you’re presently under, the stark bitterness you taste. Jesus shows utter solidarity with those who suffer. They are not being punished. It is part of the human condition. It is often a result of evil choices, or evil inflicted on us.

Enough sacrifice. One died so that all may live. Enough condemnation, the judge of all was condemned in our place. Enough about winners and losers, for Calvary upends any speculation about what that means in the eyes of a God who saw Jesus lose everything, even his life.

Ps. 114-Notes for Easter

First, recall this is part of the Egyptian group of 113-118 and may have been read at Passover in the time of Jesus.

Its call to praise is to the earth as a dialogue/partner inprayer-this is a good entyry point to address all of the nature imagery in Easter signs and symbols.

It is reciting the great events of God-when we read it at Easter we see it as part of that divine journey with us, alone and together. A good entry point is to recount big moments in our lives, with special attention to dying moments and Easter moments

The exodus word in an Easter context is exodus from the rule of Death

In baptism, we are all God's sanctuary/temple-On Holy Saturday, even the tomb was God's holy place

I assume that the line about the sea is a cosmic one of defeating the forces of chaos, see Ps.74,77,104

Creation is part of salvation work

Mountains skipping could be linked ot the earthquake at Good Friday and Easter as event announcing God's presence but also birthing af a new creation (Rom. 8)the same applies to the trembling earth. McCann in NIB p. 1142 finds a mixture of joy and fear in this, just as in Easter. This is a good fit for the mixture of feelings at Easter in the already/ not yet character of the holiday

Column for Friday Greensburg, IN paper

How Death danced on the Sabbath when Jesus was buried. Death was a picture of elegance and twirled a jeweled necklace as it celebrated its sweet triumph. So many had been taken, but this was special. God’s own was in the grave, a borrowed one at that. . Divine love was crucified.

Alan Lewis was a theologian at Austin Seminary. He was writing his major work on Holy Saturday, Between Cross and Resurrection. While writing, he was stricken with cancer, in what he called his Holy Saturday year. His family had to work to get it published after his death. He picked Holy Saturday to capture the full weight of the death of Jesus, so as to be able to assert the full power of Easter. In a prayer at the end of the book (p. 466), he calls God bereft; that God “added to our tears of shame, bewilderment, and rage, (God’s) own infinity of broken-heartedness and indignation at the tragic, proud estrangement of your children, and the wasteful corruption of (God’s) beautiful creation.” In complete solidarity with us, Jesus Christ was interred, the divine elected the grave. Living with Holy Saturday with care and reflection pushes us to deal with the loss at Good Friday without skipping to Easter triumph.

This year our readings include Matthew’s version in church. In a political joke, the guards are out of the picture, scared to death. They are useless anyway, as they guard an empty tomb. We are given natural symbols of divine presence, but also signs associated with end times. Jesus talks to two named women and accompanies them. He gives them a message for the disciples who had abandoned him after all of their brave words. Jesus calls them brothers. Death was not an end to their relationship. Jesus would not hold an understandable grudge. We see that the resurrection would not be a continuation of their betrayal, but an opportunity to remain with Jesus in the new Easter life and light of forgiveness.

On Easter Sunday morning, a new dawn broke. Yes, a new day dawned, but a new day for the world dawned as well, a cosmic morning. The light would overcome the blind darkness of death. Its terrible finality would persist, but its ultimate victory lay scattered with the grave clothes in the tomb. Easter does not obliterate grief, but its bright promise can ease it in due time. Even the grave is not God-forsaken. God accompanies us in death. God guides us to a life beyond the grave, a life transformed. Jesus appears first to the mourning women. Jesus respects our grief. Since the women recognize Jesus, and he recognizes them, we can assume that life beyond death does not wash away our lives and our loves.

On Easter, the guards did rouse themselves enough to see a spectral figure dressed in rags slinking away from the empty tomb. Death saw the writing on the wall of the sepulcher. God is a God of life. God is the God of the living. God could not bear to lose Jesus to the power of death. Those creatures made in the image and likeness of God are too precious to abandon to the grave. Easter fits the seasons, even an early Easter, as some signs of life are breaking out of the cold ground. Death is persistent, but life perseveres. Its symbols all point to life. When we gather around our Easter tables, may our toasts be: “to life.” Savor the sweetness of life in your Easter candy. Search for signs of new life in the rainbow of colored Easter eggs. May your happiness multiply like bunnies.

First Cut at Is. 25:6-9 for Easter

This section is within an apocalyptic section of chs. 24-27.

When read at Easter, it takes on a new sheen. To what degree to you see Easter as already being part of the new age? This remarkable passage envisions a time when death is no longer a threat.

v. 6 I assume that this is Mt. Zion. The temple mount is now a site for a grand banquet, ( I love older translations that speak of fat things) If one has Communion on Easter, this is a great opportunity to speak of spiritual banquets

v.7 here Easter gives a sense of the already and not yet. Surely a shroud is laid over our violent world; the pall of death covers so much territory. Yet we claim heaven in the face of death, especially at Easter.

v.8The swallowing up of death, by life, is a brilliant reversal of the Canaanite image of death swallowing life, where Mot swallows Baal and goes to the underworld.. Baal had a banquet to celebrate his defeat of the sea (Yamm) See Paul’s use of it ion I Cor 15:54

The wiping of tears is picked up in Rev. 7:17, 21:4..

Note the reproach of God’s people is taken away- no sign of eternal punishment here

v.9. Could not this be said at the empty tomb, for that matter the Saturday tomb of Jesus.?Couldn’t the saints of heaven be singing it. Isn’t it a song in heaven now?

Holy Week 2008 Devotional

Palm Sunday-Hosanna means save us. Apparently, ti had taken on a meaning of acclamation. When we get swept up in adulation, say for Obama, or the Daniel Day Lewis performance in There Will Be Blood, that crowd response is triggered. Imagine yourself at Palm Sunday. For what would you yell save us today as a plea, not applause?

Monday-PBS had Sherlock Holmes on in its constant begging for funding. They had the detective writer Robert B. Parker, of Spenser, Jesse Stone, and Sonny Randall fame, to offer some thoughts. He said that we are attracted to Holmes because we live in an uncertain world, and we hope that the use of enlightened reason can solve our problems. That’s a religious impulse, to find someone beyond ourselves to make sense of this often senseless world. When has enlightened reason helped or harmed you?

Tuesday- Teaching touches eternity. Jesus spent his last days teaching in the temple. I don’t know how deep his intimations of the end of his life were as of that week. If they were clear, I think of the last lecture tradition and the work of a professor at Carnegie-Mellon in Pittsburgh who gave one with cancer eating away at him. What teachings, what gems of life experience, do you think it important to hand down?

Wednesday-One of the reasons I Chronicles is so hard to read is its constant lists. For instance, 16:42 gives the names of those responsible for trumpets, cymbals, and other musical instruments for sacred songs. Any worth doing, including worship, requires some planning on our part. Ordinary people doing ordinary things are named for playing their small parts in routine duties.

Maundy Thursday-Footwashing is at the center of John’s story, prior to the great Farewell Speeches of chs. 14-17. Part of my disquiet is that it seems too intimate to give or receive, so I feel for Peter’s trouble. I then think of holes in my socks or the smell of tennis shoes. Part of me searches for something similar in our time maybe washing someone’s underwear or placing deodorant on someone. Think of how Jesus makes that type of act to be a sign of Christian leadership.

Good Friday- Many Christians have real difficulty coming up with the necessity for the death of Jesus. Where is the justice in the death of the innocent Jesus, even if it is a vicarious death? Does our account of the meaning of Calvary promote suffering as a good? When does it become a tool for the cruel? For me, the Church takes the cross away from supporting violence and takes up the cross to heal suffering when we encounter it.

Holy Saturday-I usually go back to a magnificent book on Holy Saturday by the late Alan Lewis. He was working on the book when he was stricken with cancer, and it was published from notes after his death. Toward the end, he reflects on his own Holy Saturday year and writes, “It is through participation in the patience of God’s spirit that we learn the gift of waiting which restores us to ourselves from the destructive urgency of our desires and aspirations, and slows the tempo of our intemperance. Where better than a hospital, on wonders, might a contemporary westerner confront this necessity and fittingness of waiting?” (413)

Passion Sunday 2008 Mt. 27 selected verses

We have parades and monuments for the dead who sacrificed their lives in war. War persistently lays hold of us. In our nation, we lose over 20,000 people to murder a year, far more, every year, than in the long morass of Iraq. Violence attacks so many, so much in our time, even in a time of blessedly better crime statistics. Patiently, violence waits to erupt in our impatient selves.

Just a few days after the triumph of the Palm Sunday parade, the shouts of acclaim turned into the brusque commands of guards. I don’t want to start out making a fetish of violence as in the Passion of the Christ. I do want to highlight that Jesus was a victim of violence before the crucifixion. Violence attacks so many-so much in our time-in a time of blessedly better crime statistics. I’ve usually seen the cup as the suffering for us internally. It must have included physical suffering as well.

People with swords and clubs seized Jesus. My guess is that it was not gentle. Jesus could have called down forces of violence but did not. Those who live by the sword die by the sword. The only time during the whole march to Calvary where Jesus sounds commanding and imperious is this moment.

We exercise power with physical domination and putting people in their place. Humiliation becomes part of the violence. The good often seems weak, so the strong think it is open to being mocked. People spit in his face. Not only was he slapped and struck, but he was asked to say who did it, so they blows came from behind or a hood was over his eyes. Jesus receives the same treatment at the hands of the soldiers as they did the religious police. They mocked him with cries and symbols of a perverted kingship, with robe and a crown, of thorns. We all struggle to come to grips with the cross, and Scripture gives us ways to do so. These preliminary tortures are so difficult in that they are arbitrary and senseless. It is hard to bear the thought of the non-violent Christ being treated with casual brutality.

We justify violence, with: “they deserved it.” Victims of violence get viewed as inferior. We are called to prevent violence and to heal its terrible aftermath. We get numb to violence. Our relentless exposure to violence on TV, in video games, in movies, leaves us less sensitive to it and more aggressive. By the time they reach 8^th grade, children see thousands of murders and tens of thousands acts of violence on screens. Like the disciples, we are still sleeping. We get numb to violence, or we look away; or we learn to ignore it. We could discuss what we watch and how it is presented. We do well to watch movies such as Hotel Rwanda along with a steady diet of violence to get some balance

The people of a tortured Savior should be wary of claims for the necessity of torture for the vagrant hope for security. Work with virtues. (See Post and Neimark, Why Good.) Forgiveness improves one’s health more than being forgiven and lowers stress hormones. When we exercise compassion, a hormone, oxytocin is released, one that seems to clam the fight response and connect us, instead of triggering the flight response. Some studies on meditating on compassion may show a change in brain patterns. As Lent closes, we do well to give up violence and seek ways to bring some blessed peace. The followers of a beaten Savior then honor the work of his life.