Easter Words

Happy Pentecost!! Did you wear red to worship today? Yes, I found a red tie but was disappointed to discover that neither of our pastors wore red of any kind nor did they mention anything about the color of the season of Pentecost. Trivial, minute stuff I know. I remember I didn't always remember to do that either in my pastor years.

During the season of Lent I read a book that had daily readings of Lenten words and a brief commentary. I jotted the word into my daily journal and made a few comments. When Easter came the readings and words were done. However I liked the exercise so decided I would do an Easter word from the lectionary Bible readings that I had for each day from "At Home With The Word" a RCA reading guide. So through the season of Easter I've been jotting down a word each day that seemed significant to me and writing a few comments about the word in my journal. I enjoyed doing that a lot though there were days when I struggled to come up with a word. Most of the words came from the passage for the day or were suggested by the passage though there may have been one or two that were not so connected. When you read my list you will find there were two or three repeats which I did not want to do but still did. There are 48 words in the list though there are fifty days between Easter and Pentecost. I needed to explain that to myself and to you why not fifty words. Simply on Easter Sunday the Pauses for Lent book still had a commentary which I read and used and then the fiftieth day of the cycle was today Pentecost Sunday and so no Easter Word for this new season of the church year. So fifty minus two equals forty-eight. You may do with the 48 words what you like but I'm sure you will see the significance of each word. Now you might like to write down the words one at a time and write your own brief commentary on the meaning of each word and its connection to Easter or to the Christian life. If you want to find the passage for each you will need to go to the RCA web site and find the pdf file for At Home With The Word and start with the Monday after Easter reading. Now you will find there is no prescribed reading for Sundays, something I do not understand. So for Sundays I either split up a Friday or Saturday reading or chose a reading for the same week in another lectionary year. Here are the 48 words.

1. Exalted - Acts 5:27-32
2. Death - Psalm 118:14-29
3. Praise - Psalm 150
4. Witness - Revelation 1:4-8
5. Receive - John 20:19-23
6. Believe - John 20:24-31
7. Life - John 20:24-31
8. Heaven - Acts 9:1-9
9. Go - Acts 9:10-20
10. Joy - Psalm 30
11. Singing - Revelation 5:11-14
12. Appear - John 21: 1-14
13. Love - John 21:15-19
14. Follow - John 21:20-25
15. Devoted - Acts 9:36-38
16. Alive - Acts 9:39-43
17. Forever - Psalm 23
18. Salvation - Revelation 7:9-12
19. Worship - Revelation 7:13-17
20. Know - John 10:22-30
21. Justified - Galatians 2:15-21
22. Prayer - Acts 11:1-10
23. Angel - Acts 11:11-18
24. Praise - Psalm 148
25. New - Revelation 21:1-4
26. Finished/Done - Revelation 21:5-6
27. Glorified - John 13: 31-35
28. Life - John 14:1-12
29. Convinced - Acts 16:9-15
30. Joy - Psalm 67
31. Light - Revelation 21:10, 22-27
32. Healing - Revelation 22:1-5
33. Obey - John 14: 23-29
34. Made Well - John 5: 1-9
35. Appearance - I Corinthians 15: 1-20
36. Salvation - Acts 16: 16-24
37. Hymns - Acts 16: 25-34
38. Rescue - Psalm 97
39. Authority - Acts 1:1-11  [Ascension Day]
40. Blessed - Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
41. Glory - John 17: 20-26
42. Body - I Corinthians 15: 35-58
43. Amazed - Acts 2: 1-13
44. Foreknowledge - Acts 2:14-21
45. Power - Genesis 11:1-9 (not much connection to the passage)
46. Wisdom - Psalm 104: 24-35
47. No Fear (unafraid) - Romans 8: 14-17
48. Teach - John 14: 8-17, 25-27

Did you find the repeats? Since I do have the scripture passages I will go back and include them for you. Now you can possibly connect each word to the scripture lesson.

The reading I chose for this Sunday was Romans 8: 1-11 since the Acts 2 Pentecost account was read on Monday and Tuesday of this week (#43 & 44). You might like to read that and make the connection to Pentecost.
May you find some serendipity in this presentation. In other words may God surprise you in your pursuit of the will of God for your life.