Easter May 12, 2020

An Easter prayer from Dayspring Publishing:

Dear Jesus, Thank you for the gift of eternal salvation that we get to celebrate on Easter morning. Your love is so great! Come close to me and renew my mind to let go of everything I’ve held on to that hinders me and entangles me. I ask you to draw near to me as I draw near to you and purify my heart. Thank you for being the example of mercy when you ministered to and saved a thief while you suffered your own death. Your love covers a multitude of sins! I repent of my sins and ask you to cover me with your love and help me love others deeply. Help me to forgive those who have offended me and give me the courage to bless my enemies. Thank you for the anchoring of peace the Cross gives us. When difficult times find me, help me keep my eyes on you. Help me calm and quiet my soul so I can find full contentment in You alone. Thank you for the promise of joy and the restoration to the Father through the work of the Cross. Let me remember to take active steps in rejoicing together in fellowship with family and friends. May we never forget the good works You have done in our lives.  I praise you that you are the gift of HOPE. Nothing can separate me from your love for not even death could do it. I love you, Jesus!  Amen!

I liked the following from Trevor Hudson"s Pauses For Lent: "The resurrection means much for our lives today. Jesus is present with us as our loving friend. He is available to each one of us in our struggle with the forces of evil. We too can experience "little Easters" in the midst of those things that make us "die" each day -- the betrayal of a friend,the cruelty of a colleague, or even the failure of a dream. Easter reminds us that the risen Christ is always able to bring light and life where there seems to be only darkness and death. What wonderful good news this is! We are indeed Easter people living in a Good Friday world. We can celebrate the good news. The risen Christ is in our midst. He continues to make available another kind of life to anyone and everyone. He has promised that all those who seek will find. May the words of Paul be our own prayer today: "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection...(Philippians 3:10)"
"Hope in hopeless times has always been God's specialty.
"Because of Easter there is triumphant hope, there is abundant life, there is victory!"
Seven words from this week's lectionary readings:
John 12: 1-11     costly
John 12: 20-36  lifted up
John 13: 21-32   betray
John 13: 1-17      wash feet
John 18:1-19:42  truth
Lamentations 3:1-24   hope
John 20: 1-18     rise
In John's account of the resurrection we see Mary Magdalene weeping outside the tomb. She thinks the body of Jesus has been stolen from the tomb and moved elsewhere. While weeping a man appears on the scene whom Mary thinks is the gardener. Mary speaks that if he has carried away the body to let her know where he has laid it. The man is the resurrected Jesus. Jesus says to her, "Mary." Immediately upon hearing Jesus speak her name Mary knows it is Jesus and that he is alive. So it is that Jesus knows my name, your name and as the old song writer puts it, softly and tenderly Jesus is calling us to live in him and know the power of the resurrection at work within us.
This same, wonderful truth and teaching is given to us also in the prophet Isaiah, chapter 43 and verse 1; "But now thus says the Lord, He who created you, He who formed you. Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine."
May God bless us this Easter season with a steadfast hope and deep joy in Jesus.

Below is a new song from the Iona Community

Where Sight and Insight Lose Their Way

Where sight and insight lose their way,

we segregate familiar ground,

from where we think you ought to stay,

and peace and paradise abound:

In Christ you tore the barrier down-

the Word made flesh let heav’n be known.

When Holy Grace took human form

and called earth’s outcast folk his friends,

when Heav’n’s original revealed

the path required to make amends,

we felt compelled to fret and fuss.

You know—for you were here with us. 

In warm embrace for withered arms,

in dining out with tarnished guests,

in breaking umpteen petty rules,

in controversial, quiet requests,

barriers dividing heav’n from earth

were bulldozed to reveal our worth.

Still were are reticent to see

that all of life is yours to save,

that peace and politics and pow’r

adorn your birthplace and your grave,

that rising you redeemed the fraud

of virtue trying to shelter God.

Ah, Holy Jesus, come again

wherever we would keep you out.

Destroy our sanctimonious shrouds

And demonstrate to all who doubt:

the temple’s veil is torn in two

and all of life is sacred now. 

Text: John Bell and Graham, GIA Publications. c/o Iona Community

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