Alleluia! Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

May our Lord bless you this day in his grace and peace and abundant joy!

...and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all... Isaiah 53.6b

Behold the Man

Shall Christ hang on the Cross, and we not look? 
    Heaven, earth, and hell stood gazing at the first, 
    While Christ for long-cursed man was counted cursed; 
Christ, God and Man, Whom God the Father strook 
And shamed and sifted and one while forsook:-- 
    Cry shame upon our bodies we have nursed 
    In sweets, our souls in pride, our spirits immersed 
In wilfulness, our steps run all acrook. 
Cry shame upon us! for He bore our shame 
    In agony, and we look on at ease 
With neither hearts on flame nor cheeks on flame: 
    What hast thou, what have I, to do with peace? 
Not to send peace but send a sword He came, 
    And fire and fasts and tearful night-watches.

       - Christina G. Rossetti

Good Friday

Am I a stone and not a sheep 
    That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy Cross, 
    To number drop by drop Thy Blood's slow loss, 
And yet not weep? 

Not so those women loved 
    Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee; 
    Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly; 
Not so the thief was moved; 

Not so the Sun and Moon 
    Which hid their faces in a starless sky, 
    A horror of great darkness at broad noon,-- 
I, only I. 

Yet give not o'er, 
    But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock; 
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more 
    And smite a rock.

       - Christina G. Rossetti

The Last Passover Meal

Two summers ago I went to Israel with a group from Beeson Seminary. One day as we walked to our destination, the streets of Jerusalem filled with sounds of trumpets and singing. Fathers danced and clapped their hands announcing the way to their sons' bar mitzvah. Occasionally, the parade of family and friends would stop and break into a rejoicing song - faces brilliant, hands clapping, feet dancing. Eventually these parades found their goal ... the Wailing Wall where they celebrated the service - the men crowding in on one side with their sons and the women pressing together at the separating curtain, standing on chairs in order to see, and throwing candy upon their sons. It was a throng of people... a throng! And, all of this happening in the midst of tourists and shop keepers and sidewalk cafes and ... and ... ! Now, imagine what it was like for hundreds of thousands of Jews to ascend Jerusalem ... actually, the Temple Mount itself ... to bring their perfect sacrifices in order to celebrate the Passover Meal. Talk about throng! Talk about rejoicing!

Passover was a festival ... a celebration remembering God's deliverance of his people from bondage. For the Jew, tonight's meal began a week of feasting ... a feast of remembrance, of thanksgiving, of praise and joy for what God had done for them. In the midst of all these people making all the preparations for their Passover Meal ... in all their joy and singing and chatter ... Jesus in willing obedience is walking into what he knows will be a night of suffering. He also knows that it will end with the sacrifice of his life for the deliverance of his people whom he loves. Is His heart breaking? Or, is His heart full of love for his Father ... and for his people, full of the joy that is set before Him?

During this Last Passover Meal, the disciples with their families and Jesus with his family* gathered in the Upper Room. And in eating the bread and drinking the cup, Jesus said to them, "Do this in remembrance of me." Tonight, we celebrate that Last Passover Meal. Tonight, we break bread and drink the cup in the Eucharistic Feast - a meal of thanksgiving and praise for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us, who delivered us from our bondage to sin and death. Tonight, we remember ...

*Passover was a meal to be eaten with your family. In my very humble opinion, their families had to be there. Mary, Jesus' mother, was at the Cross ... she had to be at what we call the Last Supper. But, I could be very, very wrong.

Bonhoeffer got it right.

"When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." 

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

After reading this quote you may be thinking about the suffering and death that is ahead this week for our Lord. And, you may also be thinking that this is what he calls us to do. Indeed, you are right in thinking that but perhaps not on a cross made of wood, but the cross of our daily living. You see, Jesus has also called us to love as he loves us, to give as he has given to us, to obey and do the work of our Father in heaven ... just as we see Jesus doing. Our life of devotion to Jesus is a call to suffering and death ... the suffering and death of our self ... and to clarify this ... our sinful self, not the self whom God made and deemed good and worthy of his love.

In John 12:20-36, we visit Jesus with some Greeks who have come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Greeks! Non-Jews celebrating God's deliverance of his people. What kind of suffering and death did they experience when they were grafted into the Jewish faith? Perhaps, their families disowned them ... they no longer worshiped the same gods, observed the same rituals, held the same values. Perhaps, their friends shunned them, scorned them, ridiculed them. Perhaps, even their new Jewish family held them as second-class members within the faith. Think of what it may have cost them to go to the disciples... crossing cultural boundaries yet again. But, they did it for something they saw in Jesus. Maybe they heard Him teaching in the Temple and now sought out this young rabbi ... and Jesus teaches them the greatest truth for our following him:

"...unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, 

it remains just a single grain; 

but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 

Those who love their life lose it, 

and those who hate their life in this world 

will keep if for eternal life. 

Whoever serves me must follow me, 

and where I am, there will my servant be also.

Whoever serves me, the Father will honor."

Last night at dinner, Mary suffered and died for her love for Jesus. Today, these Greeks suffered and died and come to Him and ... I like to think ... follow Him ... even to His Cross.

Following Jesus is a daily, moment-by-moment decision ... a daily, moment-by-moment suffering and sacrifice of my self - my sinful self - and choosing to live into that person God made me to be, the person whom He loves ... and honors. He promises this for you as well.

A Feast, A Girl, and A Gift

We join Jesus tonight at a feast... a feast at Lazarus' home. This is the Lazarus that just last week was dead. Buried. For three days dead and buried. According to Ancient Near East understanding, after three days the soul was now gone and there was no hope for the person returning to this world. Yet, after three days in that tomb, Jesus called Lazarus to return to life... to return to Life Himself. No wonder Lazarus and his sisters were throwing a "thanksgiving feast" for Jesus (John 12:1-11).

Whenever I read this story about this feast at Lazarus' home my heart has a hard time taking in all that's going on. I mean really... what would you be thinking and feeling if you were Lazarus ... dead but now alive ... living and breathing and hugging his sisters and his friends ... and Jesus. And, what about Mary and Martha ... such joy that must fill their hearts with tears and laughter and gratitude and joy ... pure joy that wells up and spills over when they see Jesus. Of course, the disciples are there ... this isn't the first time they've seen Jesus raise someone to life, but it is the first for someone who had been dead three days. The miracles they have seen first-hand ... what their eyes have seen and their ears have heard and their hands handled! After being witnesses to all of this and yesterday's parade into Jerusalem, the crowds hailing Jesus as King! What expectations must be building within their hearts ... building up to bursting ... as they anticipate this week? And then, it happens.

The room fills with the most beautiful aroma ... of love and humility, of devotion and grief, of compassion ... for Jesus. Gradually the room becomes silent ... all eyes turn to see Mary anointing Jesus' feet with pure nard from an alabaster jar. What is she doing? With that question the room also fills with the aroma of unease and embarrassment, of misunderstanding and judgment, of greed and scorn.

This is when I ask myself ... who am I going to be? Am I brave enough to be like Mary ... giving a most costly gift and pouring it out for Jesus, pouring myself out for Jesus? Or, will I be like one of the others? The good thing is that I have a choice ... I can choose who I am going to be. I may have to make that choice again and again, but with practice I will become who I choose to be ... on this journey.

What about you?

Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Can you hear the rustling of the palm branches waving above you? Can you hear their voices giving praise to the King who is come? Can you feel the multitude pressing in around you, their spirited song resounding with, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"? At least, I think they were singing as this declaration comes from Psalm 118. This Psalm of praise to God was (and is) sung or said every Passover. After all, that is why Jesus and his disciples were heading into Jerusalem that day... they were coming for the Passover Feast, the festival of giving praise and thanks to God for his deliverance of his people. Did the multitude know they were welcoming God's Deliverance on that very first Palm Sunday?

Hosanna! means Save us, Lord! And, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! is praise to God who comes to save us, praise for the one who comes as King to deliver God's people. In Psalm 118 Israel remembers God's faithfulness, his loyal love to them ... to save them and deliver them from oppression, from troubles that surround them, from their own waywardness. With these same words, we remember God's faithfulness, his loyal love for us ... that saves us. We say these words every time we celebrate the Eucharist - our Passover Feast of thanksgiving and praise to God for Him who delivered us from sin and death ... for Jesus. Pull out your Bible. Read Psalm 118 out loud. Let your voice join the throngs of the ages who have welcomed Jesus as their King and Deliverer. Yes, out loud!

Why out loud? Well, it gets back to the questions posed yesterday:  How are we going to walk in this journey of Holy Week? Who are we going to be each day as we walk through it with Jesus our Lord? By saying these words out loud we remind ourselves of God's faithfulness and loyal love to us ... His people. We remind ourselves to give thanks and praise to him for saving and delivering us from all that oppresses us, from the troubles that surround us, from our own waywardness. We also remind ourselves that we have the same temptation of the throng from that first Palm Sunday ... the temptation to cry out with them at the end of this week, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"

How will we walk this journey of Holy Week? Who are we going to be each day as we walk with Jesus our Lord?

This is the Golden Gate where Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem. Zechariah 9:9 says,  "Rejoice greatly, O [people] of Zion! Shout aloud, O [people] of Zion! behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey*, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

*Riding on a donkey was a sign of peace and prosperity.

What's the difference?

In one week I went from this...

Honey Rock Camp Lagoon Bridge, February 2013

to this...

Camp St. Christopher Beach, March 2013

And, the temperature changed as radically as the view ... from about 30 to 75 degrees! Reflecting on this may tempt you to think that this journey I am walking (and you with me!) ... also has changed radically. It must be brighter and happier and free-er and ... fill in the blank. Certainly, this must be true! But, the truth is ... although I wake up to different surroundings and interact with different people and dress in different clothes ... this journey I now walk is the same. The questions remain: How am I going to walk in this journey? Who am I going to be today?

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday and I have been reflecting on the journey of Holy Week, the journey of Jesus to the Cross. It doesn't matter what view is before us or what the temperature is like outside or what we are going to wear or eat or ... fill in the blank. We may be in Wisconsin or South Carolina or in the airport or at the gas pump or ... wherever. We may find ourselves in many different places next week that are radically different than this one. But, the questions remain: How are we going to walk in this journey of Holy Week? Who are we going to be each day as we walk through it with Jesus our Lord?

On the road again...

This morning I begin my trek back to South Carolina for the Diocesan Daughters of the King Retreat in mid-March. I'm taking a slow road through Nashotah and then Chicago and then Pittsburgh and then Columbia and finally to Camp St. Christopher. All of these places hold promise to be like last evening ... an evening where friends are found to be family as we eat and talk and laugh and share dreams and memories.

I want to write more but the Tahoe calls me to pack up and get on the road... so more later.