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Tag: easter

Optimistic Realism

Sun, August 29, 2021 Published by

I find that to be a worthy challenge to be an optimist AND a realist. To learn to hold those two opposing but equally true things at once. We can grieve all that we’ve been through and also find the strength to deal with the ongoing reality. We can grieve those we’ve lost. We can lament, and fight and struggle with our pandemic fatigue while also finding hope in today, in the reality here and now as we seek to live each day to the fullest.

On the Other Side of Easter

Sun, April 28, 2019 Published by

Now we are on the other side of Easter. Remember, Easter was not the glorious event for the disciples that it was for us. The trumpets did not sound. Easter lilies and spring flowers did not announce new life in their midst. Unexpectedly, momentarily, they saw Jesus alive and then very quickly he was gone. It had to have been a very uncertain place to be. What happens now? I imagine the disciples were tempted to go back to where they were. They were tempted to go back to who they were. They were tempted to go back to what they were.

I read a meditation during Holy Week that has stuck with me. It keeps challenging my heart and mind. Mary Luti, a longtime seminary educator and pastor writes: “A new command I give you: Love one another as I have loved you…” (John 13:34) It was on the night he was betrayed that Jesus gave us the love commandment. In fact, it was right after his betrayer, flush with silver, left the table and slipped away into the night. Scripture says that Jesus knew where Judas was going. It’s a safe bet the others did, too. Frederick Niedner once wondered whether, after hearing that commandment about the way they should love each other, any of the disciples got up and went after Judas. ‘Did anyone fear for him, miss him, or try, even after he brought soldiers to Gethsemene, to bring him back and talk him out of his shame, his anger, his rapidly deepening hell?’

Did anyone try to love him as Jesus did? Tradition has consigned Judas to a gruesome death and the deepest circle of hell, so my guess would be no. Which means that the church—that’s you and me—hasn’t yet learned the first thing about the love commandment. Or about our own pain. For we all have at least one Judas missing from our tables, out there in the night, unforgiven and alone. And each of us may be a Judas for someone else, absent from someone else’s feast. Maybe when we sit together at the church’s Table to share bread and cup, we should add a chair. And leave it empty, an aching absence. Maybe the sight of that absence would shame us into the world to look high and low for Judas, and to keep looking until all our Judases come home.”

The commandment to love is demanding. How often do we try to make it easy by loving the lovable rather than seeking out those who really push us and make our blood boil? How often have we chosen to continue sitting at the table while a family member leaves in anger out the door instead of getting up and going after them? Who is missing from your table and how do you deal with the aching absence? Who are you wishing would come home? Have you ever been the outcast of the family, the one absent from the feast? Have you ever felt beyond the reach of forgiveness? As a society, who do we leave behind and never go back for? How will you take seriously the love commandment this side of Easter?

 

A Phoenician Easter

Sun, April 21, 2019 Published by

In our Easter celebrations, we find the truth of that victory in ourselves and the world around us, which sets an undying flame of faith within our hearts. May that flame burn brightly today and always. Alleluia.

Happy Spring

Sun, April 14, 2019 Published by

The month of April concludes with special activities around Earth Day with the Protect March on Friday, April 26th.  Worship on Sunday, April 28th at 3:00PM in the Life Center will highlight the Beatitudes Campus Choir singing and Chaplain Andrew preaching!  Happy Spring!

How I talk to God : How God talks to me.

Sun, March 31, 2019 Published by

This year, as well as fasting from my favorite treats, I have also been accompanied on my Lenten pilgrimage by the poet Malcolm Guite’s book Word in the Wilderness; A Poem a Day for Lent and Easter. Poems are an ideal companion for the season of Lent as we seek to reorient ourselves to God, with poetry often providing a call for us to ponder the wonders of the world around us while looking and listening for God at work in us.

One of the poems included in Guite’s collection is entitled How I talk to God, by Kelly Belemonte.

“Coffee in one hand leaning in to share – How I talk to God. ‘Momma, you’re special’, three-year-old touches my cheek – How God talks to me. While driving I make lists: done, do, hope, love, hate, try – How I talk to God. Above the highway hawk: high, alone, free, focused – How God talks to me. Rash, impetuous chatter, followed by silence – How I talk to God. First, second, third, fourth chance to hear, then another – How God talks to me. Fetal position under flannel sheets, weeping – How I talk to God. Moonlight on pillow tending to my open wounds – How God talks to me. Pulling from my heap of words, the ones that mean yes – How I talk to God. Infinite connects with finite, without words – How God talks to me.”

This beautiful work causes us to ask ‘What is prayer?’, and reminds us that a life of prayer is both speaking to God, but also listening, in turn.

In his reflection, Malcolm Guite says this;

“Saint Paul calls on us to pray without ceasing, leading some contemplatives have interpreted that as a call to leave the world with its business and distractions and seek long swathes of uninterrupted time devoted to prayer and prayer alone. Others have seen it as a call to have a continual hidden mantra, wheeling and cycling beneath all we do, providing an undercurrent or ground note of prayer beneath all our daily activities.”

In different ways for different people, both of these approaches are valid and neither exclusive of the other. Perhaps the greatest gift of Belemonte’s poem is to remind us, once again, that each day we find ourselves in conversation with God within the ordinariness of our lives.

May we all spend this season of Lent attuned to that conversation, to both speaking and listening, so that that the very rhythms of our everyday lives are opened up to God, and offered up as our unceasing prayer.*

The Easter Laugh

Tue, March 29, 2016 Published by

arkOne of my favorite pictures is of Jesus throwing his head back in a glorious laugh so I love the old Easter custom begun by the Greeks in the early centuries of Christianity – “Holy Humor Sunday.” For centuries in Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant countries, the week following Easter Sunday, including “Bright Sunday” (the Sunday after Easter), was observed by the faithful as “days of joy and laughter” with parties and picnics to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. Churchgoers and pastors played practical jokes on each other, drenched each other with water, told jokes, sang, and danced. The custom was rooted in the musings of early church theologians (like Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom) that God played a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead. “Risus paschalis – the Easter laugh,” the early theologians called it.

In 1988 the Fellowship of Merry Christians began encouraging churches and prayer groups to resurrect Bright Sunday celebrations and called it “Holy Humor Sunday,” with the theme: “Jesus is the LIFE of the party.” Many times, I believe our worship and faith would benefit from a bit of levity and joy for we are often too straight-faced and straight-laced! The Lord’s Supper ought to be more like a celebration than a funeral service. When “Family Circus” cartoonist Bil Keane first began putting religion into his work in the 1960s, some religious conservatives took offense at the irreverence of mentioning God in the funny pages. Later, when one of his young characters reinterpreted a commandment as “Humor thy father and thy mother” or threatened to tell his mother that a sibling at prayer is “goin’ over her head,” he got accolades from the same group. The English writer G.K. Chesterton once said, “Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. Never forget that Satan fell by force of gravity.”

JesusThe Fellowship of Merry Christians publishes a Joyful Noiseletter and here are some samples from it. * A paramedic said his most unusual 911 call came from a church, where an usher was concerned that an elderly man had passed out in a pew and appeared to be dead. What was so unusual about that? “Well,” the paramedic said, “we carried out four guys before we found the one who was dead.” * A good sermon should have a good beginning and a good ending, and they should be as close together as possible. A few years back, North Bay Community Church in Clearwater, FL, celebrated Holy Humor Sunday. The Rev. Daniel McDonald said, “Laughter releases tension, and we have enough of that these days. I think we all need to stop taking ourselves so seriously. We need to recognize that this is really God’s world, and He has so much in store for us. We put too much emphasis on what’s wrong and what’s bad with it.” That Sunday Rev. McDonald “gave one of the world’s shortest sermons. He announced that the focus of his talk would be on sin. ‘Don’t do it,’ he said from the pulpit. ‘Amen.’ Then he sat down.” I think I’ve got my sermon for this Sunday! Rejoice and be glad this week, my friends, and be sure to have some fun and laugh! *

 

 

 

 

 

Moveable Feast

Mon, February 1, 2016 Published by

Not so long ago back in Britain, I was rushing along the road when I passed a food truck which made me chuckle—it was called ‘A Moveable Feast’. Its marketing worked, and I pulled off the road and enjoyed an unexpectedly delicious meal of Fish-&-Chips and a cup of tea. Perhaps, I began to ponder as I sat there enjoying my typically British roadside snack, the owners were especially well versed in the terminology of religious calendars, where certain festivals such as celebrations of Passover and Easter are ‘moveable’, and that is how this van got its clever liturgically based name. It was at that point I realized I was being quite ridiculous, but it was nice to daydream for a moment.

This year our ‘movable feasts’ of Ash Wednesday, Lent, Holy Week, Passover and Easter occur earlier than usual in our calendar. Ash Wednesday is on February 10th and marks the beginning of the season of Lent. For centuries, Ash Wednesday has been a day for Christians to have our foreheads marked with ashes as an acknowledgement of our mortality, and to reflect in penitence on our mistakes. Residents and staff are welcome to receive the ashes and spend some time in prayer and contemplation in the Life Center, 9:00AM-1:00PM, or at the regular Rosary gathering held at 10:00AM in the Plaza View Lounge. The forty days (excluding Sundays) which follow Ash Wednesday are known as the season of Lent. During this time many people make a conscious effort to focus on turning their hearts and minds back towards God. Sometimes people do this by practicing a little self-denial, perhaps by giving up a favorite food or treat (something I’m not very good at!) as a reminder to focus instead on our spiritual nourishment. Rather than giving something up for Lent you might like to undertake something new and will join us for our next Bible Study, looking at the ‘I am’ statements of Jesus found in John’s Gospel, beginning on Wednesday February 17, 1:00PM in the Boardrooms, led by Chaplain Peggy and myself.

Also during Lent we will be holding our next Taizé Service on Saturday, February 20th, at 5:00PM. This style of worship offers an opportunity for reflective prayer and contemplation set amongst beautiful music, and so please join us as we gather together at that time amidst the beauty of holiness. It has been wonderful to see how the Jewish Prayer Service here on Campus has grown into such a wonderful gathering of faith and fellowship, and all are welcome to join that group as they continue to gather on the Second Monday of each month at 11:00AM in the West Boardroom.

Keep a look out for more information in the coming weeks as we tell you about our exciting plans for this year’s Passover Seder meal, Holy Week and Easter celebrations.
During these months of ‘movable feasts’ there are many opportunities here at the Campus to find some spiritual nourishment. All we have to do is remind ourselves of the need to sometimes pull off the roads that we rush along to pause for a moment and be fed. *

The Garment of Jesus

Mon, March 16, 2015 Published by

In the ancient Roman world, when a man had been found guilty and was condemned to die, the centurion assigned four soldiers to carry out the execution. One of the benefits for the soldiers who were appointed to such a task was that they were given the clothes of the victim once he had been crucified.

The Jews normally wore five articles of clothing: sandals, a belt, a head covering, an undergarment, and an outer robe. Because there were four soldiers and five articles of clothing when our Lord was crucified, each soldier chose one article, leaving a final article to be divided: Jesus’ undergarment. The undergarment was woven in one piece, which meant that it was of some value, but not if it were torn into four pieces and evenly divided among the execution squad. Therefore, lots were cast to see who would get it. As John 19:23-23 says, “The garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. [Let’s not tear it, they said to one another. Let’s decide by lot who will get it.]”

In the early church, Origen taught that the seamless garment was a reference to the wholeness of Christ’s teaching. Cyprian thought it symbolized the unity of the church. Cyril believed it explained the virgin birth. In more recent times it has been understood as pointing to Christ’s perfect righteousness. While Christians can agree on the wholeness of Christ’s teaching, the unity of the church, the virgin birth, and Christ’s perfect righteousness, nevertheless, I believe John is teaching us something else in his gospel account. John wants to show how the prophecies of God were coming true and that scripture was being fulfilled in Jesus. John 19:23-24 quotes directly from Psalm 22:18: “This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said, [They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.]”

John wants us to understand that all scripture is pointing to Jesus Christ. The Bible is much more than just a record of true historical events – it’s about salvation! It’s announcing to the hurting world that victory was accomplished for us at Calvary, for salvation is found in none other than the one who hung on that cross and whose victory over death we celebrate at Easter!

The Lenten Journey

Mon, February 16, 2015 Published by

On Wednesday, the season of Lent begins, and we are invited again on a journey to refocus our spiritual selves for inner renewal and reconciliation with God and others. The Lenten journey is a time of self-examination when we are encouraged to slow down, take a deep breath, and take stock of things. In the words of Pope Francis, “The purpose of Lent is to adjust your life.” We often associate Lent with giving up something, however, why not do something positive, too, instead of just removing the negative? Maybe this year resolve to spend more time volunteering, take time with your family, or write a letter to a dear friend.

lent wordThe 40 days begins this Ash Wednesday as you are invited to come and receive the imposition of ashes upon your forehead—a sign of humility that we all are in need of God’s grace. There are two opportunities to receive the ashes: Rosary and Communion in the Plaza View Lounge at 10:00AM, or anytime between 10:00AM—3:00PM, the Life Center will be available as a space for prayer and reflection with your Campus Chaplains offering the opportunity to be marked with ashes. Throughout the Sundays in Lent, worship opportunities are Catholic Mass at 10AM and the campus Vespers services at 3 and 4PM when the Chaplains will be preaching on the theme of “Characters of the Cross.”

There was Peter who denied Jesus three times, Judas who betrayed him, Pontius Pilate, the judge at Jesus’ trial, Barabbus, whom the crowd chose to be released instead of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene, who experienced the power of forgiveness. Or perhaps you might hear a reflection on one of the soldiers who mocked Jesus and took his clothes, or the two thieves who hung on the cross beside Jesus at the crucifixion. Then we come to Holy Week which will be marked by special services on Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday. On Good Friday, the Life Center will be beautifully set up with the Stations of the Cross. And the culmination of it all, of course, is Easter Sunday, which celebrates the promise of the empty tomb as we meet our Risen Lord once again! Our Sunrise Service is at 7:00AM on the west walkway outside the Plaza Bistro, followed by a continental breakfast Catholic Mass is at 10:00AM, and there is a service led by the Chaplains at 3:00PM in Plaza View. Join us in this journey of Lent as we take time to be holy!