Easter Sunday Sunday, April 12, 2020

First Reading: Acts 10:34-43

or Jeremiah 31:1-6

New Testament: Colossians 3:1-4

or Acts 10:34-43

Gospel: John 20:1-18

or Matthew 28:1-10

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

“Why are you weeping?”

Jesus (from John 20)

Early and dark, Mary Magdalene went to the burial place of Jesus and found it different than she expected. It was as if she thought God to be on a time table and certain that God’s power is suspended and thwarted by tragedy and grief.

As Mary moves through her grief to the space in the Earth where Jesus would be contained, she finds the sepulcher vacated and her empty feelings of loss multiplied as the Unexpected One comes and speaks to Mary with in her grief.  Her tears, cries, and emotional pain are all impacted upon Jesus, who subsequently calls her by name, and renders the impact of these forces void.

Resurrection Sunday suspends my feelings of tragedy and grief similarly, as I am invited to reengage again with the One who conquers all of the “bad,” imperfect, traumatic injustices of this world. I am reminded yet again that it is within the dark, damp tombs that God provides dynamic wombs for new life and living, always!

We must continue to turn from our old ideas, old expectations, and former traditions that have sufficed, and totally consider, embrace, and imbibe the invigorating, ubiquitous way of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Jesus will wipe away our tears when we chose to turn (repent) from anguish and anxiety to clarity and wholeness.

We too, like Mary, can enjoy, not just today, but for the next 50 days the new vision within and without, so we can proclaim we have seen the Lord, too. I am convinced that in the Resurrection encounter with Mary, Jesus gives and makes her solely the Church’s only one who is a witness to the resurrection and the Resurrected One. Had it not been for Mary’s tears and turning she would have missed this glorious moment.

Let us with haste consider our tears and listen for Jesus to calls us away and out of our blindness into the eternal hope of Easter. God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes, and Resurrection Sunday is the certainty that Jesus has already begun to do so.

Happy Easter!

The Rev. Dr. Tommie L. Watkins, Jr.

Holy Saturday Saturday, April 11, 2020

Old Testament: Job 14:1-14

or Lamentations 3:1-9, 19-24

New Testament: 1 Peter 4:1-8

Gospel: Matthew 27:57-66

or John 19:38-42

Psalm 31:1-4, 15-16

Muslim cosmologists described a universe between the zenith, its highest possible point, and its counterpart, the nadir, the lowest possible point in the universe. Today, we relive the lowest point in our remembered history as Christians — the day that our crucified Lord lay dead in a borrowed tomb. 

Today evokes memories of two days when I stood in the tomb of Jesus. Pilgrims to the Holy Land quickly learn to distinguish between the places where events happened and the places where these events have been remembered by pilgrims for ages. 

In the diminishing Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, I stood in a queue of UN soldiers waiting before the towering structure in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher — waiting to stand for a moment in the ancient sepulcher remembered as the tomb of Christ since Constantine. At the bottom of the stairs, illuminated by dozens of candles, a stone slab covered the ancient tomb. 

Years later, with a group of tourists, I went to a garden on a hill outside the walled city. In the late nineteenth century, General Gordon decided that this hill, overlooking the Old City across the central bus terminal, was actually Calvary — Golgotha. An ancient tomb, resembling the description in the Gospels, was named the Garden Tomb. After an unhurried look into the old rock cut tomb, we gathered for a Presbyterian sermon preached in a proper Scotch accent.

More important, in the rhythm of our liturgy, we stand at this nadir every year — now, on this day, in the midst of chaos and conflict. The lesson from Job echoes our darkest anxiety: “A human that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.” In such a world, Job’s only prayer on behalf of humankind is “turn your eyes from us, leave us alone, like a hired laborer, to finish our day in peace.”

However dark our present reality is, as this day moves to sunset and then to the rise of a new day, St. Paul’s words from the epistle for the burial of the dead undergird us for all tomorrows: “Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The Rev. Dr. Roy Wells

Good Friday Friday, April 10, 2020

Friday, April 10, 2020 Good Friday

Old Testament: Isaiah 52:13-53:12

New Testament: Hebrews 10:16-25

or Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9

Gospel: John 18:1-19:42

Psalm 22

Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP 221)

Good Friday is not the end of the story. 

We know that Easter is coming bringing resurrection. I wonder if that knowledge doesn’t lead us into the theological trap of thinking that Jesus is only present with us somewhere in the future instead of right now or that we have to endure pain or sorrow or despair alone. Perhaps, the best way to understand the message of this day when Jesus “was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross” is to try to forget that we know Sunday is coming.

Those who witnessed the events of the Passion could only have known despair. As far as they knew, that Friday was the end. Their hope had been nailed to a Roman cross. Uncomfortable as it my be, entering into the grief of Mary the Mother of Our Lord, the Beloved Disciple, Mary Magdalene, Joseph of Arimathea, and Peter rather than jumping ahead to the joy of the resurrection can teach a valuable lesson. On the worst days we can imagine, during our most painful experiences, Christ draws especially near to suffer with us, to grieve with us, even to angrily pray the Psalms with us crying out as often as necessary, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus has been where we are, and his presence makes all the difference. He sustains us. He helps us to endure. He teaches us to hope even on the worst day. Above all, the presence of the Risen Christ reminds us of the one thing that it may be easiest to forget when all we can see is grief, pain, anger, and despair. 

Good Friday is not the end of the story.  

The Rev. Jeff Evans

Maunday Thursday Thursday, April 9, 2020

Old Testament: Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14

New Testament: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Gospel: John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Psalm 116:1, 10-17

“Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” John 13:34

In high school, I once missed soccer practice to acolyte on Maundy Thursday. One of my friends thought I was making up some fictitious holy day. As I walked out of school, he protested, “That’s not a real thing! You’re making it up. What’s Monday Thursday?” I remember mumbling some reply about the Last Supper. Today, I’d like a chance to redo my response.

Maundy (not Monday) Thursday comes from the Latin word mandatum. It means commandment, and from that root we get the word “mandate.” On this day, always the Thursday before Easter Sunday, we begin the holiest days of our Christian year (the Triduum or Three Days) by celebrating Jesus’ new commandment for us. What was Christ Jesus’ commandment? “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

On Maundy Thursday, we remember Jesus’ words to love one another, but more importantly we recall and rehearse his actions. On this night, the whole Church universal will take part in the embarrassing act of servanthood that is washing one another’s feet — just like Jesus did. What might be the most powerful aspect of Jesus’ action though gets left out of our selected text from John. 

In John 13:30, we read that Judas was at supper with Jesus, received a piece of bread from him, and left to go betray him. This means that Judas was present earlier in the evening during the foot washing. This means that Jesus stooped down and washed Judas’ feet. This means that on top of humbling himself to the place of a servant, Jesus did this for his betrayer. Come to think of it, all of Jesus’ disciples, in the end, deserted him. While Jesus lovingly serving these misfits might shock us, it is overwhelmingly good news! 

Our Lord’s humiliating act of servanthood wasn’t meant simply for ones who persevere. It wasn’t only for the followers who got it right or stuck with it. Instead, Jesus modeled a radical love for us — one that included him loving betrayers, deserters, and enemies. Then on top of that, he commanded us to love everyone in that same way PERIOD. Yes, love your family, friends, and neighbors. But, also love your betrayers and deserters, the cowards and the losers, the unloving and the unloveables. Love EVERYONE! That’s what this day is all about.

It’s the day when we remember Jesus’ love by taking part in the same embarrassing act he did. It’s the day when we see Jesus model what radical, inclusive, self-giving love looks like. It’s the day when Jesus commanded us to love everyone — even our most bitter enemy — in the same way he did, by becoming a servant of one another. Just as Jesus has loved us, we should love one another. By this everyone will know that we are Christ’s followers, if we have love for one another.

The Rev. Seth Olson