By the way, theres much more in Chapter 15 of Pauls letter to the followers of Jesus Way in Corinth. Maybe if we are unwilling to fight, all we can do is join our tears to the tears of that little Ukrainian family. From desert cliff and mountaintop we trace the wide design, This is my song, O God of all the nations, a song of peace for lands afar and mine; this is my home, the country where my heart is; here are my hopes, my dreams, my . Can, will, or indeed, should the Church Survive?. Anna explained that unless, I was prepared to be born again, under the tutelage of her pastor, I would need to find someplace else to live. After spending far too long cornered by Steve, who preached a gospel of not very good news, I was desperate to silence him, so, I reluctantly agreed to attend a Tuesday night youth service. Easter people, come now to the table with Christ! Then one day that perfect relationship was severed when for one reason or another the humans disobeyed the rules established by the creator. Im in real danger of losing my ability to follow Jesus on what appears to all the world to be the foolish path of non-violent resistance to empire. Take, eat. I am tweaking this for this Sunday credit to your site will be given. My reign as world champion would have continued if it werent for the abrupt ending of my amateur status. We give thanks for Jesus of Nazareth who inspired us to put our hope and trust in the spirit of Life and Love moving in the depths of our being. A star exploding or a leaf falling: both offer new possibilities and will live on in ways unknown to stars and leaves. Repent Metanoia let us think new thoughts so that we might ask: What can Jesus teach us? The apostle Paul who was the first to write about Jesus, portrays Jesus as a doorway into the ultimate. Your support is needed to help ProgressiveChristianityorg. The EMPIRE OF DIVINITY is not yet here. }); Center for Liturgy, St Louis University. Send us your: ResourceEventNewsIdeasnow Practicing resurrection happens when we empower one another to rise.Practicing resurrection happens when we build communities of compassion that live fully, love extravagantly, and empower people to be all that they were created to be. For all who are striving to form new governments, for thepeople of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine: that God will enlighten and inspiretheir leaders to build structures that will respect rights, promote life andhealth and establish educational and economic opportunities. May 23, 2022 | Father's Day, Mini-Movies. *All sing: (suggested: "I Serve a Risen Savior" or "Christ Our Lord Is Risen Today"). Only a fool would welcome home with joy and abandon a wayward child who had used, rejected, dishonoured, and then returned only to try to use them again. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of our God. Practicing resurrection happens when we gather to build communities of compassion. Easter 5A in Quarantine: Refuge in God. But lately, the news has encouraged us all to begin to emerge from our pandemic protocols. You provided wise men and women as judges for your people to show them the path to Life. One: On this day, we embrace the grace which reaches from the tomb. As Jesus invited his friends to drink, mindful of a relationship of love and trust between ourselves and the spirit of life, REPENT God Loses His Home. Strike-slip fault and overthrust and syn and anticline 2014-04-20 liturgy [Easter sunrise] Author: Mike Farley Steve and Anna were very quiet on the ride home. Set free from a Three-Tiered Universe! I dont know about you but when that giant phallic ship was trusting into the wild blue yonder, I became somewhat indignant. I know that we wont solve it in time to save Ukraine. If that means violence, well maybe Im not the pacifist I claim to be. And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Repent from the Greek word metanoia made up of two Greek words: meta which means, beyond and noos which means mind. Metanoia is an invitation to move beyond your current way of thinking. Pauls description of resurrection does not conflict with our 21stcentury inability to accept the suspension of the natural order of the Cosmos. Then Grandma rubbed little Crystals back, held her close and gentle, but firmly said: Let it go, child. What a stupid argument. Send us into the world resurrected, refreshed and ready to share Christs unconditional love. McCourt was a schoolteacher, and he tells this story about a particular class in which he was challenging the assumptions of his young students. The Cross and Easter are two faces of the one mystery. Resurrection is beauty appreciated, love shared, justice implemented. Our HEBREW ancestors, JESUS very own kin, understood the MYSTERY which we call GOD, as the verb TO BE, for this MYSTERY IS BEING itself. Resist the illusion that finding what we have lost will be a sweet, harmless, story. I dont mind confessing my own fear. Like each flourishing branch of the vine, we, too, blossom in our connection to God and neighbor. Gracious God, May we ourselves cease to be the cause of suffering to each other. It took the Church until 1991 to concede that Galileo and not the writer of Joshua was right and that the Earth did indeed revolve around the Sun. You called forth prophets who dared to speak the truth of Life to worldly powers that promoted death. But when I became an adult, I put childish ways aside. Forget about the rude remarks. Out of the familiar emerges the extraordinary that transforms the ordinary. Faith and EthicsKaren Armstrong is amongst a group of religious scholars who have noted that the essential teaching of each of the major religions usually includes some version of "love your neighbour". If you have already donated, thank you! Some of the people remained in the fragmented remnants and developed compensating mantras. We give thanks for all the influences in our lives that have helped us see beyond the present and have called us to live in hope and trust whatever endings we have experienced. Jesus knew this. Then it is given the body designed for itwith each kind of seed getting its own kind of body. MASS READINGS. This collection of liturgies is . The truth has left its living word for anyone to read. Out or on the Fringe of the Church. Amen. Church that is. *Leader: O sing unto the Lord, for he has done excellent things. Somehow, hed managed to secure me with what we professional wrestlers call an arm bar. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Jesus. Every time I do not serve my neighbour, every time I walk away from the poor. Today, like Jesus, we too can proclaim liberty to the captive minds and recovery of sight to those who have been blinded by ancient ways of knowing. var thisact = jQuery('#submission-action').val(); Easter is the festival of the irrepressible God whom not even death can contain. It is a scary proposition for a pastor to venture out on a journey without the familiar trappings of familiar liturgy. Alleluia, amen. Thich Nhat Hanh. It didnt take very long before the many layers of clothing, with which I had hoped to insulate myself from the dangers of the cold, failed to keep me moving very far into the expanse of white snow drifts which glistened as the Suns glorious rays danced incapable of warming much of anything but my heart. Written by Rev. It was Jesus who introduced this meal to his followers. It occurred to me the other day, that it is quite peculiar that most of what has been written about Jesus in the New Testament and indeed our liturgies, even the hymns we sing about Jesus they tend to shift our focus to Jesus death. I deny the resurrection every time I participate in an unjust system. Only a fool, would run head-long, open armed to kiss such a wayward fool, extravagantly bestow more household treasures, and expect the faithful to join in the rejoicing.Only a fool, would cajole the self-righteous, indignant child to join the celebration. } else { The face of CHRIST which must be seen if we are to end this madness. Wellspring Liturgies. O Easter God, who shatters all the familiar tombs which we create, enable us to move beyond slavish conformity either to old understandings or to new fashions and with joy embrace your ever-changing, ever challenging future. Odd, long-vanished creatures and their tracks & shells are found; But lets just leave Humpty Dumpty up there on the wall for a while, and shift our focus to todays story, from the anonymous gospel-storyteller we know as John. Frame 1: We are about to enter a world of life-giving beauty. Yet Easter is about a God who bursts tombs of the familiar, the ordinary and the mediocre. United States It is as the renewed, redeemed, enlivened people of God window.location.replace('https://progressivechristianity.org/paupress/?rel=pauContent&pau_type='+thisact); Death, not even violent death at the hands of a powerful empire could keep Jesus commitment to compassionate resistance to the forces of empire from those who longed for the Shalom of the Reign of GOD which Jesus proclaimed with his life. Letting go of our carefully crafted and tightly held images of the ONE who IS the SOURCE of ALL BEING is a daunting task. Old and New Testament Canticles at Morning and Evening Prayer. Afterwards, Jesus took the cup. Give us today our daily bread. We need to reach our year-end fundraising goal that will determine what we can do for 2023. We are free to live in the abundance of life here and now, in a Cosmos permeated by the DIVINE MYSTERY which is LOVE. According to Paul, the earthly body; the physical body must die in order for the heavenly or the spiritual body to be born. But she couldnt see it, so she reached in for her candy and thats when she got stuck and she couldnt get her hand back out. So, fellow followers of the Way, if Humpty Dumpty wasnt an egg what was she? Here at this table your promise of life is made tangible. Youll find it in the first Book of Kings. How dare I flirt with new ways of understanding REALITY, new discoveries about the Cosmos, new theories about the nature of human consciousness? Imagine if you will, trying to understand the life of Martin Luther King, or Mahatma Gandhi simply by focusing upon their death. A momentary panic began to surface as my mind questioned the wisdom of standing on ice not knowing what lay below. The Timeless Psalms: Psalm 148, Easter 5C, Joan Stott, prayers and meditations based on lectionary Psalms, 2016. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. May this meal be blessed as we gather to celebrate together. Alas, if only. The people of Israel have abandoned your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death by the sword. This bread and drink represents our life and all the giftedness that each of us bring to the table. There are times when risks must be taken. It was just politicians doing what politicians do, rattling sabers like little boys, stomping their feet, and insisting on their own way. For the most part, the Bible points to the Heavens above the firmament as the home of God. /* What kind of body will they have? What a stupid question! My oh, my, oh my In my sacred imagination, I can see Paul sitting up from his letter writing and nodding as if to say, there that out to stop those endless arguments about the resuscitation of a corpse.. Easter 2A in Quarantine: Peace Be With You. We just knew what we knew. And there was no official campsite back then. For we have been blessed with the ability to grasp so many more details about the Cosmos in which we live and move and have our being, than our ancestors could ever have imagined. There are heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies. Not all bodies are the same. But just when Alan was approaching the point of no return, I managed with a feat of superhuman strength to rise up, twist around and swing for all I was worth and connect with what I though must be my brothers chest. Sunday between December 4 and December 10. with the Son, God the Father praising;"Alleluia!" Frame 12: Good friends are like stars, you dont always see them but you know they are there. I just knew that if God really did come up with such a barbaric bargain, then God must be in league with the Devil himself. Please come, the meal is ready. I mean who in the hell believes that billionaires ought to be allowed to engage in a giant pissing contest disguised as a space race? Although she has never been canonized by the Roman Catholic Church she is venerated in both the Lutheran and Anglican churches. <> Does attending worship make my heart dance? In his new book, Unbelievable, our friend, Jack Spong writes: The laws by which the world operates have not changed since the dawn of time, but the way human beings explain and understand those laws has changed dramatically over the centuries of human history. Jack has a way of reminding us of the obvious. Not even our fear, even fear expressed in domination, greed, hatred and violence, not even fear of death, can kill the LOVE which lies at the very heart of all that is, and rises again and again, whenever and wherever, arrogance is ransomed by humility, fear is ransomed by courage, hatred is ransomed by kindness, violence is ransomed by justice, war is ransomed by peace, greed is ransomed by generosity, and self-centredness is ransomed by service to others. Julian is the author of the first English book ever to have been written by a woman: Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love. Just like the people in the story, I want to be transformed by the story of Jesus; transformed from someone who cowers in a place of safety, filled with fear and doubts, into a powerful member of a movement to create peace through justice. Liturgy - Easter Liturgy Index Next Easter Day In Western Christianity, Easter marks the end of Lent, a period of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter, which begins on Ash Wednesday and lasts forty days (not counting Sundays). To free the captives? His eyes are too beady. Where, O Death is your victory? This story provides the raw material for the idol that we have created to serve as our god. God offered him, so that by his blood he should become the means by which peoples sins are forgiven through their faith in him. In those sepia images of sad, forlorn, frightened faces. We give thanks and rejoice that Jesus so clearly and courageously linked our loving and our dying with living on in God. It is in Jesus life, not his death that we will find salvation. Thats at least 20 years before the Gospel according to Mark, 30 to 40 years before the gospels according to Matthew and Luke and probably nearly 50 years before the Gospel according to John. The basileia ton THEON, the Empire of GOD, the GOD which Jesus knew as ABBA, a LOVING PARENT, the basileia ton THEON, the Reign of the GOD that IS LOVE, where justice and not violence creates the kind of peace in which everyone has enough to live the abundant life Jesus insisted he came to give to the world. Today, during this season of Easter, our doubts about the possibility of resurrection are not as important as our doubts about the possibility of peace. Lift up your hearts. A natural body is sown, and a spiritual body is raised up. You and I are the wealthiest followers of Jesus who have ever walked the Earth. I confess, that I cant quite see CHRIST in that face yet. We have rested in the depth of your love; You can skip to the end and leave a response. There far away from their world, they were could safely worship Jesus. For the death of what it took me years to learn about, the death of atonement theories has given birth to the resurrection of DIVINITY, a DIVINITY liberated from ancient projections onto the DIVINE of the myth of redemptive violence. He greets us with peace the world does not know. Standing beneath a clear blue sky, looking out towards the horizon, I tried to breath in some of the vastness which stretched before me. You see having a brother who was just 18 months younger than me meant that I had ample opportunities to hone my wrestling skills. Lectionary Liturgies, Easter B, 2015, Thom M. Shuman, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Contact Us. Some walking away to become refugees, joining the endless flow of the displaced. Jean and Mike give some personal examples of deaths and resurrections in their lives, both big and small. And each and every time we find what has been lost is a time for celebration. Glory be to you, Lord Jesus. I passed on to you what I received, which is of the greatest importance: that Christ died for our sins, as written in the Scriptures;that he was buried and that he was raised to life three days later, as written in the Scriptures;that he appeared to Peter and then to all twelve apostles. (1 Corinthians 15:1-6), Anna carefully underlined in red the phrase: Christ died for our sins, as written in the Scriptures. After warming myself on my cars heating vent, I caught sight of sundog begin to emerge as the Sun was still setting. For there is no division within the divine. What can progressive Christians say about the story of Easter? Forgive us, Merciful One. Yes, the father should never have trusted his sons with all that he had, and when his lost son showed himself to be untrustworthy, he shouldnt have been welcomed with open arms, and as for the faithful, self-righteous son, well sometimes justice demands that we abandon the rules, if we are to achieve peace. Embrace the HOLY foolishness which lives, in, with, through, and beyond you. A reading from 1st Corinthians chapter 13: When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child. Frame 11: When life hands you a lemon make lemonade!*. The pastor is often on vacation; the choir scales back. As for that little Ukrainian family, what do we do in the wake of their tears? We ask you to bless this bread and this cup. The first face of CHRIST belongs to a Ukrainian Father who is struggling to say good-bye to his young daughter. With open minds and hearts, may the God-in-us find generous and courageous expression in our words and actions as we endeavor to make the presence of God evident in our world. we invite your life to fill us; document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); *This liturgy is an adaptation of the traditional. 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