The Logic of Easter

We are now one week into the great Season of Easter, a week of weeks that reaches from Easter Sunday to the Day of Pentecost (May 23 this year). I have always been fascinated by the "logic of the lectionary." What are the deep resonances of the cycle of readings that we share with many Christians for our regular Sunday worship gatherings? What is the internal coherence of the church's rhythms and structures? How does it all fit together? What does it say about Christ, our Hope--and where do we find our lives in Him?

The Easter Season is an extended time for the Church to wrestle faithfully with these questions: What does it mean that this One, Jesus of Nazareth, is risen from the tomb, alive and among us, and making all things new? What does it mean that we who are baptized into Him take the shape of our lives from his risen life? Put more simply: Who is this Jesus and what does he mean for us?

1. The first Sunday of Easter declares the bare fact of Resurrection. Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, has been raised from the dead. He is not simply an historical figure, a person of legend, but a living, breathing being who encounters us. In Christ, Resurrection--which had been seen as a future reality--has invaded the present. All things are being made new in Him. Thus Resurrection it not simply about "where we go when we die," but touches upon every facet of life here and now and in the age to come.

2. The second Sunday of Easter is also known as "Thomas Sunday," for it features "doubting" Thomas as a central figure. However the true central figure (not surprisingly) is Christ himself: showing up breathing peace, giving the Holy Spirit, sending the disciples, entrusting to them the keys to the kingdom and making himself bodily available to his followers as the Crucified and Risen One. One cannot help but see the connections to the Christian celebration of Holy Communion in which the same Risen Christ makes himself bodily available to us, breathing peace, giving the Holy Spirit, entrusting to us the keys of the kingdom and sending us as his disciples.

3. The third Sunday of Easter is a word about forgiveness and rehabilitation and what these realities look like on Jesus' terms. The verbal tie in John's Gospel centers around the charcoal fire. It is around a charcoal fire that Peter first denies Christ; it is around another charcoal fire that Peter is forgiven, made new, and given a new life ("Feed my sheep...").

4. The fourth Sunday of Easter is "Good Shepherd Sunday," with passages drawn from John 10. This year we hear about Jesus' providential care for us, his sheep. We know Him and are known by Him. It is Sunday of deep intimacy and challenge.

5. The fifth Sunday of Easter revisits part of the Maundy Thursday Gospel text as we contemplate what it means to love one as an expression of Christ's love and precisely as our witness to the world. It is a time for the Church to look internally at how it patterns its life together to reflect the One who gave his life for her.

6. The sixth Sunday of Easter revisits the peace given on Thomas Sunday and speaks another word about the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, that Jesus is giving to his disciples.

Ascension (40 days after Easter Sunday) celebrates that God deeply and irrevocably shares his life with us. For as Jesus returns to the Father, he does so as the One who is God and Man, bringing our flesh, which he has redeemed, into the very life of God.

7. The seventh Sunday of Easter explores again the witness of the Church itself and pushes us to consider the sin of disunity within the Church. The "oneness" to be lived by the power of the Holy Spirit among Jesus' followers is the same "oneness" that is shared among the persons of the Holy Trinity.

Easter blessings as we journey together to the Fires of Pentecost...

IC XC + NIKA

Christ is risen, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life! He is risen! Indeed, He is risen! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Good Friday II: Cliff Hanger

This evening I was talking to my son about the Crucifixion and shared that this Friday is "Good" precisely because we know how the story turns out, that it ends not with the cross but with the Resurrection. He replied, "But sometimes I wish it was a cliff hanger." Indeed.

These photos show the Resurrection window through the lens of the cross, reminding us that the two are never really separate.

"It is finished."

Good Friday I: Thorns and Chi-Rho

I took this photo to capture the crown of thorns on the cross as a close up. I inadvertently also captured the Chi-Rho on the ceiling of the chancel. So there it is: Jesus' crown of thorns and a word about his title, "Messiah" (Christos in Greek, the first two letters of which form the Chi (X) and the Rho (P)).

Other common inscriptions on crosses are INRI: _J_esus of _N_azareth, _K_ing of the _J_ews (in Latin, of course) and IHS, the first three letters of "Jesus."

My favorite, of course, is the inscription on many stamps used to mark the bread of the Eucharist: IC XC + NIKA. IC: the first and last letters of "Jesus." XC: the first and last letters of Christos, Christ. NIKA: "conquers."

"What I have written, I have written."

Maundy Thursday

This is the second year we have done the footwashing as part of the Maundy Thursday Eucharist. It is a very humbling and moving part of worship. One of these years I think I'm going to read from Dr. Seuss's "Foot Book," to describe the variety of "feet we meet." The diversity of those whom God calls into his kingdom is always astonishing to me.

In John's Gospel the Cross is Jesus' glorification, so the footwashing, I think, represents the nadir of his descent: doing Gentile slave work, taking the lowest position.

"But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place..."

Triduum

The church now enters into its longest service of the year: the Triduum--Latin for "Three Days." It is one extended service in three parts, beginning the evening of Maundy Thursday and lasting through Easter evening. This is a photo of the cross on Good Friday morning, the middle of the first day. It captures the heart of the Christian message: the Cross in light of the Resurrection.

"We proclaim Christ crucified..."

Spy Wednesday

Wednesday of Holy Week is celebrated in many places as "Spy Wednesday," commemorating Judas Iscariot's betrayal of our Lord Jesus. Here is my meditation for this day.

The photo is of a candle that had been burning near this icon of Christ. The candle had melted toward the icon, as if the icon was beckoning it closer, as if the light was drawn to the Light. As I said, sometimes all we need to do is sit back and watch the creation itself preach.

"The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world."

Holy Tuesday III: Shattered

On the walk from my house to my study at the church building, I was moving my alb from one arm to the other and caught the top of the vessel I use for the chrism oil and it shattered on the driveway. Not good.

This reminded me of a few things. First, Holy Week is a week of shattered expectations. From start to finish Jesus does not do what is "expected" of him... and for this I am deeply grateful. Second, it was a reminder for me to take a deep breath and to walk these days one at a time. As a wise colleague of mine said, "Pace yourself." Third, our Lord takes our shattered lives and begins to put them back together.

"But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us."

Holy Tuesday II: Chrism Mass

On Holy Tuesday, many Christians gather for a service called the Chrism Mass. Clergy renew their ordination vows and oil is blessed for anointing the sick, the dying, and those preparing for baptism. A priest I know says it is the time each year that he "gets his oil changed and his license renewed." I love that.

This is last year's chrism oil, being poured back into the earth from which it came. New olive oil is added and blessed and then will travel far and wide to anoint the foreheads of all who are in need of our Lord's healing touch.

"Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me"

Holy Tuesday I

I have great ecumenical colleagues in town. We decided this year to offer morning prayer for Monday - Wednesday of Holy Week, with each us rotating preaching assignments and worship leadership. On Tuesday, Pete and Jim led worship while I assisted at our synod's chrism mass with other clergy in our synod.

This was the beginning of the fog that morning. It got worse as I drove south. This photo shows the dense fog and the sun piercing through it. So goes Holy Week: the dense fog our lives penetrated by the Light of the Son.

Palm Sunday

This is the first in a short series of photo essays for Holy Week. Even though this is probably the busiest week of the year for me, I find that it is also a week in which I am deeply captivated by the world around me, especially as the whole creation preaches.

This first photo is of the Palm Sunday "trail" that my son put together the evening of Palm Sunday. What it like about it is that it captures the palm branches and the coats that were strewn in the path of Jesus as he makes his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

"If these were silent, even the stones would shout out."