April 1
Then the father said to him,
‘Son, you are always with me,
and all that is mine is yours.’
Luke 15:31
One last visit with the parable of the man who lost two sons.
This is a quite extensive quote from the book UnApologetic. (By British author Francis Spufford, published 13 years ago. The subtitle is: "Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense." Some folks I like have really champioined this book.) In a chapter about Jesus; whom he names “Yeshua” he wrote about our parable:
This [parable] is about something else,
a love that deliberately does not protect itself,
a love that is radically unprotected on purpose,
and is never going to stop to ask whether the younger son,
like many junkies briefly boomeranging back to the nest,
will tomorrow steal the silver spoons
and the digital camera
and be off again to the fun-bucket.
A love that does not come naturally
in a world of finite farms, and real inheritances,
and exhaustible parents;
a love which therefore can only be like a father running across the fields to kiss his ruined child.
But a love we might need anyway,
if we’re to get beyond deserving.
Yeshua tells the story with the bad boy’s viewpoint first,
and then the [older] brother’s,
so that those who hear it must become both of them,
so that we can recognise ourselves in both of them.
Which we do, if we’re honest in the way Yeshua recommends.
In every life, we have times when we play both parts.
We ruin, and we build.
We’re chaotic,
and we’re the anxious maintainers of a little bit of order
in the face of chaos.
We could only join the older brother in asking for fairness,
nothing but fairness,
if we didn’t see ourselves at all in the lost boy.
Since we find ourselves in him as well,
we too will need, at times,
something far less cautious than justice.
We too will need to be met on the road
by a love that never shudders at the state we’re in,
never hesitates to check what it can bear,
but only cries:
this is my son, who was lost and is found.
Francis Spufford; UnApologetic, (pg. 131-2)
I find that quite a life-giving read of Luke 15.
Peace to you, Pastor Phil
April 2
This confession is offered in the resource provided by Augsburg Fortress, our publishing house…
The words in this confession might point you to reflect on the positive vision it suggests for the God to whom we turn in our repentance…
Confession and Forgiveness
Blessed be the holy Trinity, ☩ one God,
who forgives all our sin,
whose mercy endures forever.
Amen.
Let us return to God, confessing our sin in the assurance of God’s abiding love.
Silence is kept for reflection.
Compassionate One,
you are slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love,
but our lives do not always reflect you
and your love for the world.
We do not show others the tender compassion
you have shown to us.
We do not welcome others with the radical hospitality
you grant to all people.
We oppress others,
even though you have set us free again and again.
We squander the abundant gifts of the earth.
Transform our lives
and guide us again in the way of the cross.
Amen.
Beloved in Christ,
God’s arms are always stretched open wide
to welcome the wandering ones home.
In ☩ Christ your sins are forgiven.
You have a place in God’s house forever.
Amen.
May our wandering lead us into varied places of love and service!
Peace to you, Pastor Phil
April 3
But by the grace of God
I am what I am,
and his grace toward me has not been in vain
I Corinthians 15:10a
Last night, for our message, I shared an essay/sermon by Pastor Nina Schuurman-Drenth, who is a pastor, spiritual director and visual artist in Hamilton, Ontario.
The title of the piece is “The Cosmic Insignificance Therapy of Lent” and you can read it by clicking here.
In part, Pastor Schuurman-Drenth makes the point that the Gospel is not given so we can maximize our lives. Rather, it is a gift given so that you may know Christ present in the life you actually live, as you are, without any adding or improving or performing of anything.
For many, that is a surprisingly liberating notion.
God has created you and God has redeemed you.
God loves you. End of story.
A story of you, accompanied by Jesus Christ, no matter what.
Blessings, Pastor Phil
April 4
For we are what he has made us,
created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand
to be our way of life.
Ephesians 2:10
At the heading of yesterday’s Connections I had “April 4th” but publishing that did not make it so. In fact, yesterday was April third, and today is the fourth. I am almost certain of this.
We have been sending daily devotions for over 5 years now. I have looked back at some previous posts and I thought I would once again post this stewardship message.
Stewardship encourages people to lead generous lives,
strengthens faith,
and impacts the world.
A blessed weekend to you, Pastor Phil
April 5
May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.
Psalm 126:5
Our Psalm tomorrow serves as our Call to Worship. It has one of those wonderful lines in the Psalter that speak directly to our lives…
“Those who go out weeping, …shall come home with shouts of joy…”
When we are in those chapters of life where we find ourselves weeping, we imagine that we are all alone. We can’t help but think that no one has ever known the loss we face.
Psalm 126 can speak a different word, telling us we are in good company. The author of this Psalm knows the night of weeping, and has fit it into this prayer. Not only that, the Psalmist proclaims that God is with us in those times when God seems most absent.
Let us pray Psalm 126 today, and be reminded that God is with you always. Peace, Pastor Phil
Psalm 126
When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us,
and we rejoiced.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the watercourses in the Negeb.
May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.
Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
carrying their sheaves.
The Fifth Sunday in Lent
April 6
Worship is at 9 a.m. this morning, I hope you can join us.
The service is posted on the Trinity website.
The Prayer of the Day:
Creator God,
you prepare a new way in the wilderness,
and your grace waters our desert.
Open our hearts to be transformed
by the new thing you are doing,
that our lives may proclaim
the extravagance of your love
given to all
through your Son,
Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.
April 7
Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard,
anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair.
The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
John 12:3
Yesterday's Gospel reading gave us the intriguing story of Mary anointing Jesus with costly perfume.
John scholar, Gail R. O'Day wrote this in the New Interpreter's Bible Commentary and I set it aside a while ago...
...if in the raising of Lazarus, Jesus is fully revealed,
then in Mary's anointing of Jesus,
faithful discipleship is fully revealed.
Mary's act of anointing illustrates
the Evangelist's eschatological vision
of the new life to be lived by those who embrace
Jesus' life and death
and become children of God.
The New Interpreters Bible Commentary page 703
One interesting aspect of the Gospels, is that so often, God works through the unlikely, and the unexpected. In a culture that held women in distressingly low regard, it is most often women who witness most powerfully to who Jesus truly is.
Interesting.
Perhaps God will choose you, as one of God's own - unlikely messengers.
Peace, Pastor Phil
April 8
…Jesus said
“…She bought it so that she might keep it
for the day of my burial…”
John 12:8
I shared this before, it is from the daily devotional Bread for the Day. It is a prayer that is written in conversation with this past Sunday’s Gospel reading.
Prayer:
God of the grieving,
Jesus knew that Mary's anointing
was part of his journey through death to new life.
When we mourn,
may we remember that death is not our end either,
but in our mourning we await eternal life with you.
Amen
Bread for the Day - Augsburg Fortress; Minneapolis, 2023. Page 90
Blessings to you, Pastor Phil
April 9
O Lord… You are near to all who call upon you,
to all who call upon you faithfully.
Ps 145:18
In a devotional reflection titled “The Important Question” Dr. Al Rogness begins: “The great question is not ‘Is there a God?’ The really critical question is ‘Does God really care?’”
I first read that decades ago, but it continues to echo in my heart.
Yes! It is God’s caring and God’s ever present love that really matters. Other aspects of the attributes of God might be interesting, but it is God’s love that washes over all theology and all of life.
Let us join the Psalmist in giving thanks that God is near to all who call upon God faithfully. The faithfulness of God will not fail. This is our firm belief, and, not only that, it is our life experience as well. Rejoice today, for God will surely be near you. Peace, Pastor Phil
April 10
And be thankful.
Colossians 3:15
I shared this with the Trinity Council the other day, and thought I would include it in today’s Connections. As I have been considering our time here at Trinity, I have been filled with gratitude for the privilege of being your pastor.
I am not entirely clear that gratitude is a discipline, but perhaps it is. Perhaps it is - at the same time - a habit. (Are those different things???)
Blessings to you, Pastor Phil
A Discipline - Henri Nouwen
In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.
Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice.
...It is amazing how many occasions present themselves in which I can choose gratitude instead of a complaint.
…There is always the choice between resentment and gratitude because God has appeared in my darkness, urged me to come home, and declared in a voice filled with affection:
“You are with me always, and all I have is yours."
Indeed, I can choose to dwell in the darkness in which I stand, point to those who are seemingly better off than I ...wrap myself up in my resentment. But I don't have to do this.
There is the option to look into the eyes of the one who came out to search for me and see therein that all I am and all I have is pure gift calling for gratitude.
The choice for gratitude rarely comes without some real effort. But each time I make it, the next choice is a little easier, a little freer, a little less self-conscious. Because every gift I acknowledge reveals another and another until finally, even the most normal, obvious, and seemingly mundane event or encounter proves to be filled with grace.
There is an Estonian proverb that says: "Who does not thank for little wiU not thank for much." Acts of gratitude make one grateful because. step by step, they reveal that all is grace.
Henri Nouwen, The Way of Gratitude - from The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1992.
April 11
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
what is man that you are mindful of him,
the Son of Man that you care for him?
Psalm 8:3-4
Over the next several weeks, for our daily Connections, I am going to turn to quotes I’ve set aside. Some days I may end up including more than one. Ha!
Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday, and we will once again enter the story, and follow Jesus to the cross and beyond. [Already I find myself having to share more than one quote: “Not only is knowledge of self tied to knowledge of God, but we know ourselves truthfully only when we know ourselves in relation to God. We know who we are only when we can place our selves - locate our stories - within God’s story.” Stanley Hauerwas]
Paul Hawken, author, entrepreneur and activist wrote:
Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked
what we would do
if the stars only came out once every thousand years.
No one would sleep that night, of course...
We would be ecstatic, delirious,
made rapturous by the glory of God.
Instead the stars come out every night,
and we watch television.
I suspect that this is an insight we could apply in thousands of ways. If I really noted the wonder of each and every one of you, I would treasure our relationship so very much more!
If we could only begin to grasp the grandeur of Easter, well…
Peace to you this weekend, I look forward to marking Holy Week and Easter with you! Pastor Phil
April 12
…the whole multitude of the disciples
began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice
for all the deeds of power that they had seen,
saying,
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”
Luke 19:37-38
A blessed Saturday to you, Pastor Phil
Here is a prayer for Palm Sunday:
PALM SUNDAY, THE PROCESSION
Luke 19:28-40
Multitudes proclaimed your mighty deeds:
“Blessed is the king who comes
in the name of the Lord,”
they called
out!
As for us,
let us throw down our coats for you,
shout your name to all who hear.
Hosanna! Jesus of Nazareth,
God, walking along with us,
and leading us to grace,
our beloved hero,
loving us all the
way to the
cross.
Come into our
hearts!
Lest the stones
cry out!
Copyright © 2025, Anne M. Osdieck. All rights reserved.
Permission is hereby granted to reproduce for personal or parish use.
Palm Sunday
April 13
I hope you can join us for worship today, along with the Trinity Choir.
The service is posted on our web site.
Here is the Prayer of the Day for Palm Sunday:
Everlasting God,
in your endless love for the human race
you sent our Lord Jesus Christ
to take on our nature
and to suffer death on the cross.
In your mercy
enable us to share in his obedience to your will and in the glorious victory of his resurrection,
who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen
April 14
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9
On this Monday of Holy Week, here is some great insight from Rachel Held Evans.
“God's ways
are higher than our ways
not because God is
less compassionate
than we are
but because God is
more compassionate
than we can ever imagine.”
Rachel Held Evans
May the days of this week be a time for you to consider anew, the amazing and never failing compassion of our God.
Peace, Pastor Phil
Monday of Holy Week.
Prayer of the Day
O God, your Son chose the path that led to pain before joy and to the cross before glory. Plant his cross in our hearts, so that in its power and love we may come at last to joy and glory, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Readings for Monday in Holy Week
Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm 36:5-11
Hebrews 9:11-15
John 12:1-11
April 15
Now when the centurion, who stood facing him,
saw that in this way he breathed his last,
he said,
“Truly this man was God’s Son!”
Mark 15:39
I really like this quote from Jurgen Moltmann, who died just last year at the age of 98. He was a deeply influential post-war German theologian. Among his best known works are “The Theology of Hope” and “The Crucified God.”
As we once again mark the days of Holy Week and Easter, giving thanks and rejoicing in the gift of the resurrection, Moltmann helps us see that the cross is God’s way in the world, and that Easter grows out of the gifts of Christmas.
There can be no theology of the incarnation
which does not become a theology of the cross.
As soon as you say incarnation, you say cross.
God did not become man
according to the measure of our conceptions of being a man.
He became the kind of man we do not want to be:
an outcast, accursed, crucified.
‘Ecce homo! Behold the man!’
is …a confession of faith
which recognizes God’s humanity
in the dehumanized Christ on the cross.
Jurgen Moltmann The Crucified God pg 205
Tuesday Prayer of the Day
Lord Jesus, you have called us to follow you.
Grant that our love may not grow cold in your service,
and that we may not fail or deny you in the time of trial,
for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
Readings for Tuesday in Holy Week
Isaiah 49:1-7
Psalm 71:1-14
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
John 12:20-36
April 16
When the hour came, [Jesus] took his place at the table,
and the apostles with him.
Luke22:14
May these lines from a Good Friday reflection serve as a fitting devotion for us as we look ahead to these days we know as Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. In some circles these holy days are referred to as ‘The Three Days’ or ‘The Triduum’…
I hope you can join us for worship as we recall and remember and celebrate the great gifts God has in store for us in the life, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior…
By these three days all the world is called to attention.
Everything that is and ever was and ever will be,
the macro and the micro,
the galaxies beyond number and the microbes beyond notice –
everything is mysteriously entangled with what happened,
with what happens, in these days.…
Every human life, conceived from eternity and destined to eternity,
here finds its story truly told.
In this killing that some call senseless we are brought to our senses.
Here we find out who we most truly are
because here is the One who is what we are called to be.
The derelict cries, “Come, follow me.”
Follow him there? We recoil.
We close our ears. We hurry on to Easter.
But we will not know what to do with Easter’s light
if we shun the friendship of the darkness
that is wisdom’s way to light.
Richard John Neuhaus - Death on a Friday Afternoon: Meditations on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross
Wednesday Prayer of the Day
Almighty God, your Son our Savior
suffered at human hands and endured the shame of the cross.
Grant that we may walk in the way of his cross
and find it the way of life and peace,
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.
Readings for Wednesday in Holy Week
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 70
Hebrews 12:1-3
John 13:21-32
Maundy Thursday
April 17
I hope you can join in worship this evening at 7:00.
Here is an interesting reflection on the Lord’s Supper by J.B. Phillips. He suggests that this meal serves as a living connection to that supper shared by Jesus with the Disciples in that upper room in Jerusalem:
God in His providence has not allowed the survival of actual physical objects. But we have infinitely more than this, for instead of dead relics, however "authentic" and well preserved, we have a life-line, stretching unbroken to Christ Himself. We have all the comfort and security that comes from historic tradition, but instead of being given the sad nostalgia of looking at an object and saying, "Look, how wonderful! This is what He touched then," we are given an evergreen memorial which says, "This is what He touches now."
J. B. Phillips
One might add that the sharing of meals has been a powerful and central aspect of Christian community ever since, and that our reaching out and feeding the hungry extends directly from that “night in which he was betrayed…”
Maundy Thursday Prayer of the Day
Holy God, source of all love, on the night of his betrayal,
Jesus gave us a new commandment,
to love one another as he loves us.
Write this commandment in our hearts,
and give us the will to serve others as he was the servant of all,
your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.
Readings for Maundy Thursday
Exodus 12:1-14
Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Good Friday
April 18
It is Good Friday.
Barbara Brown Taylor wrote this wonderful passage for a Good Friday sermon, and it informs my preparation for Holy Week every year:
Jesus was not killed by atheism and anarchy.
He was brought down by law and order allied with religion,
which is always a deadly mix.
Beware those who claim to know the mind of God
and who are prepared to use force,
if necessary, to make others conform.
Beware those who cannot tell God's will from their own.
Temple police are always a bad sign.
When chaplains start wearing guns
and hanging out at the sheriff's office,
watch out.
Someone is about to have
no king but Caesar.
Barbara Brown Taylor
Good Friday Prayer of the Day
Almighty God, look with loving mercy on your family,
for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed,
to be given over to the hands of sinners,
and to suffer death on the cross;
who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever. Amen.
Readings for Good Friday
Isaiah 52:13--53:12
Psalm 22
I Corinthians 11:23-26
John 18:1-19:42
Holy Saturday
April 19
It is Holy Saturday. An in-between time. A time of quiet reflection, a time of somber gratitude…
For this Holy Saturday, here is another insight from Barbara Brown Taylor
“New life starts in the dark.
Whether it is a seed in the ground,
a baby in the womb,
or Jesus in the tomb,
it starts in the dark.”
Barbara Brown Taylor - Learning to Walk in the Dark
Prayer of the Day
O God, you are the creator of the world, the liberator of your people, and the wisdom of the earth. By the resurrection of your Son free us from our fears, restore us in your image, and ignite us with your light, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
p.s. I will include, below, a rather more thorough Holy Saturday reflection…
It is a very different God, and a very different power, that we have discovered in the story of divine self-emptying, God’s capacity for weakness, the ability without loss of Godness – to suffer and perhaps to die. This is the triune God of Jesus, fulfilled, majestic, glorified through self-expenditure in the lowly ignominy of our farthest country. There is power here, resurrecting, death-destroying, Devil-defeating; but it is the power of love, defying human expectation, which flowers in contradiction and negation, allowing sin its increase and giving death its day of victory, but only the more abundantly to outstrip both in the fecundity of grace and life. To live in the face of death an Easter Saturday existence, trusting in the weak but powerful love of the crucified and buried God, is itself to be objective, turned outward, away from self-reliance and self-preoccupation, away from our own determination to conquer death, which is in fact self-defeating and destructive. Instead, we are invited bravely and with frankness to admit our own defenselessness against the foe and entrust our self and destiny to the love of God which in its defenselessness proves creative and victorious. "Between Cross and Resurrection A Theology of Holy Saturday" (2001) by Alan Lewis
Easter Sunday
April 20
HAPPY EASTER!!
Easter Festival Worship will be at 9 and 11 a.m. this morning, I hope you can join us. Thank you to the Youth who are serving Easter Breakfast between services!
The service is posted on the Trinity website.
The Prayer of the Day:
O God,
you gave your only Son
to suffer death on the cross for our redemption,
and by his glorious resurrection
you delivered us from the power of death.
Make us die every day to sin,
that we may live with him forever
in the joy of the resurrection,
through your Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit,
one God,
now and forever.
Amen.
One more insight from Barbara Brown Taylor (whom I at times refer to as “BBT.”)
She begins an Easter sermon with these wonderful lines:
“Happy Resurrection Day!
May the news of Christ's risenness touch the dead spots in your heart and bring them back to life, so that you become part of the good news that flows forth from this place today. May you be springs of living water in all the dry places on this sweet, parched earth. May the fresh life that God has given you spill over to freshen all the lives that touch yours - in your homes, in your work, in your schools and neighborhoods. May you be Easter people, this day and forever."
Let me simply add: A blessed Easter to you, and may we always be an Easter people! Pastor Phil
Easter Monday
April 21
It is Easter Monday. There is an early Orthodox tradition; the priests would gather together on this day to tell jokes and stories. I’ve shared this before from the world wide web:
“This was a time of celebrating the big joke that God pulled on Satan. Wherever it is celebrated it is characterized by joking around, singing, dancing, and merry-making.”
This sounds a little like what we do on April Fools Day if we connected that day’s frivolity to the joy of the resurrection…
Well, we are called to be fools for Christ, aren’t we? (I Corinthians 4:10)
He is risen! He is risen indeed!
This is the greatest reason there is for “merry-making.”
Over the years I have shared a number of very dumb jokes on this day, and for a moment I thought I should spare you such nonsense, but looking through the past several years I find I can’t help myself. Here is a terrible one for you, I will put it at the bottom of this email. If I were a better person, I’d apologize for including it…
All across the kingdom, the news traveled quickly that the Queen’s bell-ringer, who faithfully served the royal family for decades, had passed. The Queen made the royal decree that she was looking for someone to come and take his place.
The next day, a humble peasant was first in the long line of applicants for the job. "My Queen," he entreated her, "since I was a youth, I have always wanted to serve our kingdom and the royal family in this way. Let me be your bell-ringer, and I will serve in earnest all the days of my life."
The Queen appreciated the peasant’s words, but was puzzled. "My humble servant, I have but one question: how can you serve the kingdom as the royal bell-ringer? You don’t have any arms!"
The peasant smiled and said simply, "Take me to the tower and I will show you."
The Queen, her entourage, and the peasant climbed the steps of the bell tower until they reached the top. The peasant looked over his shoulder at the queen, "Behold!" And with that, the peasant ran to the far side of the room, spun around and ran directly at the bell. Faster and faster he ran then leapt, flew through the air, and – WHAM! – hit the bell full-force with his head.
Stunned, the Queen hesitated. But, when she heard the bell peal as never before, she told the peasant, "the position is yours."
Weeks went by as the peasant served faithfully and punctually, and always in the same way: he would run across the room, spin around, charge directly at the bell, leap, and – WHAM! – hit the bell full-force with his head.
Until, that is, one fateful morning when the peasant woke up late. Certain he could still make it in time, he ran from his common home, tore across the kingdom, scrambled up the tower, across the room, spun, leapt and…missed the bell entirely! He instead flew across the room, out the nearby window and plummeted a thousand feet to his death.
Having heard the commotion, the castle guards ran upstairs to find the empty room. They looked out the window to find a crowd gathering around the peasant’s body. The one guard looks at each other and says, "My goodness – that poor man! Have you any idea who he is?"
The other said: "I don’t know, but his face sure rings a bell."
The poor, dead peasant's brother begged the Queen the honor of replacing his brother at the castle. As fate would have it, one day, late to ring the bell, while rushing to fulfill his duty, he slipped and fell from the tower, as well. Standing over the body, a castle guard asks a passer-by if he knows the deceased's name, to which the witness to the horrible accident replies, "I dunno, but he's a dead ringer for his brother."
May the next weeks of Easter be a time for you to note the ways the risen Jesus is with you wherever you may be, and may you find plenty of opportunities for laughter in the knowledge of God's great love for you and for all the world.
Blessings to you today, and remember the Easter Good News that gives life to all we do, and all we are!
A blessed Easter to you!
Pastor Phil
Remember that Easter lasts until Pentecost Sunday, June 8th this year.
Happy Easter!
p.s. I would like to invite you to keep our Bishop, Pastor Laurie Jungling in your prayers, as she is having surgery today.
April 22
God saw everything that he had made,
and indeed,
it was very good.
And there was evening and there was morning,
the sixth day.
Genesis 1:31
Today is Earth Day, and so I invite us to turn to Genesis chapter one, which concludes with the evaluation that creation was very good.
Indeed!
Earlier, in Genesis 1:28, we are told that God God blessed the humans whom God had created, saying to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
While these words have been used to by some to excuse exploitation of the earth, the words translated “subdue” and “dominion” are more about care-giving and nurturing. Tending, not using and abusing.
A blessed Earth Day to you!
What a beautiful gift creation is!
What a wonder that God has called us to work with God in care for and nurturing of creation!
Pastor Phil
Here is a challenging and wonderful quote by Kathleen Norris that implies that our understanding of ourselves as created beings might be quite important:
Worship grounds me again in the real world of God’s creation, dislodging me from whatever world I have imagined for myself. I have come to believe that when we despair of praise, when the wonder of creation and our place in it are lost to us, it’s often because we’ve lost sight of our true role as creatures – we have tried to do too much, pretending to be in such control of things that we are indispensable. It’s a hedge against mortality and, if you’re like me, you take a kind of comfort in being busy. The danger is that we will come to feel too useful, so full of purpose and the necessity of fulfilling obligations that we lose sight of God’s play with creation, and with ourselves. Kathleen Norris - Quotidian Mysteries
I have added two interesting quotes from the novelist Barbara Kingsolver below…
There once was a time when Thoreau wrote, “I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.” By the power vested in everything living, let us keep to that faith. I’m a scientist who thinks it wise to enter the doors of creation not with a lion tamer’s whip and chair, but with the reverence humankind has traditionally summoned for entering places of worship: a temple, a mosque, or a cathedral. A sacred grove, as ancient as time.
Barbara Kingsolver - Small Wonder
“People need wild places. Whether or not we think we do, we do. We need to be able to taste grace and know once again that we desire it. We need to experience a landscape that is timeless, whose agenda moves at the pace of speciation and glaciers. To be surrounded by a singing, mating, howling commotion of other species, all of which love their lives as much as we do, and none of which could possibly care less about our economic status or our running daily calendar. Wilderness puts us in our place. It reminds us that our plans are small and somewhat absurd. It reminds us why, in those cases in which our plans might influence future generations we ought to choose carefully. Looking out on a clean plank of planet earth, we can get shaken right down to the bone by the bronze-eyed possibility of lives that are not our own.”
Barbara Kingsolver cited in Brady and Neuzil, A Spiritual Field Guide: Meditations for the Outdoors, 143
April 23
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples,
“I have seen the Lord”;
and she told them that he had said these things to her.
John 20:18
I like this Easter reflection by Sarah Condon. It is from a devotional that the Mockingbird web site has published called Daily Grace.
Peace to you today, Pastor Phil
THE LIGHT HAS COME TO STAY
The resurrection rips through all of my intellectual questions.
Sarah Condon / 4.12.23
“But go to my brothers and say to them,
‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples,
“I have seen the Lord”;
and she told them that he had said these things to her.
(John 20:17-18)
There is a local legend of a preacher in Jackson, Mississippi. He stood up to offer a word on Easter Sunday, simply leaned into the mic and said, “It’s all true,” then sat down.
I have heard people tell this story two ways.
Some people talk about that minister like he was a lazy so-and-so with little regard for the pageantry of Easter. Such a day demands a well thought-out sermon befitting the hats, lilies, and plastic eggs!
And then there are the people in the other camp. Those of us who are mystified that someone would so boldly say such a simple thing and let the gospel speak for itself.
This is exactly what I need to hear on Easter morning. I need to hear that it is actually all true. That Jesus came to rescue me. That he came to die in my place. That my sins are forgiven. Such news hits an almost unreachable spot in my heart. But Jesus manages to find it.
Resurrection rips through all of those intellectual questions that I want to throw at it:
Do I have to be forgiven? Can’t I just forgive myself? Why do I have to forgive others?
All of those questions are just my heart’s feeble barrier to keep me feeling like I have some say in the matter. Jesus rising from the dead burns that old fence right down.
I love Mary Magdalene in this moment. She is like an Olympian with a torch, running to light the next fire, racing to tell everyone this one simple thing: the light has come to stay. To love us, to die for us, and to save us from ourselves. Friends, it is all true.
Sarah Condon
April 24
Do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your minds,
so that you may discern what is the will of God —
what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2
These words from Anglican bishop Richard Holloway invite us to be transformed by the Good News of the resurrection.
Resurrection is the refusal to be imprisoned any longer
by history and its long hatreds;
it is the determination to take the first step out of the tomb….
If we say we believe in the resurrection
it only has meaning if we are people who believe
in the possibility of transformed lives, transformed attitudes,
and transformed societies.
Belief in resurrection means
that I must commit myself to the
possibility of transformation.
Richard Holloway Bishop of Edinburgh 1986-2000, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church 1992-2000
April 25
Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying:
“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to…”
Matthew 22:1-2b
I set aside this quote from author, Sue Monk Kidd because I thought it a wonderful Easter reflection. The other two follow from her insight that God’s way in the world is so very unexpected.
Blessings to you this coming weekend, Pastor Phil
God tends to confound, astonish and flabbergast.
A Bethlehem stable, a Roman cross, an empty garden tomb.
We might as well reconcile ourselves to the fact
that God's truth often turns up
in ways we don't expect.
Sue Monk Kidd
"The toughest task
is to live with unexpected,
unwanted answers.”
William Willimon
It is not the task of Christianity
to provide easy answers to every question,
but to make us progressively aware of a mystery.
God is not so much the object of our knowledge
as the cause of our wonder.
Kallistos Ware
April 26
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”
Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
John 20:26 & 29
Tomorrow is the 2nd Sunday of Easter. Each year, on this Sunday, we hear the story of Thomas. He had - for some reason - not been with the Disciples when the risen Jesus appeared to them on the night of Easter.
(As an aside: Some have suggested the lesson at hand is that Thomas’ error was that he was not gathered with the faithful. That is to say, believing that we know Christ in the Word spoken, and the bread broken and the wine outpoured, being at Church might well be a good idea!)
I hope you can join us for worship tomorrow, where we will receive the gifts of bread and wine, listen for the Gospel, and share Christ’s peace.
I like N.T. Wright’s words on the challenge of Easter:
The challenge of Easter is in fact the challenge of a new creation.
It offers itself not as an odd event within the world as it is,
but as the utterly prototypical, foundational event
within the world as it has begun to be.
It is not an absurd event within the old world,
but the symbol and starting point of the new world.
Jesus ushers in
not a new religious possibility or new ethic,
but a new creation.
…And HOPE is what you get
when you suddenly realize that a different worldview is possible,
a world in which the rich, powerful and unscrupulous do not,
after all,
have the last word.”
N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope
Second Sunday of Easter
April 27
I hope you can join us for worship at 9:00 this morning.
The service is posted on our website.
The service will be live-streamed.
The Prayer of the Day:
O God of life,
you reach out to us amid our fears
with the wounded hands of your risen Son.
By your Spirit’s breath revive our faith in your mercy,
and strengthen us to be the body of your Son,
Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen
April 28
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week,
and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked…, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”
After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
John 20:19-20
One of the interesting things about the resurrection stories, is that so many of them let us know that the disciples did not immediately recognize the risen Jesus. There is doubt, uncertainty, questioning, joy and fear. That seems a lot like life itself. God is always with you, but it is so very often difficult to see, and one is never entirely certain. Luther used the interesting phrase: “the certainty of faith.”
May you know the risen Christ is with you today.
Peace, Pastor Phil
Here is an Easter insight:
Seeing things as they actually are usually takes time.
How else are we to explain the fact that no one—no one!—
noticed the resurrected Jesus at first sight?
Seeing the resurrection requires a second look, another glance.
It takes a while for our eyes to adjust to the light of the resurrection,
and then all of life looks radically different…
Seeing God’s “new thing” is about seeing an old thing
in a new way through a new lens.
Such is the miracle of Gospel sight—
to see what has always been there in such a radically new way
that it becomes a new thing.
This is always a work of grace,
and we can only handle so much of it at once.
Kris Rocke and Joel Van Dyke, Geography of Grace, Doing Theology from Below
April 29
But there are also many other things that Jesus did;
if every one of them were written down,
I suppose that the world itself could not contain
the books that would be written.
John 21:25
I like this reflection on the resurrection by Dr. Newbigin.
Wikipedia will tell you: “James Edward Lesslie Newbigin (8 Dec 1909 – 30 Jan 1998) was a British theologian, missiologist, missionary and author. Though originally ordained within the Church of Scotland, Newbigin spent much of his career serving as a missionary in India and became affiliated with the Church of South India… becoming one of the Church of South India's first bishops.” It goes on to say: “it is said his stature and range is comparable to the "Fathers of the Church”."
The resurrection truly is the starting point for all of life…
The resurrection cannot be fitted into any view of the world
except one of which it is itself a total starting point,
because the resurrection is the validation of a protest
against everything that there is…
The cross is the ultimate protest against things as they are,
in the name of what ought to be
...the world as it is is not God's last word.
Lesslie Newbigin
Blessings to you today, Pastor Phil
April 30
…they dragged Jason… before the city authorities, shouting,
“These people who have been turning the world upside down
have come here also…
They are all acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor,
saying that there is another king named Jesus.”
Acts 17
Rachel Held Evans (1981-2019) was really a wonderful writer. I have encountered so many thoughtful insights from her, I should really read one of her books.
Here is a line I found in a list of ‘resurrection quotes’:
Jesus takes the Resistance beyond prophecy, beyond songs of hope and lamentation, beyond satire and mockery, and beyond apocalyptic visions to declare the inauguration of a new kingdom. With his birth, teachings, death, and resurrection, Jesus has started a revolution. It just doesn’t look the way anyone expects.
Rachel Held Evans
I wonder what it would mean for us if we understood the resurrection of Jesus to be a revolution. I wonder how it would shape our discipleship if we were to see Jesus' work in the world as the Resistance. How might that give life and vitality to our faith and to our Church?
Blessings to you, Pastor Phil