Easter – Season of New Life Ah, spring! Sunshine and a warm, caressing breeze. Time to shed winter coats and thermal tops like a snake sheds skin. Open the windows. Clean the house. Tend the yard. Wash the car. Ah, spring! Time to sit on the porch and bask in your gladdening breezes. Time to […]
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Easter – Season of New Life Everybody keeps asking, “Are you excited?” “You must be so excited.” Yes, she is excited. She’s also scared and tired. Will she be up to the challenge of raising a child? Will she be a good parent? Will she know what to say, how to say it? She keeps […]
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Easter – Season of New Life Little babies coo and smile, waiting to be baptized. Knobby buds appear on trees, waiting for release. Crocuses push through a thin layer of late snow. Piglets squeal on the farm. Wobbly colts try out shaky legs. Spring is finally here! Easter is finally here! Therefore, reform your lives! […]
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Easter – Season of New Life Some people think evening is the best time of the day–a time for rest after a day’s work done well. But evening can also be a time for regret, for errors made, for tasks and kindnesses left undone. I prefer the morning with its promises, its opportunities. In the […]
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Easter – Season of New Life The church is packed to overflowing. Little children in their Sunday best squirm thinking of the Easter treats awaiting them at home. Young adults, home from college who have yet to darken the doors of a church since they left home, appear with their parents. Others who have been […]
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Easter – Season of New Life We sit in the darkened church, lit only by our candles. The Easter fire has been lit and the Easter candle carried in procession to the front of the church. Our candles have been lit by its light. We sit in darkness awaiting the light of Christ, the Christ […]
Read More If we die with Christ, then we will surely live with Christ. This is the promise of Easter–resurrection, new life, everlasting–that we celebrate each spring. And springtime makes the believing easier as the world blooms anew in glorious blossom and fragrance. Life can be very hard. The older I get, the more I see of […]
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HOLY WEEK – SEASON OF PASSION I’ve long had a love-hate relationship with Holy Week. The richness of the liturgies and readings, the drama, the opportunity to stop what we are doing, put ordinary life on hold, in order to reflect more fully on the great mysteries of our faith–I love this. The work of […]
Read MoreThere are forty days of Lent, fifty days in the Easter Season. That means we are meant to spend more time rejoicing than we spend repenting! And yet we fail to do that. Why? We spend so much time focusing on Lent, making sacrifices, striving to grow in our faith, then Easter comes and we […]
Read MoreFor thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Alleluia! Doxology – Walter Brueggemann at a conference on “Training for Wonder,” exclaimed that doxology needs to be exuberant, a self-abandonment in response to the inexplicable generosity of God. Easter certainly is a time for doxology, exuberant praise of God for all […]
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