EASTER SUNDAY, APRIL 8, 2012--EVENING MEDITATION

The Party is Not Over

Scripture:  Isaiah 6:6-9

Growing up attending Easter services with my new dress and pretty shoes, it all seemed like a letdown when the service was over.  Everyone in my family seemed tired and cranky. Going home to take a nap, as my mom would always suggest, seemed like a really boring idea (though now as a pastor, a Sunday nap always sounds like a really good idea!)  As night would fall each Easter Sunday, the joys of new clothes, beautiful flowers and worship services were over; however, Easter was not.  Easter, in fact, had just begun!

Isaiah prophesied about a time in history when God would make a way for all peoples of the earth to come and feast-- to feast on a mountain of rich food and good wine, to feast on the goodness of the Lord with joyful proclamations.  Being people of Easter means that we have a new reality to claim for our lives, one in which we are ushering in the kingdom of God by whom we invite to our tables.

Consider the last time you hosted or attended a dinner party at someone's home. Who was there? Did everyone look the same? Dress the same? Attend similar schools? Hail from similar countries of origin?

Being people of Easter means now, we, as co-partners with God, have work to do. We are to be about cooking this feast for all nations. We are to be ambassadors for sharing the good news that all are one in Jesus Christ. So, I say, keep celebrating Easter, my friends. Don't put the fancy dresses and party hats away just yet. Invite your neighbors, invite new friends, invite a stranger, and feast this upcoming week on the goodness of the living Lord among you.

Prayer:  Living Lord, we worship you as Almighty God who has done great things among us. Don't let us forget your goodness, though. Don't let us forget to share. Don't let us get so self-consumed that we stop celebrating the good news that is all of ours this day: "You are risen indeed." AMEN.

EASTER SUNDAY, APRIL 8, 2012--MORNING MEDITATION

Go and Proclaim

Scripture:  Mark 16:15-18

Jesus said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever doesn’t believe will be condemned. These signs will be associated with those who believe: they will throw out demons in my name. They will speak in new languages. They will pick up snakes with their bare hands. If they drink anything poisonous, it will not hurt them. They will place their hands on the sick and they will get well.” (Common English Bible, vv 15-18)

This time Jesus really does it! First he amazes us by rising from the grave and with joy we fall in behind our Risen Lord, raising high his banner, proclaiming the good news to every creature that crosses our path. We feel good – we know we can do this. 

But then Jesus tells us what his followers, those who believe that he is the Son of God, will look like. They will be the ones casting out those devilish demons, speaking in new languages, picking up those big slimy snakes with ungloved hands, drinking stuff their mothers always told them not, and placing hands on those bodies racked with disease and watching them heal before their very eyes.

Jesus wants to give us untamed resurrection power. These are the signs that the world is looking for from those who shout “Alleluia” this morning. On this side of the resurrection, snatching a colt or following that man with the jar of water looks pretty pedestrian. Those were mere training lessons. Jesus thinks we are ready to pick up the cross and follow. So ready or not – it’s time to go and proclaim the good news to all. Even on this Easter Morning.

Prayer:  Risen Lord and Savior don’t let us hide behind the Easter hymns and lilies, rather use this day, and use your people, to show the world the power of the resurrection available to all who believe. Alleluia. Amen.

 The Reverend Gloria McCanna

HOLY SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 2012--HOLY WEEK--EVENING MEDITATION

In the Darkness

Scripture:  Job 14: 5-7

Today is one of the darkest and saddest days on earth-- the day we sit by the tomb and wait.  If we are looking for companions in our waiting, Job is a good place to start. As a righteous man who has lived a God-fearing life, the book of Job tells us of what happens when "bad things happen to good people."   Job loses everything: his wife, his children, his home, his livelihood and later even his health. And, he has a choice in his personal state of darkness. Will he curse God and die? Or, will he keep hope alive? 

Job chooses to wait on the Lord, but does so not in a "holier than thou" fashion of singing praise songs and collecting roses for bouquets to give to the homeless. No, he tells God to leave him alone. He thinks about how nice it would be to feel cut down like a tree. He really wants the pain of his losses to stop.

As we wait with Jesus on this dark day, as many of us are surrounded by situations in our own lives which are full of suffering, sickness and injustice -- we wait with a God who can take whatever it is that we have to say to him. We can be honest. We can speak our minds and know that even as the darkness looms and the light seems far away, we serve a God who hears us no matter what. Nothing can separate us from God's love. Not even death!

DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL

You can pray with all your might

 Till your knuckles all turn white

 You can look the other way

 Hope it’s gone with each new day

You can do your best to hide

 You can hold it all inside

 You can curse and shake your fist

 You can ask why God why this

There is peace somewhere I’m told

 There’s a fire out in the cold

 There are wonders to behold

 In the dark night of the soul

You can give in to your doubts

 Try to figure it all out

 You can fight the fight alone

 Do your best to drink it gone

There is peace somewhere I’m told

 There’s a fire out in the cold

 There are wonders to behold

 In the dark night of the soul

Trust your spirit to be your guide

 You’ll come out on the other side

In the absence of the light

 Let the shadows hold you tight

 You can let your fear and pain

 Wash over you like rain

There is peace somewhere I’m told

 There’s a fire out in the cold

 There are wonders to behold

 In the dark night of the soul

In the dark night of the soul

By Kate Campbell & Walt Aldridge

 © Large River Music (BMI)

 Cross Key Publishing Co. Inc./Waltz Time Music Inc. (ASCAP)

Prayer:  God, we are overwhelmed by the sadness of this day and of what has been done to you, Jesus. We fall beside the tomb this night in grief, in despair and in solidarity with all those around our world who are living in darkness as we speak: those who do not know you as Lord of all. Hold us tight, O God, in the dark as we wait. Remind us somehow, someway that you are with us and have not left us to face our perils alone.  AMEN.

 The Reverend Elizabeth Hagan

HOLY SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 2012--HOLY WEEK--MORNING MEDITATION

Ponder and Wrestle

Scripture:  Mark 15:44-47

"When Pilate learned from the centurion that Jesus was dead, Pilate gave the dead body to Joseph." (Common English Bible, v.45)

It was Holy Saturday. The phone rang. What we feared had happened. The young mother we had anointed on Wednesday died. The day was a blur: driving to the hospital, calling out to God, holding family and friends, making phone calls, crying and wondering how anyone would dare to step into the pulpit on Easter Sunday.

But today is Holy Saturday and there are no answers, only wondering if this is just a bit of what the disciples felt on that first Holy Saturday, knowing that their Lord Jesus was crucified, dead and buried. Wondering if all we believe about resurrection, life after death, eternity, the communion of saints can carry us through this day. The Lord knows that this is not a place where we can stay for long, but today we need to be here and ponder.  We need to wrestle with the demons. We need to wrestle with God.

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, our souls are clouded over with the knowledge of your death and the death of others. But do not forsake us, for we cannot do this on our own. Amen.

 The Reverend Gloria McCanna

GOOD FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2012--HOLY WEEK--EVENING MEDITATION

Complete Surrender

Scripture:  Luke 23:46

If we read earlier in this passage, we know that symbols of this death were all around before Jesus spoke his last words. Darkness fell over the whole land. The sun literally stopped shinning in disapproval. Many signs of God’s presence in creation were gone. It was a shattering moment— a moment that people of faith or no faith at all were forced to recognize. Everything was changing. Everything had changed with those last breaths of the One who was called God with Us.

Yet, if you have sat beside anyone as they lie dying, you know that the last of the last words are always hauntingly important. They are the words that stick with us, that we hear played in our heads over and over after a loved one has passed. We recite these words to others. We often remember them more than anything else the dying person had said previously.

So let us remember this: when Jesus uttered his last, we hear in this utterance an acceptance of his death. What we hear is not a combative last wish, or an “I wish I’d done more of this” or “Why really do I have to die this way?” Or, “Why aren’t there more people here mourning my death?” But, an, “I accept the fact that even though this all is so painful and uncertain- I WILL leave this earth in acknowledgement of my Father God.”  “Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.” 

Even more so, what we hear in these words is a TRUST in the Father to handle what he could not—the outcome. In his last words, Jesus showed a surrender beyond what his human body could feel. Jesus showed a surrender beyond what his human mind could reason. He was able to let go of human life and what many would call his hour of defeat without trying to change anything. He was about his Father's business.

Prayer:  So, in the darkness of the night as we sit to wait for the light to come, let us trust God too as we say: ‘Into your hands I commit my spirit.” AMEN.

 The Reverend Elizabeth Hagan