Resurrection is a statement of how reality works. Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the rocks. This story with which we have been conditioned to look at the issues of our doubts about the resurrection itself, was written in the midst of colossal violence, violence which had escalated in the 70 years since the execution of Jesus of Nazareth. O God, help us to let go of those mental pictures of you which prevent us from accepting that we will never know you fully and save us from pointless theological argument which reflects our insecurity rather than your mystery. give you joy as you share the Easter faith. Whether your interpretation of the resurrection is literal or metaphorical, Easter morning is always welcome. You are holy, O God of Life, and holy is Jesus Christ, your Son, the resurrected One. I had just moved up to Jasper, Alberta, determined to make enough money during that summer, so that I could continue my backing excursions in Europe. Accept our praise and thanksgiving, 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. The grace and passion to love wastefully, CLOSING We Will Rise Again David Haas, *Parts of the liturgy were taken and modified from Michael Morwoods Praying a New Story, **Slideshow was taken and modified from Sapphire Productions. But Alan and I, we knew exactly what they were, and they certainly werent beautiful orcas to us. Let us give thanks to our Creator. Alas, the power of Pauls rhetoric has waned over the centuries. Easter people, come now to the table with Christ! Pachena Bay with its warm Pacific waters, heated even more by virtue of its shallow depths, attracted schools of salmon, ling cod and halibut, who make up a veritable smorgasbord for the pods of whales, that continue to visit the bay to this very day. of our connectedness with God and with all people. Carmel Lutheran Church, Portland, OR: Easter Morning: a service of the dawning of new light with Holy Communion. Do this in remembrance of me." So, when I was preparing for this worship service, I confess I was tempted to leave out the reading from 1st Corinthians 15 which is prescribed for this particular Sunday by the Revised Common Lectionary. Glory to the Three-in-One: To the Father, and the Savior, who the victoryhas won;glory to the Holy Spirit, fount of loveand sanctity; alleluia, alleluia to the triune Majesty! Humans were cast out of the perfection of the garden and alienated for their creator. The writers of our creeds firmly established that God lived in heaven. As tensions escalated and our world held our collective breath, the fragility of the peace we cling to, the peace built through military might, and threats of violence and mutual annihilation, this illusion of peace was threatened by the ambitions of a powerful oligarch obsessed with delusions of restoring tribal supremacy for his once mighty nation. Let it go. Sure enough, the vase slipped off as smooth as silk. Above the passage, Anna had written, The Gospel in a Nutshell. Somehow, the flight of the billionaire Bezos phallic Blue Horizon thrusting its five privileged passengers across our screens will capture more attention from those of us who are wealthy enough to own screens, than the roughly one and a half billion men, women, and children who are consigned to live in poverty. Last week, I compiled a list of online video resources for worship. A momentary panic began to surface as my mind questioned the wisdom of standing on ice not knowing what lay below. Amen. Many: On this day, we celebrate resurrection in our lives. The moss, the kelp, the zebrafish, the very mice and flies, When asked what he thought was the solution to the planetary crisis, Cosmologist Brian Swimme said, "It would be to reinvent ourselves, at the . Winter gives way to sprin It was barely nine oclock and the sun was already beginning to set. One: On this day, we embrace the grace which reaches from the tomb. Then Grandma rubbed little Crystals back, held her close and gentle, but firmly said: Let it go, child. Christianitys utterly loveless atonement theories about substitution and payment, arguing down through the centuries about whether this ransom is paid to God or to the devil insult the very memory of the rabbi himself, whose death saves us not from the wrath of God, but rather from ourselves. Amen. And there was no official campsite back then. What mechanisms do I use to attempt to tame the untamable wind of Gods Spirit? For heavens sake, when you sow a seed into the ground and it bursts forth into new life, that new life doesnt come in the form of a seed, it comes to life as a plant! For there is no division within the divine. I dont much care about silly arguments about Jesus rising from the dead unless those arguments lead us to a place where we ourselves can claim the power of resurrection to create a hunger for SHALOM, a passion for the justice which creates peace. O God, who gifts us moments of amazement, help us to accept the rhythm of the ordinary and the extraordinary that we may retain a steady awareness of your presence both in grey days and in bright. <> we invite your life to fill us; The sermon is broken up into three short homilies. I suspect that even offering all you have to a wastrel and a scoundrel is worth a shot if it means finding peace. Your resurrection we affirm with joy. 3:5 You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. Send us your: ResourceEventNewsIdeasnow The pastor is often on vacation; the choir scales back. Think for a moment. Anna had copied it from the Good News for Modern Man paraphrase of New Testament. jQuery('#submit-action').click(); Jesus experienced that. And swim we did all the way back to shore. And all the kings horses and all the kings men, couldnt put Humpty together again. Our friend, Dom Crossan makes the point that, it is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are now dumb enough to take them literally. I believe that in order to understand the power of this particular story of resurrection we must move beyond simplistic literal explanations and open ourselves to the more-than-literal symbolic dare I say it, spiritual understanding of resurrection. With humility, with awareness of the existence of life. May this Spirit help us to recognize the Christ-presence in our midst. No sooner than I felt the freedom of union with the DIVINE, than it was time to seek the confines of my car to warm up. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. <> These tears will wash away our illusions of a quick fix and wipe away our delusions that by violently enforcing the status quo we can create peace. Justice will exact our tears. 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. /* !P$: \6M8eQU@}gv4f~ _W $>5b?hVQqD%cf(HC +l8Z%ooP~>Q?(`0j4PCI3lho"`1R1ZZsMf7sNG? There was work to do. We ask you to bless this bread and this cup. You created the world by speaking life into being. We are not alone! I can also hear the voice of reason condemning me as a fool. We are not fallen creatures. It is the vison of the foolish who are prepared to risk it all for the sake of what we have lost, the SHALOM we long for. It is a scary proposition for a pastor to venture out on a journey without the familiar trappings of familiar liturgy. How solid? Seeking out the darkest place, to better see the light. 2023 ProgressiveChristianity.org, A Joyful Path, Childrens Curriculum Sample Lessons for Years One, Two and Three, Find Faith Communities Using A Joyful Path, The Core Values of Progressive Christianity, Bishop Spong Newsletter Progressing Spirit, Advertising on ProgressiveChristianity.org. But then I looked at the readings assigned for next Sunday and discovered that, yet another section of 1st Corinthians 15 is included. However, in order to see more we must try to see our longing for the physical resuscitation of a corpse as the product of generations of conditioning designed to have us believe in a certain way, that is to say to believe in spite of our doubts. For those of you preaching on the text fromGenesis 32:3-31: You may not be able to tell from looking at me. To free the captives? He enacted peace in the midst of violence, love in the face of hate, And we give you thanks. REPENT God Loses His Home. Frame 8: When you make the biggest mistake ever,something good comes from it.*. 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. You are still in your sins, and those who have fallen asleep in Christ are the deadest of the dead. Jesus vision of the BASILEIA ton THEON, the Empire of DIVINITY, is not the world we live in. MASS READINGS. Included here are just a few calls to worship, prayers, Scripture passages, and songs you can use in your Easter worship. May we live in a way which will not deprive other beings. These days hikers on the Pacific Rim trail often begin or end their hike by camping at Pachena Bay. jQuery(document).on('change', '#submission-action', function(){ Imagine knowing everything there is to know about that final day in Memphis, about the motel, about the people who were on that balcony when Dr. King was shot, about the shooter, the gun that was used, about the funeral procession, the grieving, and about the people who tried to go on walking in the ways of Dr. King. I fumbled for my phone and hopped out into the frigid air desperate to capture a photograph which has always eluded me. Your support is needed to help ProgressiveChristianityorg. "Our Father". The small voice within my very soul said only one word Swim.. So, I invite you to see for yourselves. . Followers of the Way are called to reject the myth of redemptive violence. You might say my countenance betrayed me, because it wasnt long before I took my body and its language out of the apartment to the nearest bar, where among friends, I began to look for a new place to live. Leader: For Christ indeed has been raised from the dead [here the minister lifts the elements], the First-fruits of those who have fallen asleep. My family had travelled to the west coast of Vancouver Island to what was back then, a mostly unknown treasure. Easter Sunday Liturgy 4.12.20 WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS EASTER ACCLAMATION P: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit . We are free to seek, to know, and to become this LOVE in which we live, and move, and have our being. Im guessing that in vast majority of the interpretations of these parables, the shepherd, the woman, and the father are usually identified as a symbol for the MYSTERY which we call GOD. Make them the food and drink of everlasting life, [After the Lords Prayer, the ministers and other worship leaders break the bread and place the pieces in baskets or on plates for distribution. We give thanks for the spirit of new life active in our lives as it was in the life of Jesus. 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. In the face of the pastors shouts, I stood as still as I could muster. Father's Day Video "Foster Kid Father's Day". The Resurrection is witness to the golden incandescence at the heart of life which neither suffering nor death can destroy. Easter Sunrise We encourage you to celebrate the Resurrection with your family (and perhaps with neighbors, safely at a distance outdoors) by worshiping the Lord at sunrise using the liturgy below. Robert Solon Jr. But Anna and Steve were always at it. As we prepare for todays celebration, let us express our regret for the limits we have put on Gods Spirit at work in us. But I must tell you, when that first whale jumped up out of the water, and we saw the tell-tale signs of those white patches on its side, we moved faster than youd think two kids in a slowly deflating rubber dingy ought to be able to manage. We need to reach our year-end fundraising goal that will determine what we can do for 2023. Letting go isnt as simple as it sounds. It is as the renewed, redeemed, enlivened people of God Let us be LOVE in the world. When humankind struggles, we all struggle together. Crystal sobbed. The story begins with a familiar nursery rhyme: Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; All the kings horses and all the kings men Couldnt put Humpty together again. McCourt asks his young students to tell him whats going on in this nursery rhyme. I had this wicked arm-hold sleeper, and that together with my full Nelson followed by a knee-arm press, was guaranteed to have my brother screaming uncle and agreeing to be my obedient servant until in no time at all. Frame 15: Honor the Divine in everyone and in all creation. Let me attempt to be kinder than the Apostle, whose willingness to call his opponents stupid, I do not share. February 11th, 2013. When Grandma finally arrived, both Crystal and her mother were almost hysterical. 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. Imagine trying to understand who Dr. King was and focusing your attention upon his assassination. However, Pete goes on, there are moments when I affirm that resurrection, few and far between as they are. The SPIRIT of DIVINITY is BEYOND Creation, BEYOND the Cosmos, even as it is in, and with, and through, all of Creation, all of the Cosmos. Anyone among you, those who aspires to greatness must serve the rest; whoever wants to rank first among you must serve the needs of all.