We shall return Tuesday–thanks for your prayers; KSH.

You can listen directly hereor download it there.

The Resurrection St. Sebastian
Art by Italian painter Titian (1490–1576) pic.twitter.com/CiSnL5qMZe

— Biblio Curiosa (@Bibliocuriosa) April 15, 2021

From there:

Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.

But is there for the night a resting-place?
A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.
May not the darkness hide it from my face?
You cannot miss that inn.

Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?
Those who have gone before.
Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?
They will not keep you standing at that door.

Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
Of labour you shall find the sum.
Will there be beds for me and all who seek?
Yea, beds for all who come.

St. John the #BaptistChurch is considered to be the acme of the Yaroslavl school of #architecture. It was built in 1671-1687. Its walls & #domedrums are covered with richly #glazedtiles. The 7-storey, 45-metre high bell-tower was built later than the church itself in mid-1690s. pic.twitter.com/D9NToKDb6S

— 2nmP Conceptual (@2NMPConcept) January 24, 2019

Listen to it all.

As I am in the US for the first time in many years, I find myself longing for the simplicity of Maua, Kenya, during Easter time. There Easter has none of the commercial trappings we find here. As I enter grocery stores, discount stores, and department stores I am shocked at the amount of space taken by the Easter candy, bunnies and stuffed animals, baskets, decorations, and new spring clothing. These items take more space than any grocery store has for all their goods in Maua.

I recently read that an estimated $2 billion will be spent on Easter candy this year in the US. Two billion dollars to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who asked us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give water to the thirsty, house the homeless, care for the sick and imprisoned, and welcome the stranger.

Read it all.

5 part resurrection icon, Solovetsky Monastery, 17th century.#Easter2015 #Easter https://t.co/GePGBxrqU7 pic.twitter.com/cdWYEO4n8m

— Dean Peters☕ (@deanpeters) April 5, 2015

A year ago, the global Covid pandemic tried to lockdown the church. No one was celebrating Good Friday or Easter in church buildings. Covid tried to lockdown Jesus; it tried to bury him in a cave and seal it with a huge stone. But, the stone was rolled away. Death could not lockdown Jesus. And, Covid could not lockdown the Gospel. Jesus is risen and he can be worshiped not only in churches, but everywhere two or three are gathered together in his name.

I am grateful this Easter that some members of our churches are allowed to gather in their church buildings to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection.

I also encourage the government to lift the restrictions on children coming to church. Just as children are returning to school, the church is very ready to receive our children for only one hour per week in an organized way that upholds the SOPs. Our children need to be in church with their families.

I still encourage everyone to worship daily at home, even if you are going to church each Sunday. Family worship is essential in sustaining our faith and in raising children to know and love the Lord.

I am here today to declare to you that the greatest force on earth – death itself – could not hold Jesus down. He was killed and buried on Good Friday. But, on Easter morning, he was raised from the dead. He is alive and will never die again. Jesus is risen to be worshiped.

Read it all.

Congratulations Stephen Samuel Kaziimba,The 9th Archbishop elect of Church of Uganda pic.twitter.com/XE2K6rn2S4

— Komakech Robert (@KomakRobert) August 28, 2019

O Lord God, who hast revealed in holy Scripture what conquests faith has made both in doing, and in suffering: Grant us no smaller faith than that which overcometh the whole world, that Jesus thy Son is God, very God from the beginning, the First and the Last, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, world without end.

—Daily Prayer, Eric Milner-White and G. W. Briggs, eds. (London: Penguin Books 1959 edition of the 1941 original)

Friday morning Sunrise ….. pic.twitter.com/0nvyXCSNxP

— Tony Wootton (@tonywootton7) April 16, 2021

I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I keep the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved….Thou dost show me the path of life; in thy presence there is fulness of joy, in thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.

–Psalm 16:7-8;11

Goodmorning everyone! Happy Friday!! Have a great weekend! pic.twitter.com/zJcpaEt0Wa

— KH (@Kimberlyhautumn) April 16, 2021

Enjoy it all (just over 4 1/2 minutes).

Michelangelo Buonarroti's Resurrection, Sistine Chapel, Rome

Alleluia, Jesus Christ is Risen! Happy Easter! pic.twitter.com/yMVvvcwh7k

— jake alano (@alano_jake) April 11, 2020

Risen Christ, for whom no door is locked, no entrance barred:
open the doors of our hearts, that we may seek the good of others
and walk the joyful road of sacrifice and peace,
through the Holy Spirit to the praise of God the Father.

Slightly edited–KSH.

"Sounds like birdsong and flowing water may alleviate stress, help lower blood pressure and lead to feelings of tranquility." https://t.co/Acg2mXcgcx

— Friends of the Wiss (@FOWissahickon) April 13, 2021

From there:

When asked the question, “What will we be after we die?” The human race has conjured up four answers.

1. Nothing – we will decay and/or disintegrate. Death is a dead end. Our works and reputation might survive, not us.
2. Ghosts – Phantoms of what we once were. Pale as Edgar Winters’ beard. Structured as a morning mist. What will we be after we die? Spectres.
3. Or, hawks. Or, cows, or a car mechanic in Kokomo. Reincarnation rewards or punishes us according to our behavior. We come back to earth in another mortal body. Or,
4. As part of the universe. Eternity absorbs us like a lake absorbs a storm. We return to what we were before we were what we are… we return to the cosmic consciousness of the universe.

According to some folks, we bury the soul when we bury the body like a wrapping with a hot dog, never expecting to see either again. Other people propose that the spirit abandons the body as a butterfly escapes the cocoon. Christianity, on the other hand, posits a new startling, surprising idea. What you had before death, you’ll have after death, only better, much, much better. You will go to paradise: heaven, but not home. Then, upon the return of Christ, you will receive a spiritual body and inhabit a restored universe. This is the promise of God. This promise hinges on the resurrection of Christ. The Christian hope depends entirely upon the assumption that Jesus Christ died a physical death, vacated an actual grave and ascended into heaven where he, at this moment, reigns as head of the church.

The Easter miracle, in other words, changed everything.

#Easter Garden at Holy Trinity #Bingley. pic.twitter.com/iaiGhl2xmF

— Andrew Clarke (@andrewclarkebd) April 13, 2021

From there:

If in that Syrian garden, ages slain,
You sleep, and know not you are dead in vain,
Nor even in dreams behold how dark and bright
Ascends in smoke and fire by day and night
The hate you died to quench and could but fan,
Sleep well and see no morning, son of man.
But if, the grave rent and the stone rolled by,
At the right hand of majesty on high
You sit, and sitting so remember yet
Your tears, your agony and bloody sweat,
Your cross and passion and the life you gave,
Bow hither out of heaven and see and save.

Weathers and seasons were part of the living world, and the movement between them was the world's breathing and showed that it was alive and in good health. Only when the rhythm became erratic, when the world drew its breath in great spasms, did they become afraid."C.R.Milne pic.twitter.com/r2AhQjKUEd

— A.A.Milne (@A_AMilne) April 13, 2021

O Risen Christ, who has said, Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed: Mercifully grant that this benediction may be ours; so that, walking by faith and not by sight, we may evermore rejoice in thee, and confess thee as our Saviour, our Lord, and our God.

Beautiful Pastel colors this morning at the Rock Harbor, Orleans, Massachusetts. #capecod #StormHour #sunrise pic.twitter.com/71q10Rh2Ln

— Darius Aniunas (@dariusaniunas) April 15, 2021

I love thee, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.

–Psalm 18:1-3

Farm gate sunrise. I could never tire of this view 🌅#sunrise #view #farm #shepherdess pic.twitter.com/g1gDDUmFq2

— Alison O’Neill 🐑 Shepherdess (@woolismybread) April 15, 2021

Listen to it all.

"The Resurrection of Christ", Second third of the XVI century. Tempera on pine panel by Juan Correa de Vivar (1510-1566) https://t.co/hqkGur0sNn #Easter #EasterSunday #Easter2021 #ResurrectionSunday pic.twitter.com/f7qX9FsOkv

— Susan Jordan (@Moonbootica) April 4, 2021

…particularly when we look at the disciples, the watered-down resurrection doesn’t seem credible at all. Remember that the Gospel of John (whose author had little to gain by making the disciples, future leaders of the early church, look bad) notes that the disciples were so frightened that they barricaded themselves behind locked doors after Jesus’s death. They had good reason to be. “If the authorities dealt that way with Jesus, who had so many people supporting him,” they must have thought, “what will they do to us?” Even before the crucifixion Peter shrank in fear from being identified as a follower of Jesus. Imagine how their fear would have intensified after witnessing the Romans’ brutal execution of their master.

With one exception, all of Jesus’s male followers were so terrified that they shrank from standing at the foot of the cross, unable to accompany Jesus during his final hours. Their reluctance may have stemmed from an inability to watch the agonizing death of their friend, but much was out of fear of being identified as a follower of an enemy of Rome. (The women, showed no such fear, though the situation may have posed less danger for them.)

The disciples were terrified. So does it seem credible that something as simple as sitting around and remembering Jesus would snap them out of their abject fear? Not to me. Something incontrovertible, something undeniable, something visible, something tangible, was necessary to transform them from fearful to fearless.

This is one of the most compelling “proofs” of the Resurrection.

Read it all.

“When Jesus had risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene.” -Mark 16:9

“Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection” by William Etty (1834) @tate #easter #Resurrection #Jesus pic.twitter.com/RXERMWG9Mq

— Lady of Good Counsel (@ofgoodcounsel) April 10, 2021

From there:

The silver trumpets rang across the Dome:
The people knelt upon the ground with awe:
And borne upon the necks of men I saw,
Like some great God, the Holy Lord of Rome.
Priest-like, he wore a robe more white than foam,
And, king-like, swathed himself in royal red,
Three crowns of gold rose high upon his head:
In splendour and in light the Pope passed home.
My heart stole back across wide wastes of years
To One who wandered by a lonely sea,
And sought in vain for any place of rest:
‘Foxes have holes, and every bird its nest.
I, only I, must wander wearily,
And bruise my feet, and drink wine salt with tears.’

“…As soon then as they came to land, they saw hot coals lying and a fish laid thereon and bread….Jesus saith to them: Come, and dine….This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested…after he was risen from the dead.” (James Tissot, “Meal of Our Lord & the Apostles”) pic.twitter.com/3OyiQ2JVpm

— Matthew Balan ن (@MatthewJLB) April 18, 2020

In this tomb, also, you may see, A pledge to us…Yes, verily, it is a pledge,

Of Christ’s power to raise us to a spiritual life -The resurrection of Christ is set forth in the Scriptures as a pattern of that which is to be accomplished in all his followers; and by the very same power too, that effected that. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul draws the parallel with a minuteness and accuracy that are truly astonishing. He prays for them, that they may know what is the exceeding greatness of God’s power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.” And then he says, concerning them, “God, who is rich in mercy, of his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us usi together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus^” Here, I say, you see Christ dead, quickened, raised, and seated in glory; and his believing people quickened from their death in sins, and raised with him, and seated too with him in the highest heavens. The same thing is stated also, and the same parallel is drawn in the Epistle to the Romans ; where it is said, “We are buried with Christ by baptism into death; that, like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” But can this be effected in us ? I answer, Behold the tomb ! Who raised the Lord Jesus? He himself said, ” I have power to lay down my life, and power to take it up again….”

–Horae homileticae, Sermon 1414

[#WorkOfTheDay]
Germain Pilon, "The Resurrection" (detail)

☛ https://t.co/k8siJbCX0y#Sculptures pic.twitter.com/uT4MwfpYOt

— Musée du Louvre (@MuseeLouvre) July 8, 2017

Lyrics:

O Radiant Dawn, O Radiant Dawn, O Radiant Dawn
Splendour of Eternal Light
Sun of Justice, Sun of Justice, Sun of Justice
Come, come, come, come, come,
come shine on those who dwell in darkness And the shadow of death

Isaiah had prophesied,
‘The people who walked in darkness have seen a great Light.
Upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone’

O Radiant Dawn, O Radiant Dawn, O Radiant Dawn
Splendour of Eternal Light
Sun of Justice, Sun of Justice, Sun of Justice
Come, come, come, come, come,
come shine on those who dwell in darkness And the shadow of death

Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen

O God, whose blessed Son came into the world to do thy will and went about doing good: Grant that we may ever have the pattern of his holy life before our eyes, and that it may be our meat to do thy will and to finish thy work; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

It was really foggy today but just before sunrise the sky around the tower on Glastonbury Tor started to clear. Some lovely colours in the sky. pic.twitter.com/3fmUZ6MAJK

— Michelle (@Glastomichelle) April 14, 2021

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides for ever.

–1 John 2:12-17

What a way to start the day … #sunrise@StormHour @StormHourMedia #potd #silhouette #TwitterNatureCommunity pic.twitter.com/d50BvMPlep

— Will H 📸 (@WLH1972) April 14, 2021

All year, death, after death, after death.
Then today look how majestically clouds float in the sky

–Barbara Ras (1949- )

amazing #clouds pic.twitter.com/XPWYy6yYHs

— Beautiful Moments (@beautfulmoments) April 12, 2021

To sum up, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the great verdict of God, the fulfillment and proclamation of God’s decision concerning the event of the cross. It is its acceptance as the act of the Son of God appointed our representative, an act which fulfilled the divine wrath but did so in the service of the divine grace. It is its acceptance as the act of His obedience which judges the world, but judges it with the aim of saving it. It is its acceptance as the act of His Son whom He has always loved (and us in Him), whom of His sheer goodness He has not rejected but drawn to Himself (and us in Him) (Jer. 31:3). In this the resurrection is the justification of God Himself, of God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth, who has willed and planned and ordered this event. It is the justification of Jesus Christ, His Son, who willed to suffer this event, and suffered it to the very last. And in His person it is the justification of all sinful men, whose death was decided in this event, for whose life there is therefore no more place. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ His life and with it their life has in fact become an event beyond death: “Because I live, ye shall live also” (John 14:19).

—Church Dogmatics (IV.1) [E.T. By Geoffrey Bromiley and Thomas Torrance of the German Original] (London: T and T Clark, 1956), page 309

James Tissot’s Resurrection (1896) #EasterDayImages pic.twitter.com/qshE5lpW0Y

— Tim Montgomerie 🇬🇧 (@montie) March 27, 2016

From here:Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store,
Though foolishly he lost the same,
Decaying more and more,
Till he became
Most poore:
With thee
O let me rise
As larks, harmoniously,
And sing this day thy victories:
Then shall the fall further the flight in me.

My tender age in sorrow did beginne
And still with sicknesses and shame.
Thou didst so punish sinne,
That I became
Most thinne.
With thee
Let me combine,
And feel thy victorie:
For, if I imp my wing on thine,
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.

Life coincides with beauty… pic.twitter.com/n1wBC3jlHn

— Msgr Brian Bransfield (@BrianBransfield) April 10, 2021

They took the body down from the cross and one of the few rich men among the first Christians obtained permission to bury it in a rock tomb in his garden; the Romans setting a military guard lest there should be some riot and attempt to recover the body. There was once more a natural symbolism in these natural proceedings; it was well that the tomb should be sealed with all the secrecy of ancient eastern sepulchre and guarded by the authority of the Caesars. For in that second cavern the whole of that great and glorious humanity which we call antiquity was gathered up and covered over; and in that place it was buried. It was the end of a very great thing called human history; the history that was merely human. The mythologies and the philosophies were buried there, the gods and the heroes and the sages. In the great Roman phrase, they had lived. But as they could only live, so they could only die; and they were dead.

On the third day the friends of Christ coming at daybreak to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways they realized the new wonder; but even they hardly realized that the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of the gardener God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening but the dawn.

—Everlasting Man I.iii

"Christ is risen!" ("Christos anesti!") is the traditional Easter Day greeting in Greece. Here, the Resurrection mosaic from the Monastery of Hosios Loukas #EasterInChurches #AnimalsInChurches pic.twitter.com/fztTf1ncsM

— Ian Ebbage (@ianebbage1) April 7, 2021

Mark’s ending points to a truth that often gets lost in the celebration: Easter is a frightening prospect. For the women, the only thing more terrifying than a world with Jesus dead was one in which he was alive.

We know what to do with grief and despair. We have a place for it. We have rituals that surround it. I know how to look around at the anti-Black racism, the anti-Asian racism, the struggles of families at the border and feel despair. I know what it’s like to watch the body count rise after a mass shooting, only to have the country collectively shrug because we are too addicted to our guns and our violence.

I know how to feel when I look to some in the church for help, only to have my faith questioned because I see in biblical texts a version of social justice that I find compelling. I put it all in the tomb that contains my dead hopes and dreams for what the church and country could be. I am left with only tears.

Hope is much harder to come by. The women did not go to the tomb looking for hope. They were searching for a place to grieve. They wanted to be left alone in despair. The terrifying prospect of Easter is that God called these women to return to the same world that crucified Jesus with a very dangerous gift: hope in the power of God, the unending reservoir of forgiveness and an abundance of love. It would make them seem like fools. Who could believe such a thing?

Christians, at their best, are the fools who dare believe in God’s power to call dead things to life. That is the testimony of the Black church….

Read it all.

“Easter is a frightening prospect. For the women, the only thing more terrifying than a world with Jesus dead was one in which he was alive.”@esaumccaulley

The Unsettling Power of Easter https://t.co/nlysWAndlo

— Beth Allison Barr, PhD (@bethallisonbarr) April 2, 2021

Listen to it all.

“He has cheated hell
And seated us above the fall
In desperate places he paid our wages
One time, once and for all.”

Zmrtvýchvstání Krista/ Resurrection of Christ
Mistr Třeboňského oltáře/ Master of Třeboň Altarpiece
14. století/ 14th century#trebon #cz pic.twitter.com/XwDBScnnjw

— itrebon.cz (@itrebon) April 16, 2017

O Living Lord, who on the first Easter Day didst stand in the midst of thy disciples as the conqueror of sin and death, and didst speak to them thy peace: Come to us, we pray thee, in thy risen power and make us glad with thy presence; and so breathe thy Holy Spirit into our hearts that we may be strong to serve thee and spread abroad thy good news; for the glory of thy great name.

Sunrise at #Lindisfarne. Worth the early alarm. pic.twitter.com/SJuIO1tDnS

— Andy McFetrich (@AndyMacRecruits) April 13, 2021

My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin; but if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we may be sure that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He who says “I know him” but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps his word, in him truly love for God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in him: he who says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new commandment, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness still. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and in it there is no cause for stumbling. But he who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

–1 John 2:1-11

Good morning… pic.twitter.com/kTiflWQqy3

— Sezgin Keskin (@sezginkeskin719) April 13, 2021