We are interested in your theological as well as personal reflections.
Easter 2009 Blog Open Thread (II): Your Reflections on the Meaning of Easter this Year
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We are interested in your theological as well as personal reflections.
Everything seems amplified this year. The silences at the end of Maundy Thursday and during the Good Friday liturgy were deeper and less fidgety; the peoples’ Alleluias at the Great Vigil had the enthusiasm of a sports venue.
This Easter is less “generic” – it seems as though Christ is making his sacrifice and triumph more real to his faithful people, over against the trying times around us. The reality of who he is and who we are meant to be in him seems less elusive, more palpable here this year.
[url=http://www.vulcanhammer.org/2007/04/08/rising-from-the-pool/]This one, which I first posted on Easter two years ago.[/url]
This Easter is vital for me this year. Mom was 92 and in Oregon. I am in Illinois. She died on Holy Saturday after a stroke Good Friday evening. She was blessed to be able to live in her own home and enjoy life until Friday. She was hospitalized less than twenty-four hours. Her faith in Jesus was strong, and I know I shall see her again. Alleluia! Christ is risen!
#3, Brian – Our prayers are with you.
Recent events have us grasping more fully that the environment Jesus was crucified under is ever present even today – what wretched humanity. And yet He suffered for all of that and died for us. And then God raised Him from the dead!!! He gives us hope even in the most destitute situation. Jesus’ death was His gift that says I love you and value you so much. We’re valuable to God!
Easter is renewal, a cleansing of our worst to bringing His Light on our best – and striving to live to it. Alleluia, He is Risen…as He said!
I have seen a depth of worship this Holy Week that I have not seen in some time. Parishoners have called myself and the other clergy to comment on this. Possibly it is a reaction to all the unknowns around us. Perhaps when the world demonstrates you cannot hold on to anything, you turn to the one thing you know you can hold on to. And this is the Son of God, who told us He is the way to the Father, that He will defeat death, and that He will pay the price for our sins to win the salvation we cannot win by our own merits. The work of God in the lives of mankind on a daily basis show the truth of His testimony all those years ago.
Capt. Deacon Warren
I am an Easter person. I have worshipped through the church year for 66 years, participating in the great fasts and feasts as reminders of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The Christmas season always holds for me the tension of His being born to die, Good Friday the tension of His dying in order to live again. Always the rememberance of “I will not leave you alone” “I am with you always” and the awareness of His presence with me. Always the sure knowledge the I participate in His resurrection, that it is the promise of my own resurrection. My resurrection is 67 years closer now than when I first believed. It is like a light ahead of me, how far ahead I do not know, but I go toward it in confidence. The minor inconveniences along the way are just that: minor inconveniences.
Easter Vigil contrasted more with Holy Saturday than ever before. The lows were lower and the highs were higher. Everything went smoothly after we finally located Bishop Schofield’s white Mitre prior to the service. I sang the Exsultet at Easter Vigil for the first time and made it through OK in spite of the lingering cloud of incense. We had three folks baptized and one was from Africa. He had the words read to him by one of our missionaries in his native tongue. This was our largest 5:30am attendance ever.
He has risen. He has risen indeed, Alleluia!
This year, on Good Friday, I watched the Passion with the 20-something group at a church where most of my friends from the med school attend. It had been a few years since I’d seen it and I think for that and other reasons this Easter to me is all about the hope I find in Christ and the lack of hope I find in myself. Sometimes I think I’m progressing in sanctification but this last week has reminded me painfully of my own sinfulness. But when I look at a God who dies on the cross and raises the dead I have hope that he can save even a wretch like me.
Willing submission has meant everything to me this year, especially from 1 Corinthians 15. How graciously Our Lord submitted to His Father’s Will.
How ungraciously we submit, to Him, to our husbands, to each other .. and yet lack of submission is the heart of every sin. THE principle of the Godhead, and the singular lack in our own lives.
The meaning of Easter 2009 this year is the same as many years past. He is risen – He is risen ideed. As I get close to the time of my leaving this message is ever true. Jesus said to believe and trust in Him. God willing I trust that I do not fail Him in the time left.
We went to the last (12:00) mass today, which is unusual for us. Our regular pastor is helped out on “overflow” days like today (almost 2,500 people attending) by “Father Charlie” who is a retired priest. So after the fanciest masses were over, Father Charlie took the last one. Father Charlie is not a spellbinding preacher or a great theologian. He is more apt to use Snoopy to make a point than to quote the Doctors of the Church. But he is the most sincere Christian I’ve ever met. To Father Charlie, the Resurrection is not a metaphor. It is as real as today’s sunrise. And his homily today was simple and to the point. What is the meaning of Easter? In the words of the gospel song, simply this. “When I die I’ll live again.” Simply that nothing, not death itself, can separate us from the love of Jesus. He said that sometime in the next week someone will be called in to be told that their job is being eliminated. Someone will be told that their spouse is seeking a divorce. Someone will receive news that they have cancer. Someone will get bad news about a child or loved one. But none of this, not even death itself, can take away our hope which is in Jesus Christ.
Jesus defeated the devil in hell, breaking the bonds of sin for all eternity. The former world I once new has ended; what I held dear was revealed to be an illusion. I thought I once knew the world, but it’s lures have now become disenchanted. Instead, now, a world is before me. Jesus has given me me my life back; and I owe it all to him. All the suffering I have endured has illuminated that nothing can separate me from the love of God. Cradled in the Father’s love, the weight of sin has been lifted from me. The world is new.
#12. John,
Nice Testimony. I asked on another thread why the Apostles Creed in Rite one states “descended into hell” and the Rite two states descended to the dead. Isn’t there a difference in your mind?
Dcn Dale, that bifurcation, IMO, has its roots in the [url=http://www.vulcanhammer.org/anglican/bcp-1928.php]1928 BCP[/url].
In the service of Morning and Evening Prayer, the words “descended into hell” appear in the Apostles’ Creed, but the rubric above states the following:
[blockquote]Then shall be said the Apostle’s Creed by the Minister and the People, standing. And any churches may, instead of the words, He descended into Hell, use the words, He went into the place of departed spirits, which are considered as words of the same meaning in the Creed.[/blockquote]
Evidently the 1979 BCP bifurcated these for the two rites.
It’s also interesting to note that the 1928 Holy Communion, although permitting the Apostles’ Creed on most (but not all) occasions, explicitly included the Nicene Creed, which is the way it was celebrated at the church where I grew up.
Personally, I think there’s a difference.