We are interested in your theological as well as personal reflections–what is touching you most today where you live and move and have your being in terms of the significance of Easter.
We are interested in your theological as well as personal reflections–what is touching you most today where you live and move and have your being in terms of the significance of Easter.
Death has been pondered and speculated upon in every culture and time that we are aware of. If the answer to death is not answered then any other question is irrelevant. God answers the question of death with choice, forgiveness, and life!
Jesus said, “Follow me” at least 17 times. Read about it in Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. Will you follow Him?
rising to new life within the Ordinariate has been an incredible experience. Spirit filled in every sense
Two weeks ago, I sat in a hospital room awaiting the news of my husbands surgery… He made it through without too many complications.. I was totally unaware of the serious situation, later the surgeon said he had been 24 hours from catastrophic death of his intestines..
Thanks be to God for wonderful surgeons and hospital folk. My husband is doing well now. Prayers were a very important part of his recovery.. What I found a bit amazing was that we were unaware death was so close, and yet God saw fit to save him.
On this Easter Morning, we give thanks and praise to him who triumphed over death…
He is risen !
Grandmother in SC
Two weeks ago I sat with a group of people and voted to adopt the bylaws to plant a new church. Last week I had surgery and was unable to hold services on of all Sundays, Palm Sunday. But that is OK because today, the day of the Risen Lord, the Christ, our Savior and redeemer who conquered death once for all on this very day, today this group of people will celebrate together Holy Eucharist for the first time as St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Pine City, NY. What does Easter 2011 mean to me? A new beginning. I have peered into the empty tomb and now I pray I am off to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. Alleluia Christ is risen!
jeff+
This year, quietly contemplating the crucifixion of my church from within, and wondering if there is any prospect of redemption and resurrection for us through Christ’s Grace. I suppose repentence would have to come first and a return of Christ to His position at its head, but I see no sign of that..only arrogance, and self-will without humility.
This question is so much more easily asked than answered.
Not for the first time, I found myself this Easter morning back in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe reading pensively and prayerfully through the resurrection scene which begins around the splitting of the stone table.
This year I was grabbed by a line that has not caught my eye before. When Aslan takes the two girls on a ride I saw these words–
“but this is a mount that doesn’t need to be guided and never grows tired.â€
Easter means real, substantial, life-changing hope–the kind the world cannot give, the kind that “never grows tired.”
Yes, Canon Harmon, it’s the hope that the world continues to need so desperately. That moment of darkness to light during the Vigil is so poignant, no matter how many times you’ve experienced it. Our church has real bells and real bell ringers and, at that moment, our bells rang out their message of hope to our community. Beautiful. I hope that everyone in earshot paused to listen and maybe even smiled.
The King Who Loved a Humble Maiden
(Here is Soren Kierkegaard’s version of the story:)
Suppose there was a king who loved a humble maiden. The king was like no other king. No one dared breathe a word against him, for he had the strength to crush all opponents. And yet this mighty king was melted by love for a humble maiden. How could he declare his love for her? In an odd sort of way, his kingliness tied his hands. If he brought her to the palace and crowned her head with jewels and clothed her body in royal robes, she would surely not resist-no one dared resist him. But would she love him?
She would say she loved him, of course, but would she truly? Or would she live with him in fear, nursing a private grief for the life she had left behind? Would she be happy at his side? How could he know? If he rode to her forest cottage in his royal carriage, with an armed escort waving bright banners, that too would overwhelm her. He did not want a cringing subject. He wanted a lover, an equal. He wanted her to forget that he was a king and she a humble maiden and to let shared love cross the gulf between them. For it is only in love that the unequal can be made equal. (as quoted in Disappointment with God )
The king clothes himself as a beggar and renounces his throne in order to win her hand. The Incarnation, the life and the death of Jesus, answers once and for all the question, “What is God’s heart toward me?” This is why Paul says in Romans 5, “Look here, at the Cross. Here is the demonstration of God’s heart. At the point of our deepest betrayal, when we had run our farthest from him and gotten so lost in the woods we could never find our way home, God came and died to rescue us.”
Easter means that God wins.
jkc, that’s also what you find if you get your Bible and take a peek at the back of the book…!