Resurrection of Our Lord/Easter Day: April 16, 2017

Resurrection of Our Lord/Easter Day

April 16, 2017

Eucharistic Liturgies 8:00am, 10:45 am

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Easter dawn

He blesses every love that weeps and grieves

And now he blesses hers who stood and wept

And would not be consoled, or leave her love's

Last touching place, but watched as low light crept

Up from the east. A sound behind her stirs

A scatter of bright birdsong through the air.

She turns, but cannot focus through her tears,

Or recognize the Gardener standing there.

She hardly hears his gentle question, "Why,

Why are you weeping?", or sees the play of light

That brightens as she chokes out her reply,

"They took my love away, my day and night."

And then she hears her name, she hears Love say

The Word that turns her night, and ours, to Day.

Malcolm Guite, (Sounding the Seasons, p. 44)

Holy Saturday: April 15, 2017

Holy Saturday

April 15, 2017

Vigil of Easter, 8:30 pm

Romans 6:3-11; John 20:1-18

Jesus is laid in the tomb

Here at the centre everything is still,

Before the stir and movement of our grief

That bears its pain with rhythm, ritual,

Beautiful useless gestures of relief.

So they anoint the skin that cannot feel

And soothe his ruined flesh with tender care,

Kissing the wounds they know they cannot heal,

With incense scenting only empty air.

He blesses every love that weeps and grieves,

And makes our grief the pangs of a new birth.

The love that's poured in silence at old graves,

Renewing flowers, tending the bare earth,

Is never lost. In him all love is found

And sown with him, a seed in the rich ground.

Malcolm Guite, (Sounding the Seasons, p. 43)

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Amen

• Visit someone. Take them some hot cross buns for their Easter feast. 

Good Friday: April 14, 2017

Good Friday

April 14, 2017

(from “God’s Friday”)

Way of the Cross, 12 noon; Adoration of the Cross, 7:00 pm

Is. 52:13-53:12; Ps. 22; Heb. 10:16-25; John 18:1-19:42

Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross

See, as they strip the robe from off his back

And spread his arms and nail them to the cross,

The dark nails pierce him and the sky turns black,

And love is firmly fastened on to loss.

But here a pure change happens. On this tree

Loss becomes gain, death opens into birth.

Here wounding heals and fastening makes free,

Earth breathes in heaven, heaven roots in earth.

And here we see the length, the breadth, the height,

Where love and hatred meet and love stays true,

Where sin meets grace and darkness turns to light,

We see what love can bear and be and do.

And here our Saviour calls us to his side,

His love is free, his arms are open wide.

Malcolm Guite, (Sounding the Seasons, p. 42)

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Amen

• Bake hot cross buns to break the fast (see recipe below.) Leave the radio and TV off today.

Holy Week: Hot Cross Buns      375° oven            about 15 buns

In a small bowl, combine:

       1 pkg. dry yeast

       ¼ c. warm water

In a small saucepan, scald:

       1 c. milk (or soymilk)

Add:

       1 t. salt

       ¼ c. sugar

       ¼ c. butter

Pour milk mixture into a large bowl. Let cool to lukewarm.

Stir in:

       1 c. flour

Add:

       yeast mixture

       1 egg, beaten

       ½ t. ground cinnamon

       ½ c. raisins or currants

Mix well. Add:

       2½ - 3 c. flour

Knead 5 minutes on floured surface. Place in greased bowl. Cover with clean kitchen towel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 ½ hours. Punch down. Turn out onto floured surface; let rest 10 minutes. Shape into round buns (about 2 ½” diameter), and place on greased baking sheet. Cover with towel; let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake in a preheated 375° oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Remove to racks. Cool.

Mix: (to make a moderately thick frosting)

       1 c. powdered sugar

       2 t. to 1 T. milk

       a few drops of vanilla

Pipe frosting through the snipped corner of a sandwich bag into the shape of a cross on each bun. Makes about 15.

Maundy Thursday: April 13, 2017

Maundy Thursday (from “Mandare” – to command)

April 13, 2017

Eucharist, 12 Noon: Eucharist with Footwashing, 7:00 pm

Ex. 12:1-14; Ps. 116:1-2, 12-19; 1 Cor. 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Maundy Thursday

Here is the source of every sacrament,

The all-transforming presence of the Lord,

Replenishing our every element,

Remaking us in his creative Word.

For here the earth herself gives bread and wine,

The air delights to bear his Spirit's speech,

The fire dances where the candles shine,

The waters cleanse us with his gentle touch.

And here he shows the full extent of love

To us whose love is always incomplete,

In vain we search the heavens high above,

The God of love is kneeling at our feet.

Though we betray him, though it is the night,

He meets us here and loves us into light.

Malcolm Guite,  (Sounding the Seasons, p. 36)

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Amen

• Clean out a closet. Give away what you don’t need.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Worship: Noon

Reading: John 13:21-32

O Adonai

Unsayable, you chose to speak one tongue;

Unseeable, you gave yourself away;

The Adonai, the Tetragrammaton,

Grew by a wayside in the light of day,

O you who dared to be a tribal God,

To own a language, people and a place,

Who chose to be exploited and betrayed,

If so you might be met with face to face:

Come to us here, who would not find you there,

Who chose to know the skin and not the pith,

Who heard no more than thunder in the air,

Who marked the mere events and not the myth;

Touch the bare branches of our unbelief

And blaze again like fire in every leaf.

Malcol Guite, (Sounding the Seasons, p. 8)

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Amen

• Take a walk. Look for signs of spring.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Worship: Noon

Full Moon, Lakota "Moon of Fattening"

Pesach, Passover begins

Reading: John 12:20-36

Grain of Wheat

Oh let me fall as grain to the good earth

And die away from all dry separation,

Die to my sole self, and find new birth

Within that very death, a dark fruition,

Deep in this crowded underground, to learn

The earthy otherness of every other,

To know that nothing is achieved alone

But only where these other fallen gather.

If I bear fruit and break through to bright air,

Then fall upon me with your freeing flail

To shuck this husk and leave me sheer and clear

As heaven-handled Hopkins, that my fall

May be more fruitful and my autumn still

A golden evening where your barns are full.

Malcolm Guite, (Parable and Paradox, p. 68)

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Amen

• Buy and eat a fruit that has many seeds.

Monday, April 10, 2017

Monday, April 10, 2017

Worship: Noon

Commemoration of Michael Agricola, Bishop of Turku

Reading: John 12: 1-11

The Anointing at Bethany

Come close with Mary, Martha, Lazarus,

So close the candles flare with their soft breath,

And kindle heart and soul to flame within us,

Lit by these mysteries of life and death.

For beauty now begins the final movement,

In quietness and intimate encounter,

The alabaster jar of precious ointment

Is broken open for the world's true lover.

The whole room richly fills to feast the senses

With all the yearning such a fragrance brings,

The heart is mourning but the spirit dances,

Here at the very centre of all things,

Here at the meeting place of love and loss

We all foresee and see beyond the cross.

Malcolm Guite, (Sounding the Seasons, p. 35)

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Amen

·       Place the palms from the Palm Sunday liturgy on your altar.

Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday: April 9, 2017

Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday

April 9, 2017

Worship: 8:00 am and 10:45 am

Mt. 21:1-11; Is. 50:4-9a; Ps. 31:9-16;Phil. 2:5-11;

Mt. 26:14—27:66

Commemoration of Dietrich Bonhoeffer* (see last pages)

Palm Sunday

Now to the gate of my Jerusalem,

The seething holy city of my heart,

The Saviour comes. But will I welcome him?

Oh crowds of easy feelings make a start;

They raise their hands, get caught up in the singing,

And think the battle won. Too soon they'll find

The challenge, the reversal he is bringing

Changes their tune. I know what lies behind

The surface flourish that so quickly fades;

Self-interest, and fearful guardedness,

The hardness of the heart, its barricades,

And at the core, the dreadful emptiness

Of a perverted temple. Jesus come

Break my resistance and make me your home.

Malcolm Guite (Sounding the Seasons, p. 32)

·       Listen to either the Matthäuspassion or the Johannespassion by Johann Sebastian Bach.                      St. Matthew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm1os4VzTgA

               St. John:         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1HmxBhRgqc

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Reading: Philippians 2:5-11

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who… emptied himself, taking the form of a servant." Phil. 2:5,7

Out of the womb of wondrous love

came the person Jesus

wondrous love from

wondrous love.

All that came to him

that was hurt,

all that was shame,

all that was cruelty

all that was spite, -

all that came to him

he took into himself.

All the energy

of scorn, of fright

of worthlessness, of envy

all the energy of hate

that came to him

he took into himself

and did not lash out

to return it.

All that came to him

that was unlovely

he took into himself

and transformed it,

transformed

by the wonder of God's love.

Wondrous love from

wondrous love.

So is our beginning.

So is our ending.

Susan Palo Cherwien, copyright2010 MorningStarMusicPublishers

• Place a candle at the grave of someone you love. (Lazarus Saturday)

Friday, April 7, 2017

Friday, April 7, 2017

Jupiter at closest approach to earth; visible all night

Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9a

"The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I turned not backward."  Isaiah 50:5

Martin Luther described sin as a person's being "curved in on itself", incurvatus in se, concerned only with one's own needs, desires, one's own puny little world. As Jesus approaches Jerusalem, where reaction to his world-upturning teachings and life is building to a deathly confrontation, we see clearly how absolutely faithful he is to his identity as the Compassionate One, open and vulnerable to the world. He set his face "like a flint" (Is. 50:7) and turned not backward. How simple it would have been to disappear into the wilderness ravines east of the city. How difficult, to ignore the deep human instinct toward self-preservation and to continue on the road, in spite of risk, in spite of threat.

Merciful God, may we never turn backward from our calling as people of your heart. Amen

·       Eat no meat or oil today.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Commemoration of Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach

Reading: Matthew 21:1-11

"Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road."

 Matthew 21:8

The worn, rutted footpaths and roads in Israel were rocky and treacherous, and it was customary for townspeople to "prepare the way" when someone important was approaching, making the ruts level and removing rocks. It was also customary to lay down one's cloak, the outer garment, before a king, as the servants of Ahab did before Jehu in 2 Kings 9:13. What kind of king were the people expecting? What kind of ruler were they hoping for? One who would "smite the world perfect", as Dorothy Sayers wrote? Since we cannot know the thoughts and motivations of the 1st c. Judaeans along the road to Jerusalem, perhaps we should at least return to our own 21st century lives and ask, how do we prepare the way for the coming of Christ into the Jerusalem of our hearts?

            Then cleansed be every life from sin,

            Make straight the way for God within,

            And let us all our hearts prepare

            For Christ to come and enter there. Amen

                                    (Charles Coffin, "On Jordan's Banks")

• Make a drawing, painting, or poem in your journal.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Noon Eucharist with Soup Lunch following

6:00 Soup supper: 7:00pm Evening Prayer

Reading:  Psalm 130

"My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the

morning, more than those who watch for the morning." Ps. 130:6

In the midst of night, floors creak, twigs brush, heart pounds. All that distresses seems nearer, larger, more fearsome. If only the light would break, if only dawn would come. Who will call us out of this marauding night? Earl Schwartz teaches us to watch for repeated words and phrases in Hebrew scripture: "more than those that watch for the morning, more than those that watch for the morning." Twice. The soul's desire for God is stronger than even the desire for the dawn. The heart's desire for Light, for new Life, is even stronger than the yearning to leave that midnight darkness.

The soul desires the presence of God, and when God is found, "my soul is peaceful as a child sleeping in its mother's arms." (Ps. 131:2)

• Get up before sunrise tomorrow and watch the dawn.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Commemoration of  Benedict the African

Reading:  John 11:1-45

"Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"  John 11:37

Like the people mourning with Mary, sister of Lazarus, we often have very specific ways we want to see God at work in the world. Why doesn't God just intervene and stop war? We pray and pray and a friend dies of cancer anyway. Why didn't God just heal her and let her live? A poem by Dorothy Sayers, friend and colleague of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis:

            "…Hard it is, very hard,

            To travel up the slow and stony road

            To Calvary, to redeem mankind; far better

            To make but one sceptered miracle,

            Lean through the cloud, lift the right hand of power

            And with a sudden lightning smite the world perfect.

            Yet this was not God's way, who had the power,

            But set it by, choosing the cross, the thorn,

            The sorrowful wounds. Something there is, perhaps,

            That power destroys in passing, something supreme,

            To whose great value in the eyes of God

            That cross, that thorn, and those five wounds bear                            witness."

                                                (The Devil To Pay)

Most loving God, your ways are not our ways; calm our hearts and soothe our questing minds with your wisdom, Amen

• Memorize a scripture verse.

Monday, April 3, 2017

Monday, April 3, 2017

Reading: Romans 8:6-11

"To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace."  Romans 8:6

Today let Martin Luther speak, again from his "Preface to the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans":

"Flesh and spirit you must not understand as though flesh is only that which has to do with unchastity and spirit is only that which has to do with what is inwardly in the heart. Rather, like Christ in John 3:6, Paul calls everything 'flesh' that is born of the flesh - the whole person, with body and soul, mind and senses - because everything about [that person] longs for the flesh…From the 'works of the flesh' in Galatians 5[:19-21], you can learn that Paul calls heresy and hatred 'works of the flesh'.

On the contrary, you should call [the person] 'spiritual' who is occupied with the most external kind of works as Christ was when he washed the disciples' feet… Thus 'the flesh' is [one] who lives and works, inwardly and outwardly, in the service of the flesh's gain and of this temporal life. 'The spirit' is the [one] who lives and works, inwardly and outwardly, in the service of the Spirit and of the future life."

Put your Spirit in us, O God, to unite all that we are with your will. Amen

• Do something today to nourish your spiritual body and your bodily spirit.

Fifth Sunday in Lent: April 2, 2017

Fifth Sunday in Lent

April 2, 2017

Eucharist: 8:00 am and 10:45 am

Ez. 37:1-14; Ps. 130; Rom. 8:6-11; John 11:1-45

 O God, with joy I enter in,

Restored and precious in your sight,

For in your grace I live again

In lands of honey and delight.

·       Listen to Franz Schubert's oratorio "Lazarus" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pa1VgWnCzY. Score at http://imslp.org/wiki/Lazarus,_D.689_(Schubert,_Franz)

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Commemoration of Amalie Sieveking

Mercury at greatest elongation; visible in west after sunset

Reading: John 11:1-45

"Lazarus, come out!"  John 11:43

In the Saint John's Bible illumination for the raising of Lazarus, the viewer stands behind Lazarus in the rocky tomb, looking out through a circular tunnel where the bright gold figure of Christ stands calling Lazarus out of the tomb. It is almost like the pupil  of an eye. Against the inner darkness of the tomb are the gold leaf words of Christ: "I am the resurrection and the life." One vividly senses the loving call to come out of the tomb, and since we, as viewers, are also in the tomb with Lazarus, the call of Christ is also directed at us: "Lazarus, come out!" From all the dark places of  hurt where we have walled ourselves off, Christ calls us to come out. From the dead places of hatred and bitterness, Christ calls us to arise. From the tomb of self-loathing, Christ's loving voice bids us come forth. To golden light. To life.

Out of the depths have we cried to you, O God; O God, hear our voice. Amen

• Take a gratefulness walk. Gather something for your altar.