Robert Browning (1812-1889)
from Pippa PassesThe year’s at the spring
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hillside’s dew-pearled;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn:
God’s in His heaven–
All’s right with the world!
It may sound trite, but that’s exactly what the Resurrection says: God is in His heaven. Jesus is Lord. All is right. All shall be well.
Easter Morning
Bell, Karyn E.
What do you do on Easter Sunday morning? We usually have a sunrise, or near-sunrise breakfast outside in the backyard. We read the story of the resurrection from one of the gospels, pray, and then we partake of deviled eggs, cinnamon rolls, coffee, and juice. Then it’s time to go inside and get ready for church.
THis year our church is having a sunrise worship time at a local park, and the young adults in the family are committed to sing at the worship service. So I don’t know what we’ll do about our family tradition.
Holy Saturday is ahead, the most quiet day of the year. The silence of that silent night, holy night, the night when God was born was broken by the sounds of a baby, a mother’s words of comfort and angels in concert. Holy Saturday, by contrast, is the sound of perfect silence, Yesterday’s mockery, the good thief’s prayer, the cry of dereliction—all that is past now. Mary has dried her tears, and the whole creation is still, waiting for what will happen next. Death in the Afternoon by Fr. John Neuhaus
I pray that you have found some silence today, to pray, to meditate, to wait.
“Reader, did you ever stand by the sea-shore after a storm when the wind happens to have gone down suddenly? The waves cannot cease with their cause; indeed, they sometimes seem at first to the ear to lash the surrounding shore more fiercely than while the wind blew. Still we are conscious that the inevitable calm has begun and is now but rocking them to sleep . . . At times a loud wave would every now and then come roaring, but it was only memory’s echo of the tempest that had swept their lives; the storm itself was over.” The Cloister and the Hearth by Charles Reade.
The storm is already over although it may seem that the aftermath is fierce. We are living in the peace that comes after God through Christ has stilled the storm of His own righteous wrath. The inevitable calm has begun. Many loud waves come roaring, but they can’t touch us. We are safe in the peace of the Cross and the Resurrection
This is the day when we do without Christ.
There seems, at first, to be little difference.
Only yesterday the ancient veil was rent,
And the earth shuddered and the dark grew vast;
But today, nothing happens, nothing at all.
TV sets flicker idly in empty rooms,
Showing again and again the same cartoons.
People circle aimlessly in the Mall
Where the Easter bunny struts his stuff before
Disinterested kids, ands cellophane grass
And plastic eggs are bought same as last year
Indeed, there is no news to tell but this:
The graves all are opened, and the living dead
Now walk among us—- or, so it is said.
By Sandol Stoddard
“The living dead.” Have you met anyone recently who was dead but is now alive?
Am I a stone, and not a sheep,
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath thy cross,
To number drop by drop Thy Blood’s slow loss,
And yet not weep?Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon–
I, only I.Yet give not o’er,
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.
From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:45-46
I’m forgiven
because You were forsaken
I’m accepted
You were condemned
I’m alive and well
Your Spirit is within me
Because You died and rose again
Amazing love, how can it be
That You, my King, would die for me?
Amazing love, I know it’s true
It’s my joy to honor You
In all I do, I honor You
You are my King
You are my King
Jesus, You are my King
You are my King
Everlasting Calvary by Amanda at Wittingshire.
Amanda writes, “The bottom is sound, because beneath everything–no matter how far we fall, how deep we plunge–beneath everything are the everlasting arms of that “everlasting Calvary,” holding us, bearing us up.”
I’ve always thought of the image of a tunnel, that there is a “through”. No matter how dark or long Friday’s tunnel, there is a Resurrection Sunday coming.
Jesus’ disciples weren’t so sure about that “through”. They left the scene of Jesus’ passion and hid themselves for fear.
But John says, “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them . . . ” (John 20:19)
Then the disciples saw “through” to the other side, the end of the tunnel that is Eternal Joy. Because of God’s Everlasting Calvary.
I have no wit, no words, no tears;
My heart within me like a stone
Is numb’d too much for hopes or fears;
Look right, look left, I dwell alone;
I lift mine eyes, but dimm’d with grief
No everlasting hills I see;
My life is in the falling leaf:
O Jesus, quicken me.My life is like a faded leaf,
My harvest dwindled to a husk:
Truly my life is void and brief
And tedious in the barren dusk;
My life is like a frozen thing,
No bud nor greenness can I see:
Yet rise it shall–the sap of Spring;
O Jesus, rise in me.My life is like a broken bowl,
A broken bowl that cannot hold
One drop of water for my soul
Or cordial in the searching cold;
Cast in the fire the perish’d thing;
Melt and remould it, till it be
A royal cup for Him, my King:
O Jesus, drink of me.
Sometimes I see no everlasting hills either. In fact, the past few days have been a lot like the tone of this poem —dry, frozen, tedious, numbed.
But I nevertheless believe in a better resurrection.
Christ on the Cross
Rembrandt van Rijn
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit . . . I Peter 3:18
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death�
even death on a cross! Philippians 2:8
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Jesus), and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Colossians 3:19-20
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Colossians 2:15
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. I Corinthians 3:18
Easter Sunday
Carty, Leo
God expects from men something more than at such times, and that it were much to be wished for the credit of their religion as well as the satisfaction of their conscience that their Easter devotions would in some measure come up to their Easter dress.
Author: Bishop Robert South
Source: Sermons (vol. II, ser. 8)
Do you buy new clothes for Easter? Why? Where do you wear your new clothes if you don’t go to church? Did you get a new suit or dress on Easter when you were a child?
My girls have been asking for new dresses, but we haven’t managed to go shopping yet. Money’s a little tight, too. Maybe today or Saturday, we’ll go to the resale shop and find something for my five girls who are home–maybe even a new shirt for each of the two boys.