Sunday, April 20

Resurrection of Our Lord/Easter Day

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

Worship: 8 & 10:45 am

Carry in Brunch between liturgies

Rejoice, heavenly choirs! Sing, choirs of angels!

Rejoice, all creation around God's throne!

Jesus Christ our Light is risen!

Sound the trumpet of salvation! 

(Exsultet)

Saturday, April 19

Holy Saturday

Vigil of Easter: 8:30 pm

Rom. 6:3-11; John 20:1-18

From a sermon by St. Epiphanias of Salamis:

Something strange is happening - there is great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep.

The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh, and has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began.

God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. God has gone in search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep.

Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, God has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, He who is both God and the son of Eve.

The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of Him Adam, the first man God had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: "My Lord be with you all." Christ answered him: "And with your spirit."

He took him by the hand and raised him up saying: "Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."

• Visit someone. Take them some hot cross buns for their Easter feast.
• Bring a votive candle in a canning jar to church to take home the new fire of Easter.

Friday, April 18

Good Friday

(from “God’s Friday”)

Worship: 12 Noon & 7 pm

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

Sing, my tongue the glorious battle; tell the triumph far and wide;

tell aloud the wondrous story of the cross, the Crucified;

tell how Christ, the world's Redeemer, vanquished death the day he died.

(ELW 355, st. 1: Venantius Fortunatus, tr. John Mason Neale)

• Bake hot cross buns to break the fast (see recipe, p. 40.) Leave the radio and TV off today.

Thursday, April 17

Maundy Thursday (from “Mandare” – to command)

Worship: 7 pm

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

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.

Where true charity and love abide, God is dwelling there.

We are gathered by the one love of Christ Jesus;

let us lift our voices to God and be joyful.

In holy wonder let us love the living God,

and may our hearts ever be one in faithful love.

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.

(ELW 653, st. 1: Latin hymn, 9th c.)

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

Wednesday, April 16

Worship: 12 Noon

This is my ending, this my resurrection;

Into your hands, Lord, I commit my spirit.

This have I searched for; now I can possess it.

This ground is holy.

All heav'n is singing, "Thanks to Christ whose passion

Offers in mercy healing strength and pardon.

Peoples and nations, take it, take it freely!"

Amen! My Master!

(as above, sts. 5,6)

• Take a walk. Look for signs of spring.

Tuesday, April 15

Full Moon

Worship: 12 Noon

Thorns not its own are tangled in its foliage;

Our greed has starved it, our despite has choked it.

Yet, look! it lives! its grief has not destroyed it,

Nor fire consumed it.

See how its branches reach to us in welcome;

Hear what the Voice says, "Come to me, ye weary!

Give me your sickness, give me all your sorrow,

I will give blessing."

(as above, sts. 3,4)

• Learn how to say “thank you” in a new language.

Monday, April 14

Worship: 12 Noon

Passover begins at sundown

There in God's garden stands the Tree of Wisdom,

Whose leaves hold forth the healing of the nations;

Tree of all knowledge, Tree of all compassion,

Tree of all beauty.

Its name is Jesus, name that says, "Our Savior!"

There on its branches see the scars of suff'ring;

See how the tendrils of our human selfhood

Feed on its lifeblood.

(ELW 342, sts. 1,2: Kiralyi Imre von Pecselyi, tr. Eric Routley)

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

Sunday, April 13

Passion/ Palm Sunday

Worship: 8 & 10:45 am

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

Mt. 26:14—27:66

Hosanna to the Son of David;

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

King of Israel:

Hosanna in the highest.        (Palm Sunday antiphon)

Saturday, April 12

Reading: Philippians 2:5-11

Have this mind among your selves, 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.

Copyright2010 MorningStarMusicPublishers

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

Friday, April 11

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 10

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 9

Commemoration: Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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

On this day in 1945, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by hanging at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin - just two months short of D-Day - for being associated with the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. An ardent pacifist, Bonhoeffer struggled greatly with the quandary of how to continue in non-violence against such an oppressive and violent evil as the Nazi machine. (Who knows? Perhaps the Sicarii faced the same quandary in the face of the Roman war machine…) At the previous Christmas, Dietrich had sent his mother a poem from prison - a poem of trust in God for each day, each year. In translation by the great British hymnist F. Pratt Green, the first stanza reads:

            By gracious pow'rs so wonderfully sheltered,

            And confidently waiting come what may,

            We know that God is with us night and morning,

            And never fails to greet us each new day.  (ELW #626)

Loving God, may we always place our hope in you. Amen

• Speak to someone at church you’ve never spoken to before.

Tuesday, April 8

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 7

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, 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.

Sunday, April 6

Fifth Sunday in Lent

Worship: 8 & 10:45 am

Our Saviour's Meal

Compline: 8:30 pm

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.

Saturday, April 5

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.

Friday, April 4

Commemoration of Benedict the African

Reading: Ezekiel 37:1-14

"O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord."  Ezekiel 37:4

Master Calligrapher Donald Jackson designed a two-page illumination for Ezekiel's vision of the Valley of the Dry Bones for the handwritten Saint John's Bible. Whereas Jackson frequently traveled to the British Museum to view examples of Near Eastern ornaments and motifs for the book's illuminations, in this case he went to internet archives of documentary photos, extracting images of piles of bones from massacres in Rwanda, Bosnia, Iraq and other places to create the lower half of the illumination page. These he interposed with piles of glass shards reminiscent of terrorist attacks and piles of eyeglasses from the Holocaust to create a bleak collage of the dry bones of human suffering and spiritual death. Across the top of the page, in contrast, is a collage of rainbow fragments and menorahs, signs of covenant and promise. All across the page, the small gold-leaf squares of divine presence shine even in the darkness of the valley. Even in death and dryness, God is present. Even in the seemingly hopeless, God's promise shines.

Your Word, O God, is life and light; open our hearts that we may hear your word and live. Amen

·       Place on your altar a picture of someone who has wronged you. Pray to forgive.   

Thursday, April 3

Reading:  Ezekiel 37:1-14

"Can these dry bones then live?"  Ezekiel 37:3

After the fall of Jerusalem to the Roman army in 70 CE, a group of extreme Zealots (Sicarii) overtook the  Roman garrison at Masada, a tabletop mountain overlooking the Dead Sea, where Herod the Great had built a fortified palace complex including a synagogue. Besieged by the Roman troops, the Sicarii and families watched as, bucketful by bucketful, stone and dirt were used to build a ramp up the west flank of the mount. (Imagine building a dirt ramp up the side of Devil's Tower in Wyoming…) When the Roman army breached the walls on April 16, 73 CE, they found every one dead, except a few hiding women and children. Among the artifacts excavated from under the synagogue at Masada is a scroll fragment: Ezekiel's vision of the Valley of Dry Bones. Overlooking the wilderness around the Dead Sea, we hear these words again, "Can these bones then live?" The Sicarii responded to the violence of the Romans with violence and died by more violence. One could wonder: was this the new life for Israel the prophet had declared? What is the new life God desires for each one of us?

Breathe your Spirit upon these dry bones, O God, and make us new. Amen

• Start making Ukrainian eggs for your Easter celebration³

Wednesday, April 2

Commemoration of Albrecht Dürer

Reading: John 9:1-41

“[The man who was born blind] answered: “… one thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see.”  John 9:25

In one of her visions, Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1160) saw a golden Christ figure pouring out divinity from himself. The golden stream of the divine flowed down to a figure in white baptismal garments; another veiled figure stood below Christ, the garments covered with open eyes. Hildegard called Christ, “the One Who Gives Eyes” - eyes to see wisdom, eyes to see justice. Perhaps eyes to see Christ in the faces of others? Eyes to see the pain in the world? Eyes to see God at work in the universe?

Oh, Holy Jesus,

most merciful Redeemer,

Friend and Brother,

may we know you more clearly,

love you more dearly,

and follow you more nearly.  Amen

(Prayer of Richard of Chichester)

• Call or write a relative you haven’t spoken to in ages.

Tuesday, April 1

Reading: John 9:1-41

“As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth.”  John 9:1

According to many New Testament scholars, the writer of the gospel of John (probably writing about 90-100 CE) originally ended the gospel immediately after the story of Thomas and the Risen Christ in Chapter 20, and concluded with these words, “Now Jesus did many other things in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that you may have life in his name" (John 20:30-31). Seeing and believing. Seeing and believing.  The disciples at the Cana wedding, the woman at the well, the people who were fed by the five loaves, and now the man born blind. St. Augustine writes in one sermon that the world is the blind man. Seeing and believing. What are we not seeing? To what are we blind? Is Christ truly our light? How does the light of Christ change how we see?

O God of light, open our eyes that we may see ourselves, the world, and you, more clearly.  Amen

• Take a walk. Notice shadows, Give thanks.