Christ the Lord is Risen! He is risen indeed!
Bread and Wine Reading: "The Feast of Freedom", Jurgen Moltmann
Scripture Reading: Mark 16: 1-8When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Christ the Lord is Risen! He is risen indeed!
Jurgen Moltmann characterizes the Christian faith as “the beginning of God’s rebellion.” What an incredible phrase! The “usuals” of life—injustice, pain, suffering, even death—God has defeated! It is not that they are bypassed, not that they are creatively avoided. (That’s what we are good at doing!) They have been defeated! They are no more. Moltmann says that “the Easter faith recognizes that the raising of the crucified Christ from the dead provides the great alternative to this world of death. This faith sees the raising of Christ as God’s protest against death; for the Easter faith recognizes God’s passion for the life of the person who is threatened by death and with death.”
And yet, as death is defeated, something must be put in its place. That something is life! On this morning, as the stone is rolled away, the dawn bursts forth and God breathes new life into each of us. Death is no more! Death has been swallowed up by life! The dance of life has begun and God is asking you to dance! Your eternity, your salvation, has already begun. You just have to listen to the music!
I’ve always loved the image of salvation that R. Paul Stevens depicts in The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work, and Ministry in Biblical Perspective. He claims that salvation and our vocation as Christians are both a “rescue operation” (rescuing us from our inhumanness, from our sins) and a “completion project” (completing what God had started in us so long ago, completing that “image of God” in each of us!). In his view, “the last thing we do is the first thing we think about. If we want to have a party with a cake, we first think about the party, then the cake. Then we obtain the ingredients and turn the oven up. We do not first turn on the oven, go out to buy the ingredients, and then plan the party. God envisioned the final party and then “thought up” creation. The whole of our human existence makes sense in the light of the eschaton, the end.” The party is not in full swing yet, but we have the invitation and we hear the music wafting over our lives.
Christ the Lord is Risen! He is risen indeed!
We have risen, dying to self, we have risen! We have risen indeed!
What, then, are you going to do with your new life?
Final Thoughts:
As we come to the end of this “blog study”, I am in awe of the wonderful journey that we have experienced together. I’m curious, though. What did you think of it? Did it help you? Is it something that you would like to do again? Let me know! I would love to know who participated with me! I know it’s a pain to comment on the blog (Not sure what to do about that at this point!), but I hope that you will email me and, first of all, let me know that you participated and secondly, let me know your thoughts. If you don’t know my email, go through the St. Paul’s website at stpaulshouston.org and click on “About St. Paul’s” and then “Staff” and there’s a link through which you can email me. I’m also on Facebook (having finally bowed to the lesser gods of social networking!).
I do plan to do future studies like this. It’s a good outlet for me to write and it’s a good discipline for all of us. I’ll definitely do something for Advent and Lenten seasons (and hopefully I can also figure out how to “repost” daily posts from this one!) but I’d also like to do something this summer. If you let me know your email, I’ll let you know when I do that!
Thank you again for blessing me by allowing me to be part of your Lenten journey!
Happy Easter…go forth with new life!
Grace and Peace,
Shelli
Bread and Wine Reading: "The Feast of Freedom", Jurgen Moltmann
Scripture Reading: Mark 16: 1-8When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Christ the Lord is Risen! He is risen indeed!
Jurgen Moltmann characterizes the Christian faith as “the beginning of God’s rebellion.” What an incredible phrase! The “usuals” of life—injustice, pain, suffering, even death—God has defeated! It is not that they are bypassed, not that they are creatively avoided. (That’s what we are good at doing!) They have been defeated! They are no more. Moltmann says that “the Easter faith recognizes that the raising of the crucified Christ from the dead provides the great alternative to this world of death. This faith sees the raising of Christ as God’s protest against death; for the Easter faith recognizes God’s passion for the life of the person who is threatened by death and with death.”
And yet, as death is defeated, something must be put in its place. That something is life! On this morning, as the stone is rolled away, the dawn bursts forth and God breathes new life into each of us. Death is no more! Death has been swallowed up by life! The dance of life has begun and God is asking you to dance! Your eternity, your salvation, has already begun. You just have to listen to the music!
I’ve always loved the image of salvation that R. Paul Stevens depicts in The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work, and Ministry in Biblical Perspective. He claims that salvation and our vocation as Christians are both a “rescue operation” (rescuing us from our inhumanness, from our sins) and a “completion project” (completing what God had started in us so long ago, completing that “image of God” in each of us!). In his view, “the last thing we do is the first thing we think about. If we want to have a party with a cake, we first think about the party, then the cake. Then we obtain the ingredients and turn the oven up. We do not first turn on the oven, go out to buy the ingredients, and then plan the party. God envisioned the final party and then “thought up” creation. The whole of our human existence makes sense in the light of the eschaton, the end.” The party is not in full swing yet, but we have the invitation and we hear the music wafting over our lives.
Christ the Lord is Risen! He is risen indeed!
We have risen, dying to self, we have risen! We have risen indeed!
What, then, are you going to do with your new life?
Final Thoughts:
As we come to the end of this “blog study”, I am in awe of the wonderful journey that we have experienced together. I’m curious, though. What did you think of it? Did it help you? Is it something that you would like to do again? Let me know! I would love to know who participated with me! I know it’s a pain to comment on the blog (Not sure what to do about that at this point!), but I hope that you will email me and, first of all, let me know that you participated and secondly, let me know your thoughts. If you don’t know my email, go through the St. Paul’s website at stpaulshouston.org and click on “About St. Paul’s” and then “Staff” and there’s a link through which you can email me. I’m also on Facebook (having finally bowed to the lesser gods of social networking!).
I do plan to do future studies like this. It’s a good outlet for me to write and it’s a good discipline for all of us. I’ll definitely do something for Advent and Lenten seasons (and hopefully I can also figure out how to “repost” daily posts from this one!) but I’d also like to do something this summer. If you let me know your email, I’ll let you know when I do that!
Thank you again for blessing me by allowing me to be part of your Lenten journey!
Happy Easter…go forth with new life!
Grace and Peace,
Shelli
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