Resurrection Reading

Being the first day after Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, we move into readings on the Resurrection and the possibility of our own Spiritual growth as those who are alive in Christ. I will continue to use the readings from Bread and Wine and incorporate Scripture and challenge for Spiritual Formation with credit to www.oklahomabaptists.org.

The entry poem for the section on Resurrection has become one of my favorites since I first came across it last year. It is the “Seven Stanzas at Easter” by John Updike. Updike implores Christians to touch, taste, and be empowered by the literal Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The fourth Stanza gets direct,

Let us not mock God with metaphor,

analogy sidestepping, transcendence,

making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the

faded credulity of earlier ages:

let us walk through the door.

And as we walk through that door we are called to a new life of vitality that we must grow into steadily. This a fair way to think of Spiritual formation. That we might be transformed into mature, walking, talking, followers of Christ gaining inches day by day in our journey to and with Jesus.

1 John 2:15-17 The Message (MSG)

15-17 Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson

Passion Reading

Matthew 27: 50-54

Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’ 

I often struggle with the connection between Good Friday and Easter. I understand that they are inextricably linked, but I don’t want to pass one at the expense of not fully taking in the other. In his brilliant essay The Cosmic Cross, Paul TIllich connects the two against the back drop of the response of the tangible, natural things of creation. Tillich talks through the above Scripture and shows how the sun, the temple, and the foundations of the earth bow before the glory of God encapsulated in the suffering of the cross. Tillich ties in the Resurrection with this, “Resurrection is not something added to the death of him who is the Christ; but it is implied in his death, as the story of the resurrection before the resurrection, indicates. No longer is the universe subjected to the law of death out of birth. It is subjected to a higher law, to the law of life out of death, by the death of him who represented eternal life.” We should, we must focus today on the death of Christ and as we do observe this new law of life coming out of death. This is revolutionary, this is Good Friday.

In an additional thought, I want to relay a story to the connection between nature and the crucifixion. Our administrative assistant, Margueritte, gave me permission to relay this story. Margueritte was driving south down Park St. and crossed Chicago St. looking west towards the building. On the brick wall of the building the sun cast a shadow of the telephone pole and three dark crosses appeared against the early morning sky. In a small way there it is, there’s the truth. Good Friday.

Stations of the Cross

Passion Reading

In today’s essay George MacDonald looks into Jesus’ final cry of submission, “Into your hands I commit my Spirit.” This submission, MacDonald explores, is a picture of Christ’s divine lived out on our Earth. His entire relationship with the Father was a giving over to the will of Father God. This is a difficult thing for our rugged independent mind to grasp. A phrase of the day is “living your best life.” Often this is couched in terms that amount to little more than selfishness and pleasure seeking. Yet for some, for those who want to follow Jesus, living your best life is living a life of giving back. Giving back to God the life He has given you, giving to others in joyful service. This does not mean a neglect of self, it means a fullness of self found in the letting go of our grip and trusting God. Jesus commitment meant a full life for Him and a full life for us. We draw our fullness from Him, living the best life.

Grace and Peace,

Justin

Passion Week Reading

In today’s essay, Watchman Nee reminds us of the completed work of Christ on the cross. Nee’s central thesis is that when and only when we realize that our sin is forgiven because of Chris has done can we begin to become who God created us to be. He picks up on the fact that we often look for what we can do for Christ, and how we can work our way into greater depths of faith. Nee is not dismissing the active part of living out our faith but pointing out where it properly begins, “Let me repeat: no Christian experience begins with walking, but always with a definite sitting down: " And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6) ” Before we can get up and walk, we have to sit down and wait.

Nee’s final illustration is familiar but formidable in its implications for our life in Christ. He uses the imagery of a drowning person. It is nearly impossible to save a drowning person who is fighting. The person must be able to be still in the water so that someone can get to him and help. Doing nothing in most contexts can be viewed as laziness. But doing nothing in the sense of letting God take us over with His completed work in Christ is hard, trying, and necessary. Be still…..

Grace and Peace