Easter Day celebrations are the best and truest. To join with others. To be caught up in the joy of Jesus is the best thing! And here’s a prayer written for our Easter Day, evening worship…. “When everything was dark and it seemed that the sun would never shine again, your love broke through. Christ […]
“Cowards live for the sake of living, but for heroes, life is a weapon, a thing to be spent, a gift to be given to the weak and the lost and the weary, even to the foolish and the cowardly” Empire of Bones by N D Wilson 1 Dark nights provoke dark questions. The care […]
death, failure and struggle! These would not make a compelling conference title?! Right. Yet its the unavoidable way of the New Testament. It’s the fruit of Easter-life. That death proceeds life, that yielding gives way to glory. Maybe we don’t need a turnaround church. A prevailing this, or a successful that. Maybe we need a dying […]
“This Sunday is Easter Day. It is a bittersweet truth that Jesus needed to die in order to live again. My walk through Holy Week will be in the company of Pope Francis who has talked of churches needing to go through a process of discernment, purification and reform. Discernment is on Maundy Thursday. For […]
God Almighty, The world is infused with the power of Christ’s resurrection. The seed that was sown is now blooming. The bulb that was buried is now blossoming. All of creation is transfixed by the beauty of new life. The tiniest of birds sings the mightiest of songs as the morning sun rises. Come everyone, […]
In my Easter day talk, I shared about a teacher telling her eight-year old pupils about the resurrection story. Then, wanting to share the excitement of the empty, she asked: “And what do you think were Jesus’ first words when He came bursting out of that tomb alive?” A hand shot up into the air […]
Between cross and resurrection* There is only silence A body dead in a closed tomb Between cross and resurrection There is only sorrow Grief caught in the horror and the loss Between cross and resurrection There is only looking For a sign of hope, a sign of life Between cross and resurrection Is where we […]
I had the privilege of leading a last hour,…..at the foot of the cross. Good Friday 2012 I led a journey in a company of Mary Magdelene, Salome, Mary the mother of Jesus and John, the beloved disciple. Different format, different space altogether at the foot of the cross. At the foot of the cross, where I kneel […]
I read this in our Maundy Service,…. “It was never meant to burst from the body so fiercely, to pour unchanneled from the five wounds and the unbandaged brow, drowning the dark wood, staining the stones and the gravel below, clotting in the air dark with God’s absence. It was created for a closed system–the […]