By Lilly Lewin,
The story of Easter Sunday, the story of Resurrection comes with many emotions. The women at the tomb were frightened and astonished by the angels who told them that Jesus wasn’t there, HE IS RISEN. Peter and the other disciples were so afraid of getting arrested that they hid themselves away. Peter and John ran to the tomb in expectation not sure what they would really find. There were inklings of faith, yet there was still a lot of doubt. In fact Thomas gets the nickname “doubting Thomas” because he wanted physical proof that Jesus was really alive. He didn’t want to take the word of the women or even his good friends. He wanted to see and touch Jesus himself.
Last Friday, we started considering the Easter Cups we can use to pray with between now and Pentecost. Like the early followers of Jesus, we need time to process the many emotions that we have in this season of Resurrection.
Today, we are praying with the Easter Cup of Doubt and Fear.
The Cup of Doubt and Fear
The Cup of Doubt
This week, I’ve felt a lot like Thomas.
Carrying a cup of doubt around.
A cup empty of belief.
There is so much brokenness.
So much pain.
Another young black man killed by police.
Like Thomas, I am doubtful…
I doubt that white people can
understand the fear and pain of our black and brown friends.
I doubt the will of the people to actually make changes to ALL THE BROKEN SYSTEMS that keep people of color enslaved.
I doubt the ability of our selfish culture to see all the broken systems that keep people of all colors in poverty!
I doubt myself and my ability to make a difference!
Like Thomas, I need help to believe again.
I need to see for myself!
I need to touch Jesus!
I need to touch his wounds and remember.
To see Love & Forgiveness in his eyes!
I want to drink in Love, not hate & bitterness.
I need to hand over the cup of doubt and let Jesus hold it for me
Let Jesus pour it out for me!
Let Jesus refill that cup with Hope
So I can drink the Easter Cup even in the middle of a dark week.
What is in Your Cup?
HOLD YOUR CUP.
How about you? What is in your cup this week?
Have you been drinking in New Life or feeling more like Thomas and Peter?
What are the doubts in your cup?
What are the doubts and fears that you’ve been drinking?
Talk to Jesus about this.
HOLD YOUR CUP. Imagine all the doubts and all the fears you’re carrying around and drinking in this week. Are you willing to let Jesus have your cup of doubt, your cup of fear today?
I am very grateful that Jesus isn’t afraid of our doubts and He understands our fears and our need to see for ourselves. Be honest. Talk to Jesus about where you really are. Allow Jesus to hold this cup for you today.
Let Jesus fill your cup with just what you need today, especially His abundant grace and love!
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
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guest post by Mandy Smith,
It’s a common question and one I’ve asked many times in many ways. It paints God as oblivious, distant, uncaring. As many times as I’ve asked it, I’ve never found a satisfying answer. But the way Mark’s Gospel tells the story makes me think again.
“First Mark invites us to a meal where a woman upsets the proceedings by pouring a jar of perfume worth a year’s salary on Jesus’s head. She goes against all sense of decorum and common sense. What a scene! What a waste! Her behavior flies in the face of all that empire values. But she is anointing a different kind of king. And unlike the others in the room, Jesus welcomes her actions. He embraces this outcast who knows the abandon and the abundance of kingdom. The others misunderstand, they shame, they disregard. He could choose to acquiesce to their expectations of him. But Jesus is driven by something better than their approval. In pressing toward it, he dies this social death.
Next, we’re welcomed into another room and another meal. This time Jesus celebrates Passover with his disciples and, even as they eat, Jesus predicts that one of them will betray him and that the rest will desert and deny him. At the moment when their friend needs them the most, when he is most clear about who he is and what the kingdom requires of him, they will flee. Knowing this will happen, Jesus could just drop the plan, go back to a normal life, set aside the conflict that his choices are bringing. But he presses on toward kingdom, even when he knows his own friends will choose comfort and safety (and, in some cases, empire). In pressing toward kingdom, Jesus dies this relational death.
Then Mark takes us to the scene in the garden of Gethsemane and lets us see just how much Jesus is breaking under the weight of this kingdom vision. The waves threaten to smash this clay vessel to pieces. He throws himself to the ground in distress, agitated beyond description. He cries out to the Father as a child cries, torn between a desire to be obedient and a deep, bodily sense of what it will cost. Will this emptying of his will leave him with no self left? And even in the face of his friends’ rejection, even in the midst of this angst, Jesus again chooses kingdom. In so doing, Jesus dies an emotional and existential death.
The day should be dawning after this excruciating night, but Mark’s telling only gets darker as we find Jesus facing a trial before the religious leaders. Empire is looking for a reason to put him to death. Empire asks “Are you?” and Jesus says “I am.” It’s all empire needs to hear to do away with him. He could have continued his silence. He could have questioned his own call. He could have returned to Nazareth. But once more something better than safety drew him forward. He has already died to social status, emotional security and existential equilibrium, and his own will. Now, in the face of impending physical harm, he dies to his own self-preservation instinct. He dies to any claim empire might have on him. He does so because of the claim that kingdom has on him. These deaths allow him to welcome the kingdom as a child. And then comes the final death.”
As Christians, we talk a lot about Jesus’ death but for those of us still living, it can seem rather distant, even abstract. What difference does his death really make if the world is still so broken? So it helps me to see how many deaths Jesus died, well before he hung on that cross. On a daily basis he died to his own comfort and convenience and control. In his desire to keep pressing toward the Kingdom, he lost friends, safety, stability. He was misunderstood, betrayed, forsaken, denied, accused by people he trusted—each choice a death to his relational and social and emotional well-being. He knows that to be like us is to experience all those levels of human life (and death).
Yes, it’s natural for us to ask, “How could a loving God . . . ?” And when we do, we imagine we’re the ones suffering while he’s sitting far off in a distant, cosy heaven. But Jesus has solidarity with us in our suffering, as we have solidarity with Him in His.
How could a loving God? A loving God could suffer with us to show us that suffering will ultimately not alienate or overcome us. A loving God could bear rejection just for the sake of being with those who would receive him. A loving God could enter into our experience to redeem it, in all its brokenness.
And he has.
“Christ’s sacrifice of himself for us . . . is not only his death on the cross, but the psychological, spiritual and personal alienation. . . . When our sufferings are joined to Christ’s they become redemptive for us personally.” –Thomas Keating.
“Whatever it means that God loves us, whatever it means that God takes care of us, it clearly does not mean that God stops painful things from happening to us.” –James Finley
Excerpt from Unfettered: Imagining a Childlike Faith Beyond the Baggage of Western Culture by Mandy Smith, adapted for Godspace blog.
Bio for Mandy Smith
Originally from Australia, Mandy Smith is a pastor and author of The Vulnerable Pastor: How Human Limitations Empower Our Ministry (IVP). Her next book, Unfettered: Imagining a Childlike Faith Beyond the Baggage of Western Culture (Brazos), releases in May and is available for pre-order. Mandy and her husband, a New Testament professor, live with their family in a little house where the teapot is always warm.
Spirituality of Gardening Online Course makes a wonderful gift for this Spring season (or for a pick-me-up in Fall)!
Of all the songs I’ve written, I’ve had the most positive reaction and feedback to this one called , ‘Make time for love’, which has this to say:
You’re too busy, counting all the ripples in the sea,
Running round in circles needlessly,
Making all those plans so easily.
And you’re swimming,
floundering in a whirlpool all the time,
Racing like a fish to catch the line,
While the grains of sand are falling
in this hourglass of mine…
Make time for love, make time for love
You’re too busy, thinking that by rushing here and there,
Power’d by highest motives built on care,
That you’ll achieve perfection, climb the stairs.
And your children, all like buried treasure oh so rare,
One day soon will not be waiting there,
And the sand within the hourglass is descending through the air…
Make time for love,
make time for love.
There’s a hundred, a thousand things in life still to be done,
But all these things just can’t be done by ‘one’
So still the racing clouds… and see the sun,
Catch the blossom, now before it gently fades away.
Smell its perfume let it have its say,
Who have you neglected in your race of life today?
Make time for love, make time for love. :]
©1993 Sheila Hamil (used with permission)
My husband, Bob, who has a wonderful connection with his former pupils through Facebook, once read a post written by one of them, who worked as an engineer in the Merchant Navy, and was away for months at a time, while his young son was growing up without him there.
“It’s with a heavy heart that I’ve packed my bags,” this young man had written, “and am about to leave my lush little family again for three months. I’ve been with my son every day this leave, and it’s breaking my heart to leave him just before his first proper Christmas, however, his first Christmas would be canny s—t with now to open, so I’ve got to go and earn some money!”
Later on, the same person, Marc, wrote that he was trying to decide whether or not to accept yet another job, with a better salary at sea or apply for a land job.
So my husband wrote this message to him, and he attached a video of ‘Make time for love’:
Dear Marc,
‘I don’t usually do this kind of thing, but I thought this might be appropriate when making your job decision. My wife, who led a very busy life, wrote this song. Many of us see our own lives reflected in it. As you were saying you can’t get the years back. If you think I’m ‘out of order’ please ignore this message, all the best Bob.'”
And Marc wrote back,
Bob, I don’t know what to say, I’ve been moved to tears mate. Thank you, I’ve actually made my decision, it was one that was super easy to make. I missed almost all of my son’s baby life, and cannot repeat that in the toddling years. The first line of that song about counting waves… is so apt. As a sailor, I often sat on the deck, looking out to sea, thinking of home. Beautiful Bob, and very thoughtful.”
This exchange of words taught me a lesson, too, on hearing my husband describe my former lifestyle as ‘very busy’.
At one time, not only was I a wife and mother, and daughter to an elderly mother, but at the same time I was a teacher as well as being a non-stipendiary priest. I can honestly say I never paused for breath from morning until late at night.
Who was I neglecting in my own race of life? Was I catching the blossoms and enjoying the fragrance of my own family? Were many of my own priorities wrong? After all I reasoned, wasn’t I doing God’s work? Had I achieved a good balance between work and home? No, I hadn’t, and all the while the sands of time were being steadily poured out, and there was no gathering up of the grains.
I’m sure God was speaking directly to me, when I wrote down this song, particularly in the image of that chorus.
Many of us, especially in ministry, can get our priorities wrong, and casualties can be found strewn all around us through our neglect of family and friends.
I’ve heard of a priest whose children had abandoned faith, given what its demands had done to their parent. I knew another who ended up having to write the word ‘meeting’ in his diary each Thursday, to ensure time off with his family, away from demands of his congregation.
Life is surely about getting the balance right between work and rest.
Despite the many traumas and challenges of lockdown, despite the horrendous tragedies that have occurred this last year, I think we’ve also come to see that it has, without a doubt, been a positive time, too, with many heroic deeds being accomplished by the NHS and key workers, great acts of love and kindness being shown by strangers, and an increase of neighbourly communication.
For me, in our ‘enforced isolation’, it has not only been the most creative period of my entire life, in the videos I’ve been able to create, but also in the memoirs I’m writing about my life and faith journey, but more than these I have also discovered that my husband is my best friend.
And don’t we all now have a real craving for those tight cuddles we once enjoyed as parents, grandparents and friends?
It’s so important to make time for love, and seize every opportunity God sends us to love one another.
Thanks to StockSnap from Pixabay for the feature photo above.
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by Lisa DeRosa
What do you love most about Earth? Take a moment to think about this.
Is it the stillness of the morning sunrise? Or, the beauty of an evening sunset? The sound of a rushing river gliding over rocks? What about the soft, cool feeling of the soil as you dig a place for a seed or plant? Maybe the smell of freshly cut grass is your thing. Animals, fungi, or plants may fascinate you and those are your favorite things about Earth.
Did you find yourself thinking about the productivity of Earth and what it has to offer you? Or, more of its intrinsic value as a gift from God?
Whatever your thoughts, let it sink in for a moment that you are not on Earth by accident. Earth is where God decided to house people! Yahweh created planet Earth and saw that it was good! But our choices each day, the choices of humans since the garden of Eden have dictated that the good that was God’s Earth wasn’t good enough. We, in our own efforts, have tried to improve it, make it our own, take for granted its beauty, and made it into something it wasn’t supposed to be. Deforested, extinction, melting glaciers, depleted soil, harmful emissions…. These were not part of the plan or part of the original goodness.
But I am hopeful that it’s not too late; that we are not too far gone, yet. We still have time to turn away from our current trajectory of devastation and towards loving the Earth. It is time.
The theme for Earth Day on April 22nd, 2021 is “Restore the Earth”. Events are happening all over the world (in person and online) with thousands of organizations that want to bring restoration to our planet. Will you join them? This year, 1 billion people are stepping up! There are so many ways to get involved.
How are you getting ready for Earth Day this year?
- If you need ideas, check out the official Earth Day website. Join their Three Days of Climate Action April 20 – 22. Are you planning an Earth day event? You can register it there as well as see other events happening on their world map! It’s exciting to see the innovative ideas and programs that others are doing across the globe. From whole town cleanups like in Rodeo, CA to a 6-hour Guided Game Walk near Pretoria, South Africa, there are lots of options!
- I personally listen to and love the Earthkeepers Podcast through Circlewood. This episode interviews the CEO of Ridwell which is an “innovative business thinking for community-based earthcare”. It caused me to pause and consider what I throw away and that there are alternative options to disposing of everyday items.
- Circlewood launches their blog/newsletter on Earth Day this year! Check out The Ecological Disciple for more insights and resources for Earth Day.
- Consider watching the documentary that Apple TV+ is sharing: “The Year Earth Changed” on April 16th.
- Join the EarthxFilm Festival April 16-25th either online or in person.
- Start a community garden! Use our free download to get started.
- Connect with God and the earth in a new way through the Spirituality of Gardening Online Course by Christine Sine.
- Be filled with awe and wonder as you watch “Disneynature: Wings of Life” narrated by Meryl Streep (available through Disney + or Amazon Prime Video)
What is your response?
If you need to, take a few additional moments to reflect on your view of Earth, God’s majestic creation. Ask God what your role will be for this coming celebration of Earth Day. You may be challenged to start something you’ve never done before, to join something you would not normally consider, or change one daily habit to help restore our Earth.
Creator God, we delight in the beauty of the Earth you gave us. Break our hearts for what breaks your heart when you see the destruction of your creation. Show us how to move forward in your Light and Love and how we can work together to renew
Blessings to you as you prepare for Earth Day 2021!
Faith-Based Eco Websites to Check Out
- Earth Day Sunday and Creation care services
- Creation Justice Ministries
- Faith Climate Action Week
- Interfaith Climate Prayer (English and Spanish)
- Eco-Justice Journey blog
- Unbound: An Interactive Journal on Christian Social Justice
- Godspace Creation Spirituality
Spirituality of Gardening Online Course makes a wonderful gift for this Spring season (or for a pick-me-up in Fall)!
by Christine Sine,
On Saturday, I transplanted some of the seedlings that have grown up around my Time to Love garden. “Unless a seed fall into the ground and dies…” I reflected on when I planted it, but today I realize there is much more to the story than that.
As you can see, the garden has become extremely crowded and they have even covered up the love stones I planted to mark the path from the cross to the tomb and out into the world.
Overcrowded Easter garden
For the seedlings that have sprouted to produce their full harvest, they must be uprooted, transplanted and eventually replanted all around the garden. Maybe they will even take the love stones with them or need some new and bigger “love stones” around them. They cannot cling to the experience of crucifixion or even of resurrection and the empty tomb, they must be spread out into places where they have room to grow and the right environment in which to grow. They must also be tended with great care in that early stage until they are able to look after themselves and grow to their full glory.
Transplanted seedlings
So on Saturday, I didn’t transplant them into their final positions in the garden, where their tender shoots could be destroyed by frost or bitter wind. Instead, I transplanted them into pots where I can tend and watch over them for the next couple of weeks. Then I will harden them up until they are ready to go into their final spot in the garden. At the same time, I will work on the soil to make sure that it is ready so that these new plants can thrive.
As I moved some of the plants I learned some important lessons too. Some of the seedlings looked great but as I tried to transplant them I realized they had no roots and would not survive no matter where I transplanted them too. Others seemed to have little growth but had lots of roots. They will thrive even though they seemed to be weak while they huddled round the tomb. Others where so enmeshed with other seedlings that they could never be separated out. They would never grow to their full potential, and with reluctance I nipped them out to allow the stronger plant room to grow. Last but not least I realized that there are still seedlings sprouting around the tomb and my thinning out and transplanting has allowed them time to grow.
Uncluttered garden
How like the process that God wants to take us through, I thought. So many lessons to learn. We are planted by the empty tomb and rejoice in its power to give us life, and we want to bask in its glory. But if we stay there, we will die and those who may be taking root more slowly will never have a chance to grow. If we do not allow ourselves to be transplanted into new and uncrowded soil, we will not thrive either and the love that marked the path for us will be covered up.
So now that Easter Sunday is over, is it time for you to get ready to be transplanted and where do you think God is wanting to transplant you to? What is the final place in the garden of this world that you think God is preparing you for and how is the Creator of the universe preparing you, and the soil into which you will be planted, for that coming time of flourishing? Last, but maybe most importantly, how will you carry the love of God with you as you are planted out in the world?
These are the questions I have been asking myself this morning. I continue to work through a time of discernment, the exciting results of which I hope to share with you in a few weeks. All I can say now is that God is preparing me for a new stage of flourishing and hopefull,y a new harvest of tasty fruit.
I encourage you, too, to take time to think about where God might want to plant you in the future and how you might still need to prepare for that place of flourishing. I think that this last year in a COVID wilderness has begun the preparation, but there is still more to do. Maybe God is just transplanting us so that we can be fully prepared for what lies ahead.
As I thought about all of this today, I was reminded of this prayer that I wrote during Lent but never used. It is definitely God’s prayer for me today. Maybe it is God’s prayer for you too.
It’s time to reboot,
Not worn out thoughts
And practices that once seemed
To form the centre of my life,
But new ones,
that alter the very fabric of my being.
This wilderness living has not been easy,
It has parched our souls
And left us gasping
For the water of life.
Yet hidden in the cracks and seeming lifeless landscape,
Are seeds of beauty
Waiting to be born.
It’s time to reboot,
To move my eyes towards the light
Of a new day
And catch the brightness of its shining.
© Christine Sine 2021
The Easter season invites us not just to action but also to contemplation. I am so glad that these contemplative services from St Andrews Episcopal Church in Seattle will continue through this season.
A contemplative service with music in the style-of-Taize for the Second Sunday of Easter. Carrie Grace Littauer, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756 with additional notes below:
“Jesus the Lord is Risen (Surrexit Dominus Vere II)” and “My Peace” – are songs from the ecumenical Taize community in France. Copyright and all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé
“Even in Sorrow” was composed by Kester Limner in March 2020 for the people of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Seattle, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY).
“By the Mark” is written by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.
Thank you for praying with us! www.saintandrewsseattle.org
by Tom Sine
Many Pastors Have Begun to Search for a New Normal
This has been a tough year for many pastors and their congregations. Many churches report that not only is Zoom attendance down but so is giving. However, some churches have created new ways to reach out to neighbors. For example, Saint Lukes Episcopal Church, here in Seattle, has reached out by inviting neighbors to use their community garden called SLUG… Saint Luke’s Urban Garden.
Pew Research just reported that a growing number of mainline churches are searching to find a new normal. Like many evangelical churches, many leaders are attempting to find ways to move back into their sanctuaries… with social distancing.
Church Members are Searching for a New Normal
I suspect that many of us who are church members are even more eager to find a new normal. I am sure many of us have suffered a tragic loss of loved ones and friends. Many of us know people who have lost their jobs or are in danger of losing their homes. Thankfully, growing numbers of us are getting vaccinated and looking forward to moving from isolation to having people over again.
One of the things that Christine, my partner, and I have missed the most is offering hospitality. We have both had our vaccine shots. Part to the new normal we are beginning to plan for early summer here in Seattle is hosting small groups of friends in our backyard for lunch with social distancing. What is the new normal you are looking forward to with family and friends? I suggest you start your retreat by defining some new normals for your lives. You might restore some practices, like hospitality, to enrich your life.
One Post-Easter Pathway to a New Normal… With a Difference
It looks like things could really begin to recover in the US this summer. What are some things that you would like to be a part of your new normal? What are some of the most realistic places to begin? Post-Easter, what are also some new ways to express your faith in turbulent times like these?
Christine and I are actually going on a post-Easter Retreat on the pacific coast. We will start with discerning what the new normal will look like for us recovering some of the old joys that we miss. We will also explore ways to sharpen our spiritual practices as well as how we seek to reach out to others in these troubled times.
We encourage all readers to plan a post-Easter retreat to begin to more clearly define: what you would like as the new normal in your daily life? What are also some new ways to update your spiritual practices as an immediate follow-up of the celebration of Easter 2021? For example, what are some:
- New daily practices you would like to try out in your spiritual life as a part of a new normal?
- What are also possible new practices you might consider to reach out to so many who are still suffering from both the pandemic and the continuing recession?
Consider Beginning your Post-Easter Retreat by Inviting Jesus to Join you for Breakfast
I suggest that you consider beginning your retreat, as Christine and I are, by inviting the risen Jesus to join for breakfast on our chosen retreat day. My favorite image of the risen Jesus in the 21st chapter of John. Here we see some of his surprised disciples coming back from fishing on Lake Tiberius. “Jesus said to them ‘bring some of the fish you have just caught.’ He added ‘come and have breakfast.’ (John 21:10-12).
I find myself, on this day after Easter Sunday, very drawn to this risen Jesus offering breakfast on the beach to his surprised disciples, I find I am very drawn to this Jesus that is so immediate and welcoming.
John reminds us, “When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter… ‘do you truly love me more than these?’ ‘Yes, Lord’ he said, you know that I love you.’ Jesus said ‘feed my lambs.’” (John 21:15) Jesus repeated his clear message three more times to feed his sheep. (John 21: 15-17)
I also value his follow-up reminder to Peter that following this Jesus isn’t just about the Easter invitation to love the triune God more deeply. It is also an invitation to care more deeply for our neighbors as well.
Christine and I work at home as authors. I have found it easy to start the day, with our individual times of prayer and reflection. Then over breakfast, we take turns reading a Psalm and a gospel portion from the lectionary. We have found these practices have been very renewing during these very abnormal times. We also try to walk 2 miles each day in our neighborhood to enjoy the changing seasons, Christine calls these our “awe and wonder walks.”
If you don’t have any daily practices at this time, I recommend starting the day with some of the upbeat Psalms or begin reading through a gospel with prayer for your day.
In terms of reaching out to our neighbors in these troubled times, identify new needs where you life that stir your concern. I am increasingly concerned about the daunting challenges of our people who are just starting high school and college… particularly those from Black and Latino Communities.
Perhaps your church might consider starting a neighborhood garden project like Saint Lukes has done here in Seattle that we mentioned earlier.
We would love to learn what are new normals you are creating as all respond to the Easter call to join the risen Jesus on the beach for breakfast as our first step to create our own new normal in our lives in 2021.
Tom Sine, co-author with Dwight J. Friesen of 2020s Foresight: Three Vital Practices for Thriving in a Decade of Accelerating Change published by Fortress Press. Check it out on www.newchangemakers.com.
This article was adapted from the original post on the Episcopal Cafe. (Feature photo found here)
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