I wrote this a few years ago but thought I would share it again for your enjoyment.
Jesus Christ you have risen and we see you,
In the faces of the poor,
In the hurting of the sick,
In the anguish of the oppressed
Jesus Christ you are risen and we see you,
In the weakness of the vulnerable,
In the questions of the doubting,
In the fears of the dying.
Jesus Christ you are risen and we see you,
In the celebration of the saints,
In the generosity of the faithful,
In the compassion of the caring.
Jesus Christ you are risen and we see you,
You transform our world with love and hope,
You ignite our hearts of stone with compassion and care,
You transfigure our world with the spirit of life.
Hallelujah, Jesus Christ you are risen and we see you.
It is Holy Saturday, that day between death and resurrection when most of us pause to draw breath. In my pausing this year I found myself thinking about the coming weeks. It is so easy after the hype of Easter Sunday, to allow our faith to fade into the background. Yet Easter is not a day but a season. It extends from Easter Sunday to pentecost. All of us need something to help us focus, something that keeps our eyes on Jesus and the meaning of the resurrection. This year I decided to create an Easter garden to sit on my desk, something to catch my eyes and encourage me to focus.
I used a recycled bowl, and even some recycled plants – offshoots from succulents that have grown too big for their pots. Then I collected some rocks from the garden. I sat in silence for several minutes asking God “What should be my focus for the season of Easter? As I sensed God speak to me, I wrote the words on the stones and placed them in the garden. Now I wait to hear what God will continue to say over the 50 days of Easter
What could you create that would draw you close to God and God’s purposes during this season of Easter?
by Christine Sine,
This morning as I sat contemplating the events of the last day of Jesus life, I was struck as never before by the confusion, disillusionment and betrayal that Jesus followers must have felt as they watched him walk through his final hours. The powerful Messiah they had hoped for became instead a humble servant. The one they thought would be crowned as king was crowned instead with thorns. Crucified not worshipped. Spat upon and disgraced.
Today many of us suffer the same disillusionment. Every time we turn around there is another report of chaos, death and suffering. We live in a broken world that desperately needs a saviour, but can a dead messiah who washed feet and welcomed lepers possibly be the Way, the Truth and the Life? Can this Jesus really be the One our hearts long for? Today’s prayer comes out of these reflections
Walk today into the wisdom of God.
Jesus does not mislead us.
He who is the Way,
will not guide us into blind alleys and desert wastes.
He who is the truth
does not mock us with deceit and lies.
He who is the life
will not betray us with delusions that bring death.
Let his wisdom sustain not just us
but all who are weary.
Let his strength give courage to all who endure,
So that none will falter or lose heart.
Let his faith bring light to all who believe,
So that together we will cry out for justice,
And live with grace and mercy.
Beyond brokenness is love inexhaustible,
Beyond death is love incomparable.
Breathe your spirit over the whole earth, O God,
Show us your resurrection world.
Make us your new creation.
Here are two beautiful reflective songs for Holy Week by Jeff Johnson, one of my favourite Celtic musicians.
No one knows more about the need to forgive than Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Writing with his daughter, Mpho, in The Book of Forgiving, he lays out about the simple but profound truths about forgiveness and provide a pathway to assist us to accomplish it. They remind us:
Forgiveness is how we bring peace to ourselves and our world.
The Tutu’s bring the practicalities of forgiving to life with the promise that forgiveness is good for you. This book will lead readers to healing of affronts, injuries and old hurts and open pathways to a fuller life. They know from deep personal experience that when you forgive you become an extraordinary person.
This book is my reading for Holy week. It is both refreshing and healing to read the stories and perform the exercises at the end of each chapter. This is not a book to be taken lightly, or one to be read rapidly. It is more a journey than a book and a journey that I heartily recommend to you.
The authors suggest that the reader get a journal specifically to use while reading the book, something which takes both time and discipline. Yet it profoundly enhances the experience and will, I am sure contribute to the healing of each person who makes this commitment.
They also suggest finding a stone “small enough to carry in the palm of your hand and large enough that you won’t lose it” This stone becomes the focal point for a series of spiritual exercises. I am loving this refreshing approach which is simple yet deeply impacting. I hope that you will join me in this journey of forgiving.
Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem was obviously headed for a collision with the powerful Roman empire – a collision that would cost him his life and change history forever. Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem may have begun with crowds shouting Hosanna but it ends with Good Friday and shouts of “crucify him”. It doesn’t end with a gold crown but with a crown of thorns. (Read entire article)
It’s Holy week and Jesus’ journey towards the cross has begun. Most of us know that Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus’ triumphant procession into Jerusalem on donkey’s back but few of us are aware of the deeper and very subversive implications of this event. As we walk through holy week towards the cross, Jesus’ actions become more and more subversive. We have in fact entered the most subversive week of Jesus’ life.
Jesus’ radical procession thumbed its nose at the Roman Empire with its power and wealth. Then he headed to the temple, overturned the tables and threw out the moneylenders proclaiming loud and clear to the religious leaders that their alignment with the power of Rome was totally unacceptable to God. He caps the week off with a Passover meal, not revealing himself as an emperor messiah his followers hoped for, but washing feet, indelibly imprinting on his disciples this final image of a slave, the last loving act of an upside down king.
What is Your Response?
Aboriginal Christian art – Alice Springs
As we walk from Palm Sunday to Good Friday, where is your allegiance? Take some time to sit quietly in the presence of God and evaluate your commitment to this servant Christ. All of us follow Jesus with mixed motives. In what ways do you truly follow Jesus, fully aware that you are on a collision course with the values of our secular culture? In what ways do you only follow Jesus for wealth, power and happiness? What changes might God ask of you as you walk with Jesus towards Jerusalem and the Cross?
“When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer… his unique opportunity lies in the way he bears his burden.” Victor Frankl
Jesus’ triumphal entry ends on the Cross as he takes into himself all the pain and suffering of our world so that together we can celebrate the beginning of a new procession on Easter Sunday – a procession that leads us into God’s banquet feast and the wonder of God’s eternal world.
There is no concise reading of the events of Holy Week in the gospels. In all gospels, they spread over several chapters. Take time this week to read through the events of Holy Week as recorded in John 12-20. You might like to read a chapter each day as we walk through this week and listen to the Gungor video below as you do so. The message of Easter is that God is making all things new. Resurrection is in the air.
Take some time each day this week to sit quietly and contemplate this last week of Jesus life. Immerse yourself in his pain, but look beyond that to the resurrection. Remind yourself that the focus is not death but resurrection. What comes to mind as you think about this? What subversive steps might Jesus ask you to take in order to follow him to the Cross and beyond? Are there ways that you need to resist the wealth and power of our culture in order to follow?
As we think about Easter Sunday, my thoughts focus on the hope and long for God’s eternal world that we glimpse so dimly at the moment. We are prisoners of hope, believing that one day God’s resurrection will break into our world in all its fullness.
Hold your head high, Christ has risen.
Rejoice and shout,
Christ has come calling us home.
Home to the heart of God,
Home to God’s living presence,
Home to God’s banquet feast.
Hold your head high, Christ has risen.
Death has been conquered,
Christ has come calling us home.
All that was broken has been made whole,
All that was dislocated has been set right,
All that was oppressed has been set free.
Hold your head high, Christ has risen,
Bringing God’s healing,
Christ has come calling us home.
Redemption is complete,
God’s eternal world has begun,
Love reigns over all,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Christ has risen calling us home.
Christ is Risen: The world below lies desolate
Christ is Risen: The spirits of evil are fallen
Christ is Risen: The angels of God are rejoicing
Christ is Risen: The tombs of the dead are empty
Christ is Risen indeed from the dead,
the first of the sleepers,
Glory and power are his forever and ever
St. Hippolytus (AD 190-236)
Easter at Home
- How to Make Easter Memorable and COVID-Friendly
- Watch The Messiah performance online through The Tabernacle Choir
- 7 Easy Steps from FamilyLife – great for kids!
- Crosswalk has some helpful hints for celebrating with kids as well.
- Keeping Easter Special on a budget and at home – Medium Sized Family.com
Prayers and Resources
- Easter Prayers from Jon Birch at Faith and Worship
- Easter resources from Textweek.com
- The Easter Vigil explanation and service by Bosco Peters.
- Easter Litany from re:worship.
- A great collection of resurrection images with links to other series of images of Christ’s life.
- Wonderful images from India of Holy Week
- And another of art from Japan for Holy Week
Music to Reflect On
First from Taize community:
Let nothing disturb you
Let nothing disturb you,
let nothing frighten you,
everything passes,
A beautiful Celtic Alleluia
Sheila Hamil shared these videos with us for the Easter Season (used with permission):
A couple of my favourite Easter hymns:
And a very different Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen – well worth reflecting on at this season.
Check out the other posts for Holy Week on our Lent & Easter page.
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