Ash Wednesday 2009

Welcome, or welcome back!

This year we will be posting readings from the Bible for us to read and reflect on together. We will be using the ESV translation this year. The series begins on Sunday. Use the tools from Jan Johnson or others as you read, meditate, and soak in the scriptures. Then come here and share any insights or thoughts or comments—or questions—that you have.

See you Sunday.

(If you would like a reflection to begin the season of Lent, consider this one, from David Mills, on the blog for First Things.)

join us over on our Advent blog!

Our blog for Advent is Rejoice to Behold His Appearing. Come on over and have a look! Daily updates starting November 30, 2008.

Christus Vincit! Christus Regnat! Christus Imperat!

(Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands!)

The Lord is Risen Indeed!

But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.

There is a nice symmetry in this: Death initially came by a man, and resurrection from death came by a man. Everybody dies in Adam; everybody comes alive in Christ. But we have to wait our turn: Christ is first, then those with him at his Coming, the grand consummation when, after crushing the opposition, he hands over his kingdom to God the Father. He won't let up until the last enemy is down—and the very last enemy is death! As the psalmist said, "He laid them low, one and all; he walked all over them." When Scripture says that "he walked all over them," it's obvious that he couldn't at the same time be walked on. When everything and everyone is finally under God's rule, the Son will step down, taking his place with everyone else, showing that God's rule is absolutely comprehensive—a perfect ending! (1 Cor 15:20–28, The Message)

And:

Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. . . . The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven. What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed . . . (1 Cor 15:45–51, NRSV)

A Hymn to God the Father

i.

Wilt Thou forgive that sin where I begun,
Which was my sin, though it were done before?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin, through which I run,
And do run still, though still I do deplore?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,
For I have more.

ii.

Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I have won
Others to sin, and made my sin their door?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shun
A year or two, but wallowed in a score?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,
For I have more.

iii.

I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun
My last thread, I shall perish on the shore ;
But swear by Thyself, that at my death Thy Son
Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore ;
And having done that, Thou hast done ;
I fear no more.

John Donne, 1623

The God of Hosts

They reviled us both together.
I was made wet all over with the blood
Which poured from his side, after he had
Sent forth his spirit. And I underwent
Full many a dire experience on that hill.
I saw the God of hosts stretched grimly out.
Darkness covered the Ruler's corpse with clouds,
His shining beauty; shadows passed across,
Black in the darkness. All creation wept,
Bewailed the King's death; Christ was on the cross.

from "The Dream of the Rood" (or Cross), Anglo-Saxon, ninth century, trans. Richard Hamer.

the Body and the Blood

posted for Brenda D.

The Thursday before Resurrection Sunday Christians all around the world gather around a table to have a meal with Jesus.

This special meal reminds me that God can take our broken lives and make something beautiful for himself. Jesus Christ came, remember, to heal the broken hearted, to set the captives free, to open the bars of those whose lives are in bondage and to restore that which is damaged through the hurt and trauma of life.

Our God is the God of new beginnings. When a human being commits their life to following Jesus Christ the Bible tells us that person is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come, everything is made new and our God, the miracle maker, can do exactly that for every one who seeks him.

Gathering with his disciples around a table in a small upper room, Jesus took a loaf of bread and He gave thanks to God the Father and He said take it, eat it, in remembrance of me – this is my body. With those same disciples at that same meal Jesus also took a cup of wine and thinking about the blood that He was about to shed for the sins of the whole world on the cross so that we could be forgiven, Jesus said; this is my blood that is poured out for the sins of the whole world – do this in remembrance of me.

This is the God whom we worship this resurrection weekend; our God who is with us, ready to forgive our sins as we confess them, ready to touch our lives as we welcome him. The God of new beginnings!

Come, you weary and restless,
come, all who hunger and thirst.
Jesus calls us to dine as friends,
come, God’s feast of welcome awaits us.

Late Have I Loved You

Late have I loved you, O beauty so ancient and so new. Late have I loved you! You were within me while I have gone outside to seek you. Unlovely myself, I rushed towards all those lovely things you had made. And always you were with me, and I was not with you.

All those beauties kept me far from you—although they would not have existed at all unless they had their being in you.

You called,
   you cried,
      you shattered my deafness.

You sparkled,
   you blazed,
      you drove away my blindness.

You shed your fragrance, and I drew in my breath, and I pant for you. I tasted and now I hunger and thirst. You touched me, and now I burn with a longing for your peace.

—Augustine of Hippo