EASTER SUNDAY

Jesus Christ is Risen
He is risen indeed
Halleluiah

a prayer

Now the picture is complete,
now the story is fully told.
The jigsaw is finished:
the trinity of grace -
the cradle, the cross, the rising –
dovetail together.
The cradle of the birthing:
our God come amongst us,
in flesh to share the life we lead.
The cross of sacrifice:
our God loving us to death.
The rising of hope:
our God embracing us to eternity.
Our new day rises in resurrection light,
the long wilderness walk of Lent behind,
the darkness of the Cross ended.

We now approach the loving God,
with renewed joy in our song,
and strengthened hope in our hearts.

We worship, in the name and for the sake
of our living Lord, Jesus Christ.
Amen [from “Seasons and Celebrations”]

a verse or two

“When I survey the wondrous Cross,
On which the Prince of glory died.
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride."

Spiritual Walk and Musings: “The Cross means to me....”

I have had the privilege over the past few weeks of asking different St. David’s folk what the cross means to them. It has been an honour to be given glimpses into the depth of spirituality in our church. In asking I was not searching out people with a particular theology. The asking was random. This Easter Sunday a few folk are going to share their thoughts—may it help you to continue the journey of the-way-of-the-Cross.

One thing I have learnt is that we need each other to explore matters theological. Ministers and Pastors can’t do it on their own. Scholars in seminaries can’t do it on their own – we need each other to explore God. I find when reading books about the Meaning of the Cross that there are many meanings, many nuances, as to the work of the cross. We are church family and Christ’s work on the Cross affects us all, in similar and in different ways.

May you always be in flux as to the meaning of the cross, always learning new things, and pondering old things as you walk in the-way-of-the-cross.

To Pray and Ponder: That Sweet Surprise

“This promise is for you, for your children,and for all who are far away. It isfor everyone the Lord our God calls to himself”
Acts: 2:39

“Holy Father, thank you for the sweet surprise of Easter Morning. We are thankful that when you arose from your death, you didn’t go immediately to heaven, but instead you went and visited people. This visit of love reminds us that it was for people that you died. We praise your name for the sweet surprise. Amen.” [a prayer by Max Lucado]

an easter poem

Moist with one drop of thy blood, my dry soul
Shall (though she now be in extreme degree
Too stony hard, and yet too fleshly,) be
Freed by that drop, from being starved, hard, or foul,
And life, by this death abled, shall control
Death, whom thy death slew; nor shall to me
Fear of first or last death, bring misery,
If in thy little book my name thou enrol,
Flesh in that long sleep is not putrefied,
But made that thee, of which, and for which ’twas;
Nor can by other means be glorified.
May then sins sleep, and deaths soon from me pass,
That waked from both, I again risen may
Salute the last, everlasting day.
JOHN DONNE (1572-1631)

God Bless to you allJon