As the Easter Week readings remind us, the encounter with the Risen Christ is not limited to Easter Sunday.  In fact, it is more common for the ‘reality’ of the resurrection to take some time to sink in that it is to wake up with Alleluias on the lips of the disciples.  Add to that the fact that the resurrection ‘stories’ were not written down in anything approaching their current form until years after that first Easter Sunday, and we might learn a thing or two about growing in wisdom, age and grace when it comes to our understanding of the Resurrection Event.

Were not our hearts burning within us?

Just as it took time for the disciples to recognize Jesus in their midst on the first Easter on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), so to it may take time, conversation and companionship for Jesus’ presence to be made ‘realer’ for us.  It pays to pay attention to our bodies, emotions and thoughts as we travel the journey of these 50 days.

The gift of the Great 50 Days of Easter is that we are given numerous examples of how Jesus made his presence real in the lives of people after the crucifixion and resurrection events.  If we are willing to bring beginners’ hearts and minds to the Easter Season, I firmly believe that we too can encounter Jesus in ever deepening ways.  In fact, when we learn to pay attention, I suspect we’ll come up with opportunities to encounter Jesus that outnumber the written examples in Scripture by a wide margin.

We can do this by embracing a variety of disciplines including, sacred reading (outside of scripture), prayer (both private and corporate), acts of mercy (service to others), journaling, caring for our loved ones, sitting quietly in the beauty of nature among many, many others.  As we train our attention away from distractions and more to the periphery of our vision, we can often encounter Jesus in places we’d never have looked before.

May this Easter week and the rest in this season of rebirth, renewal and recreation open the eyes of your hearts and may those hearts burn within you as they did with Cleopas and his companion on the Emmaus Road!

Sometimes it’s easy (okay, it’s always easy) for clergy, people and choirs to get overwhelmed by the number of services and the variety of stories, texts, plot and subplots that make up Holy Week in a liturgical tradition like ours.  When looked at it on its face, there seems to be just about more than one can manage.

I have found myself less anxious and overwhelmed about all that lies ahead this week.  Instead I sense that I’m more eager and expectant about what graces walking through the week will bring.  One thing I’ve been thinking on in the runup to this week is that we celebrate more than just the resurrection if we attend to all that God has to offer us in the liturgies of this week.

We are invited into unbridled optimism on Palm Sunday.

On Monday we’ll say our Evening Prayers as is our custom.

On Tuesday, we’ll gather to pray for a Service of Public Healing, a remembrance of Jesus’ ministry of healing that culminates in the events of the week.

On Wednesday, it’s Evening Prayers again, a quiet oasis in an eventful week.

Thursday we gather as Jesus’ disciples did to ponder the power of humble service as the cornerstone of discipleship.

Friday, Good Friday, we walk the Via Dolorosa with Stations of the Cross, a special gathering of the young in our community and end that night in the shadow of the cross recalling the despair and uncertainty that terrified Jesus’ followers and friends.

Saturday we wait, we wonder, we hold Vigil, light a new fire and wait for the curtain of death to be rent apart.

Sunday, Sunday, we marvel at the empty tomb and speak a word absent from our lips these forty days.  We hide things. We find things.  We laugh. We sing.  But do we wonder enough?

Through it all it can become a daunting task to know what to say to God’s people as a preacher.  Here’s where I believe our liturgical tradition can be wonderfully powerful.  The story is replete with the glory of God.  What might happen if we, (congregation and preachers alike) were to really marinate ourselves in the emotional and spiritual power of this most wondrous tale?  Sometimes in this week less can be more in our preaching.  Given half a chance, I believe that the liturgy and the Triune God that resides in it, can carry us to places that preaching can only describe.  This is liturgy (the work of the people) in its highest form.

From Hosannas to despair to joy, it’s all here.  From committed defense of the Holy One to denying him thrice, it’s all here.

From unspeakable horror, to undescribeable joy, it’s all here.  From life to death and back again, it’s all here.  I pray that we can present to as much as our hearts, minds, souls and strength will bear.

Blessed Holy Week to all!!

On December 11, 2008 a devastating ice storm hit Worcester, MA and the surrounding communities.  Schools were out for the duration of the calendar year.  Many were without power for extended periods.  Simply put, it was a mess!

What a Mess!

Combine the storm with the natural anxiety and busy-ness of the Holiday Season, it’s easy to understand why folks might have been in a collective daze.

Add to this the fact that December, January and February were among the snowiest on record in New England, it’s easy to have allowed the remaining debris from the Ice Storm to fade into distant memory….for a time.

As Spring approaches and the weather grows warmer, the snow (predictably)  recedes and the reminders of the destruction and mess that the ice storm wrought have been thrust into the forefront of our lives (not to mention our front yards!).

Someone stopped by the office at the Church yesterday and wondered how all the pine boughs had come down.  “Was there a wind storm that I missed?”  Nope, these were the boughs that were buried by the snow.  Out of sight, out of mind.  It’s very clear with all who have eyes to see that there’s still lots of work to be done.  It seems to me that recognizing what needs to be done and setting about clearing the yard is at the heart of what a Lenten discipline is all about.

Make no mistake, we’d dearly love to have all the debris of our lives completely cleared by Easter morning so that we can set about an orderly celebration of the miracle of resurrection.  I’d like to suggest that to do so can rob the central event of the Christian story of much of its power.  I think it’s important to remember that the surprise and unexpected reality of Jesus’ resurrection was a powerful part of the experience of the disciples at the first Easter.

And it fell Weekly it Seemed

Regardless of how well we’ve kept our Lenten disciplines to date, we must remember that it’s never too late to keep a Holy Lent.  If we’re doing well in our movement toward holiness, Easter will not come sooner.  If we’ve stumbled (even repeatedly) in keeping our Lenten discipline, the resurrection is still going to happen.  At the risk of mixing metaphors, whether all the debris is out of the yard come the thaw or not, the thaw will come and we can revel in that.  There’s not one thing wrong with continuing to clear the debris of our lives in a post-resurrection reality.

In fact, I see that as the fruit of keeping Lent and living into the challenge of the resurrected life of Jesus Christ in the world.

Easter—Ready or Not…here it comes!!!!!