meditations for Easter

Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia!

Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!

Lo! the Sun’s eclipse is over, Alleluia!

Lo! He sets in blood no more, Alleluia!

Vain the stone, the watch, the seal, Alleluia!

Christ hath burst the gates of hell, Alleluia!

Death in vain forbids His rise, Alleluia!

Christ hath opened paradise, Alleluia!

Christ the Lord is Risen Today, full lyrics here. 

But I'll still believe
though there's cracks you'll see
when I'm on my knees I'll still believe
and when I've hit the ground
neither lost nor found
If you'll believe in me
I'll still believe

Mumford & Sons, Holland Road

The other gods were strong; but thou wast weak;

They rode, but thou didst stumble to a throne;

But to our wounds only God's wounds can speak,

And not a God has wounds, but thou alone.

-Edward Shilito, Jesus of the Scars

And, if you’re lucky, someone in the car will recognize the bravery of the act. If you’re lucky, there will be a moment of holy silence before someone wonders out loud if such a question might put a damper on Easter brunch.

But if you’re not—if the question gets answered too quickly or if the silence goes on too long—please know you are not alone.

There are other people signing words to hymns they’re not sure they believe today, other people digging out dresses from the backs of their closets today, other people ruining Easter brunch today, other people just showing up today.

And sometimes, just showing up - burial spices in hand - is all it takes to witness a miracle.

-Rachel Held Evans, Holy Week for Doubters

               He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in a bushel of wheat flour until the yeast had worked its way through all the dough.”

-Matthew 13:33, Common English Version

He speaks desperation. He dies his body. But he is pregnant

with mystery: he gathers the cosmic collection of every hopeless

sigh, every loss, every hatred formed against another,

every embittered soul, every unloved and unlover.

-Micha Boyett, Daughters of Jerusalem

O God, who made this most holy night to shine with the glory of the Lord’s resurrection: Stir up in your Church that Spirit of adoption which is given to us in Baptism, that we, being renewed both in body and mind, may worship you in sincerity and truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

-a Collect for Easter, Book of Common Prayer

Weekend Reading

Hello! I'm giving thanks today for Benadryl (because I slept last night), this big cup of coffee in front of me (because my body wonders what the heck), and a gorgeous day outside (light! aaaahhhhhhhh!) Lots of adjusting going on around here, still, and our days all together are that much sweeter. We have big plans to find some good food at the farmer's market, but first here are some posts and such that I came across this week. 

A little musical happiness:

Ann Voskamp: The 1 Command that Could Resurrect the Church, Our Hurting Places & the Sisterhood of Women

I got up out of bed. My fingers trembled but wasn’t His command to love one another anyways and I tapped out an email to that person whose words had bled me open. I sent an invitation to dinner. Not a rebuttal, not an explanation, not a defense. I invited their whole family to come over and sit across the table. Instead of having a break down or breaking fellowship – I asked if we could break bread.

Margaret Feinberg: Minor and Major Confusion: 5 Tips for Reading Prophetic Literature --I'm tackling Isaiah at the moment, so tucking this away for reference. And, I'm more than ready for the hero to show up, so I inhaled her post Just Give Me Jesus: 7 Things to Remember When Reading the Gospels.

Simple Mom: How I keep my (natural) beauty routine sane --how to swap your shampoo, conditioner, moisturizer, lip balm and face wash for baking soda, apple cider vinegar, olive and coconut oil, and lanolin--hey I still have 1/2 a tube of that stuff :) I already use olive oil as a face cleanser and it works really well, but I'm curious to try these other things.

Rachel Held Evans: The Bible: It's Just Not That Into You

While this product may be an extreme example, it points to the profound influence of Western individualism on our reading of the biblical text. Passages that were originally written for groups of people, and intended to be read and applied in a community setting (the nation of Israel, the various early churches, the first followers of Jesus), have been manipulated to communicate a personal, individual message…thus leading the reader away from the original corporate intent of the passage to a reaffirmation of the individualistic, me-centered, and consumerist tendencies of American religious culture.

Grow a pretty wheatgrass centerpiece, or Easter garden. What a perfect shade of green :)

Jonathan Martin: On being an ecumenical Pentecostal

There are many reasons I find myself challenging Christians of all traditions to return to the centrality of the table, as we do weekly at our church. It anchors us experientially in the presence of Christ, for whatever else is different about our respective traditions. It delivers us from the tyranny of personality (even for those as large as my own) when it is the Lord’s Supper that is the climax of every Christian celebration. But beyond all of this, it reassembles the Church. Every time we come to the table, we participate in the prayer of John 17 in our unity, not only within our local Church but within our global one.

Sarah Bessey: In which God does not want to use me

May our daily work and our voice and our words and our prayers matter in our homes and our churches and our neighbourhoods (right there is the whole world). But we are not “used” – not that. Instead when we love God, when we are free, when we are walking with, then we are a sign and a foretaste of how it was meant to be in the Garden, perhaps, God’s way of living overflowing organically: the disciple, the friend, the daughter, the son, the brother, the heir, the beloved.

I'm off to plant some wheatgrass, study for the upcoming week at work (still pinching myself), read some major and minor prophets, and soak up some sun with my family. Happy weekending!

Weekend Reading

So, I haven't posted any Sunday Reading links lately because I've been doing my darndest to stay off of social media on Sundays (one of my resolutions for 2013).  I do love to share posts that have meant something to me, or made me laugh, or made me cry (or even made me mad) or made me see something new....so how about Weekend Reading instead ;-) Here we go!


I read Come Weary, and then I breathed a huge sigh of relief and cried a few grateful tears. And then I took my weary self to a patch of sunlight and prayed. There's nothing like raw honesty to draw me close to Jesus, to remind me what this is all about.


Daddy Loves You, a post for the One Good Phrase series was a simple but powerful reminder for me. I found myself whispering Mommy loves you to my littles more after reading it, and how those words calm everything down a bit.


I've been pondering the phrase love your neighbor as yourself quite a bit lately, and really liked Kathy Escobar's take on it. We do so often fall into the trap of exceptionalism.


Jamie the VWM makes me laugh, and she does it while making a really good point about the kingdom of God and getting low. And, while we're talking about her, she wrote a brave and blunt post a while back about some weird ideas concerning depression that you run into sometimes in church culture. Also, missionaries who cuss just make me happy.


There's very little that Rachel Held Evans writes that doesn't make me want to shout Amen and wave a white hanky. Her post (and the one she references) on gender roles is no exception. I love the freedom she describes; the mutual servanthood. It took Ricky and I some time and tears to shed pre-conceived expectations and just be ourselves, and our marriage has been so much better for it. Trying to be someone you're not is so depressing, so frustrating. (I may need to write about this at some point. I'd love to spend some time reflecting on what we've learned so far.)


And finally, I hope to have this attitude as I get older. (I turn 30 in a few months, and yes, I'm expecting my 30's to be better than my 20's, to really get comfy in my own skin, to say goodbye to all those constricting things that just don't fit. Yay for getting older and hopefully wiser.)


Happy weekending to you! I have big plans to mostly stay out of the wind, snuggle with my loves, make Valentines, put something involving ginger and curry in the crockpot, go out tonight (we have a babysitter!), make some plans for Lent, and get in some quality reading time. Wishing you a deep peace and joy as you do what you do. And, if any of these posts meant something (positive, negative, whatever) to you, I'd love to hear about it.