} else { jQuery(document).on('change', '#submission-action', function(){ . heaven and earth are full of your glory. A SERVICE OF WORD AND TABLE II. Traditionally, the season of Lent is a time of repentance. We share this bread and drink, as Jesus shared a Passover meal with his disciples, and we partake of it together as our pledge of openness to the Spirit of Love in our midst, and as our remembrance of Jesus who invited us to do even greater things than he did. Your support is needed to help ProgressiveChristianityorg. We covenant to love as Jesus the Christ loved us- loving our neighbors as ourselves. Anna knew that Jesus was sent by God as a sacrifice for human sin, to pay the price for our evil ways. Enjoy! Thank you! This knowledge has an impact on how we interpret the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Alleluia! Let it be so among us. view on video. Now the green blade rises from the buried grain; Wheat that in dark earth for may days has lain; Love lives again, that with the dead has been: Love is come again like wheat that rises green. Little Crystal was only two and a half years old when she got hopelessly stuck. A Progressive Easter Liturgy - Rev Dr Lorraine Parkinson 2 Replies Easter Liturgy [Power Point images] Easter 2022 Quiet music PP The God of Easter - Introduction What on earth can we do with Easter? It does not surprise me that Paul may have framed Jesus death in the context of both Pauls own Jewish sacrificial theologies and Romes violent philosophies. He was teaching in the Galilean synagogues, and all were loud in their praise. [on the night before he died, Jesus took bread, and after giving thanks to you, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying: Or break the very atoms down to see how they are made, I suspect that pulling brothers together who have genuine axes to grind is the kind of recklessness that is worth the risk, if those siblings can learn to work together to pursue justice. So, it made it difficult for us to work up much speed. Repent: Metanoia: to think new thoughts Let us repent, metanoia Let us think new thoughts. Entering the synagogue on the Sabbath, as was his habit, Jesus stood up to do the reading. But it does have the power to transfigure. Maybe if we are unwilling to fight, all we can do is join our tears to the tears of that little Ukrainian family. Christ is risen. It is an image which will not leave me. I had this wicked arm-hold sleeper, and that together with my full Nelson followed by a knee-arm press, was guaranteed to have my brother screaming uncle and agreeing to be my obedient servant until in no time at all. Sign up for an account and get your newsletters right away! So, when the possibility arose to actually travel up to Narvik in Norway to see the mid-night sun I was off. Evening Prayer Service Bulletin which is to be printed double-sided. She phoned her own mother and told her to get there as fast as she could. *Easter Peace Beloved in Christ, God's love pours out from the grave of despair. Among the passages was the text which is assigned for this very Sunday from Pauls letter to the church in Corinth. } Amen. Let me remind you that a generation before our anonymous gospel-storyteller wrote his account of Thomas doubts, somewhere around the years 50 to 53, the Apostle Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthian followers of the Way, that such questions about physical resurrection were in fact stupid. For he is risen! This story with which we have been conditioned to look at the issues of our doubts about the resurrection itself, was written in the midst of colossal violence, violence which had escalated in the 70 years since the execution of Jesus of Nazareth. If you are looking for an Affirmation of Faith for a specific season or celebration (e.g. Jeremiah 33:14-16. Yesterday, I travelled out onto the frozen surface of Lake Simcoe. Out of the familiar emerges the extraordinary that transforms the ordinary. My friend and radical theologian Peter Rollin says it much better than I ever could. Only a foolWould risk a reputation as a wise shepherd, a careful guardian of the known and secure, to seek one lone sheep. BAT KOL, the DAUGHTER OF A SOUND or as some translations put it the DAUGHTER OF A VOICE. sermon 4 Giving Up God for Lent John 3:16, GOD IS DEAD! Exposed to the vastness of the Cosmos, it was the ancient story of a Three-tiered Universe that inspired not murderous intentions in me, but rather the euphoria of freedom from captivity to the limitations of our ancestors imaginations. Heaven is ours to create out of the hells we have made. Especially not when the Pastor insisted that there were sinners in need of prayer and headed over to the two of us and gathered us all in a prayer, a like no prayer, Id ever been part of. In the past few weeks, Ive been thinking a great deal about the systems of domination and the pain inflicted by the unjust empires of our world. Now, today, let us become Good News for the poor, let us embrace our freedom to be LOVE in the world! Followers of the Way are called to reject the myth of redemptive violence. I dont know about you but for most of my life I have been taught that the place to learn about God is the Bible. . Some were staring vacantly through time, like the tens of millions of Ukrainians who were starved to death during the Holodomor by yet another brutal Russian dictator. And after the fire came a still small voice., A still small voice. Our English translations do not do the HEBREW justice. We remember that the women came, early in the morning, on the third day. All risings of the human spirit are preceded by brokenness, loss or rejection. This weeping CHRIST plays on an endless loop in my mind unravelling my carefully constructed images of the DIVINE MYSTERY which is the LOVE we have the audacity to call GOD. We are free to embrace this LOVE, to walk in this LOVE, and to be this LOVE. } 3:4 Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. Try to hear the word ransom not with ears blocked by centuries of perverse theological atonement theories. I rented a small room in a basement apartment, which I shared young couple who worked in the same grocery store as I did. You see having a brother who was just 18 months younger than me meant that I had ample opportunities to hone my wrestling skills. Frame 1: We are about to enter a world of life-giving beauty. But like so many athletes, when my status changed from amateur to professional, I lost my championship status and although I still qualify as a professional wrestler, and I like to see myself as a champion, Im no longer what you would call world-class. Forgive us, Merciful One. This page features the work of the Liturgy Commission of the Anglican Church of Australia. Resurrection is a statement of how reality works. Perfect! What is sown is a perishable body, what is raised is incorruptible. Frame 11: When life hands you a lemon make lemonade!*. But for a brief time, our longing for Spring stirred expectations in us which heralded better times ahead. Alleluia! Bert Polman (bdp5@calvin.edu) is a hymnologist who is a professor and chair of the music department at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. we take these gifts that you have given us, this bread and this cup, You are holy, O God of Life, and holy is Jesus Christ, your Son, the resurrected One. }); Join thousands of others like you who are contributing their voice to Progressive Christianity and list your church, organization or yourself in our global directory. Lectionary, study and worship resources from Faith Futures Jesus Then & Now. Fortunately, the youth hostel was full, and we were forced to hike up and out of town to find a suitable spot to pitch our tents. We join our tears to theirs and when we have no more tears to cry, we roll up our sleeves and we do what we can to help them. Suddenly, one of those magnificent monsters rubbed up against the bottom of our dingy. Pinging is currently not allowed. This knowledge has to change the way in which we see our relationship with the MYSTERY that lies at the very source of our being; our Creator if you will. There are those who name the stars, who watch the sky by night, Christmas, Mother's Day, etc. *Leader: O sing unto the Lord, for he has done excellent things. However, Pete goes on, there are moments when I affirm that resurrection, few and far between as they are. But we must honour the suffering of generations, by doing something now, so that generations from now little families wont have to cry all over again. Youre not a lost sheep, or a lost coin, or even a lost child. Even though Jesus knew he would be betrayed and deserted by those at this supper, he still continued to join them at the table, sharing time and space with whom he grew closest. So, the next morning I rose early, and as the mist was rising over the water I paddled out toward the mouth of the bay and waited. She looked at the miserable look on her grand-daughters face, and she said, Crystal, sweetheart. Their pastor had warned them that my countenance was putting us all in danger. A Prayer at the End of a Quarantined Day. If a few well-placed bullets could reunite and restore that little Ukrainian family, maybe Jesus was wrong about non-violent resistance. //jQuery('#submit-action').attr('href','/paupress/?rel=pauContent&pau_type='+thisact); Resurrection is beauty appreciated, love shared, justice implemented. Out of the familiar emerges the extraordinary that transformsthe ordinary. A momentary panic began to surface as my mind questioned the wisdom of standing on ice not knowing what lay below. So the question about the kind of body the risen Jesus had was, as Paul puts it, quite simply, stupid. The prayer book revision Facebook group, with more than 4,000 members, was created in 2017 by the Rev. But I can, even now hear these stories told to inspire resistance to the violence and injustice of empire, for the sake of justice and peace. But those fools made their billions serving us, satisfying our desires, fortifying our comforts, delivering our lifestyles to our doorsteps. So, let me get to the point, so that those who like nothing better than to use the Bible to bludgeon anyone who dares to stray from their narrow understanding of the text, they can simply hit ALL CAPS in their keyboards, without having to read any further. A quick glace toward the shoreline confirmed that I was well beyond where I would safely swim on a summer day and a strange sort of vertigo began to take hold over me. The parts of the service preceding the text in UMH are guided by a bulletin or by announcement. As the train finally pulled into Narvik, I couldnt quite believe my eyes. Just as Jesus empowered the people he encountered to believe in themselves, we want you to walk away with an awareness not of how ordinary you are not of how unworthy you are but an awareness of your greatness and lovability. It was written by Gord Waldie. To free the captives? Living accommodations were not a priority. Let us begin the difficult, painstaking slow, work of wiping away every tear from the eyes of our sisters and brothers. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Set free from a Three-Tiered Universe! Click here to listen to a meditative sung liturgy inspired by Julians writings, Crystal was a little breathless from all the crying she had been doing and all she could manage was a whimpered, Mmm hummm. Honey, tell grandma the truth now. He is risen indeed! Certainly, in the church the Bible is considered to be the supreme authority of the nature of God. Forget for a moment the layers of interpretations offered by generations of Jesus followers who have interpreted that little word ransom as some sort of cosmic escape clause offered by Jesus as a way out of the trials and tribulations of life on this planet. Whilst many were written for specific purposes or occasions, many are adaptable to suit others. According to this story, a bunch of rag-tag Jesus followers were huddled together in fear. Comments about the content or usability of this site? The second face of CHRIST belongs to a Ukrainian Child rubbing her eyes in a desperate attempt to stem the flow of her own tears. }); Join thousands of others like you who are contributing their voice to Progressive Christianity and list your church, organization or yourself in our global directory. I affirm the resurrection when I stand up for those who are forced to live on their knees,I affirm the resurrection when I speak for those who have had their tongues torn out,I affirm the resurrection, when I cry for those who have no more tears left to shed. Bunnies remind us of all the animals You made, and all the beautiful things You created. The followers of Jesus began to understand themselves in a whole new way. As we prepare for todays celebration, let us express our regret for the limits we have put on Gods Spirit at work in us. The stories about Jesus have been told in ways that paint a particular picture of what it means to be human. So much so that they confessed their desire to stay with Jesus in the splendor of that mountaintop. What followed was a long, useless argument about the theories of atonement. Well, perhaps I should qualify that statement. Leader: Brothers and sisters in Christ, the gospels tell us that on the first day of the week, the same day on which our Lord rose from the dead, he appeared to his disciples and was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. Alas, the power of Pauls rhetoric has waned over the centuries. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Holy, gracious, God, Hosanna in the highest. There are times when risks must be taken. Robert Solon Jr. Christ's peace is ours forever! But suddenly, those who had waited in silence saw the egg crack and a phoenix bird emerge and immediately fly away into the mysterious nothingness leaving the seekers sitting in the broken shells of their religious presuppositions and carefully crafted ceremonies. Repent: Metanoia: to think new thoughts. Risen indeed! Add to Bin. 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