He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia! :-D
[JCF, still sporting a bit of Post-Vigil After-Party champagne-buzz. I didn't drive, I swear! ;-/]
Jake, this is really a wonderful writing. Thank you for this. I never thought of Easter in this way. Gives it a different meaning.
I have never liked Lent or Easter, actually. It is too somber for me, to stressful... too distressing regardless of meaning.
Thanks for lightening it up!
Alleluia!
Jake,
This may be way off topic --
You give me new life through this story. When I was 17 years old and still in high school my dad, the fireman, the Marine, the semi-pro football player, the guy that came to all my little league games, decided to have a gall bladder operation. The medical folks gave him vitamin K to help with after surgery. Needless to say, while at home, he had a coronary thrombosis -- blood clot in his lung. He died. We were all at home and I still remember his friends from the fire department working on him so hard and yet getting no response. I prayed for him until I thought I was wearing out my welcome with God. That night I cried till I could cry no more. All I could think about for weeks after was why was it that my dad died while there were hundreds probably thousands of other dads out there that were terrible dads. Were never home for their sons, were divorced and not in their childrens lives, were drunks and child beaters and worse. I wanted God to explain to me why they got to live and my dad had to die. Tonight I received that explanation. Jake, what a great Easter gift, thanks!
Amen, the Lord is risen in all our lives, indeed!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.
I wasn't trucked off to my grandparents' home, although I loved going there to escape my parents' constant fighting. My dad didn't disappear from the scene, but I never felt myself terribly close to him, since he doesn't easily let people in. But as we've become older, a closeness has developed that I didn't expect. Last year, after I buried his second wife, I told him that I loved him. It shocked me when I said it, but I meant it. Never thought that would happen. You're right, Jake... resurrections are all around us if we look for them.
A blessed Easter to you, ((Jake,)) and to everyone who shares here, too.
Thanks for sharing so intimately, and being this encouragement to all of us.
Love,
Grace.
Thanks, Jake. Excellent meditation. I had a wedding a while back, and when I asked the bride for her "I do", she had the most unforgettable look of total love on her face when she replied. And I was immediately struck with the thought, this is how God looks at each of us. Unconditional love saying "I do'. Wow. And then as I later meditated on this, I realized, this is the look I need on my own face, revealing God's love to each person I engage.
The Lord is Risin Indeed!
Alleluia!
"Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green'" Alleluia!
The greetings of the risen Christ in 250 languages with audio track. What a great resource.
http://srbigham.com/en/langues.html
“resurrections are all around us if we look for them.”
YES! Indeed in the Valley of the San Joaquin, where we have not seen the inclusive love of Christ in the Episcopal Church in decades.
Arabic
The Cheist has Risen, Indeed he has Risen.
I hope this greeting in my first language works.
He is risen in deed!
Happy Easter!
Thanks, Jake.
Jake, thank you for this beautiful description of the resurrection and eternal life of the love of God that we all instinctively turn toward and dare hope in.
You have no idea how much this message means to me at this moment on this day. Thanks...and have a blessed Easter.
Christus resurrexit! Vere resurrexit!
Happy Easter.
PM
A blessed Easter to everyone and many thanks to Jake and to all for the past week. One of this day's blessings is that I have a houseguest who can cook, and he's just called, "It's food!".
Christos anesti!
Blessings,
Thank you for this, Jake. And a happy and blessed Easter to you and to all here at Jake's place!
Fr. Jake,
Thank you so much for sharing the story of your dad and your relationship.
He is risen indeed!
FWIW
jimB
The Lord is Risen indeed!
Alleluia!
Jake,
Your post today opened my mind and heart and gave me a new perspective. Something has happened this week through this place, Jake's Place.
I can feel the Lord working. I need to take this and allow Him to continue to work in my life.
I have gained quite a bit from the comments posted, as well. But, something that is most important to me today (aside from the Bible teachings and celebration of the risen Christ) is that as I reflect on this week and especially today...I have learned things about my dad and my grandfather. And, I am remembering my grandmother fondly.
I used to have mixed feelings about when we would spend time on Easter at her house. It was mostly when I was a weird teenager. Just before I got married, I ripped apart and threw away a diary because of one entry from an Easter Sunday. That part of me was dead. I had to bury the me that was and work to be a new me. I'm still a work in progress. Now, I try to remember the traditions that I loved and still love that came from my paternal side of the family.
I miss my grandma more at this time of year than any other...perhaps because I wasn't appreciative enough when I had her. Perhaps because of the fond memories and traditions. Perhaps both.
I am understanding my dad more. I am also feeling as though I am understanding my Father in Heaven more. Thank you for that.
On a side note...there was a beautiful baptism last night celebrated in the Diocese of San Joaquin! Yet another reason to exclaim:
ALLELUIA!
May our hearts open to those who have been hurt, falsely judged and persecuted in the name of Jesus.
Happy Easter
Thank you for this, Jake.
Yes, my own walk through this holy week has been a journey to try to hear and sense the love of God -- and to believe it is meant for me -- and to believe it endures.
Thank you for this very intimate message of hope.
Alethos anesti! Scott!
"Christos Anesti ek nekron
thanato thanaton patisas
ke tis en tis mnimasi,
zoin xarisamenos"
Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death
and granting life to those
in the tombs.
An excellent sermon, Jake - another homerun.
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.
Thank you so very much for sharing your personal story with us Jake. It was exactly what I needed to hear today.
My family was in a very serious car accident when I was 10 and my father became brain damaged and fell into drug and alcohol addiction.
He had been one of the most loving, kind and generous men in the world until that awful day. He was transformed by that accident into a fearsome being full of rage, despair and hopelessness.
Like you, my father was restored to me when I was in my early 30's. I can only say that it was the power of God that restore him to us. I never doubted that his restoration was a true miracle and a gift from God to him and the family.
I only had him in my life a few more years until he fell asleep in death. I thank God that like Lazarus, my father came out of his tomb and could once again be restored to me.
Jake I love you for bringing those memories to me today.
Thanks be to God!
This is my favorite week of the entire year. Thanks to all of you for making it so special with Fr. Jake's posts and all the comments.
We had a most beautiful Holy Week with our congregation of TEC of St. Francis and Kathie+. The Episcopal Church is alive and well in the D of SJ and across the US!
He Is Risen!
indeed. Happy Easter, Jake.
Grief is a process and a cycle, it takes time to work through and come to terms with a loss. If the grief and loss you are having is frightening or doesn’t slowly go away, you probably should talk to someone about it.When there is a loss, you can have a physical, emotional, psychological, social and/or spiritual reaction to the loss.Sympathy gifts
Danny
Everywhere processions, flowerfilled streets...yes, hope promised and promises delivered.
Thanks be to God
Happy Easter
Jake--For this past week I thank you for your sharing, caring, witness and love. And like the apostles we can come to expect the unexpected. Life born, restored and renewed in joy.
Blessed Pascha Jake -and thank you for the "space" this week to take time to think about really important things.
Happy Easter everyone!!!
The Lord is risen, indeed. Alleluia, alleluia!
The Lord rose on the first Easter. He rises now. He will rise forever.
He rises for us. He rises with us. He rises within us. Forever.
It is triumph. It is the Way. It is invitation.
It is Love.
He rises eternally. Then. Now. And on the last day.
All is, finally, well.
Alleluia, alleluia! Thanks be to God.
Jake, thank you for sharing your Holy Week revelations and meditations. Thanks be to God for your renewed relationship with your father prior to his passing. Thanks for what rose together within your hearts.
Thanks be to God for the most precious gift of Love.
A most happy Easter, now and forever.
I don't think it's a simple story of love leaving, love coming back. Christ is, after all, the Messiah, the Savior of the world Who overcame death for us, paid the price for our sins, made possible by His saving grace eternal life for us, and it's about that. For me, the importance of Easter is no other than our Lord Jesus Christ. Easter is the time to remember all He suffered for our sins, to redeem us. It is a time to reflect on the reasons why He died and the significance of His death and Resurrection and how they impact on our lives. And how we can be transformed by His saving grace. It is because of His stripes, His blood that we are healed. (1 Peter 3:18) Because Christ also died once for sins the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. Put to death indeed in the flesh, He was brought to life in the spirit. The blood of Christ is the only payment God will accept, therefore we must accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior (Acts 4:12)Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. He is not one of many, not an optional savior, but the only means to heaven, the only Savior of the world. The cross was a heavy price to pay for our sins. It was a slow tortuous death, a cruelty that causes me to shudder just thinking about it. When you think of the cross and what it means, remember who bore this cross and why. That's what Easter is about. It is through the blood of Jesus as He hung on the cross that our sins can be forgiven and eternal life extended to all who choose to receive Jesus as their personal Savior. Vowing to sin no more, with God's help, giving up our sins for His sake, that's what we're suppose to do as Christians. (John 3:16) For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that those who believe in him may not perish but may have life everlasting. And that's what it's all about.
I've always found it odd that Mary Magdalene was never granted posthumous apostolic status by later generations of the Church. When all the others fled into hiding at Jesus' death, she was there witnessing that grotesque summary execution. She courageously returned to a tomb sealed and guarded by the secular and religious authorities to perform rites for the dead. She was granted the privilege of being the first to see the Risen Christ.
Instead, she's been assigned the penitent whore role for all these centuries; a figure where piety and prurience can conveniently meet. As far as I'm concerned, she ranks up there with Peter and Paul.
A Happy Easter Monday to all, and thanksgiving for a world always made new.
Thanks to Jake and to others here for their testimony to the immortality of love.
I wish everyone a Happy Easter Monday again.
Christ is risen and all the angry old tyrants in the sky, the mean old grandpas home from a 3 day drunk in the heavens are all dead. No more rent in blood sacrifice need be paid to some great invisible absentee landlord in a temple. The temples with all of their altars are cast down forever and we are free.
just wondering | 03.24.08 - 2:37 am |
From today's Gospel (Matthew 28.9-15), "do not be afraid."
I am so happy for you, just wondering, that the Gospel you preach is working so powerfully within you, transforming you and bringing you to a deeper trust in the Risen Lord!
Blessings and Easter joy to all,
Scott,
I'm not "preaching" at all. And the Gospel is only one, the same for all. Blessings to you as well.
"...my girl had died suddenly the night before. I dropped into a depression that lasted for three solid years. I did not graduate from school. I was unable to finish because I could not accept the loss of any part of what I thought belonged to me. The healthy kid would have felt badly, but he would never have sunk so deep or stayed submerged for so long." Bill W.
Spiritual, Emotional and Physical sickness...I've known then (seperately and simultaneously) and I relate to the "loss from the balcony" story by Jake...my own father left me in the twilight one afternoon and went off to a baseball game...I was a child, I ran down the street after the car (unknown to everyone) and got lost...crying for my "empty" feeling of abandonment they later found me blocks from my house on the sidewalk of a busy Boulevard...I never forgot "not being wanted" and "rejected" and later discovered "The healthy kid would have felt badly, but he would never have sunk so deep or stayed submerged for so long."
Thank be to God that at age 35 when I finally reached out for HELP for my progressive and "twisted sickness" God was there...God had always been there as it turns out, as promised and delivered and all the feardriven overachieving/overbeliving and insisting and demanding from "life" that I did wasn't necessary at all.
I didn't know better, God did/does.
Trust God
Counterlight,
The Eastern Orthodox church call Mary Magdalene the Apostle to the Apostles. They see her for what she really was the Christ. She is honored, respected and loved for her role in Christ's Passion and His life.
I have always had a problem with the concept that Christ was a blood sacrifice and that faith in His death is all that is needed for salvation. I can understand why that thinking made sense to the Jewish converts to Christ. However in Matthew, He taught us that it was are actions that would be judged. It was are actions that would win us our place in His Kingdom.
I think that I prefer knowing that I have to work for my salvation. I am not comfortable with the idea that it is my faith alone that wins me a place in Christ Kingdom. My faith allows me to open myself to the transformation that we find in Christ. I guess I am more Roman on this point then most Protestants.
I really do know the difference between are and our. For example, 'are actions' isn't correct; 'our actions' is the correct form. Pray for me! LOL
Well, it sounds/reads like Easter Monday. The most porfound gift that my mother gave to me was my faith. It is in that I know Christ died for my sins and that all I have to do is confess, believe in the Christ, and repent (in the very broadly defined sense). I am hopeful that the part that Terry is talking about is the verse in Matthew where Jesus talks about clothing the naked ,feeding the hungry and so forth because for me, that comes directly out of the prior statement. Turning one's life around is in part seeign the hungry, the naked, the prisoners and doing something positive about it. Here is the tricky part. I know I can never "earn" my salvation, it was a gift once given and cannot be earned. BUT, I also know that Matthew 25:31-46 is a powerful statement that to me says that EVEN if onehas never heard about Jesus Christ one can be saved. I beleive that Christ came for all of us not just the Jews and not just those that "heard" the word. God is an infinite God who wants all of us to be with him and I really do beleive that those who follow the words of Matthew can surely gain heaven. And, it is also a warning for us that have heard that hearing is not enough, we must act like Christ wants us to act and he tells us exactly haow that is to be done. A wonderful conundrum that I do not fully understand but I really do appreciate.
Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.
just wondering | 03.24.08 - 9:51 am |
I'm just seeing if I can walk a mile in your moccasins. I must say, they fit rather well. ;~)
When I am at this place in the journey, I recall a book by Gustav Aulen called "Christus Victor" (let all the seminarians say, "Ugh", though some may say, "Amen.") If you'd like to try my moccasins on for a while, there's where to look for them.
Since I was only going to post once today, I am now taking myself to the gym to work it out,
just wondering,
We've already commemorated Good Friday. It seems you're still there. I wonder why.
I find your idea that there is only one way to understand Easter, let alone Good Friday, or the scriptures, and that way is your way, quite unhelpful to this discussion.
You might be interested to know that there are at least five different understandings of atonement, as described by George Carey, known as a rather conservative guy. Your penal substitution theory is a rather new one. It is popular among some Evangelicals and most Fundamentalists, but that popularity does not make it the right view,or the only view.
We had a rather lengthy discussion of atonement last year. You can find that discussion here.
I find your attempts to preach here quite offensive, btw. This is my personal web log, not a public forum. You are my guest. Quit pushing extremist propaganda or I'll show you to the door.
I've been checking in on this blog regularly for a few years. It's always interesting - either with references and quotes from various authors that stir to me reflection or with the latest on how different visions of Christ are affecting the political dimension of the Anglican/Episcopal Church. But the posts for this past Holy Week and then this Easter post are the most moving things I've read here so far. Thanks for sharing!
He is risen, in deed! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thank you for the moving lessons, Jake.
Life brings many "deaths," and the loss of a loved one or family through the ravages of mental illness is a protracted death that could cause one to wonder if our Creator has become sadist.
But there must always be the hope of resurrection, and I have learned through my own experience, when others have lost hope, I will need to live in that hope that for them, and there will be another time that I will have to trust another to to hold that hope for me.
¡Feliz Pascua a todos!
Happy Easter Monday to you all from Panamá.
Now I'm off to sleep some more.
Happy Easter Monday to all!
Jake, you have done a wonderful work with your meditations during Holy Week. Thank you. Easter Sunday is the best - just beautiful.
I quit reading most Episcopal blogs a couple of years ago when I checked out of the church. Because this blog was so important to me, I still drop in occasionally. So glad I did that this weekend!
Thank you, Fr. Jake, for the blessing of this Easter Meditation.
Blessed Easter.
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