A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....04-18-03 to 04-20-03..."The Stations of the Cross"

Dutchess

[dutchess]

Christ has died, Christ has Risen, Christ will come again....

"And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself" (John 12:32)
The Stations of the Cross, Background and History

From the earliest of days, followers of Jesus told the story of his passion, death and resurrection. When pilgrims came to see Jerusalem, they were anxious to see the sites where Jesus was. These sites became important holy connections with Jesus. Eventually, following in the footsteps of the Lord, along the way of the cross, became a part of the pilgrimage visit. The stations, as we know them today, came about when it was no longer easy or even possible to visit the holy sites. In the 1500's, villages all over Europe started creating "replicas" of the way of the cross, with small shrines commemorating the places along the route in Jerusalem. Eventually, these shrines became the set of 14 stations we now know and were placed in almost every Catholic Church in the world.

A person making the Stations will go to each station and pray and meditate about that particular event which Jesus went through in His Passion and death.

The Stations of the Cross can be done anywhere, with a group of people or alone. There are many different prayers written by various people throughout the centuries, which are beautiful and profound. There are also hundreds of artistic interpretations of the stations. You will see a sampling as your walk through the stations below.

After each Station it is customary to say the following prayers.

Our Father, Who art in heaven; hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Glory be to the Father and the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Have mercy on us Lord. Have mercy on us Lord

The Stations of the Cross
Station One.... Jesus is Condemned to Death

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

Jesus, after having been blasphemed, mocked, and scourged, is dragged before Pilate and unjustly condemned to die with disgrace on the Cross.

My loving Jesus, it was my sins, not Pilate, that condemned You to die. Grant that I may detest them with all my heart, and by the merits of this sorrowful journey obtain Your mercy and pardon to assist my soul on its journey towards eternity.

My beloved Jesus, I love You above all things. I am truly sorry for having offended You, and I repent with my whole heart. May I never offend You again. Grant that I may never cease to love You, and do with me as You will.

Station Two....Jesus Carries His Cross

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

Jesus accepts His cross, the instrument that He will use to redeem the world. As He carries the heavy cross on His bruised shoulders He thinks of me, and offers His pending death to His Father for my sins, so that I may live.

My most beloved Jesus, grant me by the virtue of Your Cross to embrace with meekness and cheerful submission all the tribulations You have destined for me until my death. By the merits of the pain You suffered in carrying Your Cross give me the necessary help to be ever ready to take up my cross and follow You with perfect patience and resignation.

My beloved Jesus, I love You above all things. I am truly sorry for having offended You, and I repent with my whole heart. May I never offend You again. Grant that I may never cease to love You, and do with me as You will.

Station Three....Jesus Falls the First Time

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

Jesus slowly sets forth on His way to Calvary, bowed down under the weight of His Cross. The soldiers strike Him, and the crowds mock and insult Him. His flesh is torn by the scourges, and on His head is a crown of thorns. Through His many wounds He has lost a great quantity of blood. He is so weak He can scarcely walk, yet He has to carry this great load. Finally, His strength fails him, and He falls to the ground.

O Jesus, it was for me that You bore the heavy burden of the Cross. By the merits of this first fall, may I be saved from the misfortune of falling into mortal sin.

My beloved Jesus, I love You above all things. I am truly sorry for having offended You, and I repent with my whole heart. May I never offend You again. Grant that I may never cease to love You, and do with me as You will.

Station Four....Jesus Meets His Mother

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

Jesus, still burdened with His Cross, and wounded even more by His fall, meets His Mother. A sword of anguish pierces those hearts that love each other so tenderly.

My sweet Jesus, by the compassion which You did feel for Your most holy Mother at this meeting, have compassion on me and grant me the grace of a truly devoted love for Her. O Mary, my Queen, overwhelmed with sorrow, intercede for me, that, through the sufferings endured by Your Son, I may obtain a continual and tender remembrance of the Passion of Jesus.

My beloved Jesus, I love You above all things. I am truly sorry for having offended You, and I repent with my whole heart. May I never offend You again. Grant that I may never cease to love You, and do with me as You will.

Station Five....Simon Helps Jesus Carry His Cross

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

Jesus' strength is failing, and the executioners fear Jesus will die on the way instead of on the Cross. They seize Simon of Cyrene and compel him to carry the Cross for Jesus. Simon realizes what he is asked to do, and it changes his heart. The Cross becomes for Simon a privilege and a joy.

My most beloved Jesus, it is my privilege also to carry whatever crosses You desire to send me. I will not refuse them. I accept them, embrace them, and rejoice that I may be counted worthy to suffer for Your Name's sake. I unite them to Your death. You died for love of me, I will die for love of You. Help me by Your grace.

My beloved Jesus, I love You above all things. I am truly sorry for having offended You, and I repent with my whole heart. May I never offend You again. Grant that I may never cease to love You, and do with me as You will.

Station Six....Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

Jesus, proceeding on His way, is covered with sweat and blood. His face, once beautiful, has now lost all its beauty. It is disfigured by wounds and blood. A holy woman named Veronica, moved with compassion, approaches and wipes His face with her veil. Jesus, as a reward for her piety, leaves the impression of His Sacred Countenance imprinted upon it.

My Jesus, at my Baptism my soul was also beautiful, but my sins have since disfigured it. By Your Passion, O Jesus, restore it to its former beauty. May the contemplation of Your sufferings move me with the greatest compassion, make me hate my sins, and kindle in my heart a more fervent love for You. Imprint Your image in my mind so that I may never forget what my sins have done to You. Guide me, that I may one day be transformed into Your likeness.

My beloved Jesus, I love You above all things. I am truly sorry for having offended You, and I repent with my whole heart. May I never offend You again. Grant that I may never cease to love You, and do with me as You will.

Station Seven....Jesus Falls for the Second Time

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

At every step the pain of His wounds and the loss of blood increase. His strength fails Him a second time, and Jesus falls to the ground.

My Jesus, it was the burden of my sins that caused You to fall again. So many times You have pardoned me, but I am weak, and so many times I have fallen again and begun again to offend You. By the merits of this second fall, help me to persevere in Your grace until my death. May I always commend myself to You in all temptations which assail me.

My beloved Jesus, I love You above all things. I am truly sorry for having offended You, and I repent with my whole heart. May I never offend You again. Grant that I may never cease to love You, and do with me as You will.

Station Eight....Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

Jesus walks on, streaming with blood. Some holy women in the crowd see Him and are so touched with sympathy and compassion that they openly weep for Him. Jesus, knowing the things that are to happen to Jerusalem because of her rejection of Him, turns to them and says: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but for yourselves and for your children."

My Jesus, I weep bitterly for the offenses I have committed against You. I weep because of the pains they have deserved, but most of all because they caused You, because of Your great love for me, to have to die for me. Teach me to be truly sorry for my sins, so that I may escape those dreadful judgements prepared for all who reject or neglect You in this life.

My beloved Jesus, I love You above all things. I am truly sorry for having offended You, and I repent with my whole heart. May I never offend You again. Grant that I may never cease to love You, and do with me as You will.

Station Nine....Jesus Falls the Third Time

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

Jesus is now almost at the summit of Calvary. His weakness is extreme. The excessively brutal solders, anxious to crucify Him, cruelly try to hasten His steps, but He can scarcely move, and Jesus falls a third time.

O Lord Jesus, by the merits of this third most painful fall, pardon my frequent relapses into sin and give me the strength I need to conquer all human respect and all my wicked passions. Imprint the thought of all Your sufferings firmly in my mind so that I may hate my sins more and more.

My beloved Jesus, I love You above all things. I am truly sorry for having offended You, and I repent with my whole heart. May I never offend You again. Grant that I may never cease to love You, and do with me as You will.

Station Ten....Jesus Is Stripped of His Garments

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

Jesus, now at Calvary, is violently stripped by His executioners. His inner garments adhere to His torn flesh, and they are dragged off so roughly that the skin is pulled off with them.

My innocent Jesus, You endured this shame for my most shameful deeds. By the merits of the torment You felt, help me to strip myself of all false shame, conceit, pride, and all affection of the things of earth, so that I may place all my love in You. Help me to humble myself voluntarily in this life, that I may escape everlasting punishment in the life to come.

My beloved Jesus, I love You above all things. I am truly sorry for having offended You, and I repent with my whole heart. May I never offend You again. Grant that I may never cease to love You, and do with me as You will.

Station Eleven....Jesus is Nailed to the Cross

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

The executioners lay the Cross on the ground, and Jesus is stretched upon it. He extends His hands willingly, offering to His Eternal Father the sacrifice of His life for our salvation. He is fastened to the Cross with nails, and then He and the Cross are raised up for all to see.

My suffering Jesus, what my sins have done to You! Nail my heart to Your feet, that it may be united to You until my death so that I will never offend You again.

My beloved Jesus, I love You above all things. I am truly sorry for having offended You, and I repent with my whole heart. May I never offend You again. Grant that I may never cease to love You, and do with me as You will.

Station Twelve....Jesus Dies on the Cross

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

For three excruciating hours Jesus hangs on the Cross. His blood runs in streams down His torn body. Finally, after all He had set out to do has been accomplished, He abandons Himself to the weight of His body, bows His head, and dies.

My dying Jesus, I devoutly kiss the honoured Cross on which You died for love of me. My sins have merited for me a miserable death, but Your death is my hope. By the merits of Your death help me to live only for You. And when I die, help me to die embracing Your feet and burning for love for You.

My beloved Jesus, I love You above all things. I am truly sorry for having offended You, and I repent with my whole heart. May I never offend You again. Grant that I may never cease to love You, and do with me as You will.

Station Thirteen....Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus take Jesus' body down from the cross and place it in His mother's arms. With unspeakable tenderness she receives the lifeless body of her Divine Son, and with boundless grief presses it to her bosom.

O Mother of Sorrow, give me a share in your most holy sorrow in the suffering of your Son, that I may fully realize what my sins have caused. Accept me as your servant, pray for me, and have compassion on my infirmities. Jesus, my Redeemer, You have died for love of me. In Your mercy permit me to love You, for I wish only You, nothing more.

My beloved Jesus, I love You above all things. I am truly sorry for having offended You, and I repent with my whole heart. May I never offend You again. Grant that I may never cease to love You, and do with me as You will.

Station Fourteen....Jesus is Laid in the Tomb

We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

The lifeless body of Jesus is carried by his disciples to the tomb. Mary, His most holy mother, arranges it with overwhelming sorrow. Then they all withdraw, and the tomb is sealed.

My buried Jesus, devoutly I kiss the stone that encloses You. But death could not hold You. I, too, will descend into the grave when You will it. My sinful body will return to the dust from which it came. In Your great mercy, receive my immortal soul, so that on the last day I may rise in glory with You and join You in Your kingdom where I may love You and praise You forever.

My beloved Jesus, I love You above all things. I am truly sorry for having offended You, and I repent with my whole heart. May I never offend You again. Grant that I may never cease to love You, and do with me as You will.

Our Father, Who art in heaven; hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Glory be to the Father and the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Have mercy on us Lord. Have mercy on us Lord

We Adore You, O Christ, and We Bless You, Because by Your Holy Cross You Have Redeemed the World.

THIS WEEK'S THREADS 04-14-03...Viligant Citizen 04-15-03...Hobsonphile 04-16-03...Easter Traditions 04-17-03...JohnHuang Essay-The left should be thankful

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[MeekOneGOP]

Mornin', everybody ! Happy Easter !

57 degrees as I post this, headin' for around 75 today ! . . .

Have a cup while you FReep !

For those who prefer hot chocolate.....

[grantswank]

i'm so glad that you enjoyed the mr. brown story--a real one, thank heaven.

<//><

[grantswank]

YES
WE
DO
REJOICE
REJOICE
REJOICE

AMEN

<//><

[grantswank]

EASTER GIVING

It was the spring of l965. We had been in our first pastorate in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for almost a year. Our salary was $45 a week.

Naturally we placed $4.50 in the offering plate each Sunday as God's tithe. However, knowing also that Christians want to give love offerings above their tithes, we put at least another 50 cents into the plate. On top of that there were other offerings for the youth program, Sunday school, missionary society and so on.

We were approaching our Easter world missions offering. I felt prompted to urge our worshippers to give God a week's salary in addition to the tithe for that world evangelism outreach.

"Grant, you know what you did this morning, don't you?" my wife asked me after the service. Then answering her own question, she continued, "You committed US to give a week's salary in the Easter offering as well. If you expect the others to give, we must set the example."

She was not finding fault with what I had done. She just wanted me to know for certain that somehow we had to squeeze that amount from the paycheck in the few weeks before Easter Sunday.

"Let's make it an even $50," I suggested. "God will show us how to do it if we dare to believe."

Those days trotted by. Before we knew it, we were just days away from Easter morning and we had no $50 to put into the plate for world evangelism.

In addition, we had payments to make on furniture we were buying for our first parsonage, plus we were awaiting the birth of our first child, with those attending bills.

Besides, though we did have a parsonage and utilities paid, we had no gasoline allowance, nor any payments from the congregation toward our health insurance. Also, we were still making up financially for the expense we had had in moving from Kansas City to western Canada.

Thank God for our naive trust! We were too innocent in your youthful faith to believe other than that God would provide as we remained believing and confident.

On the Wednesday morning before Easter, a new couple to the church phoned to invite my wife and me to lunch the following day,. They lived in the country, so this jaunt would be a pleasure. Besides, neither husband nor wife were born-again Christians and we saw this as an opportunity to draw closer to them for the Lord.

After a delicious meal and conversation, Priscilla and I said our good-byes, and started to leave for our Metropolitan (our tiny stand-by of an excuse for a car).

Just as we were going through the door, the man of the house said he had a book he thought I would like to read. I took it and thanked him.

As we drove down their lane, my wife leafed through the book and came upon an envelope tucked between the pages. Opening it she took out an Easter card with a message and a check in the amount of $50.

There was our world evangelism offering!

Since that day we have always given a week's salary to world evangelism in the church's world missions appeal.

And every time the devil whispers in our ears that we cannot afford it, or we can skip once, or we are foolish to keep up such a tradition.

We tell the devil to get behind us for we are going to prove God and His bountiful blessings. Not once have we been disappointed in our love gifts to world evangelism for the Lord has always surprised us beyond measure with His love in return.


<//><

[grantswank]

I SLEPT NOT AT ALL

I don’t believe I slept at all
For all of life had churned to night
So why should sleep so comfort me

At night or day when Christ was slain?
But then it was a clamor heard
Beyond the grove’s green harbor bound.

Their voices split the morning sky
As rival to the new day’s sun,
As trumpet shout in symphony.

They said He’d risen from the dead
And went ahead to Galilee –
His life sprung forth as round on round.

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[grantswank]

EASTER IN GUYANA

Throughout the Lakes Region there are numerous churches. That bodes well for communities who value communion with the One who molded our striking environs.

These church buildings are of varying architectural styles—some traditional and others modernistic. Yet, especially during Eastertide, all serve as invitations to gather in grateful worship.

Driving past our village churches, I am reminded of an Easter when I gladly worshiped in a most unusual church.

My wife and I had found ourselves seated in the midst of jubilant singers. They had been giving forth boisterously in song for several days. That is the reason they had rowed down the Courantyne River—to strum guitars, lift their voices in praise and expound upon the Scriptures.

Tantalizing breezes were clothing our bodies in warm swaths. Morning sunlight smiled upon our cluster. Luscious trees nearby bowed their leafy branches, giving homage to the God who crafted their frames.

My wife and I had just completed a chicken dinner in the pastor’s dining room. (However, truly it was not all that easy to differentiate the dining room from any other room for in fact all the living space seemed one open expanse.) Nevertheless, we relished the meal, particularly the cool juices.

Now we had meshed in with these delightful, handsome Amerindians from the Arawak Tribe. They had rowed down river from Guyana’s Orealla Village, an isolated community of 2000.

Nathaniel, 23, was their pastor. He impressed me with his humble graces. After several days of prayer and fasting in a meadow outside their village, the believers concluded God had chosen Nathaniel as their spiritual leader.

Reluctantly, this shy fellow accepted the call.

Now encircling Nathaniel were his parishioners. They too greeted us with a rather delicate, bashful posture. All in all, that setting proved to be quite regal in its unaffected simplicity. I remember it fondly.

One by one, on into the afternoon the Amerindians shared their testimonies. They particularly related discovering the resurrected Savior in peace and comfort, mercy and hope.

Then one of the crowd would start singing again. In short order, everyone followed suit. The church was quickly ablaze with thanksgiving at Eastertide. These worshipers seemed never to tire of singing, singing, singing.
Easter glow was on their faces. But more importantly, its power was evident in their lives.

Prior to surrendering themselves to their Easter God, they had lived violent testimonies to murder, revenge, lust and greed. Clubbing an enemy with a pipe was daily fare.

Putting a curse on a hated neighbor was common ritual. Drunkenness was the expected lifestyle of living in the bush.

But no more for these folk for Easter power had gripped their lives so as to give them meaning, purpose and a glorious tie to their Creator God. They knew that He had not only resurrected two thousand years ago but that He had also risen within their very souls.

"God is real to us," Nathaniel stated quietly, yet with conviction. And looking into each of their faces, one knew the rest echoed his surety.

So there was the church! Alive and well.

Interestingly enough, there was no church building. At least not in the sense that one would expect. Where we had clustered was underneath the pastor’s house. That was the church space!

The house was on stilts—high up. So the spacious footage beneath that dwelling was the church space. Those from Orealla Village had joined with the local congregation in that airy delight for Easter week celebration.

This Easter as you gather with others, picture those around the world doing the same. And wherever believers meet, regardless of a building or not a building, there you will have come upon the living church.

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[grantswank]

I THOUGHT I SAW HIM THERE

I thought I saw Him there, though blurred,
For morning mists were lifting gray
Above the waters, circling rays

Pushing through to vie for spaces
And vision so’s to dawn surmount.
I peered. I squinted, too, then begged

My brain for focus sure, exact.
It was then that I heard Him speak.
I’d know His voice in sky, at bay,

It was the Master come for me
In morning’s hour, in laughter’s spree.
He sauntered forth, my heart he’d pegged.

<//><

[grantswank]

SOMETIMES IN SPRING


It was that stark bony look. Calvary was smitten. Its face was just as we had been told in Scripture: rocky and dented with eye sockets, protruded with a nose-shape and vacant with the stare of death.

Along with other tourists, we trudged up the mountain, cameras in hand.

Three scrubby trees were at the very top. There Priscilla sat near some twisted tall grass spikes as I focused her in direct center of the photo. I imagined that that is where the crosses would have been punched into God's otherwise good earth.

I recall it as a hot day in May.

More photo-taking. Not much said. It was another vantage point, another imagining. It was sitting for awhile to think back.

Then it was time to leave that Place of the Skull--Golgotha.

In the valley was the waiting Garden Tomb. We meandered toward it, in no hurry, sensing a reverential cast to all of nature. Greenery was carpeted everywhere. Bundles of flowering buds peered up to greet us. Conveniently, sunshine spilled into all the gaps.

Slowly I made my way to Joseph of Arimathea's empty gravesite. That room had been carved out of a hillside. A tough trough had been dug length-wise in front of the tomb's strikingly beautiful crude stone door. Snug inside that trough, a weighty rock slab would have been rolled to seal shut the hole.

No entrance. No exit. Tight. Any corpse inside was there for good, or whatever. Robbers would have stolen from the tomb if the stone had not been surely secured.

I picked my way inside that cool room. Centuries after the fact, there was now no rock slab to prohibit. Morning air brushed my back, moving me on till completely inside the eerie resting place.

Gradually my eyes adjusted to see the remains of shelves where bodies once had been positioned.

History has a way of hacking stone into pieces from once-neat slabs.

There I pictured His young frame wrapped carefully in meticulously clean cloth strips, spices tucked in about that sorry piece. A separate cloth would have been wound lovingly about his bruised, bloodied head.

How old he must have looked when wrapped. It took but a few torturous hours to rearrange a muscled, healthy casing into a mutilated mess.

I suppose that May day there were others making the same interior pilgrimage as I. In fact, I know there were.

But I don't recall any shadows but my own. They spread across the tomb's interior as ghost misfits, strange guests not feeling at all comfortable.

Timeless. It seemed as if I exited time with no desire to return.

But time called out its practicality.

And with that, I again was back in the morning sun, milling about with the many as we hunkered down on rocks and patches of grass to say our prayers, hear the Scripture account and eventually receive the sacrament.

There was no reason to chat. No one wanted to chat. There was too much going on inside us--not so much noise but voices from another time and friends from another culture than our own.

Could we keep those friends near us when boarding the plane for Rome?

I concluded: there was simply no way around it. One could not get to the dawn of that marvelous first day without first trudging up Skull's Mount, then lowering one's self into a valley where a borrowed tomb stood motionless--awaiting the gawking and the saved.

Sometimes in spring when I meander about Maine’s Lakes Region, I get that same feeling from the sun, especially when near a garden.


<//><

[grantswank]

EASTER SUN

I’m feeling sunlight on my arms
As if reborn to faith and hope
For now He’s seen upon the road,

In village there, beside the sea,
Along a cloudy rim, near cliff,
And then again with friends, for sure.

No wonder I can breathe once more
And taste my food and touch the clouds,
Embracing neighbors who had stood

With me so near the cross, the tomb,
But now assured He’s risen – free –
Our souls to sing, our hearts to cure.

<//><

[grantswank]

FINDING WHAT REALLY COUNTS AT EASTER

Candle wax had melted onto the platform carpet in the sanctuary, matting itself deeply into the rug. It had set into hard, stubborn cakes.

That was not the tidiest sight!

"We’ll want to have that cleaned by Easter," inserted one of our members.

Fastidious laypersons had a right to be concerned.

"Don’t bother," I said. "All that carpet will come up. I expect that we’ll have brand-new carpet throughout the entire sanctuary by Easter."

Hope springs eternal, for certain.

Earlier that year our church had flooded when water pipes froze, then burst.

Having lived through all of that, I scanned the rest of the building, anxious for God's House to be cleaned up. What a mess!
Loose ends of the carpet stuck up here and there.
Heating ducts were still exposed.
Downstairs, missing ceiling tiles opened to gaping holes and ugly blotches.
Floor tile was ruined.
Room partitions were warped.
How many calamities this small congregation has endured!

Besides, another flood had occurred some time earlier. An oil truck had burst, setting loose a thousand gallons of oil spilling onto our newly landscaped lawn in front of the parsonage.

But after the landscaping was redone, a bit-tipsy fellow drove his pickup into the center of the yard instead of into the parking lot.

Then there was the fire in the electric dishwasher in the parsonage kitchen, plus the puffback in the furnace which left the entire house grimed by soot.

So this flood was simply one more trial. Yet could it also eventuate as another opportunity for us to trust more simply in God?

Each Sunday I had tried to point out eternal lessons we believers could learn from this litany of unpleasant events.

But now Easter was coming--a day when many visitors attended our worship--yet the church building itself seemed to be turned upside down.

One delay tumbled in after another. Nothing was done about the repairs.

Workmen were on hold; there was this-and-that interruption.

Two weeks before Easter I was to be gone for a week. We had been promised that while I was away, workers would start the repairs.

However, when I returned the day after Palm Sunday, I discovered that nothing had been done.

Further delays and more run-arounds!

At this point we all realized that there was absolutely no way work crews could have everything done by Easter Sunday.

Our Maundy Thursday service was approaching. Though I had been a pastor for more than a quarter of a century, I had never seen a House of God in such disarray.

So it was that the time came to begin our candlelight worship.

We had gathered to pray, to center on the cross, to approach His table, to ask God for His Spirit.

Then as I looked out over the congregation to ponder the faces of those who had meant so much to me over the years, slowly my attitude began to change for the better.

There sat Mary Lou who had served the Lord by assisting those at the hospital where she worked. Charlie had spent his retirement years cheering up neighbors close to his apartment. Jim had reached out with his understanding to side-lined minorities. Marian had fed homesick-for-home college age youth at her dining room table. Elsie had brightened up all of our lives with her sincerest of smiles.

In the peace of candlelight, we quietly meditated on the bare cross at the front of the church, praying for the message of Golgotha once more to penetrate our hurried days.

As we sang a closing hymn, I felt God mysteriously continuing to bond lovingly our spirits together.

It was then that I truly realized that this was indeed a very, very special Holy Week. What I had expected to be awkward and incomplete had become instead warm and wonderful.

As the stillness of God’s Spirit came upon us with heaven's renewed strength, I realized afresh that the reason for the cross, the purpose of Christ’s death and resurrection, is to take the mess of our sins, the confusion of our earthly pilgrimages, and turn them into his glory.

An impressive beautiful appearance of a room is not what matters. Rather, lives and hearts yielded to the Lord are what actually count for eternity.

<//><

[grantswank]

THE GLORY OF HIS MAJESTY

The glory of His majesty
Was clothed humility in scenes
Where fishermen and commoners
Toiled on. The glory—Majesty.

Even when returned from Joseph’s tomb—
Though lightened with His Father’s smile—
Christ graced His earth with loveliness
Of brokenness, of simplest move.

His Kingdom built upon a towel
And basin, sepulchre
So emptied of its corpse,
As puzzling world’s community.

For forty days His elbows rubbed
Against those peasants, children, friends,
As royalty in humblest garb—
His world to rule, His world to love.

<//><

[grantswank]

VICTORY MIDST INJUSTICE

Within l2 hours prior to His death on the cross, Jesus was literally dragged through 7 trial courts: once before the retired high priest, Annas; once before the son-in-law of Annas, Caiaphas, the latter serving as high priest; once before the Sanhedrin, the highest tribunal in Jerusalem with the high priest as president of such; once before Herod Antipas; then twice before the Roman procurator, Pilate.

At least l0 reversible errors occurred during this fiasco in injustice.

1. It was against Jewish law to initiate legal procedure on a Jewish Sabbath or on a feast day. This regulation was obviously violated as Jesus was arrested on the Passover Feast Day.

2. No legal procedure could be begun during the night of a trial which was to take place before the Sanhedrin. Jesus was taken as a criminal around midnight on that Thursday--consequently this rule was broken.

3. The Sanhedrin had no jurisdiction concerning capital punishment situations. The Jewish court had been divested of that authority some 40 years prior by the Romans.

4. It was legally wrong for High Priest Caiaphas to have served as judge when he had publicly proclaimed, before the trial itself, that Jesus deserved to die. Caiaphas should have disqualified himself in that he evidently revealed his bias in the case. Jesus was confronted with 6 trial courts prior to the crucifixion. However, there was a seventh trial of Jesus.

5. Caiaphas, serving as judge, should not have tried to press Jesus to confess. This was an attempt to coerce a conviction by the accused's own confession without having supporting evidence. Such violation of law infringed on the person's guarantees against self-incrimination.

6. The Sanhedrin had not convened for a regular meeting, therefore the group was not actually in formal session, and consequently was without legal power.

7. The Roman Empire stipulated that trials were to be public; the grilling before Annas and Caiaphas were held in private, so were legal errors.

8. Jesus was appointed no lawyer. He had no legal counsel. If He Himself could not have provided one, then the political system was under obligation to provide Him with one but no lawyer was given Jesus.

9. It was not legal for the Sanhedrin Court to convict an individual on the same day of the trial. The Court could acquit on the same day but it had to wait at least two days for a verdict of guilty concerning capital punishment cases.

10. Procurator Pilate, having taken the position that Jesus was in fact not guilty, erred in allowing the crazed mob to win out with their verdict of guilty. The judgment on evidence was overruled by the insistence of the mob.

Jesus was confronted with 6 trial courts prior to the crucifixion. However, there was a seventh trial of Jesus. This latter was conducted in the courts of heaven before the Judge Father. Six is the number of man, but 7 is the number of deity. And deity had the last sentence--the sentence of innocent/victory--in the dedicated life of the Son. The Supreme Court of Eternity pronounced Jesus free from guilt.

Then why was it that Jesus had to undergo such injustice?
In part, to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies. For example in Ps 35:ll there is the prophecy that He will be maltreated, spat upon and the hair of His beard plucked.

In Isa 50:6 and 53:5 there are the predictions that He will be beaten with stripes.

In 53:7-9 it is foretold that He will be condemned and oppressed as well as mercilessly maligned.

Yet through it all, the providence was at work to yield the verdict of the seventh trial court in heaven: innocent/victory.

The personal application for the believer is to trust the same God to be at work just as meticulously in His bringing triumph out of trial. Can the Christian have faith in God to believe that through the injustices of life in the dedicated believer's days there will finally be victory in light of eternity?

Corrie ten Boom wrote, "Sometimes it is difficult to understand the secret of God's plan for this world. But one thing I know: God did not make a mistake when He drew His eternal blueprint. God never makes mistakes. He knows exactly what He is doing."

Then she tells of how she and her sister, Betsy, in the Nazi concentration camp, prayed that God would heal Betsy who was so weak and sick. Betsy had said with confidence, "Yes, the Lord will heal me."

But she died the next day and Corrie could not understand it.

When she viewed Betsy's thin body on the concrete floor along with all the other corpses of those who had died that day, it was hard to understand, to believe that God would have a purpose for all that.

But she says, "Yet because of Betsy's death, today I am traveling all over the world telling people about Jesus. . .Now every place I go across the world, people tell me how much they love my sister, Betsy. . .She is a blessing for more people because she died than if she had lived.

"God makes no mistakes."

<//><

[grantswank]

SALVATION’S COME

Salvation’s come from empty tomb
For from its innards Christ arose,
Defeating death and demons rude.

He trounced the foes who’d flashed their fangs
To do Him in, to wipe Him out,
Yet what illusions they had spun

For Christ it was who held the keys
To life and death, eternity.
To hope and peace, grasped yet by few

But for those wise their certainties
Sufficient full, as honored by
The Father’s nod, week’s first day’s sun.

<//><

[grantswank]

OUR EASTER SECURITY

While seated by one of Lake Sebago's bays the other day, I marveled at its expanse. The water comes; it goes. With it, season folds into season. Day into night. Month into month.

The lake is with me. The lake is not with me. It is there. It is moving. It is changing. What is secure about the lake?

What lessons for living can I learn from pondering the lake?

Then I realized how we tend to concentrate on the situation at hand--or its frightening unpredictabilities. The day is with us. The hour is moving. The night is coming. Tomorrow may not be as we had seen it in today's fashioning.

I consequently resolved henceforth to concentrate more firmly on Easter Jesus.

Circumstances at hand indeed will blow with the winds of history. Yet Easter Jesus remains secure.

Think back ten years. What pressure was upon you then?

Think back fifteen years. What were you doing on that day?

You cannot recall it. It is a blur. Sometimes, as years pass, it is as if another person lived out our situations, places, and events. One of God's gifts is to blur the past in preparation for eternity.

Paul said, "Forgetting those things that are past. . .we forge ahead in Christ's prize." (Philippians 3:13)

The accent is on the now in Jesus, regardless of the lake in motion. Then this now will pass as does the lake move before our eyes. Therefore, it is not so much what is the content of the now, but Jesus in the now--the risen Savior who will never leave us.

I would resign my right to know
The morrow with its mystery hidden.
'Tis only God who has the right
To hold the key from now till heaven.

Frettings would have us focus on our settings: poor, confused, threatening? God would have us focus on our Easter Savior: more than adequate, abiding, loving, leading.

As we approach Holy Week with its assurance of victory, let us remember that it is Jesus who is our all-in-all. It is He who undergirds our mortality. It is He who understands our fragility.

That is why Scripture refers to us as clay--cracked. As dust--blowing in the winds. As wheat strands--at the mercy of the weather.

Yet over our humanness is the God-man--Jesus Christ. Our very breath derives from Him.

The vow of poverty I take
In order for the soul to find
Its riches only in His grace,
Its wealth within His kindly mind.

Sometimes dire situations are permitted by God in order for us to cast off all our attachments to the world. It is so difficult for some of us to let go of our manufactured securities: position, academic accomplishments, standing in the corporation, bank accounts, political savvy, talents, connections.

Yet none of these can be our ultimate security. None. Easter Jesus is our only sure security.

In speaking with a newly widowed friend, she commented on the stark adjustments: loneliness, financial details, scheduling doctor's appointments with only herself for transport. Sometimes, she intimated, it can seem overwhelming. What practical security had she?

Then she reassured me that she reminds herself that victory comes in her moment-by-moment faith in Jesus.

So patiently I keep my pulse
To measure motion by His pace.
Then calm in Christ shall settle in
So as to see naught but His face.

<//><

[Pippin]

GOOD MORNING AND HAPPY EASTER TO EVERYONE!

THIS IS THE Day THE LORD HAS MADE!

WE WILL REJOICE AND BE GLAD IN IT!

HE HAS RISEN!!!

[grantswank]

GOOD, BLESSED EASTER MORNING INDEED!!

[Pippin]

OOPS!

Forgot to ping you to post #575. But I meant it for you too

Happy Easter!

[Pippin]

Amen!

I loved reading your poems and other writings this morning.

Thay do inspire me.

[SpookBrat]

Happy Resurrection Day. I’m off to church to celebrate my blessed assurance with my family. It’s a beautiful thing. May we all be blessed with the peace that passeth understanding today and everyday. Peace that comes from knowing we are covered by the blood of Christ. He conquered death on this day and arose for us.

A happy day!

[Pippin]

Amen! A happy day it is indeed!

May the peace of the Risen Christ be with you and with your family this day and always!