Easter

Happy Birthday, Your Majesty!

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April 21 – Her Majesty, The Queen’s Birthday

Today marks Queen Elizabeth’s 88th birthday.  While her official birthday celebration occurs in June each year with the Trooping of the Colour, she will continue on with her Easter Court entertaining at Windsor Castle through the end of April.  Also marking this day is the unveiling of her latest photograph taken by renown photographer, David Bailey!  This magnificent capture of her vivacious spirit was taken at Buckingham Palace last month.  A new year in the life of this Monarch begins!

Birthday Portrait Of Queen Elizabeth II By David Bailey

Birthday Portrait Of Queen Elizabeth II By David Bailey via royalcentral.com

New beginnings and rebirth also mark today, Easter Monday

The egg is a universal symbol for Easter, almost more so than the Cross these days.  A symbol chosen as it represents new birth, new beginnings, and a fresh start.  This is just what Jesus accomplished on the first Easter morning with the Resurrection.  He rose from the dead in a fully healed body from the tortures and death three days prior.  This Risen Lord is the One who allows us the same new life!  John 3:16 says it most succinctly, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  He repeats this theme in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  John precedes this quote of Jesus by telling what you will find by following Him (Jesus), His way.  “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my Father’s house there are many rooms; if it were not so I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going.” (John 14:1-4)

Jesus sets the example, the way, to live on earth as fully human and resurrected.  He showed himself to the disciples after the resurrection to not only prove himself as the One Messiah foretold in scripture and in person to them, but also to instruct them to get out there and tell the rest of the world!  In other words, Jesus was telling the disciples to also live “resurrected lives” a certain way.  A resurrected life is how one decides to live like Jesus, and as instructed by Jesus (his way/the way), after meeting and accepting Jesus as Lord.  It is not the life one lives just on Easter Sunday, looking like the model Christian sitting in the church pew flanked by her beautifully appointed family members.  As our rector said at the conclusion of his Easter sermon, it is the resurrected life you decide to live on Monday after Easter, and Tuesday, and so on that matters.

How do you live a resurrected life?

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Ask yourself if you are living life your way, or Jesus’ Way.

2. When you get that nudge, funny feeling in the pit of your stomach, or cannot stop thinking about the person you just heard is in the hospital or in need, GO visit him or her!  And, in the name of the Resurrection, please deliver a meaningful message.

3. Start your day a little earlier to create, or extend your quiet time with God.  Even 15 minutes toward this goal will cause new life for the rest of your days, weeks and months.  Journal what changes occur to this new daily beginning.  Share your growth and change with another.  It will almost always encourage another to do the same.

4. Seek to enrich the life of another on a regular basis.  Choose your regularity (daily, weekly, monthly), make the appointment with the agency or person you aim to enrich, mark your calendar, and DO IT.  Think of it as a doctor’s appointment that took months to schedule.  You would never break this appointment.  Treat your resurrected life changes as unbreakable appointments.

mow the lawn, or pull the weeds from the garden of an elderly neighbor

take dinner and/or flowers to a widow, elderly person, someone lonely or a family with a new baby

call a local elementary school to ask to be a regular reading buddy for struggling students

join a new service committee at your church and serve with gusto

offer to take the altar flowers to hospitalized parishioners on set Sunday afternoons

start a Bible study in your neighborhood or community

5. As you enrich others, ask God to give you the words He would have you say to those you are helping.  As He directs, speak His Word. (“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.” John 1:1 Jesus is the Word.)  It can be as simple as saying, “Jesus loves you, and I do, too.”

Here’s to celebrating Resurrected Living Today!

Easter Travels

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British Royals’ Easter Travel

Many will have travel plans and various ways of observing Easter this weekend.  The Cambridge family of three will still be Down Under, Queen Elizabeth will participate in the Maundy Thursday service at Blackburn Cathedral in Lancashire, while the rest of the Royal family will head to Windsor Castle to greet The Queen when she arrives from Blackburn for her month-long stay for Easter Court.  The word “Maundy” is from the Latin word mandatum, meaning commandment, and refers to the Last Supper when Jesus gave His disciples a new commandment, “Love one another”.  So, in Blackburn, The Queen will keep the 13th century tradition of Edward I, and the spirit of the great commandment, by having alms (money) given to senior citizens.    Until 1689, the Kings and Queens of England would also wash the feet of the poor at Westminster Abbey to demonstrate what Jesus, the King of Kings, did for His disciples at the Last Supper.

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A month of Easter Court at Windsor Castle http://www.royalcentral.co.uk

 

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The Queen will observe Maundy Thursday at Blackburn Cathedral http://www.royalcentral.co.uk

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The alms pouches are in the platter on the yeoman’s head yeomanoftheguard.com

The Yeoman of the Guard will give out pouches of money to 88 men and 88 women, the same number as her age.  Each senior will receive a red pouch of money intended for food and clothing and a commemorative coin, probably to celebrate the birth of Prince George.  The white pouch will have 88pence, a nod to her age.

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alms pouches wikipedia.org

Jesus’ Easter Travel

Prior to the Passover, Jesus was in Ephraim taking cover from those who wished to kill Him.  Six days before Passover He came closer to Jerusalem and stayed in Bethany (a ‘suburb’ of Jerusalem), where He raised Lazarus.  Then, He made His way into Jerusalem for His final days.  Even in the city, at the dark of night, He traveled quite a bit, going from a Last Supper loft for the first communion, feet washing, final instructions and prayers, to the Mount of Olives to pray some more and be arrested, then to Annas’ house, Caiaphas’ house, and Pilate’s palace for questioning, then to the Governor’s city house for torture by the soldiers, to Golgotha for mocking and crucifixion, and finally to a new tomb.  As discussed in the previous post, Jesus was meticulous in carrying out God’s plan, which included all of this torture-filled travel.  God designed His itinerary in order to fulfill Old Testament scripture about sacrifice, atonement, Passover, and Messiah.  Everything, every event, every word, and every action had significance.

The most significant event of all is, of course, the Resurrection.  The guards kept watch, Mary Magdalene came in respect, love and grief, and an angel was present to explain and direct her about the miracle of all miracles.  The disciples were grieving in town, fearful of what would happen next.  Then, Mary Magdalene finds the disciples to tell them the Good (unbelievable) News, and Jesus was not far behind her to show the boys the Good News Himself.  He tells them, “Peace be with you!  As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”  (John 20:21)  Matthew quotes Jesus as saying, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”  (Matthew 28:19)  That is quite an itinerary for all who follow Him!

Your Easter Travels

Tradition will dictate what most families will do this weekend.  Will your travels take you to the Easter bunny more often than to the Cross?  Will the tradition you pass on to the next generation be about the contents of plastic eggs, or the empty tomb?  No matter if you travel on a plane, in a car across town, or barefoot to the backyard, how will you make your Easter travels significant? Here are five suggestions for your itinerary:

Immerse yourself in the worship service offerings this week. (Maundy Thursday service, Good Friday service, Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday)  Truly transport your mind to Jerusalem as scripture is read and actively interpreted.

Read all four Gospel passage accounts of The Last Supper through the Resurrection.  Note details amplified by each gospel writer, how harmonious they are, and decide which one makes the scene most clear to you. (Matthew 26-28, Mark 14-16, Luke 22-24, John 13-21)

Identify who you say Jesus is.  He spent three years teaching and demonstrating who He is.  He spent His last three days, not only continuing this pattern, but also paying the full cost of the sins of the world for all time.  Make a list of who you identify Jesus as, and compare this list to what the Bible says.

Tell someone the Gospel Easter account as you know it through scripture.  “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” John 20:21 says it all!  Or, “Just do it”, says Nike.  This final commandment is your proverbial “next trip” as you continue in your Christian journey.  The Christian who simply gains knowledge about God, and does not share it with others, is essentially staying home.  To truly be a Christian, one must “be sent out” as John says.   You are sent out as Jesus was sent out, to teach and show who He is to “all nations”, i.e. everyone.

Reflect on your Christian “travels”.   Think about where you first learned about Jesus, how God has helped you to grow, what you have learned about the Cross, and what does God want you to do next.

Use tradition as a vehicle to go to a new place God has for you to experience this Easter.  Add to your tradition something(s) that will take your love of the Lord with all your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength (the first commandment) to travel closer to loving your neighbor as yourself (the second commandment) by being sent out (the Great Commission).

May your heart and soul travel far this weekend, and may God give you your next itinerary.

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fineartamerica.com

Happy Easter!